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I can understand frustrations of residents over some of the behavior of Duke students, though it's becoming clear how some residents may have fueled the Duke LAX case fire to further their agenda.

Another Lee Coggins entry from the listserv:

Fri Nov 4, 2005 5:51 am

RE: [TrinityPark] Zero Tolerance

I live across from (redacted), where all the boys moved out last week after being arrested when one of the partyers threw a bottle at me. Initially, we were really excited that they moved out, but Monday, Trinity Properties was back at the house showing it to a new kid who clearly wanted to live in a party house. Luckily, we were in the yard so we approached them to talk about it. I informed the student fo the Zero Tolerance policy and he was really freaked out. The TP representative was really angry that we scared him off and accused us of being unreasonable and that we needed to be more tolerant, since we did live ON a college campus. (This is how Guy Solie and Trinity Properties views us)

(snip)

I've wondered all the time if the complaints made by Bissy et. al. weren't encouraged by Duke, as a way of ultimately ending frats and athletics (after all, the univ. couldn't really complain about their behavoir in the same way if these organizations were still on the campus). Maybe the liberal admin. types in effect caused much of the problem.

This is very interesting, and probably the same story the N&O related of Gottlieb arresting a kid and bringin charges of larceny because he had a Duke flag, and a flag was reported stolen from West Campus a year ago. The kid was acquitted because the charges were obviously bogus, but in the meantime he spent thousands of dollars and high anxiety for him and his family until the case was resolved.

I am involved in civic affairs in a city the size of Durham. I can absolutely believe that the surrounding neighborhoods were sick and tired of unruly behavior (drunkenness, urination, etc.) and put great pressure on the city to do something, anythign really. The city responded by bringing grossly exaggerated charges against students to scare them off. THe boast of the neighbor that he scared off a prospective tenant and took delieght in the bogus charges confirms this. As far as the city was concerned, this was good because the voters were happy that the Duke students were being scared off. At least util the LAX case, when Durham finally went over-the-top.

Those internal e-mails will be fascinating because I would bet dollars to donuts there will be e-mail activity showing that the charges were brought to appease the neighborhood.