A Dirty Game (Duke Rape Case)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 27 December 2006 | STUART TAYLOR JR. and KC JOHNSON

[shrinkermd]

It's no secret that hugely disproportionate numbers of the innocent people oppressed by abusive prosecutors and police in this country are African-Americans. Now one of the most outrageous cases of law-enforcement abuse is unfolding in Durham, N.C., home of the Duke lacrosse case. And African-Americans are leading the cheers for the oppressors. Why? The poison of identity politics, plus class hatred of the prosecutor's three main victims, well-off white men falsely accused of rape by an unstable black "exotic dancer," and a deeply dishonest district attorney...

Black leaders -- including Durham Mayor Bill Bell, the appallingly demagogic North Carolina NAACP and others -- should know better. So should the powerful, identity-politics-obsessed hard left of Duke's own faculty, 88 of whom issued a statement in April saying "thank you" to protesters who had branded the players rapists. And so should the media, most of which gleefully joined the clamor last spring.

...It has been clear for many months that the rape claim is almost surely a lie. But not until the DA's dramatic dismissal last Friday of the rape (but not the sexual assault and kidnapping) charges did Mr. Nifong enablers such as the New York Times and Duke President Richard Brodhead begin distancing themselves from his oppression of three innocent young men.

[shrinkermd]

The logic of logical empiricism:

How can we be confident that the charges are false? Let us count the ways: The police who interviewed the accuser after she left the March 13-14 lacrosse team party where she and another woman had performed as strippers found her rape charge incredible, and for good reason. She said nothing about rape to three cops and two others during the first 90 minutes after the party. Only when being involuntarily confined in a mental health facility did she mention rape. This predictably got her released to the Duke emergency room for a rape workup, whereupon she recanted the rape charge.

Then she re-recanted, offering a ludicrous parade of wildly implausible and mutually contradictory stories of being gang-raped by 20, five, four, three or two lacrosse players, with the other stripper assisting the rapists in some versions. After settling on three rapists, the accuser gave police vague descriptions and could not identify as a rapist any of the 36 lacrosse players whose photos she viewed on March 16 and 21. These included two eventual defendants: Dave Evans, whom she did not recognize at all, and Reade Seligmann, whom she was "70%" sure she had seen at the party, but not as a rapist.

[Thermalseeker]

Any legal eagles out there know whether or not the accused have a legal route to seek damages from this runaway prosecutor once he eventually drops all the charges?

[AZRepublican]

I don't think Nifong wants anything to do with the accusers girlfriend, who pretty much destroyed the entire fairytale against Nifong's three victims.

[DB]

Nifong needs prison time along with the accuser.

[mtbopfuyn]

Nifong needs prison time along with the accuser.

True, but I don't think legally that's possible.

[Dixie Yooper]

Duke University is just as responsible as anyone for letting this get as carried away as it did. For as hard as it is to get into Duke, you would think that Duke would at least stand up for the basic rights of it's "cream of the crop" students as American citizens, "innocent until proved guilty". Instead the 3 defendants along with their coach were thrown to the wolves along with all costs for defending themselves. Duke owns and is responsible for what happens at it's off campus residences. The fact that it turned into an animal house situation is Dukes fault. Underage drinking in university houses is a national problem, and all universities and colleges need to correct it. What happened here in Durham is because of Duke's lack of concern of looking after it's own students, letting things get out of hand and then not taking the appropriate actions.

[sgtbono2002]

****It's no secret that hugely disproportionate numbers of the innocent people oppressed by abusive prosecutors and police in this country are African-Americans. ****

This first sentence offended the hell out of me. I dont believe hugely disproportionate numbers of innocent people being oppressed are black.

I do believe the liberal press is trying to convince us of this, but its crap.

In the first place I dont believe there are large numbers of abusive prosecutors. Most are doing their jobs well
Nifong is an aberration. A political hack. A man with no integrity who should be replaced forthwith.

Ronnie Earle, and Fitzgerald are two others who need an attitude adjustment.

[2ndClassCitizen]

I believe the oppressed are the victims of the criminals and thugs.

Just tell the ACLU that you will shoot to kill any criminal who threatens you. You will be called a racist.

[TommyDale]

"It's no secret that hugely disproportionate numbers of the innocent people oppressed by abusive prosecutors and police in this country are African-Americans."

I think the key word here is "innocent". If one were to go to the statistics, he/she would find that black-on-black crimes extremely disproportionate. If the general population is 12% black, I would guess that crimes are committed by a much higher percentage than 12% black.

[ricks_place]

I dont believe hugely disproportionate numbers of innocent people being oppressed are black.

Our Black brothers have been disproportionately convicted of crimes for which they were innocent. Believe it or not!

[ustanker]

If the three accused were black this would have been over long ago.sure Jessie and Al will apologize soon.

[maica]

Is the comment in post #1 yours or from the writers of the WSJ piece? The article is on the subscriber side of the paper, so I cannot access it.

[spintreebob]

disproportionate numbers of the innocent people oppressed by abusive prosecutors and police in this country are African-Americans.

The irony is that white liberals and their house boys keep it that way. These high profile frauds are counter productive. Nobody ever called the ACLU types stupid. So why do they do what they do?

In the old days, there were bad slave masters who beat their slaves, raped their slaves, etc. But also in the old days there were good masters to took good care of their people and "loved" their people.

Clearly, the white liberals and their house boys want a plantation of only good masters who take good care of their people.

To accomplish that, they must destroy anyone who is not committed to building the good plantation.

[HEY4QDEMS]

The accuser now has a Wikipedia page dedicated to her,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Gail_Mangum

I suspect the page won't be there to long.

[shrinkermd]

WSJ

[PolishProud]

So you're saying that the problem isn't a deeply unethically DA or a bias against rich white kid or a lying victim, but it's the University fault Dummy.

Righttt.

[wrench]

I don't believe the property was Duke owned, it was a private residence rented by a group of Duke students.

In years past, Duke would provide legal help in situations where students ran afoul of the law, but they (Duke) was too PC in this situation to lend official help.

There is, however, a large contigent of legal Alumni who are assisting the students in this case.

When I lived in the Triangle area, the womens dorms at NCCU were known to be low cost whore houses, I see not much has changed over the years except some Duke students are suffering from a lack of good sense.

[Long Island Pete]

I sure hope so. This prosecutor ruined the live of 3 young men. The U.S. Attorney General should step in and end this right now and disbar Nifong.

[yldstrk]

There's got to be a way to first prosecute him for abuse of process, then sue him civilly. Still the double standard in the south of good girls and girls for fun is sickening.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Duke owns and is responsible for what happens at it's off campus residences. The fact that it turned into an animal house situation is Dukes fault. Underage drinking in university houses is a national problem, and all universities and colleges need to correct it.

Not 100% sure but I don't believe Duke owned the off campus house in question.

As for the rest of your remark, it wreaks of Nanny-ism.