Wednesday, July 19: Robert KC Johnson blogs about a letter from Duke alumni to the university’s administration condemning their failure to protect the students. Check it out.
A commenter provided a link to an article in Duke’s student newspaper. Read Living A Nightmare: LAX Players Speak Out.
Tuesday, July 18: An interesting yet predictable trend has developed in the Duke case. Newspapers have toned down the rhetoric considerably since the defense began releasing evidence. It’s important that bloggers and others stay on top of the coverage and ask questions. That’s what I’m doing, and so is John in Carolina. Read what he has to say about the News & Observer’s change in attitude. “The N&O’s cover up of its role in the Duke lacrosse hoax has begun,” he writes.
(Hat tip: The Johnsville News)
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***Scroll down for live-blogging of today’s rape case hearing. No, not this rape case, but this obviously phony one. I doubt the former will make it to Court TV***
Salacious — Appealing to or stimulating sexual desire; lascivious. Lustful; bawdy
Let’s get real, people. Fools commit crimes every day in this country, and some crime coverage sells more newspapers than others. Media companies are in business to make money, and “sexy” stories sell.
Journalists and talking heads jumped on the Duke “gang-rape” story because the accused rapists weren’t your garden-variety thugs. They’re “rich,” “privileged” students from a southern “Ivy League” university. And they’re white.
The accuser is a divorced mother who came to their house party to take off her clothes and dance for $400. And she’s black.
BOOM!
Titilated typists with journalism degrees pounded out story after story and commentary about the alleged gang-rape. With barely a word about other rapes occurring around the same time, the media converged on Durham, North Carolina, and quickly went to work chasing down and interviewing the accuser’s family, her fellow students at North Carolina Central University, other “victims,” and hung on to DA Mike Nifong’s every word. Journalists dug into the backgrounds of David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann, running stories on where their parents lived and what they did for a living, where the men went to school as children, etc.
How many stories did Newsweek run about the Duke case? I’ve lost count.
What is so attractive about the Duke case? For one thing, it gave people an opportunity to advocate skin color preferences and talk about slavery. In an April interview with Online Newshour’s Gwen Ifill, a black Duke student said:
There are still more black people who are scrubbing toilets here on Duke’s campus than who are students. No one wants to talk about the class issue.
That there are more hard-working black people cleaning buildings at Duke than attending Duke is something that needs fixing, according to this obviously young person. I see. The fact that people are working and contributing to society isn’t as important as having more black faces at Duke. Am I reading that wrong?
Durham Herald-Sun editor Bob Ashley attempted to tell us why journalists were salivating over the Duke “rape” story:
Why is it a big story? I think it combines so many forces right now. It combines the question of race. It combines the question of, you know, 200 years of concern over exploitation of black women by white men of privilege. It contains the elements of an elite university and its surrounding community.
Of course, the slavery thing again. A black woman who strips for a living and cries rape reminds us all of “200 years of concern over exploitation of black women by white men of privilege.” So what should we be reminded of when we hear about black men gang-raping a white woman? Decades of disproportionately high black crime rates? The black-men-lust-after-white-women stereotype? (Don’t go there!)
What about black men allegedly gang-raping an 11-year-old child? What era can we harken back to and cite to explain this? I wonder how many writers are working on broad social commentary on black criminality? I wonder if Newsweek is working on a story titled, What Happened In That Apartment?
An underage girl is allegedly gang-raped by at least two, maybe 10 men, and the stories are few and far between. But journalists can’t stop writing about a grown woman who voluntarily stripped at a house party and cried rape four months ago.
Though they’d never admit it, journalists are attracted to the Duke case because it’s salacious. The alleged gang-rape of the child by several black thug-types is…I’m almost tired of even thinking about the concept…dog-bites-man stuff. Let me be clear: There is nothing nor should there ever be anything titallating about brutalizing a child.. That’s sick. But I contend that black-on-black rape or black-on-white rape or black-on-latino rape isn’t a fraction as interesting to the media unless the black perpetrator is a celebrity of some sort (ala Kobe and O.J.).
Why?
I’ll bottom-line it for you. There is something about the idea of “privileged” white men that, for lack of a more eloquent way to put it, “turns on” the media. If we assume that a majority of newspapers and media companies lean left, what does that say about the left-leaning editors who send the reporters to cover the stories? Why are they more interested in white-on-black violence than other types of violence? Steve Sailer posits an answer in Unequal Justice: Duke Lacrosse Team vs. Three (!) Minority Football Heroes. There’s more going on here than just selling newspapers.
It’s all sick, but I’m only reporting what I perceive, people. Don’t kill the messenger.
Let’s play the “close your eyes and imagine” game. Forget that the 11-year-old is a “Latino” girl living in a group home and that the alleged rapists are black football players from a city college. Picture a black little girl assaulted by a group of burly white football players from…oh, I don’t know…Duke University.
