Posted on 10/18/2006 2:45:47 PM PDT by zaxxon
The charges against the Duke lacrosse players should be dropped immediately, and the people demanding the dismissal the loudest and most forcefully should be the very people who have made a living allegedly fighting against racial injustice.
I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be in Durham, N.C., today, promising civil disobedience until the charges are dropped and prosecutor Mike Nifong resigns.
Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" should never be mistaken for Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court. Bradley is just a TV reporter and "60 Minutes" is just a TV show, but you couldn't help but be moved by the story they aired Sunday night about the Duke lacrosse rape allegations.
The three accused players gave their first interviews, and two of them claimed they had airtight, documented alibis. The accuser's one-night sidekick, Kim Roberts, seems to have settled on telling the truth rather than trying to spin the story for fame or money. She contradicted several of the statements the accuser gave to police.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Sure on your "cut off her finger" comment, but do you think things have changed with Nifong or Mangum?
I think one of two things is going on:
1. Mangum is being bullied by Nifong to testify. He is threatening her with charges or if she is still on probation revocation. Mangum certainly tried to make this allegation go away after it served her purpose and got her out of involuntary commitment. She refused ID anyone time after time.
2. Mangum has recalculated and decide, after her early attempts to have this allegation go away, that the situation had changed and she benefits by having it continue.
So I think if Mangum wanted to or could back out of this allegation, she would have by now. She either is being compelled by Nifong to continue or she now sees it as benefiting her. I don't see any prospects that that will change short of Nifong losing office.
http://www.duke.edu/web/africanameric/supporters.pdf
A list of the 88.
I also found this one...
http://crystalmess.blogspot.com/2006/09/dear-cowards.html
She didn't even cry rape on her own. They asked her if she was raped, and she said yes. They put an idea into her head.
I know that was said by somebody who works there, but I'm not sure that was the entirey of the conversation. She may have made the claim, then said she wasn't, and then was asked. We just don't know enough of the details of what when on at Durham Access to say if the idea originated with her or someone else.
I have wondered if she told someone there she'd been to a Duke party as a dancer and that someone said it'd be a good idea to accuse the Duke boys in order to get some cash out of them and to get out of the commitment to Durham Access. Maybe somebody with an axe to grind against Duke or whitey in general put the bug in her ear.
Probably not, unless he struck a deal with her, perhaps through her attorney, in which he declines to violate her probation or press any charges if she stays mum until after the election. Now, the attorneys wouldn't say all that in precise terms, but lawyers have their own double-speak methods of conveying what they want and reaching an understanding without actually crossing the line.
Alleva makes me sick. Sick, sick, sick. I hope he isn't making the final decision. Sounds like Reade will not be going back to Duke but Collin's father said he wants to.
Right, I know deals can be worked out. I know one possible resolution Nifong might have in mind is dropping the charges after he wins the election. I do think these charges might well have dropped after the primary had this not gotten so public.
He is boxed in somewhat here. If he drops these charges, he maybe seals his fate now as far as being sued and maybe charged with a crime.
I already said that.... :-)
You are AWESOME! Thank you! (where did you find it?)
Nifong has several ways to pressure CGM.
The biggest is her children.
He can intervene for her (or aganist her) with whatever agency in Durham looks out for abused/neglected children.
If he were to ask that her children be taken away, they would probably be gone in a matter of hours-----and CGM knows it.
Durham County Elections
2004 Presidential results
Kerry 74,524
Bush 36,614 on 73% turnout countywide.
sample black precinct White Rock 660 vs 37.
2001 Mayoral City voters
Bell 16,525
Tennyson 16,040
(incumbent)
http://www.durhamcountync.gov/departments/elec/Elections_Archive.html
The opposition must generate a very strong turnout in order to have any chance.
With the advent of one-stop early voting which is now open, getting people to the
polls NOW would be a good strategy. A stealth approach. They have two weeks
to rake the ballots in.
I think Nifong fully expected one of the boys to plea bargain and incriminate the others. He figured there would be so much pressure on them that one would crack- even if no crime occurred. Sending the DPD into Duke dorms, the suspicious email, arresting Mustafa, the line-ups, the TV interviews, etc, all were designed to intimidate the boys into plea bargaining. He must have been certain it would be easy! Contrary to his opinion in the beginning, I believe that Nifong now realizes that he put the power of his office behind a sham. He is in way too deep, now, though. His only slim hope lies with a persuadable jury. A conviction, even if overturned would be salvation.
"He is in way too deep, now, though. His only slim hope lies with a persuadable jury. A conviction, even if overturned would be salvation."
A media spectacle of a show trial is all these people
care about. Should it occur, it will turn out to be
quite a comedy.
Where is any evidence of a rape?
I see nothing, only speculation after speculation.
You are AWESOME! Thank you! (where did you find it?)
Some kind person here gave it to me months ago. I keep Duke links in a folder on my desktop.
I think it went like this:
1. The case falls in Nifong lap as he is about to be defeated. He see an instant political leg up in the primary. He also believe the case because he has Mangum claiming she was raped, DNA, and might well expect to be able to get a defendant to deal. [He might at this point figure Mangum was raped, but knows she can not ID anyone. He feels he is safe as he has that DNA.]
2. Then the DNA comes back not matching any of the lacrosse players. [It is at this point I believe Nifong became a criminal.] He knows Mangum has lied to him about recent sex and unless he is just clueless, he finds out about what she does for a living. His case has fallen apart yet he will lose the primary IF he does not come up with indictments in it. So he forces a false ID. He goes to the grand jury and gets his indictments because he is already building a defense against the coming legal actions against him.
3. He wins the primary just bare with just enough votes to win a not have a run off.
4. He has hung himself out to dry. He has a great opportunity to drop the charges before the Cheek or any other petition drive gets any momentum. But he knows he is a criminal. He is afraid of these powerful families and thus does not dare drop the charges. This was really Nifong's missed opportunity. Had he taken it he would have avoid 60 Minutes and lots of other bad publicity coming his way.
5. Once Cheek got on the ballot, Nifong was locked in until at least election day. No way he drops these charges until after election day.
That leave the great imponderable in the mess. Why did Nifong except the designation of the case as exceptional and allow it to go to a judge who he has less influence on? What did Nifong get or what was he afraid of that made him accept this change?
Good news. Thanks to KC Johnson I now know that Alleva will have NOTHING to do with the decision of re-admitting Collin and Reade to Duke and whether they can rejoin the lax team.
KC e-mailed John Burness and he said if CF and RS are acquitted and want to return the policy is that they'll be re-admitted. And it's Coach Danowski's decision whether they can be on the team and Alleva has nothing to do with it.
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