Posted on 04/16/2007 9:08:44 PM PDT by jazusamo
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Just before the Attorney General of North Carolina appeared on television to announce his decision on the Duke University "rape" case, one of the many expert TV legal commentators said that Attorney General Roy Cooper would probably use the words "insufficient evidence" but not the word "innocent" in dismissing the case.
As it turned out, the Attorney General did use the word "innocent," saying that he and his staff considered the accused students innocent. It was the only decent thing to do.
Anything less would have let the ugly accusation follow them for life and, years from now, when all the details of this sordid story have long since been forgotten, hang over their heads with a suspicion that they got off on some legal technicality.
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, there was a lynch mob atmosphere against the accused students -- from the Duke University campus to the national media, and including the local NAACP and the ever-present Jesse Jackson.
These were affluent white male students and a poor black woman accusing them of rape. For those steeped in the new sacred trinity of "race, class, and gender," what more did you need to know, in order to know which side to come out on?
Duke University suspended the students when charges were filed, cancelled the entire remaining schedule of the lacrosse team for which they played, and got rid of the coach. Former Princeton University president William Bowen -- a critic of college athletics -- and the head of the local NAACP were called in to issue a report, which complained that Duke had not acted fast enough.
Meanwhile, 88 members of the Duke faculty took out an ad in the campus newspaper denouncing racism. Among other things, the ad said, "what is apparent everyday now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism."
As for the demonstrations and threats loudly voiced by some local blacks, in the wake of the accusations against the Duke lacrosse students, the ad said:
"We're turning up the volume in a moment when the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down while we wait. To the students speaking individually and to the protesters making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourself heard."
This year, after all the charges have collapsed like a house of cards, the campus lynch mob -- including Duke University president Richard H. Brodhead -- are backpedalling swiftly and washing their hands like Pontius Pilate.
They deny ever saying that the students were guilty. Of course not. They merely acted as if that was a foregone conclusion, while leaving themselves an escape hatch.
It is bad enough to be part of a lynch mob. It is worse to deny that you are part of a lynch mob, while standing there holding the rope in your hands.
What is even more important than clearing the names of the three young men charged with a heinous crime is making sure that the man responsible for this travesty of justice -- District Attorney Michael Nifong -- pays the fullest price for what he did.
The state bar association investigating Nifong needs to understand that this case is much bigger than Nifong.
If prosecutors can drag people through the mud and keep felony charges hanging over their heads, long after all the evidence says the opposite of what they were charged with, then any of us, anywhere, can be put through a living hell whenever it suits the whim or the political agenda of a district attorney.
Much was made of the fact that these Duke students came from affluent families. Lucky for them -- and for all of us. Not everyone has an extra million dollars lying around to fight off false accusations. Their fight is our fight.
This case will send a message, one way or another, to prosecutors across the length and breadth of this country. Either you can get away with dragging people through hell without a speck of evidence -- and in defiance of other evidence -- or you can't.
This case has already sent a message about the kinds of gutless lemmings on our academic campuses, including our most prestigious institutions.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
GroupThink = Premature Rush to Judgement
The very definition of the libs most hated word: Prejudice
Ironic isn’t it?
You know, that thought never crossed my mind but you may have something there.
I’ll never root for Duke to win another basketball game.
I’m just going with my gut feeling, but IMO it rings true. Nifong seems to have been utterly corrupted by his power. His actions have been characterized by the hubris of someone who never even considered that there might be consequences. Faced with his life being destroyed...well, I very much doubt he can take what he dished out.
As always, Dr. Sowell remains the Great. He is such a refreshing pleasure to read.
“Call me an optimist, but I think Nifong will choose Retirement Option Number Three Fifty-Seven rather than face the music. He strikes me as a classic bully.”
He is very arrogant. Before any of this happened, I had the misfortune of sitting at his table at a prayer breakfast in Greensboro.
I always measure a person on how he treats people who are there to serve them. He treated the wait staff terribly. He sent his plate back twice because he claimed that his eggs were not cooked correctly. This at a $ 3.00 breakfast. I got the distinct impression that he was trying to let everyone at our table know how “ important” he was.
I will always remember this because another man at the table told him to lighten up and I was ashamed that I hadn’t said anything.
An EXCELLENT phrase!
It is sure a good thing you restrained from saying... "Nappy"!
We have been witnessing this savage, agenda-driven prosecutorial misconduct for years now, in cases of all types, and it is only getting worse. Very frightening.
I hope that same power could be turned against him and against all of those individuals and groups you mentioned by a creative prosecutor who would, in court, remind all of those people of their words and actions, their speeches, their marches and their cowardess now revealed in their silence. We had the lynching, now it's time for justice.
You would have ended up in prison for a long time.
Carolyn
I wonder when Al and Je$$e are going to demand that she apologize?
review
—The Duke LaCrosse team is guilty.—
—The Haditha Marines are guilty.—
—Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean are guilty.—
**The innocent are Mike Nifong, the jihadists firing from behind human shields, and the drug smuggler Davila-Aldrete.**
~~It’s the definition of insanity, Phil.~~
~~The TRUTH is 180 degrees off from reality~~
To change it all back will take courage - enough to defy the dimocRATS, and just do it with Executive Orders!
Damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead (I wish)! ........... FRegards
“It is sure a good thing you restrained from saying... “Nappy”!”
We can only imagine the uproar in the liberal communities if Imus had called her a Nappy Headed Lying Ho after the Duke LAX players were called innocent by the state Attorney General.
“I hope that same power could be turned against him and against all of those individuals and groups you mentioned by a creative prosecutor who would, in court, remind all of those people of their words and actions, their speeches, their marches and their cowardess now revealed in their silence. We had the lynching, now it’s time for justice.”
Thanks to the internet, sites like Free Republic and conservative talk radio, Liefong and the other left liberal wanna be lynchers will have a very tough time in the next few months. It is time for justice against the race baiting wanna be lynchers of the left.
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.