Got it in your head? Now tell us what you think would happen in the media. Be as creative as you want to be with the scenario.
Addendum: I don’t think much will happen at the hearing today, but I’ll keep you posted.
Update: I like the DCist, although it tends to lean left. The blog’s beat is all things DC, and I check it a few times a week to find out what’s going on in my city. In a post titled “Racism or Reality?” blogger Martin Austermuhle attempts to answer the question. Though our views may differ on this topic, I think he does a fair job summarizing and rounding up at least one aspect of the recent D.C. “crime emergency” hoopla.
Update II: Live-blogging below the fold:
2:42 p.m.: Kirk Osborn, Reade Seligmann’s attorney, is asking for more records: DSS, child protective services, drug, information listed in the Bill of Particulars, etc. The judge says he’s “confident” DA Mike Nifong will pass along those records.
The judge turns to Nifong, who says he doesn’t have those records. The judge keeps referring to the “third setting.” I presume he means the next administrative hearing. The judge says there is still outstanding discovery, and he’s not willing to require Nifong to present everything the defense asks for today.
Sounds like the judge is issuing a gag order-type of ruling. He said the state and defendants have a right to an unbiased jury, so he’s holding the attorneys to the code of conduct.
2:50: On to a separate matter. Nifong is talking about his office’s efforts to subpoena home addresses of unindicted players. A player’s attorney is moving to quash.
I guess I watch too much “Law & Order.” I expect the lawyers to be much smoother and more interesting. 
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Bingo!
I think it’s known as a “story too good to check,” where the press suspects it’s bogus, but it’s such a good story that they don’t want to check.
Seahawk – you constantly overestimate the importance of DNA. Even the Innocence Project will tell you that you have to combine DNA evidence with other evidence to prove innocence. As a quick counterexample, I think I am smart enough to do something nasty to your sister without leaving any DNA but that does not mean I am innocent.
The problem with picking a rapist out of mug shots of every criminal in NYC is that the odds are one or more criminals will look like the real rapist.
La Shawn, there are undercurrents that fed the media monster in the Duke case. Race was one of them and so were class and gender, but the media attention this case generated illustrates how the left views the world. Perhaps the Duke case got so much attention because it confirmed the left’s world view.
I once saw James Carville and Mary Matalin speak about 10 years ago. Mary made a point about the media viewing events through a template of pre-conceived notions by which they latch onto information that confirms their prejudgments, interpret ambiguous information as being consistent with their views, and disregard or discount information that is inconsistent with their template.
Class warfare is regularly invoked by the MSM in regard to things like “tax cuts for the wealthy”, etc. They have equally slanted views on issues of race and gender and when you combine them into one package, you have the Duke Lacrosse Case. This case was important to the MSM because it reinforced their prejudices that wealthy white guys are all about mistreating women and minorities.
To the MSM, this Duke case is PROOF of what they think of white wealth and privilege. These other cases that you’ve identified involving blacks behaving badly, well, those are just anecdotal. But the Duke case is PROOF. PROOF of what they’ve been thinking all along in the MSM and it was only a matter of time before some wealthy, privileged, white kids got CAUGHT doing the kinds of things we know that heretore they’ve just been getting away with. Or so thinks the MSM.
Sorry if I’m taking this off-topic but the discussion of Duke above reminded me that there were some hearings today. Weren’t the lawyers for the Duke players who haven’t been indicted supposed to be in court today arguing that their clients’ dorm key-card info, etc., shouldn’t be turned over to prosecutors?
I’m wondering why the prosecution would even need such stuff … unless they’re fishing for the 3 Lacrosse players who don’t have an alibi. Any chance Nifong would ignore the rock-solid identifications and try to go after the kids who can’t prove they were somewhere else?
#4
Don’t know why they would want it. There are federal privacy laws which prevent a university from turning over even the info about what classes you are taking to your parents, without your consent. So Duke may (or may not) oppose these efforts. And the players themselves may oppose it.
(Usually before the DA brings charges, he gets his evidence lined up and ready to go. In this case, he seems to have charged three random but wealthy players, and then gone looking for evidence.)
#2
you constantly overestimate the importance of DNA. Even the Innocence Project will tell you that you have to combine DNA evidence with other evidence to prove innocence.
Like an alibi (complete with photos and documents and six or seven witnesses)?
In the Jon-Benet Ramsey case, the DNA sample was sensitive enough to pick out the DNA of the shop clerk who handled her underwear as it was sold.
If a victim can be shown to have had sex with someone other than the accused on the night in question, and there is no DNA from the accused (which proves no sex took place between them) then the accused goes free.
The AV in the Duke case had had sex recently with her boyfriend–but not with any of the lacrosse team. End of story anywhere but in NC.
As a quick counterexample, I think I am smart enough to do something nasty to your sister without leaving any DNA but that does not mean I am innocent.
