[More commentary and letters by Duke Engineering Professor Gustafson: credit via FODU site.]
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Dear Mr. Saunders
Gotta love freedom of speech, and the xanga site that allows me to have it. Here's a letter I wrote to News and Observer editorialist Barry Saunders regarding his recent editorial, "He's here to stay, so get used to it":
Mr. Saunders-
Having read your recent editorial in The Durham News section of the News & Observer, I have to say that I'm truly disturbed by the way you decided to use stereotypes of Duke students to further the divide between the overlapping Duke and Durham communities. The mock sendoff speech you attribute to potential Duke parents is simply a shameful way of reinforcing the negative, and largely untrue, stereotypes that the media continues to use in order to gain the favor of the ill-informed. Even the subtle jab at Duke's Northern population, "...Duke parents send their kids off to college *down here*" (emphasis mine, but I suspect also yours) continues the sad history of some Durham residents trying to make Duke "The Other" for their own gain, rather than a part of the Durham community for all of our good. Through your editorial, you have contributed to a strengthening of prejudice rather than using your talents, position, and judgment to effect some positive change.
Beyond that, I would like you to consider, for a moment, that some of the votes cast against Mr. Nifong, or in favor of Mr. Cheek or Mr. Monks, came about as a result of Professor James Coleman's very public statement that he believes Mr. Nifong has engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. I would like for you to consider that none of us in the community would appreciate the kind of treatment Mr. Moezeldin Elmostafa has received at the end of the blunt instrument that has been Mr. Nifong's investigation.
Sincerely,
Michael Gustafson
Posted 11/12/2006 at 10:45 PM
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/546943224/dear-mr-saunders.html
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Outrageous
Outrageous is a word describing something that causes outrage. The following quote from District Attorney Mike Nifong did just that to me this morning (from WRAL):
"The majority have been very friendly. There have been a few people who have not," a cheerful Nifong said later as he greeted voters in the parking lot of Temple Baptist Church. "There was one guy who came by with a lacrosse T-shirt. I didn't talk to him. I might have prejudged him _ I'm not sure."
This is a man who, my colleague James Coleman has said, has practiced prosecutorial misconduct in railroading three Duke students for a rape, kidnapping, and strangulation charges. This is a man who holds the lives of these three men in his hand, as well as twisted this community around his finger so he could become the elected, versus appointed, district attorney. This is a man who knows that death threats were shouted at these men as they were in court. This is a man who hasn't met with the accuser NOR the attorneys for the accused.
AND he has the arrogance to make a JOKE about that - about prejudgment? The chasm into which Mr. Nifong's professionalism continues to sink apparently knows know bounds. I am outraged.
Posted 11/7/2006 at 11:45 AM
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/545406710/outrageous.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/544349155/on-midterms.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/542488544/another-kind-of-silence.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/540973343/will-the-gates-open-wide.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/540231190/on-voting.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/538669180/letter-to-the-editor.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/548808875/ugh.html
[For the record]
No surprise: Judge's study links school dropouts, criminal activity
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Nov 22, 2006 : 10:01 pm ET
DURHAM -- Saddened by a reported high school dropout rate of 43 percent in Durham, District Judge Craig Brown recently took it upon himself to study the correlation between education and criminal activity in the Bull City.
The results didn't surprise him.
According to the informal survey, more than half of the criminal suspects who appeared before Brown during a three-day period this month had dropped out of school between the 8th and 11th grades.
"Surprise, surprise," Brown said in an interview. "That's what I thought my study would show, but I had no data to back it up before. There's a great difference between thinking something and knowing it."
Brown conceded his survey was unscientific. He merely polled 103 criminal defendants to determine their level of education.
The numbers weren't as far apart as the judge had envisioned.
Fifty-four of the respondents turned out to be school dropouts, while 49 got into legal trouble despite graduating from high school. Sixteen in the latter category had attended college, Brown's survey indicated.
The majority of respondents -- 57 of 103 -- were misdemeanor rather than felony suspects.
Only one was charged with anything as high as a Class B felony, the second most serious level of crime on the books in North Carolina. That person had dropped out of high school in the 11th grade.
Class B offenses include first-degree rape and second-degree murder.
The bulk of Brown's felony respondents -- 32 -- fell within the much lower Class H category that takes in crimes like arranging dogfights, domestic abuse and possession of stolen goods.
Brown said he believed gang recruitment had much to do with the local high school dropout rate -- 43 percent -- which is 3 points higher than the state's rate of 40 percent.
"Dropping out of school leads to gang, drug and overall crime problems," the judge added.
"The powers that be need to put their money where their mouth is," he said. "There has been a lot of talk about the gang problem here, but not enough resources have been applied to it."
However, Brown said he was encouraged by an imminent program to vastly expand truancy courts in Durham. The expansion will be made possible by allowing two dozen or more regular lawyers to preside over the special courts in addition to district-level judges, of which Durham has only six, with another on the way in January.
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-791669.html