Now what about those Duke professors

Townhall.com ^ | June 18, 2007 | Dinesh D'Souza

[Kaslin]

We know about Mike Nifong, and it looks like he's going to get his comeuppance. Yet the question remains: Why would a seasoned prosecutor like Nifong flout the rules in so many ways in the Duke case? Why would he publicly describe the Duke lacrosse players as "rapists" before that had been established in a court of law? Why would he suppress DNA evidence that the defense was entitled to see? Why, in short, did he go so far before the facts were in?

One of Nifong's public comments provides a clue. He says he wanted to protect the town of Durham from the reputation of being a place featuring "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl." From this we see that Nifong suffers from delusions of grandeur. He sees himself as the Custodian of Durham's Reputation. He views his job as the White Protector of the Black Race. If he simply saw himself as a prosecutor doing his job in a difficult situation--with competing claims and counterclaims--he wouldn't have made such an ass of himself.

Nifong seems to be suffering from Recovering Southerner Syndrome. This is the ailment, first named on this blog, in which Southerners feel so guilty about slavery and segregation that they perform undignified backward somersaults to prove that they are "not really Southern." When they encounter something Southern--like white Southern frat boys at a party--their mind immediately conjures up images of segregated water fountains and they draw their swords and go into Crusader Against Racism mode. Viewed in this way, Nifong saw himself as a kind of white knight slaying the dragons of Southern bigotry. Nifong was not alone in this: dozens of Duke professors reacted to the incident in exactly the same way.

The only problem was that the facts didn't bear them out. The Duke players apparently weren't planning a rape or a lynching; they were merely misbehaving in the manner of "boys gone wild." That’s not how gentlemen are supposed to behave, but it isn’t discriminatory and it isn’t illegal. So the presumption of white bigotry was entirely wrong in this case. The world is different now and the old civil rights models don't necessarily apply. I suspect that MIke Nifong is not the only fellow who is going to learn this lesson the hard way.

So Nifong is going to resign, and maybe get his license taken away too. Now what about the mau-mau artists at Duke, influential figures on the faculty, who whipped the campus up into a racial hysteria? What happens to the people who helped to create a mob mentality against students, rendering their lives miserable for more than a year, when their guilt was never established, never even probable, and now they have been shown to be innocent?

From the time the first reports of sexual assault at Duke University surfaced, these intellectual vigilantes went to work. Houston Baker, a professor of English and Afro-American Studies, issued a public letter condemning the "abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence and drunken white male privilege loosed among us." He seems to have simply presumed the students guilty.

Shortly after that, 88 members of the Duke arts and science faculty--the so-called Gang of 88--signed a public statement praising campus demonstrators who had distributed a "WANTED" poster that branded the lacrosse players as "rapists." The Gang of 88 didn't use that term, but its statement referred to "what happened to this young woman." Ignoring calls to wait for the evidence, the gang instead went into full social-justice gear.

"What is apparent every day now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism, who see illuminated in this moment's extraordinary spotlight what they live with every day...We're turning up the volume in a moment when some of 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 yourselves heard." In other words, Go vigilantes go!

Now it is time to hold these folks accountable. I know it’s too much to expect that these politically correct vigilantes have their teaching licenses taken away. But perhaps it’s not too much to ask that they be officially reprimanded by the university.

[brwnsuga]

what happened to this young woman

The young woman was a ho with 4, count ‘em, 4 different male DNA in her or on her, none of it from the Duke lacrosse team. The young men should sue Nifong, the ho, the gang of 88 and Duke itself for perpetuating this lie.

[caver]

Yes, this will get interesting. It is going the cost Duke in more than just payouts. Their reputation goes with it.

[LIConFem]

They’re cowards, plain and simple. And vicious cowards, at that.

[Daveinyork]

Didn’t Martha Stewart go to prison for what this exotic dancer just did? Isn’t Scooter Libby facing the same fate?