But not to struggle with her for thirty minutes as she (under the influence of a rape drug) struggles and kicks and scratches (but leaves no marks because the players had changed into their coats)
and hits her head on the sink and is strangled (though her body bears no marks of such) and then to assault her in every conceivable manner without condoms, and still leave no DNA–while, at the same time, both you and she are using your cell phones.
You know, La Shawn, I realize that I don’t have near the education that most of you folks have, but I think there is a simple explanation as to why the media latched on to this story so tightly. I believe that most reporters are liberal minded. They looked at this so called rape as an opportunity to blame “The Man”, the white conservative. They were so eager to make this story true, that they actually reported as if it were true. By blaming “The Man”, they can further their liberal political agenda. The same theory holds true for all those enlightened, liberal college professors who so publicly behaved as if they had special knowledge of the story being absolutely true. If you look at comments made by so many people who believed the accusations, they seemed to be more about their political agendas and not the actual facts in the case. In fact, I would even say that their desire to “get” all things George Bush and conservative, contributed greatly to their behavior. You won’t see them report other horrific charges of rape to anywhere near this degree if it somehow interferes with their political agendas. Look what they did to Bill Cosby when he dared to speak out.
La Shawn,
I have actually been hoping you would bring up the rape case from Fresno. I have tried to follow it, but the media coverage has been so sparse that it has been difficult to do so. Most of the initial reports made no mention of the race of the victim or the suspects, but I felt that it might turn out to be just what it has. Why would I make such an assumption? Because the national media never picked up the story and ran with it like they would have if the situation were more along the lines of the Duke story.
The accused is a divorced mother who came to their house party to take off her clothes and dance for $400. And she’s black.
I wouldn’t normally point this out, but in this case it completely changes the meaning…I believe you meant “accuser”.
In any case, I’ve mostly given up on following this story…an opportunist D.A., along with a complicit media, is ready to crucify the players for being white and rich, regardless of guilt.
Thanks!
– Admin
LaShawn
Since you are crusading on the issue of black on white crime and its lack of coverage in the mainstream media, why don’t you plaster this guy’s face on the top of your website:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071400502.html?nav=rss_email/components
Murder, wife beating in DC.
Read about that the other day. Is the dead murderer’s wife white? – Admin
Sharon K. Zackula is white, I believe:
http://www.vanhorn.org/1973/biopage.asp?ID=6630
Here is the verification that she is from Independence Missouri:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:_fsPJzufsTcJ:www.examiner.net/stories/042302/obi_042302018.shtml+sharon+zackula&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=29
Dorothy Louise Zackula, 70, Independence, died Monday, April 22, 2002, at her home.
Mrs. Zackula was born June 23, 1931, in Topeka, the daughter of Harold and Annabel (Gill) Myrtle.
Her survivors include her husband of 54 years, Walter “Bud” Zackula, of the home; her children, Susan Z. Gamble, St. Louis, Sharon K. Zackula, McLean, Va., Shirley A. Shipers, Albuquerque, N.M., Kris A. Zackula, Independence, and Stacy Z. Matthews, Raytown; nine grandchildren; one sister, Mary Jane Spencer, Valley City, Kan.; and two brothers, Harold Myrtle and James Myrtle, both of Wichita, Kan.
Services will be 10 a.m. Thursday at the Speaks Midtown Chapel, Independence. A private burial will be in Leavenworth National Cemetery. Friends may call from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the chapel. The family suggests contributions to Cure Autism Now or Reading Is Fundamental Inc.
Not to blame the victim, but that poor guy who did 22 years in NYC for a rape he did not commit, who Seahawk linked to, would not have been falsely accused if some other brother was not a rapist.
If a group does N times the crime, even in a fair, nonracist legal system with a small amount of false convictions, the group will suffer N times the number of false convictions.
Also, I know nothing about the case, but I suppose it was an example of crying wolf too many times about previous petty crimes that lead the jury to not believe him.
I saw him on Fox, and he seemed to be taking it rather well and did not let hatred ruin his life, as some people do over broad injustices years ago.
Not to blame the victim, but that poor guy who did 22 years in NYC for a rape he did not commit, who Seahawk linked to, would not have been falsely accused if some other brother was not a rapist.
Would you say that the Duke players would not be falsely accused if some other white guys were not rapists?
Has anyone discussed the case of Lamar Owens who is accused of raping a white female? It has received national headlines and the updates are receiving national coverage. This is a case of a drunk white woman claiming to not have consented, though admitting to not having said “no”.
Nifong: Every Member Of Duke Lacrosse Team A Potential Witness
http://www.wral.com/news/9530187/detail.html
The newsreport quotes the police saying she wasn’t physically injured?
Shade;
I think these Duke students wouldnt have been accused of rape if Precious had been taken home by Roberts instead of by the local police.
She made this story up in order to get out of the trouble she perceived herself to be in with the police
BTW; I believe she was under the influence of illegal drugs and she panicked when she found she was in police custody. Tweaks usually do when a guy in a badge appears through the chemical haze.
ps. I was refering to the 11 year old.
