See post 139 - a quick reply!
joking aside [fido969], and i'll presume you're joking too, i have nothing to apologize for. when i first wrote about the duke case, nearly a month ago now, my column focused on the issue at hand at that moment -- the "wall of silence" the prosecutors and police were coming up against. in that column, at several junctures, i pointed out that there was no way of any of us know ing what went on there, but the team members needed to cooperate with the police.
since then i wrote about duke's awareness of the team's pattern of behavior. and about the tide of mail i've received about the likeness between this case and tawana brawley's. did you read that one?
thanks for your note. i was having a rick martinez flashback.
See 169 - my reply:
Thank you for your polite note.
Well, yes, it was meant as a "finger in the eye", but I went through a similar situation as these young men are going through during my divorce, and these types of allegations - even if you can "prove yourself innocent" as I could, have a lasting and damaging effect. Even so, this has to be such a difficult situation, I find it hard to fathom what these young men are going through.
What about the "wall of silence" about the epidemic of false allegations? Why is that taboo - although every attorney on the planet knows how common those are? What about the "wall of silence" about justice - about charging the real criminal here - if that would be the case - that false charges would be made? What about Nifong's wall of silence - after granting 70 interviews early on - expressing indignation at the crime he said had occurred - and suddenly clamming up when the evidence does not go his way? The "wall of silence" about the accuser's name - but the publication of all the team members' pictures and addresses?
I could go on and on about the "wall of silence".
The "politically correct" wall of silence. The "wall of silnce" that ignores inconvienient truths.
Who is going to undo what has been done here? Who is going to change what they do in the future? Who is going to look at the world differently as a result of this injustice? Who is going to try to make amends, if not direct, then indirectly in the future?
What will this change? What good will come out of this for those who are the true victims?
Or is everyone just going to look at the wreckage in the review mirror and say: "Thank God it's not me!"
So, tell me - How does justice get rendered?
Tom C.