[Brytani]

“But the Durham PD and the States Attorney General still have the DNA profiles. It would be very illuminating to find out who these men are. Did they rape Mangum? Did they pay her for sex? Or did they help her to stage the incident so she could eventually sue?”

You may want to educate yourself by reading the DA’s final report on the alleged rape allegations, available on smoking gun. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0427071duke1.html

The DNA found on her has been identified as her then current boyfriend. Other DNA was not identified by name on the report but it’s obvious they were able to make some matches. All of the DNA found was well over 3 days old, making her claim of rape that night, or even the night, before a joke.

AS to the question was she raped, this is the second time she’s made the charge of “gang rape”. Over the years she’s made other accusations against people, all turned out to be false.

The newe DA determined that her ever changing stories, her ability to forget then remember people who were not and could not have been at the party, along with her prior history of false charges and varying statements to various peopleclearly shows the only rape that took place was possibly a cobweb in her brain that moved.

An interesting tid-bit, she did not mention an assault, even when asked, until she was placed under arrest for being intoxicated in public and taken to the hospital. Even then, she talked to various people, including law enforcement and hospital personel and said nothing.

It was not until the SANE Nurse; the one who testified against Nifong at his trial, asked her if she had been raped did she begin to make up a story. Even at the time, this same SANE Nurse indicated that her stories were inconsistent even for someone claiming to be raped. In fact, she testified at the trial that she had indicated to Nifong at the beginning of the investigation that Mangum’s story was not credible as she changed her story more then once that evening.

[sirchtruth]

They created a hostile environment against innocent people.

Alright, that's the second legitimate reason I've seen for a civil suit, although they still did not directly accuse them of anything, it was only implied by the ad.

[sgtbono2002]

I don’t believe for one minute that Nifong suffers from any white guilt syndrome.

He is a typical Democrat, He knew what the blacks wanted and he went out to get their vote. Just as Hillary and Obama and any other Democrat politician does.

The race card is easily played and always dealt to the Democrats. The blacks keep falling for it since they hate the white man and will believe anything if it has to do with getting a white man hanged.

The college professors are a different story, They aren’t politicians , they are intellectual elite, They feel they are too smart to be racist,so they go against their own race to prove it.

[rickdylan]

The biggest villain in a whole cast of villains in this picture is still the ordinary little black loser who participated in that 95% black vote which returned Fong to office last november, after the basic reality of this story was well known to the entire world. THAT was inexcusable.

As I see it, aside from major housecleaning, Duke has to move. No parent and particularly no white parent in his right mind would send a kid to school in or even near such a place.

[Pontiac]

One of Nifong's public comments provides a clue. He says he wanted to protect the town of Durham from the reputation of being a place featuring "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl." From this we see that Nifong suffers from delusions of grandeur. He sees himself as the Custodian of Durham's Reputation. He views his job as the White Protector of the Black Race.

The author gives Nifong way to much credit. His motives were in no way so noble as the author describes.

Nifong was simply a ambitious politician in a tight election pandering for the perennial African-American victim and ultra-Left vote.

[rockabyebaby]

What about the twit that started this whole thing, WHY is she still not in jail for making FALSE accusations,,,imo, there is waaaaaaaaaaay too much of this going on and the women NEVER get prosecuted or even get a slap on the hand for costing men so much.......

[rockabyebaby]

The gang of 88 needs to go to “rehab”.........

[geezerwheezer]

The really sad fact is the boys will sue and win big bucks, and will own Durham, North Carolina. Problem is, Durham isn’t worth anyting at all, and if God had to give the world an enema, I think He would insert it in Durham. That town sucks big time, and so do most who live there. It is a bastion of ignorance and anti-white prejudice, and has been for quite a while.

[Brytani]

She believes she was raped, that’s enough for the DA...

