"Why is cheap housing available in Durham?"
The reason is that many people don't want their lives controlled by Durham Committee of the Affairs of Black People. And the horrible gang problem.
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
Punish Nifong
Kudos to Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" for exposing the injustice of the rape allegations against the Duke lacrosse players. Distinguished law professor James Coleman is correct: Nifong played the race card to get elected, among his myriad transgressions, and any possible conviction would likely be overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct. Here is the dilemma for those who are seeking justice in this case: the accuser seems to have vanished. Nifong can drag this out as long as he wants, barring judicial intercession, and when the time for the trial arrives, the accuser might stay in hiding and refuse to testify. Then Nifong might say, "The victim is too traumatized. Sorry, boys, no witness, no trial." The indicted lacrosse players are then left to twist in the wind with no opportunity to "prove their innocence." The short-term solution is for Durham voters to (1) elect Lewis Cheek and (2) have the movers and shakers in the Democratic Party confer with Governor Easley and persuade him to appoint a responsible and responsive district attorney and (3) locate the accuser and have her either swear to testify or, better yet, recant her false allegations. The long-term solution must be punitive toward a public servant who has failed so miserably to serve the public. As Professor Coleman points out: since this prosecutor used his power so recklessly to indict well-to-do white students, what's to prevent him from going after a poor, innocent black man if it should suit his political agenda?
GRAHAM MARLETTE
Durham
October 24, 2006