Tony Soprano Channeling Sam Spade (Re Sgt. Gottlieb - NY Times Star Witness, Duke Rape Hoax)

I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. If I did, would you find me in those dark hours, eyeing some broad at Blinco's, about to find myself in the middle of the biggest story to hit town in years?

I'm Tony Soprano of the Court TV discussion board fame. No, not the guy on that TV show. I just took his moniker cause it gave me cover like a cheap toupee when a fella's follicles are few. I'm not afraid of cops like Gottlieb. I was there the night the caper with the fry cook went down.

Gottlieb and I rub each other the wrong way, like a cheap wool suit you've had one year too long. Things were tense that night, my friends. I shot off my mouth a few times.

As Gottlieb passed my barstool, he leaned in close. I could see the oily sweat on his shiny bald head. "Keep riding on me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver." He straightened up and, with his posse following him, sauntered out the door into the alley. What happened next, well, that's the most baffling mystery story in years.

A friend of mine, a newsie, was in Blinco's a few nights later. "Tony, Have the barkeep pour me some of that booze you're drinking, and I'll tell you a story you might want to hear." "Good booze makes any tale you're going to tell one I want to hear." I motioned for him to pull out the barstool beside me. We waited till the dame serving us gave me a wink and sauntered back to the bar.

"Did you see Gottlieb's picture on the front page of the local rag. Did you read the piece saying his boss Nifong should be worried he's going down for the Blinco's gig?'

"Yeah, me and half the town saw that. What's your beef? Gottlieb's days as a Big Shot Bully are as numbered as a Currier and Ives calendar. The cook ratted him out, said the "Bald guy" was the instigator. Of the coppers here that night, Gottlieb fit that description like a Hong Kong suit you had made to order. He's as finished as a Dame from an East Coast Boarding school. He's going down.

The newsie smiled, took another sip of his drink. "Not so fast, Tony, Gottlieb may have hired a lawyer, but he ain't gonna take the fall. Our big story tomorrow is two young cops will take the rap for him. No way bossman Nifong will let his boy Gottlieb go down till the Dukies are duked out." I took a drag on my cigarette and watched the smoke curl across the table. The newsie leaned in and pushed copy of the morning's paper my way.

But they have hair! Their heads look like lucky sheep who ran from a careless shearer. No way they fit the Cook's description. And Gottlieb lawyered up faster than a railroad car on an icy stretch of track!"

"Exactly. Nifong's the boss. He ain't gonna let no stinking fry cook ruin the best campaign strategy since Washington rowed across a frosty river in Delaware. Gottlieb's the chief investigator. Three months later, he turned in ...pages of notes. His recollection of events added details to Nifong's case like a New York seamstress adds sequins to a songbird's gown. Gottlieb's in solid with the boss."

I sat in stunned silence, not even a come hither look from the comely barmaid could stop my thoughts. The newsie took another sip of the bourbon I bought him.

"It ain't the first time either. One morning. around 6AM, Gottlieb ran a red light and rammed his car into another guy's ride right here in Raleigh. When the smoke cleared, Mr.Nobody's car had $7000 worth of damage. Our man Gottlieb didn't even get a ticket. Tony, if that was you or me, think the Raleigh cops would let it slide like a fried egg on a greasy stove?"

I leaned back. The newsie smiled a knowing smile. "Ain't gonna happen, Tony. Watch and see. The guy with the smashed car, the poor fry cook here that got knocked around? They are NOBODYS, Tony. And NOBODY cares." My beat can be ugly, my friends. The night can be cold. But this story chilled me like a eager bridegroom's champagne waiting to be uncorked. But it's not over yet. Tony Soprano doesn't go down easy.

******Footnote: Unlike some OTHER fiction writers LieStoppers feels the need to distinguish fiction from fact. Should the NYT wish to carry this story, LieStoppers will insist they disclose the difference. Tony Soprano was NOT in Blinco's the night of the Fry Cook beating, but we link to the basic facts of the story that ARE true.

It always happens. Have a deepmoomentandit is right after the new thread.

So I am bringing it here.

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To: xoxoxox; All
All graduates of the Jesse Jackson School of Shakedown.

If you don't kiss their collective ass, they assume the right to destroy you.

The alledged rape and everything growing from that is an explosive story, no doubt.

But the bigger story is the corruption. Durham is corrupt to the core.

I'm at the point now where I think let the lawyers take care of the boys. They have good lawyers. The bigger battle is against the corruption.

Gottlieb tried to bring the Duke cops into the collective bargaining unit. Duke was not too crazy about that. Gottlieb lost that battle.

This is not the first Duke incident he has investigated.

He depises Duke. He does not care about AV's claim of rape. He does not care about Nifong's case. He does not give a flying f___ about the guilt or innocence of the lax players.

He wants to shove it up Duke's ass. In fact, Nifong might even been his dupe at first. Gottlieb might know where the bodies are buried (so to speak) and may have threatened to dig up a few graves.

And what is going on at NCCU? Brian Taylor, the pimp, driving Ms Medina. How is it that a known pimp is ignored by the local media?

The press, the cops, even the administration at NCCU have given him cover. Someone is protecting him and it is a group effort.

And while av's peers are pissing and moaning about the sexual degradation of one of their own by the rich white boys, the poor black boys are pimping their sustahs.

There has to be a common element in the DPD, city government and NCCU. They are all corrupt, but I want to know who the dirty one is.

That's the big story. The lax boys are in good hands. But unless the bigger story is exposed nothing in Durham will change.

