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."
Reverse the races involved. Change the sport to basketball and back up the date of the alleged offense to the middle of March and see if the administration's action would be the same. Wanna bet?
However, some of the players did admit to underage drinking, so, in actuality, a crime did occur.
I would expect that if a serious crime took place, witnesses would and should reveal all they know. If no serious crime took place and one was present at the time of the alleged incident, by the same token, reveal all they know and not simply clam up.
The DA has said that if he doesn't start getting cooperation, some may be charged with aiding and abetting.
Duke should tell the players (witnesses) to cooperate fully or they will be in danger of losing any scholarships and may be subject to expulsion from the University.......regardless of whether a crime took place or not.
Reverse the races involved (team and the girl). Change the sport to basketball or football, and the school to a mostly black college. And see if the reaction / comments on this thread would mostly be the same? Wanna bet?
You might oughta slow down a bit there, FRiend. So far the evidence that there is any crime for anyone to be an accessory to is pretty thin. And there seems to be a presumption of guilt on the part of some members of the Duke community. If my son was a part of this party, I'd ask him if he was part of any rape or saw any rape. If he said no and no I'd probably advise him to say nothing to anybody and let the police and the D.A. make their case. In a situation like this I'd be worried that some of these guys might get railroaded with major charges over some tiny infraction just so the University and the cops can get the PC nazis off of them.
I suspect that you'd give your son the same advise if the answers were (no and yes) or (yes and yes).
47 players on the roster? And only 12.6 of them are on scholarship? (http://hsbaseballweb.com/scholarships_by_sport.htm)
Or does the 47 entail both men's and women's lacrosse, in which case 24.6 of them are on scholarship?
I was wondering why the men were allowed 12.6 scholarships and the women only 12 (whereas in every other co-ed sport (the football/wrestling tax), the women have more scholarships). However I see (from uslacrosse.org -- I'm not a fan of the sport) that a men's team has 10 players at a time (4, almost 5 strings deep, if the 47 is men only?) and the women's team has 12 (only just over 2 strings deep if it's men's and women's). 2 strings deep makes a lot more sense.
Now why isn't there women's wrestling? I enjoyed GLOW much more than women's hockey.
I should really know better and dispense with the legal lingo that I hear on Law and Order.
lol!
Hmmm....39 on UMass's roster (It was the first school I could find that played lacrosse that posted its roster on the web)...that's still almost 4 strings deep. Those Dukies wouldn't have expanded the roster to 47 just to get a black player on it, would they?
Team Page: 2006 Roster # Pos. Name.......... Yr. Hometown G A P 40 a matt danowski jr farmingdale, ny 12 14 26 25 a zack greer so whitby, ontar 17 7 24 12 a dan flannery sr garden city, ny 11 12 23 10 m matt zash sr massapequa, ny 14 6 20 15 m kyle dowd sr e northport, ny 16 2 18 1 m peter lamade jr chevy chase, md 4 3 7 22 m ned crotty fr new vernon, nj 4 3 7 24 m bret thompson sr chevy chase, md 4 3 7 7 a gibbs fogarty fr chevy chase, md 3 2 5 18 m brad ross so darnestown, md 3 2 5 19 a josh coveleski so dover, del 4 1 5 2 a chris loftus so syosset, ny 2 1 3 5 m kj sauer sr east rockaway, ny 1 2 3 13 a collin finnerty so garden city, ny 2 1 3 11 m fred krom jr summit, nj 2 0 2 20 m steve schoeffel fr charlottesville, va 1 1 2 29 m mike catalino fr webster, ny 1 1 2 3 d chris tkac fr gaithersburg, md 0 1 1 4 g dan loftus jr syosset, ny 0 1 1 14 m john walsh jr bethesda, md 0 1 1 27 m michael young so manhasset, ny 1 0 1 45 m reade seligmann so essex fells, nj 1 0 1 77 d nick o'hara jr orachard park, ny 0 1 1 6 d david evans sr bethesda, md 0 0 0 8 m ed douglas sr baltimore, md 0 0 0 9 m michael ward jr setauket, ny 0 0 0 17 d tom clute fr potomac, md 0 0 0 21 m matt wilson jr durham, nc 0 0 0 23 d erik henkelman sr swathmore, pa 0 0 0 26 m ben koesterer so cazenovia, ny 0 0 0 28 m dan oppedisano jr garden city, nj 0 0 0 30 g rob schroeder so summit, nj 0 0 0 31 m bo carrington so charlottesville, va 0 0 0 32 m sam payton fr cos cob, conn 0 0 0 34 d kevin mayer so great falls, va 0 0 0 36 a adam langley so glenview, il 0 0 0 37 d casey carroll jr baldwin, ny 0 0 0 38 m breck archer jr sea cliff, ny 0 0 0 41 d ryan mcfadyen so mendham, nj 0 0 0 42 d glenn nick sr garden city, ny 0 0 0 43 d william wolcott sr dallas, texas 0 0 0 44 d tony mcdevitt jr philadelphia, pa 0 0 0 46 d kevin coleman sr ridgewood, nj 0 0 0 47 d dan theodoridis fr norwalk, conn 0 0 0 48 m rob wellington so dallas, texas 0 0 0 50 g devon sherwood fr freeport, ny 0 0 0
Len, if you are ever accused, you say nothing, absolutely nothing
"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."
The DA's grandstanding has made this so. The players are following the advice of their attorneys. Why cooperate with a DA that is using you as a sacrificial lamb to get re-elected? The DNA will come back next week. We'll know more then.
An "I told you so" Ping!
Innocent until proven white!
How did the crow taste?
it reminds me of the 1950s when i was a child and the structural racism in the american south.
now, today, it's reversed.
same south, new racism against whites.
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