Shade, I’m unfamiliar with this case, so I looked it up on the Net. Are you referring to a statement the “accused” made? Here’s an excerpt from “baltimoresun.com:”
Brian Heberlig, one of Owens’ civilian defense attorneys, pressed the woman’s friend on whether Owens ever admitted to rape when he was talking to her and another female midshipman after the Jan. 29 incident.
“We asked him if he believed she wanted it, and he verbally said, ‘No,’” she said.
Here’s the article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bal-owens0713,0,1947942.story?coll=bal-college-football
Well, if Nifong can’t get a conviction here with no evidence, he’ll probably try the same tactic in Iraq. Hot Air posts that the soldiers accused of rape and murder of a family might not have any evidence against them. The family doesn’t want to exhume the bodies. No evidence, no worries. Nifong to the rescue!!!
La Shawn said: “I guess I watch too much “Law & Order.†I expect the lawyers to be much smoother and more interesting.”
Perhaps if they added some riveting background music between 30 second soundbites …
Tate
No, I am referring to this part from the Boston Herald:
“While she said she did not explicitly tell Owens to stop, she said she didn’t give her consent to sex and tried to show it by refusing his kisses and trying to wriggle away when he got on top of her. The woman said she told Owens she had a boyfriend.”
He had been flirting with her for a while and that night, she invited him to her room. She was drunk and couldn’t remember most of the night. She was allegedly able to tell him that she had a boyfriend, but couldn’t tell him to “stop”. Sounds fishy to me.
Also, that statement you posted was what the alleged victim’s friend claims he told her.
“Would you say that the Duke players would not be falsely accused if some other white guys were not rapists?”
I was assuming a rape actually happened and just doing the math, and it’s one more reason not to have a antilaw culture.
From the link, it was a fair assumption that a rape happened, not that it was not a hoax from (but I know little about the case):
Newton was convicted in 1985 on charges of rape, robbery and assault. Nearly a year earlier, a 25-year-old woman was attacked by a man with a box cutter as she left a convenience store.
After driving off with her in his car, the assailant dragged her into a park, where he raped and sodomized her. He later pulled her into an abandoned building and raped her again. Then he cut her in the face, blinding her in one eye, so she couldn’t identify him, according to police.
Oh, I was also assuming that victims could tell white rapists from black rapists, so even with a bad ID, a white man would not be falsely accused for a crime by a black man.
What I’m saying UNK is that you are not considering that there are incidents of white women lying about being raped. I mean, if the Duke rape accuser is lying, as so many believe, then it is possible that a number of these white accusers are lying. I see no evidence that black women lie about rape more than white women.
A federal judge named Steverson, has written a letter to the NAACP in defense of the Coast Guard Academy cadet charged with rape but ultimately convicted of lesser charges.
“Smith (substitute any of the three Duke accused names here) is a victim of jealousy, racial discrimination, a violation of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection clause, and last but not least, a victim of a double standard.â€
Perfect, now to what person or organization could it be sent as a plea for justice, or at least impartial oversight? Hmmm……
Shade said: “What I’m saying UNK is that you are not considering that there are incidents of white women lying about being raped. I mean, if the Duke rape accuser is lying, as so many believe, then it is possible that a number of these white accusers are lying. I see no evidence that black women lie about rape more than white women.”
SteveDinMD: I’m certain there are incidents where women of all races and ethnicities have deliberately lied about having been raped by men of all races and ethnicities. Personally having no data correlating such incidents to the race of either the accuser or the accused, I’m willing to assume for the time being that such incidents are isometrically distributed across the entire population.
How disappointing. I finally find an internet connection in China, and I get no satisfaction. When will someone shoot this dead dog? I can smell it over here. Kemp
You are right Shade about white women lying about rape. Nobody ever said that the Duke FA was lying because she is black and nobody (except me) said she was lying because she is a stripper/prostitute.
Nobody on this board cared what race the woman is…except you. Nobody paints the picture of right and wrong based on skin color…except you. Perhaps thinking like that validates whatever predjudice and bigotry that runs your life. Perhaps that is why so many pot bangers and camera-hogging race baiters showed up at the mere whiff of white on black crime. Perhaps that is why the same people are conspicuously absent when a black woman gets victimized by a black man (an all too routine occurance).
BLACK PRIVILEGE
La Shawn
How much news coverage would occur if a White woman was allegedly raped by a team of Black basketball players?
This “Duke Dancer” is “privileged” because, if she were not Black, she would just be another nameless faceless “dancer”.
john harland
Apparently you don’t read this blog very often. The reason this blog gives so much attention to the Duke rape case is because the accuser is black. There is not even an attempt to hide that fact. The Duke case is a major topic on this site almost 100% for the purpose of trying to show RACIAL double standards. Likewise, only crime committed by blacks is profiled on this blog and La Shawn is open about the fact that that is her focus. If this board didn’t key on race, I would not even mention race but that is the basis of most of the topics, so that is what I address. So I have no idea what you are talking about and neither do you.
