Monday, February 26: Post is closed, but continue discussion at Nifong Hits the Circuit; Unusual Leftist Recommendations.
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Thursday, February 22: John Ham in NC blogs (emphasis added):
“The News & Observer today has a story with a similar theme to my post yesterday pointing to the differing reactions to the Duke lacrosse rape allegations and the Feb. 11 rape allegations at an off-campus fraternity party. What could possibly explain the lack of uproar? is the question the N&O asks but never answers because they are afraid to mention the words white and black.
“By talking to the very people who rushed to judgment in March of 2006 ‘the infamous potbangers and irresponsible professors who pushed a concern for due process out of their minds in their zeal to make ideological points last year’ the N&O comes to the nonsensical conclusion that fatigue over the Duke lacrosse case is the reason for the lack of outrage this time.”
I almost snorted coffee out of my nose upon reading that gem. Fatigue, indeed. That’s BS.
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Yesterday a man was arrested in the so-called second Duke rape case. Actually…the first one isn’t a rape case anymore. Legally, it’s sexual offense and kidnapping (since Nifong was forced to drop first-degree rape charges as the stripper-accuser’s gang-rape fantasy changed for the 100th time), but in reality it’s an embarrassing example of railroading, criminal conspiracy, and political profiteering that will spawn many books, articles, and what-not-to-do hypotheticals in law school criminal procedure classes for decades to come.
Anyway, someone named Michael Jermaine Burch was arrested and charged with second-degree rape. A Duke University freshman claimed he raped her in the bathroom at a house party on February 11, hosted by Duke students and members of the black fraternity Phi Beta Sigma. As you can see, the suspect is black. The alleged victim is white. The police, the media, and Duke University are proceeding cautiously this time around, and I wish it were for the right reasons.
All three ran recklessly over the men indicted in the first case. Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann, and David Evans were branded as white drunken rich frat boy racists who brutally attacked a black woman forced to take off her clothes for a living to feed her children. The district attorney, Duke’s administration and faculty, the media, and their various cronies were complicit in perpetuating stereotypes about the accused men and the stripper-accuser.
(For more Duke blogging, see The Johnsville News, the most comprehensive Duke news round-up blog out there, Durham-in-Wonderland by KC Johnson, who’s co-writing a book about the lacrosse case, LieStoppers, Forensics Talk, John in Carolina, Crystal Mess…)
Now, nobody is saying more than they have to. The police haven’t said much beyond their initial report, the media are mum, offering just the facts this time, and the administration and faculty, particularly Duke president Richard Brodhead and the leftist professors known as Group of 88, are conveniently muzzled. As more facts emerge, we will see less cautious reporting and tiptoeing, of course, but as for now, everyone’s playing this case the way they should have played the first one.
Honestly, who among the bitter, bored, and envious could resist demonizing a bunch of “privileged” white college boys, unleashing years of anger and frustration over their own failures or disappointments or inadequacies? It was too juicy to resist. They saw blood in the water, and they pounced.
Did painting the lacrosse players as drunken, raping hoodlums make them feel better? Initially, I suppose. I’m human, too. It gives me a guilty tinge of pleasure when I see someone I don’t like or someone who represents what I don’t like “get theirs.” I’d be a bald-faced liar if I said otherwise.
Burch is fortunate, in a way. Unlike the lacrosse three, he’s in jail (for now) (out on bail). He won’t have to listen to white men-hating white women called feminists using him to make generalizations and broad social commentary about the “white male” patriarchy or disgruntled white men-hating blacks making ridiculous comparisons between his case and plantation rape. Burch won’t have to deal with an out-of-control, race-pandering doofus like Mike Nifong convicting him before the trial even begins and criminally conspiring with so-called professionals like Brian Meehan and the Durham police to put together a weak case held together with homemade glue. (William Anderson writes about the consipiracy and the cover-up.)
Burch won’t have to deal with any of those things because he’s not a “rich” white male. Black man committing crime=boring. Black man committing crime of rape=snoozer.
Burch’s case will be a textbook example of how to investigate and prosecute a rape case, without regard for the alleged rapist’s race or the victim’s. As far as the media are concerned, some won’t be able to resist the race angle, whether it’s the usual black-on-white rape or the much less common white-on-black rape. I don’t expect most of them to pretend not to be intensely intrigued the next time they hear about multiple white men gang-raping a black woman. It sells! But the cops and the DA’s office, as government entities, have a duty to execute the law, which is colorblind. The media are allowed to act like idiots.
Before I wrap up, I have two questions I’d love answers to:
1) The party where Burch allegedly raped a woman in the bathroom was held at a house occupied by members of Phi Beta Sigma, a black fraternity. Unlike the Duke lacrosse party, illegal drugs were found inside the house. If the administration were consistent, they’d reprimand the fraternity, at the very least or have their charter revoked, at the most. Have you heard or read about any such reprimand or talk of revocation?
2) Given the disproportionately high rate of crime among blacks, this case provides a great opportunity for protesting pot-bangers, New Black Panthers, and puffed up, process-haired potentates to hit the microphones and speak out against the violence. (Chocolate City, here we come!) Instead of demonizing men like Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans, how about shaming career thugs who prey on everybody?
Ah, but it’s easier, more fun, more satisfying, and more profitable to burn “rich” white lacrosse players in effigy, hype up isolated incidents of white-on-black gang rape, and dump frustration about your own life onto them than it is to tackle the issue of shamefully high crime rates among blacks. Feminists, where the heck are you? I don’t hear any pots banging!
I’m almost embarrassed to ask this, but do you think the feminists and the panthers and the Sharptons will speak publicly about what I just mentioned? It’s rhetorical, really, but give it guess. 
Addendum: Welcome to LBC, Lucianne.com readers. I’ve been blogging about the Duke case since last April. See the Duke Rape Case category, or read a selection of previous posts (and bookmark me while you’re here):
- NYT’s Duke DNA Double Standard
- Duke Rape Case: Unnatural Selection on Both Sides?
- Reade Seligmann: “Mom, she picked me.”
- Duke Rape Case: The Bloggers
- Salaciousness Sells
- Duke Rape Case: That Motion!
- Duke Rape Case: You Talking About Me?
- Journalist Says Lacrosse Women “Ignorant” for Supporting Accused Lacrosse Players
- Rape Shield Law and the Duke Rape Case
