Civil rights attorney Bill Murphy endorses Hillary Clinton

[MrWendel]

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/civil-rights-attorney-bill-murphy-endorses-hillary-clinton



Civil rights attorney Bill Murphy, who is representing Flint residents in a class-action lawsuit, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, according to a campaign aide.

Murphy said he decided to back Clinton “because she has a better relationship with communities of color than Bernie [Sanders] or any other candidate.” He made the announcement only days before the Nevada Democratic caucus, which appears to be a tight race between the two presidential candidates.

The well-known Baltimore lawyer, who also represented the family of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, filed a federal suit against Michigan officials earlier this month. He is seeking compensation on behalf of Flint citizens for all water bills paid for undrinkable water tainted with lead.

Clinton traveled to the Michigan city last week and met with Murphy, as well as clergy and residents affected by the toxic water crisis, which she called “immoral.” She also argued that race played a role in the city’s negligence.

“Just ask yourself, would this have ever occurred in a wealthy, white suburb of Detroit? Absolutely not,” she said in Harlem on Tuesday. “Flint is not alone. There are many Flints across our country: Places where people of color and the poor have been left out and left behind.”

(More in link)

[Skwmom]

1. A personal injury attroney is now a civil rights attorney? Seriously?

Am I surprised that the attorney that will make a pile of money from the Flint travesty a Clinton supporter? No,

[Uponthegears]

2. That's what

I was going to say.

Bill Murphy is about as much of a civil rights attorney as George Clooney in "Intolerable Cruelty."

[BlueCaliDem]

3. Tell that to the Gray family. I double dare you.

Bill Murphy was also a JUDGE. So demeaning the man in order to fit your anti-Hillary narrative does him injustice.

[Uponthegears]

4. I'll tell it to them 10 times over

HE IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER.

He has NEVER been a civil rights lawyer. He is a high-powered Plaintiffs' lawyer whose specialty is fish in a barrel high dollar cases against deep pocket defendants.

He did a good job for the Gray family because he got them well-deserved compensation, BUT he did NOTHING for civil rights. In fact, settling the case the way he did instead of going to trial and exposing the systemic abuse of PoC by the criminal justice system actually robbed the rest of us of a chance to expose the truth of what is happening not just in Baltimore, but all across the country.

Oh, btw, saying "he was also a JUDGE (sic)" is a strike against him, not for him. Of course, I doubt you understand that.

[BlueCaliDem]

5. Sure you will.

You Berners CRACK. ME. UP.

[Uponthegears]

6. Oh my

A hubris born entirely from profound ignorance.

Unlike Bill Murphy, I actually was a civil rights attorney for three decades. You want to have a discussion about what makes a civil rights lawyer? You bring it.

[BlueCaliDem]

7. Awwww...your fee-fees hoit, now?

I really could care less what an anonymous poster says about what HIS interpretation is for the qualifications of a civil rights attorney just so he can attack a renowned civil rights attorney who's also a hero in the Black community. Plenty of self-proclaimed "civil rights attorneys" on the GOP side, too, but I'd be hard-pressed to call THEM civil rights attorneys by any stretch of the imagination.

[Uponthegears]

17. Snore

He's not a renowned civil rights attorney, although I have to give you cred for being persistent. Second, he's not a "hero" of the Black community.

As for "self-proclaimed," I'm sure we'll see you around on discussions about civil rights and that little "artful smear" will go by the wayside because only one of us will have the first idea what we are talking about.

You proclaim whatever you have to in order to make your post anything but a joke. NO ONE considers him a renowned civil rights attorney. There may well be, and indeed should be, people within the Black community who, LIKE ME, appreciate what he did for the family. However, NOT ONE PERSON in the Black community who has spent more than a single day actually fighting for civil rights (and who has an ounce of integrity) would call him a "renowned civil rights attorney" just for getting a nice settlement for Freddie Gray's family.

Hmmm, I wonder which one of those criteria is the one you don't meet?

[BlueCaliDem]

18. BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, you Bernie supporters really know how to tickle my ol' funny bone with your spinning and twisting the facts. You so funny.

Believe whatever you wanna believe, gears. Fact remains, if you support Bernie because you actually believe he'll get anything done that he's sellin' you, it tells me all I need to know about you.

[Uponthegears]

21. Oh, I don't know that he will

But I know that Hillary won't achieve any of her policy goals (at least as far as the ones that will help the people of this country) either. The difference is that Hillary ALSO advocates many policies that will devastate the people of this country, policies which conservatives will gladly help her achieve.

That being the case, she represents a net loss.

In addition, as a person who has fought for the rights of PoC for more than thirty years, I am offended by a politician who claims to be on our side, but who stops being on our side when it comes to a contest between us and her suburban middle of the road base.

Hillary will fight for us when we want better schools because her base likes us when we want our kids to have a good education, just like them. She will fight for us when we don't want our kids to be poisoned by our drinking water because her base likes us when we care about our kids not being poisoned, just like them. She will fight for us when we want capital to expand our businesses and bring new jobs to our communities because her base loves hard-working people trying to get ahead, you know, people just like them. Quite frankly, good on her for that. I applaud all of those ideas. They help many, indeed most, of us. But it is leaving those of us most in need behind.