Shade (#32), speaking only for myself, I really don’t care about the races of the accuser or accused. I suppose it’s implicitly woven into the picture, but for me it’s how incredibly little evidentiary support there appears to be for charges that got several different PC crowds marching at Duke campus.
I would be at least equally fascinated by a case where the Duke basketball season was cancelled due to spurious allegations of rape by black basketball players brought by a white prostitute, particularly if the news media rushed to judgment and the feministas held vigils, etc.
For me, race is merely an issue that has galvanized a particular PC interest group into declaring this case the hill they want to die on (metaphorically speaking), notwithstanding the fact that the evidence of wrongdoing is sketchy at best.
“I’ll bottom-line it for you. There is something about the idea of “privileged†white men that, for lack of a more eloquent way to put it, “turns on†the media.”
Not just the men. Why do we know the details of one missing girl in Aruba better than we know who lives down the street? How many black Natalee Holoways disappear every month, but FoxNews doesn’t plaster their faces all over the screen, doesn’t keep the “suspects” in their disapearances in front of the public eye. I generally like Fox, but they troll for salacious trash more often than I can stomach.
Lise M
That is one of two cases of rape charges against black Cadets. Both are fishy. No physical evidence of rape in either case. The one you cite clearly involved consentual sex, but they tried to claim extortion. The other is a case of word against word as to whether it was consentual or not. Both cases, in my opinion, are comparable to the Duke case.
The date-rape allegations against the cadets look like the everyday date rape from what little I know, don’t look anything like the alleged violent stranger rape hate crime at Duke.
Looking for discrimination against the black cadets, one should compare to similar white cases, of which there are many other cases that are not prosecuted for lack of evidence.
The one black cadet did manage to beat the major rape charge anyway, but IF one can prove that white cadets got away with the same…..
Everybody has different agendas. Everybody has their own different color glasses that they see the world through. Shade looks at it through black vs white. The potbangers see it as women vs men. The haters see it as priviliged vs. poor. On other boards you see repubs vs dems. I have found that there are “precious” few that can see an incident in a truly neutral way.
In my opinion the keynote of this case is “shes a stripper”. She plays men for a living. She uses what God gave her to extract money from men. Regardless of race, politics, wealth or social standing, in matters like this I will ALWAYS be skeptical of the word of a stripper/prostitute. Can a stripper tell the truth? of course. Can 45 men all tell lies? Again yes but if Vegas were to give odds on both they would not be equal…far from it in fact. Anybody who has had any type of imteraction with strippers will know what Im talking about.
Those who dont believe me..invite a couple to your home for a “performance”. Dont bother to put the valuables in a safe place and dont hesitate to negotiate a lower price when they are through…they love that. Tell me how it goes.
john harland clearly has comprehension difficulties or tends to lie. Nothing about any of my posts show me looking at this case through black and white, yet your attempt to play the race card prevents you from admitting this.
I didnt play the race card…I only called it. The race card was played by those in the community that felt they could profit from it and the news stations who felt they could get ratings from it.
The Duke case itself has nothing to do with race, the circus surrounding it has everything to do with it. Those who bring up race when discussing DNA, timelines, credibility, etc… are clowns in the racial bigtop.
BTW, it turns out that in 2002 there was another rape case in Durham. Jim Hardin (now judge) was DA, and Nifong was his deputy.
A white man was accused of raping a white woman. But…the white man turned state’s evidence and was given immunity, and then accused a black man in the rape. The black man was held in jail for a year before trial. His DNA did not match that found on the victim and neither did his hair samples.
The white cousin who was initially fingered by the rape victim strikes a deal for immunity with the D.A. in order to testify against a black guy whose DNA doesn’t match the DNA found inside the victim? . . . It’s difficult to understand why the guy being charged with rape is apparently not the one whose semen was found inside the victim.
http://www.monkeytime.org/archive/September2002.html#durhamDNA
After the year, the black man was acquitted of all charges, and the foreman of the jury criticized the state for even bringing the charges at all.
http://www.monkeytime.org/archive/October2002.html#durhamDNA2
“We all wondered what we were doing there,” he said of himself and fellow jurors. “The evidence was nonexistent.
But the white guy got off completely, because he had been given full immunity.
So the question becomes, why did DA Hardin (with or without Nifong?) make the deal that got the white guy off the hook, while holding an obviously innocent black guy in jail for a year and then taking him to trial?
Maybe he was a complete stranger, and they just felt like doing him a favor by saving him from a rape charge? Or . . .?
And did Nifong know about this deal?
Curious minds want to know. . .
In fact, the above case might cause speculation in some places about whether the whole lacrosse case is nothing more than a shakedown.
