Posted on 06/18/2007 9:05:57 PM PDT by jazusamo
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The disbarment of Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong should be just the first step in remedying the gross and cynical fraud of last year's "rape" case against Duke University lacrosse players.
Not only is Nifong still liable to civil lawsuits from the three young men whose lives he tried to ruin, and criminal prosecution for his obstruction of justice and making false statements to a judge, there are many other people who disgraced themselves in hyping a lynch mob atmosphere when this case first broke last year.
The New York Times, which splashed these Duke students' pictures on the front page, along with inflammatory charges against them, and went ballistic on its editorial page, carried the story of Nifong's disbarment for prosecuting them on page 16.
The 88 Duke University faculty members who took out a hysterical ad, supporting those local loudmouths who were denouncing and threatening the Duke students, have apparently had nothing at all to say now.
Not only did many Duke University professors join the lynch mob atmosphere, so did the Duke University administration, which got rid of the lacrosse coach and cancelled the team's season, without a speck of evidence that anybody was guilty of anything.
This is one of the few times when Jesse Jackson is speechless, even though he was loudly supporting the bogus "rape" charges last year.
A local civil rights activist even had the gall to accost the mother of one of the accused students at Nifong's disbarment hearings to say that she still believes they were guilty.
The sad and tragic fact is that the civil rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against.
Although the committee that disbarred Michael Nifong said many things that needed to be said, they muddied the waters by saying that Nifong may have deceived himself before he deceived others.
Nothing that District Attorney Nifong did suggests that he ever thought these players were guilty or that he ever intended to bring them to trial.
The photo lineup presented to the stripper was so completely different from standard procedure that it was virtually an invitation for a judge to throw out any identification resulting from it -- and without that identification, there was no case.
This was not about winning a case. It was about winning an election.
Nifong could not allow a standard lineup to be used to have the accuser identify her alleged attackers, or else her unreliability would have been exposed early on, depriving him of a case to use to get the black vote in his election.
There is not the slightest reason to believe that Nifong was deceived or mistaken. He was not some kid fresh out of law school. He had decades of experience as a prosecutor. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Nor was the New York Times a naive ingenue in these matters. It had backed Al Sharpton's fraudulent accusations of rape in the Tawana Brawley case, which had the same politically correct elements of a black woman accusing white men of rape.
Nor were the 88 Duke faculty members who promoted a lynch mob atmosphere naive. Most were from departments promoting the "race, class, and gender" vision of victimhood.
This case served their purposes. That trumped any question about whether the charges were true or not.
Don't expect any of these people to recant or apologize. But be aware of how wide and how deep the moral dry rot goes.
That such people are teaching students at an elite university is a chilling thought. That they promote a campus atmosphere where political correctness trumps the search for truth is painful.
That such attitudes and such atmospheres are not peculiar to Duke University, but are common on elite college campuses from coast to coast is a time bomb with the potential to destroy individuals and ultimately undermine the whole society.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
Unfortunately what you suggest has the ring (I typo'ed "rig" and that's more like it) of truth.But if so, I hope that the aggrieved held out for enough to cover every dime of their legal bill, twice over. Minimum.
They should have sued any part of Duke which related directly to the 88 maledictors (if that's not in the dictionary, it should be) - e.g., "black studies" and "gender studies" departments - out of existence.
“What Mr. Sowell is saying is “Parents, before you commit to spending $30,000 - $50,000 per year for a four or more year education for your sweet young child, make sure your SYC is going to get an education, not a liberal indoctrination course. That’s what they’ll get at most elitist, pricy schools on the eastern seaboard, the Northeast and the Left Coast. Let’s not forget about Austin, a wannabe eastern seaboard school.””
If you want your child to be educated, not indoctrinated, consider sending them to Hillsdale College. It’s at hillsdale.edu. One of the few in the country to not take dime one from the feds.
The public has been subjected to a monopoly of liberal commie vampire propaganda for 40 years running. They have been allowed to infiltrate our children's minds with impunity.
It is sicking, we must destroy the MSM for a better country.
It has, over the years, become our exclusive charity, for what is more important charity wise than our children’s minds?
That such attitudes and such atmospheres are not peculiar to Duke University, but are common on elite college campuses from coast to coast is a time bomb with the potential to destroy individuals and ultimately undermine the whole society.
. . . and thatThe New York Times, which splashed these Duke students' pictures on the front page, along with inflammatory charges against them, and went ballistic on its editorial page, carried the story of Nifong's disbarment for prosecuting them on page 16.is not unique to the NYT but is commonplace among journalism is even more horrifying. But worst of all is the fact that of our two-party political system, one entire political party is pretty much dedicated to that sort of stuff - and it wins elections that way.
“Not attend Duke. Not send our children to Duke. Hire Duke graduates only with great reluctance. The actions of the faculty have called the value of the credentials offered by Duke University into serious question.”
How about Duke graduates that are FRiends like me, who have double major engineering degrees and are embarrased by the actions of their once-proud university?
There is a great divide at Duke between the Engineering school and Trinity (Arts and Sciences). The engineering school is quite conservative compared to the rest of the school. We often used to mock the PC police at just about every chance we got.
And no logical reason is ever required to not hire a candidate.
To me, that is the single most scary thing. It speaks volumes as to the state of our educational system, both the teachers and students.
If I were that mother, I'm afraid I would be charged w/ assault and battery. I would not be able to restrain myself.
I’m in.
Agreed...There are many ignorant people in our country and that mother was accosted by one.
Thanks, I’ve got you down.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a bad Sowell column, and this one keeps up the record.
Ping. For your reading pleasure ;o)
The Chronicle has ended its publication for this school year. It prints one more paper, the largest of the year, which also is mailed to the homes of the students, on 25 July. The deadline for camera ready copy for that edition is 27 June. The one-time, non-profit rate for a b&w full-page ad in that special issue is $977.76.
After the ad is submitted and paid for, the Chronicle runs it by its lawyers to make certain it can be printed. Since the paper printed the two ads from the Gang of 88, they would be hard put to deny the Sowell ad a place in their paper. I told Nalina that it would be bad press for her paper to refuse this ad.
She laughed and said she agreed with me, but she could not speak for the lawyers. I told her I was a lawyer, and that nobody can speak for us.
So, whoever is interested, freep mail me. Or, e-mail me at John_Armor@aya.yale.edu If there is enough interest, this ad is a go. (I will take the responsibility of getting Dr. Sowell's permission to reprint.)
John / Billybob
Exactly...There is nothing that can be done to them for their despicable behavior in this incident.
There is one thing they could do. Eliminate the programs in "Ethnic Studies" outright. Use the campus classroom space for something much more productive, like hard science labs or storing toenail clippings.
But you still have to look at her giant chin. I don't know about you, but that chin scares me.
Then, after the column, there would be a sentence to say who we are who sponsored the ad.
That's it. Short and sweet. We have 8 days to the deadline to make this happen.
John / Billybob
You’re right, you are free to hire whomever you wish. I think you would be silly to pass over a Duke engineering student because of this, but it is your perogative.
I was trying to convey the fact that the engineering school, for the most part, is fairly well-insulated from this nonsense. At least when I was in school, we didn’t have time to waste dealing in “campus activism” and associated garbage.
Thanks, John. I will start pinging everyone I can to your post. Your suggestion for the introduction seems appropriate to me.
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