I was watching People’s Court with Judge Marilyn Milian this afternoon.

There are times when I don’t agree with her conclusions–sometimes she seems to make too quick a judgment without allowing the plaintiff and/or defendant to put their stories out there.

But nothing has been so outrageous as what I witnessed today–the plaintiff was a woman whom had pawned jewelry at a pawn shop and when she went to pick up the jewelry before the date due, she was told it was stolen.  The owner told her that she was SOL because of the robbery.  What she didn’t come out and say was that it was an employee who robbed the shop.

The judge asks the plaintiff how much she pawned the jewelry for?  $150.  What was the original value of the jewelry?  $5,000.

The judge was incredulous.  She says there is nothing that would make her pawn her engagement ring and other jewelry….she then waited for the plaintiff to give her an answer.  All she would say was that she needed the money.

The judge wasn’t satisfied with that, however, and kept coming back to why she had pawned it–badgering the plaintiff why she would pawn the jewelry for such a low amount??  The woman had stated before that she had four kids.  After being badgered by the judge, she stated that her husband was out of work.

The judge continued and asked if it was for food or what?  The insinuation was that this woman was using the money for…..wait for it….cigarettes, booze, or drugs…because, you know, that’s all poor people do—drink and smoke and do drugs./snark

The woman was not disheveled.  She was dressed nicely, and well-groomed (which isn’t easy, by the way, when you’re poor).  But the judge just wouldn’t let it go.

She was the victim here on so many levels, and the judge was badgering her and stating that NOTHING would ever make her sell her engagement ring, no matter how bad the circumstances.   She was blaming the victim for being robbed….and the undercurrent of being poor.

The judge obviously has never been desperate.  The woman had four kids to feed.  She probably needed basics like school supplies, toilet paper, soap, shampoo, trash bags, detergent, and on…that the wealthy never worry about.    Food stamps does not cover everything a family needs to eat in a month’s time…even less now that the extra has been taken away.  It certainly doesn’t cover the necessities.  The woman stated that she absolutely needed it for necessities or would not have pawned it.  The judge was asking if her husband knew about it, and she said it needed to be done.  The judge was clearly not “getting it” that people ARE THAT DESPERATE in these times!

The judge should have been giving the pawn shop owner the third degree about why she paid so little for such valuable jewelry….why she was allowed to take such an advantage over the poor?

The pawn shop also had a policy of not paying for the merchandise in case of fire, robbery, and a list of about everything that could go wrong.  In addition, they stated they would never pay for more than double the amount of the pawn….in this case, $300.

The poor woman was robbed twice–she was robbed of her jewelry, and the pawn shop robbed her of not paying for the value of the jewelry.

Usually, the judge is all over people who don’t have their ducks in a row–this woman had receipts showing the value of the jewelry, she had come to the pawn shop in time to redeem her jewelry before it went to the floor, so I’m at a loss to explain the judge’s treatment of her….other than the contempt of the poor runs deep.  I never really realized how much contempt this country has for the poor until I was one.