Perhaps this sort of thing has been going on in Durham for years.
Finnerty, Evans, and Seligman are all from wealthy families. Finnerty had a count against him in Washington.
Nifong used to enforce donations to his little league team when he was in traffic court. (Was that the same principle on a small scale?)
Is this so common in Durham that they believed they could pull it off big time–that they’d hit the jackpot with the lacrosse players?
And if they control the court system, they might believe they can get away with it?
Are there any others in Durham who might have been victims of this kind of pay-off scheme who might now come forward now to complain?
Seahawk,
I would be a bit skeptical about a website named “MonkeyTime.org†not taking things out of context.
Unfortunately, the links to a newspaper on MonkeyTime were either invalid or required a paid subscription.
Your argument would be stronger if there was a link to at least an article that looks balanced, which I would hope you would read before suggesting we read something.
Again, DNA can prove sex, but lack of DNA does not disprove sex. Also, “I had a good alibi, but the racist/stupid/corrupt police/jury/judge did not believe me†is one of the top jailhouse lies. Being in bed may be true, but it’s not a good alibi.
First time commenter, here.
Love this blog, LaShawn. Keep speaking the truth!
Regarding your thought:
“Media companies are in business to make money, and “sexy†stories sell.”
Have you ever read anything by Neil Postman? Specifically, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” or for a boiled-down version, check the essay “The News” in the collection “Conscientious Objections”. Postman posits that, by its very nature, television does not report the news, it can only provide entertainment. Thus, the ’sexy’ stories are sought out. From the above-mentioned essay: “As NBC News executive Reuven Frank once explained: …A television news program must be put together with the assumption that each item will be of some interest to everyone that watches.” Sadly, this means that meatier and more meaningful stories are tossed aside for the shock, shlock and sleaze.
Jeff C. at #44, check out the links to John in Carolina that La Shawn provided above. One of the worst offenders in terms of the media rush to judgment in the case was a newspaper. John shows how they are trying to cover their tracks now and pretend that the didn’t help foment the racial and gender hostility in Durham when this story originally broke. John debunks that effort. It wasn’t just TV.
And just when the Georgetown robber-murderers thought it could not get any worse for them after being arrested hours after their crime, today’s Washington Post reported that they were caught because they used the credit card from a previous robbery to order MALE-SEX ENHANCEMENT PRODUCTS using their real address.
Poor guy must have had a problem living up to racial expectations.
and, no I did not make this up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701232.html
Is it just a trick of lighting in this particular photo – http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15059914.htm?
Or does Nifong look a little more polished, a bit more tan, hair a bit darker? Now he takes off his glasses to argue a point? Less glare from camera lights? And is it true he said something about attorneys for the unindicted players feeling left out of the limelight?
What a self-aggrandizing, publicity-conscience monster this DA is. If it weren’t for concern that justice is served for the real victims – the lacrosse players – who would be looking his way?
Self-aggrandizing, publicity-whore-ish…and very unprofessional to boot:
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-753796.html
From above link:
These were his (Nifong’s)words: “It looked sometimes over the course of the last few months that some of these attorneys were almost disappointed that their clients didn’t get indicted so they could be a part of this spectacle here in Durham.”
———————————–
Nifong was obviously thinking that many lawyers want on OJ type case to become the next Johnnie Cochrane, but it would be insulting to even Johnnie Cochrane to say that Johnnie Cochrane wanted his client, OJ, on trial. At worst, lawyers may have mixed feelings.
Long but interesting article in the Duke student paper, giving a taste of what life’s been like for Duke lacrosse players over the last few months.
http://tinyurl.com/rn5xe
This is all just so sad and pathetic. I feel so sorry for the three indicted players. Nifong has no option but to continue to prosecute the case and drag it out until after the November elections. Their lives are in limbo until this is resolved. Even if they are acquitted, some will forever hold a cloud of suspicion over them. Despicable is not a strong enough descriptor for Nifong.
What a piece of work he is! He has the audacity to stand in court and claim attorneys were disappointed their clients were not indicted so they would be unable to a share the glare of the media spotlight. As if those other young men haven’t had their lives affected by this catastrophe. They are paying legal bills probably in excess of $12,000 each. They will forever be greeted by whispers behind their backs about what REALLY happened.
I am sick, sick, SICK of the idiocy in the judicial system in Durham County. The media wanted to spin the story of rich, white, entitled young men against a poor, black, oppressed woman set before the backdrop of Spanish moss dripping from the magnolias in the moonlight. The ONLY southern stereotype at play here is the dunderheadedness (did I just make up a word?) of the district attorney. Why won’t the judges reign in Nifong? Why is he allowed to tediously prolong this case that should never be brought to trial?
“Why won’t the judges reign in Nifong? ”
There is no upside to a judge sticking his head out, the judges are busy/overworked, and often fair/good legal training is about all the knowledge you can expect from a judge.
