Judge Roy Pearson's Pants-Stealing Koreans

I hope that this blog's next entry about Judge Roy Pearson and his efforts to crush the Koreans he says stole his pants will be good news.

I'd like to read that the Chung family got their legal fees paid, and can finally concentrate on running their dry cleaning service.

How likely that outcome is, I've no idea.

Roy Pearson and his jihad against the pants-stealing Koreans may be tricky to follow. This is how today's Washington Post article on the case described the crusading judge: "A lawyer for the poor for much of his career, Pearson represented himself, and in making his case, styled himself as a champion of the little guy, safeguarding consumer protection laws and the rights of ordinary citizens who lacked his legal acumen."

How noble.

Every small business owner, particularly the very small ones, can learn something from the Chung's experience.

Ethnicity counts. If you move into an area where you are an ethnic minority, there is a chance that you'll have trouble. You may even find yourself on the defensive against a deeply entrenched majority who have the numbers, the resources, and the legal connections to imperil your business, and you.

I see that, outside mainstream news, there are quite a few people who have twigged to the ethnic aspect of Judge Roy Pearson's legal attach on the Chungs. A quick Google blog search ("roy pearson" "washington post" korean black) showed several: D.C.'s Black-Korean Dynamic: A Simmering Tension, Roy Pearson is an Idiot, plus one blog that was "archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service" by WorldPress.com, apparently because the blogger cited statistics in reference to the attitude of the majority ethnic group in Washington, D.C., toward Jews. I just hope that my blog doesn't suffer the same fate.

Finally, two points here are important, in my opinion.

• Judge Roy Pearson is not an idiot. He'd be much less dangerous if he were. It's his beliefs and emotional responses that make him a threat to those who he feels wrong him.
• The blogs I read were not the hate-filled redneck rants that many of my old college chums and current online acquaintances seem to expect from those who deviate from their approved beliefs.

And, a few other blogs on Judge Roy Pearon's vendetta against the Koreans:

• Justice Goes Back on the Grill: $54 Million Pants Back in Play July 11, 2007
• Judge Roy Pearson's Pants-Stealing Koreans July 7, 2007
• Legal Jihad and the Pants-Stealing Koreans July 6, 2007
• Another Screwball Lawsuit? June 27, 2007
• Justice is Served (Medium-Well) June 25, 2007