“This afternoon, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that he was dropping all charges against the men, saying that there was “no credible evidence” against the “innocent” trio. Cooper said that, in fact, evidence gathered by investigators contradicted the accuser’s claim, adding that the woman herself has “told many stories” that were themselves contradictory. Asked if she had lied about the attack, Cooper said that investigators think that she “may actually believe” the many different stories she has told. As for charging Mangum in connection with her claims, Cooper said it was “not in the best interest of justice” to file charges against her. “

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0411071duke1.html

[rockabyebaby]

Cooper said it was “not in the best interest of justice” to file charges against her. “

And that my FRiend is what's wrong with the justice system!

[econjack]

This is the ailment, first named on this blog, in which Southerners feel so guilty about slavery and segregation that they perform undignified backward somersaults to prove that they are "not really Southern."

This is wrong on several levels. First, to have such feelings assumes the individual has a social conscience...Nifong doesn't. Nifong did what he did to maintain his job as prosecutor and enhance his visibility in the media. Second, the whole argument that I'm responsible for something someone else did 150 years ago is a real stretch. Carried to its extreme, I should now be beating myself up because Adam has a taste for apples. I find the Recovering Southerner Syndrome to be a foundation excuse used by liberals for some really stupid social behavior.

I think an equally important question that is being overlooked is why the police and Nifong are not going after Crystal for false testimony and perjury. My guess is that she was turning tricks for local officials and perhaps the police and Nifong. I have no proof of this, but it squares with what I see happening.

[PGalt]

Mike Nifong should be revered, much like Reverend Al Sharpton. Mike could get unlimited facetime on DBM outlets or announce for President. Crystal Gail Magnum can live out her life in relative obscurity much like Tawana Brawley, never to be heard from or interviewd again. Work the template, Mike.

/sarcasm

[nathanbedford]

"Facts are stubborn things" said some fellow once. But that is not to say that these professors at Duke who ginned up a vigilante - a racism in reverse - are not interested in facts, they are. You might even be surprised to know that they are interested in innocence and guilt.

The question is, what facts interest them? And what facts prove innocence or guilt to them?

Do You know why they are professors? Because they are so smart. They have figured out how to determine innocence or guilt simply by reference to a few questions of fact, actually a few facts relating to group identity. For example, of what group is the alleged victim? Is the victim of an oppressed group, such as African-American, poor, female? If so, we know that the victim is innocent. Are the alleged perpetrators of an oppressor group? That is, are they white, rich, male? If so, then the facts demonstrate irrerefutably that they are guilty.

But you say, that is preposterous because such facts about group identity do not show actual actions which make up the innocence or guilt. You see, that's why these people are professors and you are not. These professors know that guilt is not about specific actions but about the great, giant, sweep of history which proves with ineluctable Marxist science that some groups are by definition victims and other groups are by definition class criminals. To make a criminal of a victim, or to make an innocent of an oppressor is not to find guilt or innocence but to pitifully succumb to oxymoron.

[LantzALot]

I was going to ask: Now that Nifong has admitted that his prosecution was politically motivated and based on racial prejudice, have the Duke Professors stepped up to admit their own errors?

Silly me!

[Logical me]

The college professors are a different story, They aren’t politicians , they are intellectual elite, They feel they are too smart to be racist,so they go against their own race to prove it.

Does anyone know if all the 88 were white?

[GladesGuru]

“I know it’s too much to expect that these politically correct vigilantes have their teaching licenses taken away. But perhaps it’s not too much to ask that they be officially reprimanded by the university.”

If the resulting litigation costs Duke enough, and enough of the ‘perfesser’ class pay enough in judgements, then Duke might be willing to cleanse its academic stable of communists, Marxists, and other assorted, sordid socialism addicted intellectual whores.

Mucking out the Duke academic stalls isn’t as difficult as Hercules’ task. The question is - will the Duke University Board of Trustees, the President of Duke, and the faculty Senate have the backbone to clean their own university.

Ultimately, the question before tehe Duke ‘community’ is - Got Backbone?