“There is no upside to a judge sticking his head out”
Yes there is. Any judge with more than two brain cells knows by now that this case is a hoax. To continue it is to permit the suffering of all involved to continue. Judges have wide discretion and it wouldn’t have taken very much for Stephens or Titus to have made a ruling that would have forced Nifong to end the case. If they decided it was much easier for them to wash their hands of trying to defend the innocent–which is the whole point of the justice system–then permit the record to relegate them into the same category as another famous judge who chose political expediency and washed his hands. Their action is the same, their lack of courage the same, and their reputation therefore can be of the same order as his.
“Their action is the same, their lack of courage the same, and their reputation therefore can be of the same order as his.”
Seahawk, the vast majority of the judges in North Carolina are elected — just like Nifong. Unless ready to retire, the last thing they want to do is alienate the electorate.
“the last thing they want to do is alienate the electorate”
The last thing they want to do is condemn the innocent. I guess there are no more Judge Hortons around nowadays than there were in the 1930s. And if they haven’t the minimal courage necessary even to help then innocent, then they shouldn’t be on the bench. I for one do not intend to let them or the voters of NC forget.
Judge Horton LOST his reelection after Scottsboro, and perhaps a judge should hear the case or at least all the evidence to confirm it’s a hoax before dismissing.
“The accuser is a divorced mother”
May be technically true, but when I hear “divorced mother†I think of a woman who had children with her husband, not an adulterer with two out of wedlock children.
“Judge Horton LOST his reelection after Scottsboro, and perhaps a judge should hear the case or at least all the evidence to confirm it’s a hoax before dismissing.”
Yes he lost, but he was willing to give up his job rather than see an innocent man executed. Should he have let the man die just so he could keep his seat on the bench a little while longer? In this case, we’ve got three innocents threatened with a sentence which would amount in effect to judicial murder. But how can that stack up against the possibility that a judge might lose his job? (sarc/off)
As far as hearing the evidence before deciding the case is a hoax–we’ve all seen the evidence, and it’s glaring obvious the case is a hoax.
Seahawk, I’m sad to say there are few people of such moral fiber as Judge Horton. Most have little interest beyond preserving their phoney-baloney jobs.
C. Destine. Durham County ADA. Sexy 18-39 year-old. Dancer. MILF Seeker, with a preference for Pajamas Optional Parties and Interracial Hookups.
HS Classmate of Precious.
NCCU student at overlapping times with Precious.
Mom, Duke Law grad and current President of the DC Bar Association, allegedly beat Duke for 2.5 MM in a negligence action. Said verdict alleged to have been overturned or modified. Her counsel???? Willie Gary.
The calls for FBI investigation of the cesspool that is Durham DAO/LE has been amped:
http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=4a059abfe26bb3e029afe811fdbfc0b9&threadid=270159
http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=4a059abfe26bb3e029afe811fdbfc0b9&threadid=269979&pagenumber=3
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=duke_case_coverage_1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments
http://forums.go.com/abclocal/WTVD/thread?threadID=124368
http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/general-topics-open.html
I’m sure the intrepid N&O staff has been dispatched by the dozen to talk to “Jay”:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=62595706
Hmmmm….As I clicked to log the above post, the picture of Jay’s “friend,” C.Destine, was located two to the left of “Tammy.” Tammy??????? Well, in the following 15 seconds, C.Destine’s picture has suddenly disappeared and an “unexpected error” has caused Jay’s entire page to go blank. Must be a slow day in the Durham D.A.’s Office. Wonder how Mike’s vacation is going.
Well, there was a prostitution ring being run out of the Durham PD about a decade ago.
There have been no arrests for prostitution in Durham for the past couple of years (until this year);
Some people are openly allegeding that this same type of operation is still going on now, with official protection (see all the various links).
Consider the relationships between the ADA and Duke, the alleged victim in the current Duke case,the ADA’s mother and her suit with Duke, etc.
Leaving some to speculate if the lacrosse rape case is just a shakedown, to see how much the lacross players’s parents will pay to get their kids off a rape charge and keep them away from being sentenced to an NC prison.
If that is the case, will all the pot-bangers turn out to demonstrate against the police and DA
for the way they are downgrading women?
And do the players–already cleared by their DNA evidence–finally get to have the charges against them dismissed?
The Reporter’s Lament
Back in early Spring
Man, my cell phone would ring!
Melanie on the line…
Dig up all you can find!
Now I’m lonely and bored
Don’t get around much anymore…
Found interviews in the Hood
And quotes the kids were no good.
Ran the poster, ..remember then…
That “Swagger” headline was a gem
Now I sit here ignored.
Don’t get around much anymore.
Wanted to hit City Hall
Give Pat Baker a call
One story! He said it!
But Mel says “Forget it.”
What AM I here for…?
Don’t get around much anymore.
Thought I’d drive round the State
Talk to other D.A.’s
“Should the line-ups be tossed?