It's about organized crime, drugs and prostitution. Someone is getting rich off of it.
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Third time's a charm

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-764476.html
New Duke students lending helping hands

By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun
August 26, 2006 9:48 pm

DURHAM -- Student volunteers from Duke University fanned out into several north Durham neighborhoods Saturday to help residents with their yard work.

The effort, sponsored by Keep Durham Beautiful Inc. and Duke's Community Service Center, targeted the Old Farm neighborhood and several subdivisions along Holt School Road and was intended to benefit elderly and disabled homeowners.

Organizers expected about 100 students to participate. A group of about 35 descended on the Old Farm neighborhood. The students split up into five teams to cover as many houses as they could in the four hours allotted to the project.

One team converged on the home of Old Well Street resident Betty Williams, who's disabled and has been preoccupied by her 81-year-old mother's hospitalization for a stroke. A couple of students split off to work at a house across the street.

The Duke students said they welcomed a chance to lend a hand. "Durham is going to be my home for the next four years," Kaitlyn Shackelton, a freshman from Reno, Nev., said when asked why she volunteered to participate in the effort. "I figured, 'Anything to pitch in.' "

Organizers worked with the Old Farm Neighborhood Association to identify homeowners who could use the help. The predominantly black neighborhood is mostly middle class, but association leaders said they felt the volunteer effort was well-targeted.

They said helping and staying in touch with the neighborhood's elderly residents was an important community stabilization measure.

The neighborhood has "been nice, but it's getting older and things are changing," said Carolyn Young, an Old Farm Neighborhood Association activist who was working with Shackelton and the rest of the team at the Williams house. "When we moved out here, this was the area to move into. Old Farm was it, and we want to help it keep that reputation."

Duke students have participated in similar clean-ups in years past, but this year campus leaders elected to make the effort part of the school's orientation week activities for freshmen.

The so-called "Into the City" effort, which on Saturday also included several faculty-led tours of different parts of Durham, has gotten increased attention this year in the wake of last spring's rape charges against members of the Duke lacrosse team.

But Carly Wheeler, a junior from San Diego, said campus leaders were thinking about holding a cleanup effort during orientation week before the lacrosse scandal broke.

"It's something the First-Year Advisory Counselor board and the university had been discussing for awhile," Wheeler said, adding that the point of the change was to "incorporate community service" into the orientation effort.

URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-764476.html

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-764485.html
Black advocacy groups applauded

BY RAY GRONBERG, The Herald-Sun
August 26, 2006 10:46 pm

DURHAM -- The need for groups like the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People hasn't diminished in the 71 years since its formation, the president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP told members at the committee's anniversary dinner Saturday.

That's because the problems facing blacks are just as dire as they were in the midst of the Great Depression or at the dawn of the 20th century, keynote speaker Lonnie Randolph told the packed house at Greater Emmanuel Family Life Enrichment Center.

Randolph, who's gained notice for leading the battle against the South Carolina state government's continued use of the Confederate battle flag, singled out the country's education system as being a continued impediment to the progress of blacks.

"Education in this country is still a mockery," he said. "Our children ? are in poor educational environments, unfunded environments, [with] unqualified people in those environments, incompetent people as administrators and principals in those environments. Our school system is still under siege."

Groups like the Durham Committee matter because they hold public officials accountable for their actions, Randolph said.

"You hold the reins," he said. "When they no longer answer to your requests, get you a new model."

The Durham Committee's perceived clout is still strong enough that Saturday's dinner was attended by an array of local, state and federal officials -- mainly Democrats -- that included U.S. Rep. David Price and N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Parker.

Gov. Mike Easley and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue penned letters of greeting that appeared in the banquet program distributed to those present, and many officials who are running for office this fall or who anticipate running sometime in the near future purchased full-page advertisements in the program.

Officials like state Rep. Larry Hall, District Attorney Mike Nifong, City Councilman Mike Woodard and Police Chief Steve Chalmers worked the room, leaving few hands unshaken.

The committee is coming off a May primary that saw four of the five candidates it endorsed for the top offices on the ballot -- all three school board selections and its pick for district attorney -- go down to defeat. But Randolph said the group's continued influence remained obvious.

Of the elected or would-be elected officials present, "several of them told me they didn't have any choice but to be here tonight if they had any chance of winning," Randolph said. "I'm glad to know there are groups and individuals holding public officials accountable."

North Carolina NAACP President William Barber introduced Randolph and hit on the same point.

"There's always the need for somebody to take a special look, not just at how policies impact the community, but at how they affect minorities," Barber said. "Somebody needs to go back and read the fine print and make sure they include everybody. Somebody needs to call on counties and communities to stop for a minute and make sure in the actions they carry out that they don't disenfranchise a whole people."

The Durham committee, Barber added, has a clear history of "demanding a second look."

In his comments, Randolph said the country's efforts to guarantee equal rights continued to fall short, in ways that can be measured by economic and health care statistics.

He made it clear that he believed few institutions were blameless, including churches and the black middle and upper classes.

Civil-rights pioneers "made a substantial investment in us, but I'm deeply troubled because I don't see a return on that investment," Randolph said.

In the schools, "too many adults are missing in action," and in the pulpit, "some people become so heavenly bound they don't do no earthly good," he said.

He faulted a preoccupation with individualism at the expense of community, among both whites and blacks. "Far too many of us are an impediment to progress because of our selfish ways, our bigoted ways, our mean-spirited ways and our greed," he said.

URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-764485.html

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