Recall Nifong - Vote Cheek (DukeLax Developments)

The Committee to Recall Nifong - Vote Cheek was formed on August 9, 2006 as a political action committee to campaign for Lewis Cheek in the upcoming election for District Attorney. While Mr. Cheek has declined to campaign for this office, and has stated that he will not accept the position if elected, we believe that this election, and the referendum on Mr. Nifong that it has become, is not about politics but rather about Durham and what Durham stands for.

The Committee to Recall Nifong - Vote Cheek (RNVC) is not comprised of politicians in any way, shape or form. The people who have organized and will direct this campaign over the next few months have no personal political ambitions and no affiliation with any of the parties involved in the drama that has shed such a bad light on the community of Durham. RNVC is not a movement born of political ambition, nor is it only about the Duke drama. RNVC does not campaign on its own behalf, nor on behalf of any person with ambitions to be the District Attorney of Durham County. RNVC will campaign on behalf of the entire Durham community, save one.

Our movement was born in Durham homes by Durham citizens and for the Durham community. This Durham community, to which the participants in RNVC proudly belong, has become the target of nationwide ridicule and scorn. Durham County has been manipulated, deceived and divided by inflammatory, ambition-serving words uttered by the man entrusted to protect it. RNVC believes that the role of the District Attorney should be that of a protector, and not that of a divider. RNVC believes that the community deserves a District Attorney that inspires trust and not fear. It is the fear of Mr. Nifong and distrust of his words, motives and competency for office that has inspired this movement.

If one of our daughters were the victim of a violent crime, we do not want the person pursuing justice on her behalf to be one who compromises the pursuit of justice either by serving his own self interests, or by his own failure and unwillingness to follow procedure. If one of our sons were to be accused falsely, we do not want a District Attorney who would see those false accusations as an opportunity to defeat a bitter rival in a primary election. We believe that our justice system must not be compromised by misdeed or willful mistakes.

We believe that our district attorney must be one who allows a thorough investigation to precede his public proclamation of guilt or innocence. We believe that indictments should be brought based on evidence at hand, and not evidence hoped for. We believe our District Attorney must value procedure, due process, the rulings of our state’s Supreme Court and the constitution this nation was built on. We believe that our District Attorney must not be allowed to interject himself into a Police investigation in such away that he instructs them to disregard the recommendations of the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission, as approved by the NC Supreme Court. We believe that our District Attorney must not be a man who manipulates our law enforcement investigators into violating the Department’s own written policies simply to secure indictment before election.

We have heard Mr. Nifong ask Durham to consider the entirety of his career in the District Attorney’s office. We fail to see the relevancy of his performance in lesser roles within the office as an indicator of how he will perform when holding the power of the Office of District Attorney. We ask all of Durham to instead inspect his actions, his words and his motives while he has briefly served as District Attorney. We believe it is far more relevant to this referendum to inspect his conduct, questionable ethics and lack of performance in the short time that he has held the extensive powers and responsibilities of District Attorney.

Of all that we believe in, and of all that we ask of our community, with regard to this referendum on Mr. Nifong, what we hold most dearly is the notion that we all must speak. We believe this election is what the Durham that we love is about and, as such, requires a true and full measure of consideration by each of its citizens. We ask that Durham show, not only to Mr. Nifong, but also to Governor Easley and to the nation that watches, that Durham cares, that Durham has pride and, most importantly, that Durham has a voice.

Talk about intimidation!

These two paragraphs also have some interesting information.

Linwood Wilson, an investigator in Nifong's office, said Monday that he discovered the warrant when he ran a routine criminal background check on Elmostafa, the type of check he does for all victims and witnesses the prosecutor's office handles. Wilson said he told Nifong about the warrant, and Nifong told him that the office policy was to serve it.

Wilson said he told two detectives working the lacrosse case about the warrant, and Investigator R.D. Clayton arrested Elmostafa on May 10. He was released from the Durham County jail on $700 bail. According to notes taken by Investigator Benjamin Himan, Wilson said that Nifong wanted to be told when the taxi driver was arrested.

As an aside, flagship is not a technical term but the flagship university of NC is not NCSU.

The unified UNC system has 16 constituent campuses organized under a President and Board of Governors. Each campus has a Chancellor and Board of Trustees. UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU are officially designated as flagship campuses by the State of North Carolina. I need read no further to be convinced of your ignorance.

You are an academic who knows only one environment - large state land grant. You make my point by noting that you have been there forever and know nothing else. "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

It's telling that you insist on looking at athlete admissions from the athletic department point of view while I talk about athletic admissions from the admissions department point of view. Once again you have demonstrated your ignorance. Duke, in fact, does do blind admissions and has done so for at least the 30 years I have been associated with the school and I presume longer. I'm sorry if that concept blows your mind and you cannot imagine how such a system could work. Read the book and get back to me when you are better informed.

As far as this

ANOTHER case you could make is that while UF and Duke SAT scores are not that much different, with Duke's higher, that Duke has about 15% of the undergrad student body of UF and Duke and UF probably have a similar number of scholarship athletes means that the Duke average SAT is more impacted by special admit students, ie athletes, than UF's average SAT is.

that would be true if the Duke athletes weren't already to be qualified to be there in the first place, i.e., Duke doesn't need many special admits because the athletes are already qualified in the first place and are interested in the superior education Duke has to offer. I know it is a foreign experience to you but there are athletes that can gain admissions to top-notch schools without special consideration. Schools like Duke snap these applicants up and fill their athletic teams.

Your UF math classes have failed you. Can you not figure out that UF's huge (excuse me - this is FR - hugh) freshman class drawn largely from a single state cannot be as competitive as Duke's relatively tiny freshman class drawn nationwide?

Your UF economics classes have failed you. Recall the law of supply and demand? Out-of-state tuition matters because it is the true cost of a not-state-sponsored education. UF's out-of-state tuition is less than Duke's. If UF were all that great, top-notch out-of-state students would be storming the gates to get into UF as a relative bargain. But they are not. They are storming the gates to get into Duke.

You can talk about SATs and National Merit all you want. There's a very close to true joke that if you take three Duke students, one's a valedictorian, one's a salutatorian and one's an under performer. Duke's undergrad population is loaded with students who were first or second in their H.S. class.

I'm more interested in the end of the process (graduation) as opposed to the beginning of the process (admissions). You can talk about cluster analysis if you like. I promise you the "easy" major at Duke would crush the average student. Duke admits athletes and they get through in percentages approaching 100% without being cut slack or any opportunities to slip through truly easy majors. UF and most other schools cannot say that. (BTW, it took a while but Stanley Fish was eventually driven out of Duke a decade ago and is now at Florida International which is oh so proud to have him.)

BTW, you're not the first UF grad I've met with a raging inferiority complex. Must be something in the Gatorade which seems to be UF's only nationwide "academic" claim to fame.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.