Posted on 03/29/2006 8:04:43 PM PST by Porsche060
DURHAM, N.C. -- The president of Duke University met Wednesday with students who feel his suspension of the lacrosse team during a rape investigation was not enough, urging them to be patient while police look into the matter.
"I don't want to say I'm satisfied, but I will say that what happened in there makes me feel like we're moving in a good direction," sophomore Bridgette Howard said after the roughly hourlong session.
The meeting between President Richard Brodhead and a few dozen students was closed to all media except Duke's student newspaper.
Brodhead suspended the highly ranked team from play until the school learns more about accusations that team members attacked an exotic dancer hired to perform at an off-campus party. The alleged victim, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, has told police she was pulled into a bathroom, beaten, choked and raped by three men at a March 13 party, where she and another dancer were hired to perform.
Police collected DNA samples with a cheek swab from 46 members of the lacrosse team last week; the 47th player, the only black member, wasn't tested because the victim said her attackers were white.
No one has been charged, and the team's captains have said the tests will clear players.
Police said three players who live at the house where the party took place spoke with investigators and voluntarily provided samples March 16. A scheduled meeting between detectives and the rest of the team was later canceled by the players' attorney, and District Attorney Mike Nifong said Wednesday the players still refuse to speak with investigators.
About a third of the members of the team have been previously charged with misdemeanors stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior in the past three years, according to court documents quoted in Tuesday's editions of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Fifteen of the 47 members of the team have been charged with offenses ranging from underage alcohol possession, violating open container laws, loud noise and public urination, according to the News and Observer.
The paper said that most of those charges were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to escape criminal convictions.
News of the attack has sparked days of protest at Duke and in Durham, culminating Tuesday in Brodhead's decision to suspend the team. He stressed the suspension was not a punishment, but a response to the inappropriate nature of playing while the investigation is ongoing.
Those comments led about 100 students to approach Brodhead after Tuesday night's announcement and demand his administration deliver a stronger response.
"We understand that the legal system is that you are innocent until proven guilty," said sophomore Kristin High. "But people are nervous and afraid that these people are going to get away with what they did because of a wealthy privilege, or male privilege, or a white privilege."
Their protests led to Wednesday's meeting inside the campus' black cultural center, where participants said Brodhead urged patience as police continue to investigate.
Graduate student Michelle Christian complained Duke is continuing to downplay the alleged attack.
"They need presidents, they need administrators, they need faculty, to tell them that it was wrong behavior and that they are not going to be coddled because they are athletes, because they come from privileged backgrounds, because they have money," Christian told Durham's WTVD-TV.
Later in the day, sophomore Jeff Shaw wore a Duke lacrosse T-shirt on campus in support of his friends on the team.
"Even if it's true, it's three guys and unfortunately, this is going to be a label the team is going to carry," Shaw said.
At an annual campus rally against sexual violence Wednesday night, about 300 people wearing purple and white ribbons marched across Duke's campus. Protesters handed out flyers to marchers bearing the photos and names of the lacrosse team, and taped them onto garbage cans in front of the student union.
"Rape is not sex. Rape is violence," Geoff Lorenz, 22, a senior from California, told the crowd. "May our sea of purple and white demand a change on this campus."
Also Wednesday, Brodhead apologized for language used by those at the party. A woman calling 911 on the night of the party told police that men outside of the house called out to her and another woman using a racial slur.
"It's disgusting," Brodhead said in a statement. "Racism and its hateful language have no place in this community."
I am very dismayed at the quotes coming out of Duke. Whatever happened with the Lacrosse team it's innocent till proven guilty. The police are doing an investigation and people need to have it finished before making accusations of justice not being served. That is how our system works.
However, two of your students however make RACIST quotes. I am deeply offended. These athletes, it's possible have little money and are on scholarship. Either way, what is wrong with having money? Are you automatically guilty because you have money? Soon they will be graduating Duke and be the hated "rich". I don't envy someone's money and neither should they.
Worst they also made prejudice comments about being male and white. This talk should have been condoned. I believe they need diversity training as it's a TWO WAY STREET.
"They need presidents, they need administrators, they need faculty, to tell them that it was wrong behavior and that they are not going to be coddled because they are athletes, because they come from privileged backgrounds, because they have money," Michelle Christian told Durham's WTVD-TV."
"We understand that the legal system is that you are innocent until proven guilty," said sophomore Kristin High. "But people are nervous and afraid that these people are going to get away with what they did because of a wealthy privilege, or male privilege, or a white privilege."
Also if anyone else if offended http://www.dukechronicle.com/contactus/
When it comes to rape and racism people who are accused are assumed guilty until proven innocent.
Who do these guys think they are, football players?
Yet another reason to hate DOOK
D'Sousa described Duke as one of a number of schools which had once been serious but which in recent years had become little more than a Political Correctness factory.
Where's your proof of that?
The Duke Men's lacrosse roster has been pulled from their website.
Circle the wagons.
Those that continue to refuse to cooperate with investigators should be charged with obstruction and of being an accessory after the fact.
Welcome to the USSA. Just hope some screwed up kid (or a kid with a screwed up therapist) or a kid with a mean Mom in a custody suit, never accuses you of anything. Because, your life is over.
And if it turns out the stripper is lying, we'll be sure to make that a headline story, too.
Um, you have the right against self incrimination I assume? And how many headlines are we gonna get when no one is charged? Or at most, 1/12 of the team?
I see that you have suspended the Fifth Amendment. Any others with which you would like to do away?
Retraction small corner of p.2
At least that is how the NYSlimes does it.
If one is witness to a crime, are they not obligated to make that fact and all other relevant details known?
If there is a witch hunt and no one cares who is charged, are you obligated to provide yourself as a sacrificial lamb?
Why do you characterize the investigation as such?
True, one does have the right to not incriminate oneself, but those who didn't attack or have voluntary sex with the victim/accuser could easily get themselves cleared. Instead, they chose to clam up and protect potentially guilty teammates. It reminds me of the "No snitching" attitude currently popular in many cities now.
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