(They were ONLY Lacrosse)
“Are you kidding?” “What for?’
Don’t get around much anymore
Our blogs are loaded with questions
Leads and suggestions
Could win a Pulitzer Prize
But Mel says”No dice.”
Might shake Durham to the core?
Don’t get around much anymore.
See here’s the real scoop
I can go after Duke
Take down out-of -town laddies
That have rich out- of -town daddies
Their misdeeds we adore
And ….go after full bore
It fit our certain world-view
Now we’re in quite a stew
So we’ve “shut down” on this case
I spend days at MySpace
God, the truth is a bore!
Don’t get around much anymore
Do we have an FBI in this country?
Well, we do. It’s considering whether to investigate a man who made a film of shooting a Koran. (That might be regarded as a hate crime; or it might be part of free speech.) But obviously the Republic might be imperilled.
Meanwhile in Durham a lynching is taking place,
which some people believe is being conducted by a corrupt city government and police department, bent on a shakedown scheme. (There’s not enough room here to put down all the evidence of that.) But is the FBI interested?
No, can’t be bothered. . .
More Equal Justice in America
link
Raleigh, Durham Police Involved in Assault Case (07/22/06 – RALEIGH) -
Raleigh police are investigating an alleged assault outside a nightclub that involved Durham police officers, authorities said Saturday.
(snip)
Chalmers said no criminal charges have been filed against anyone from his department and that the names of the officers allegedly involved in the incident aren’t being released because of confidentiality issues.
What–no $500 fine?
No 30 days’ suspended sentence?
No 6 months’ probation?
No curfew?
No banning from town for 6 months?
No two-day trial conducted by two government/state attorneys?
Confidentiality so no release of names?
And the plot continues to thicken…
link
At least two Durham police officers are being investigated in connection with an assault late Thursday outside a Raleigh sports bar.
Hours after the alleged incident, two investigators involved in the Duke University rape investigation were assigned to administrative duty.
“As ye sow, so shall ye reap. . .”
Racial slurs, too :
A passenger in the truck, whom he described as white, yelled a racial slur at him, Thomas said. Thomas, who is black, returned with a different racial epithet.
From The Johnsville News:
Duke Investigators Now Subjects of Assault Probe
Durham police officers Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Richard Clayton might be in hot water. Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said both men had been assigned to administrative duty with pay Friday.
The Raleigh News & Observer reported:
At least two Durham police officers are being investigated in connection with an assault late Thursday outside a Raleigh sports bar.
Hours after the alleged incident, two investigators involved in the Duke University rape investigation were assigned to administrative duty.
No charges have been filed, but Raleigh and Durham police confirmed Saturday that some Durham officers are suspects in the alleged beating of a restaurant cook at Blinco’s sports bar, 6711 Glenwood Ave., apparently after an angry verbal exchange…
But when asked specifically about the status of Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, the supervisor in the Duke investigation, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Gottlieb had been assigned to administrative duty with pay Friday.
Also on Friday, Investigator Richard Clayton was placed on administrative duty with pay, Michael said. Clayton has assisted in the Duke investigation and works under Gottlieb.
Michael could not comment on the reason for the change in Gottlieb’s and Clayton’s status…
Add this story to the recent salacious revelations about a Durham Assistant District Attorney that have been circulating on the message boards and you have a carnival of the absurd going on in Durham.
Can we have the FBI now? Gonzales, are you reading this blog?
The message boards also mention that the ADA in Nifong’s office, Destine, has a mother who once won a judgement of some sort against Duke…one that may have been reduced or thrown out??? Small town/small world coincidence or fodder for resentment and payback of some sort? It has been noted somewhere that the deep pockets for a civil suit are Duke’s..not the boys and their families.
I am curious as to why Nifong is getting support from many others….police, staff, etc. There have to be a number of police and DA staff who are competely aware of the perversions of the intent of the law and the flagrantly obvious persecution instead of prosecution going on. How ironic that the Duke Lacrosse team is repeatedly accused of a conspiracy of silence while police and DA staff have colluded to support Nifong’s efforts even if it means not reading their own reports, supporting faulty procedures, practicing intimidation, and so on and so on. The perfect combination of motivations must be in place….a few may have a grudge against Duke( the ADA’s mother, Nifong..), one or two may be robotic Nifong flunkies who never question anything he does, the police have mountains of incompetence to obscure – poor police procedure, sloppy investigative techniques and paperwork practices, lax enforcement (was the recent prostitution dragnet an attempt to catch up?) – better to keep the focus on evil outsiders. Durham looks like the Hollywood stereotype of a southern dirt town, a cesspool of corruption – very third world. Hardly a place to risk investment capital, or to get an Ivy League education.
We have just finished eight years as parents of Duke students. If anything more happens to those boys, we feel that Duke bears much of the responsibility. Someone at the school must encourage all the students to register and to vote against Nifong in November.
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