When we are that kid down on the corner with a pocket of rocks and a 9 in their waistband, or that kid who is so f'd up by what a lot of us are still going through that he kills some innocent clerk at some Murder Mart, or that mom who just isn't making it for her kids but has the gall to own a cell phone, or any of the rest of us that the suburb culture has been taught to hate and to fear, she has CONSISTENTLY, throughout her entire life, kicked us to the curb and told her suburban base that she is with them, that they are right to hate and fear. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, when she, as President, turns to pander to that hate and fear, she will have plenty of Ted Cruz's there in Congress to help her.

The way I see it, we may have two dreamers. One, however, is also out to hurt the very people I have spent my whole life defending.

So tell me, why is it you support Hillary?

[Skwmom]

12. Invoking the family of a man unfairly murdered to support the bogus spin that a personal injury

attorney is the equivalent of a civil rights attorney...

Surprised? No.

[BlueCaliDem]

16. It's a statement of fact, not "bogus spin". Look up the guy you want to denigrate before you .

actually do.

Berners...you CRACK. ME. UP!

[kcr]

11. Yes. Seriously.

Wow.

[LexVegas]

8. Diminishment of this successful African American in 3...2...oh too late. nt

[Skwmom]

14. Invoking race to support Clinton distortion....

Well, at least they are consistent in something.

[Jefferson23]

9. That is a very good endorsement for her and despite what others say, he is a civil rights attorney.

William H. “Billy” Murphy, Jr. is an attorney and former judge in Baltimore, Maryland. An African-American, Murphy has been particularly associated with advocacy for civil rights; he has also been prominent in local politics over several decades.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Billy%22_Murphy,_Jr.

[Skwmom]

13. Wikipedia that tried to hide the fact that Clinton passed NAFTA...

[Jefferson23]

15. You can laugh it off, but the citations are there and he has been working civil rights cases

for a long time. I know lawyers who do personal injury and they also do
pro bono work on cases of police brutality...I don't think he is unusual.

His politics is more in line with hers, which happens in the Democratic Party,
also not unusual.

[Uponthegears]

20. That isn't what those citations say.

He raised a near-brilliant mental health defense based on the pressures of racial injustice in the Hopkins case over 40 years ago and represented the Panthers fresh out of law school about 50 years ago. He spent the last 30 years representing the well-heeled (he represented Don King, vs. what seems like every fighter he ever represented) and Plaintiffs with major $$$$ potential awards (which includes Freddie's case). The only actual civil rights case his firm lists on their case history was when THEY DEFENDED Microsoft against charges of racial discrimination.

http://murphyfalcon.com/firm-cases/


He is no doubt a skilled attorney. As another poster has pointed out, he has made millions. But a civil rights attorney . . . not happening.

[Jefferson23]

22. I think his history is clear enough, you can question his motives...it's not at all

unusual for an attorney to take civil rights cases.

[Uponthegears]

24. It's obviously pointless to go back and forth

on this.

If people come here for anything other than to see someone validate what they believe already, they can follow the link in my post to his case list and count the times he has represented a PoC in a case that wasn't a high dollar personal injury case OR where he didn't have some rich guy as a client.

[Jefferson23]

25. What does it matter, is my point. He like many attorneys have represented clients

in other areas of law. He is in fact skilled and trained in civil rights, to try and
diminish that due to his case load or lack there of and or who he has endorsed
is silly, imo.

I say this as a Bernie supporter, not a Clinton fan...she scored a
good endorsement.

[Uponthegears]

27. No, no, no

I'm not suggesting that there is some kind of purity test for what constitutes a civil rights attorney. As for myself, I did what I thought I was called to do and what I thought I owed the people and places that I came from. It's not like I expect anyone else to do the same. Especially when you have a big name practice, your character (or for that matter your dedication to a cause) shouldn't be judged on whether you spent X or X + 100 hours on cases where the only benefit was the advancement of civil rights.

I think it's a great endorsement as well. He's clearly one of the good ones among us.

I just feel it's naïve to think that the OP was just trying to make the point that a good person/attorney was on her side.

[Jefferson23]

28. ok, fair enough...thanks. n/t

[DefenseLawyer]

10. I know Billy Murphy. He's a good guy.

One of the smartest guys you would ever want to meet. And he's been fighting the good fight for a long time. I doesn't surprise me that he would back Clinton. He's is a millionaire and he's very much an insider, and I don't mean that pejoratively, he just is, in Democratic Party circles. Doesn't make him any less impressive though.

[Uponthegears]

23. Let me make this clear

He is impressive as hell. Obviously hugely intelligent with major trial skills. His heart even looks to me like it is in the right place.

That makes him a good man, I'd say even a great one.

It doesn't make him a civil rights attorney.

Seeing as how the entire purpose of the OP was to try to endorse Hillary's way out of her dismal (that's being kind) record when it comes to PoC who might not meet with the approval of her REAL base, that is a fairly material error.

[DefenseLawyer]

29. He's done quite a few police brutality cases.

Because those are generally brought under 42 USC §1983 for "deprivation of civil rights", we generally refer to those as "civil rights cases" and the lawyers that handle them are referred to as "civil rights attorneys".

[workinclasszero]

19. Nice

[mgmaggiemg]

26. thanks for posting ;)