Posted on 06/18/2007 9:05:57 PM PDT by jazusamo
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The disbarment of Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong should be just the first step in remedying the gross and cynical fraud of last year's "rape" case against Duke University lacrosse players.
Not only is Nifong still liable to civil lawsuits from the three young men whose lives he tried to ruin, and criminal prosecution for his obstruction of justice and making false statements to a judge, there are many other people who disgraced themselves in hyping a lynch mob atmosphere when this case first broke last year.
The New York Times, which splashed these Duke students' pictures on the front page, along with inflammatory charges against them, and went ballistic on its editorial page, carried the story of Nifong's disbarment for prosecuting them on page 16.
The 88 Duke University faculty members who took out a hysterical ad, supporting those local loudmouths who were denouncing and threatening the Duke students, have apparently had nothing at all to say now.
Not only did many Duke University professors join the lynch mob atmosphere, so did the Duke University administration, which got rid of the lacrosse coach and cancelled the team's season, without a speck of evidence that anybody was guilty of anything.
This is one of the few times when Jesse Jackson is speechless, even though he was loudly supporting the bogus "rape" charges last year.
A local civil rights activist even had the gall to accost the mother of one of the accused students at Nifong's disbarment hearings to say that she still believes they were guilty.
The sad and tragic fact is that the civil rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against.
Although the committee that disbarred Michael Nifong said many things that needed to be said, they muddied the waters by saying that Nifong may have deceived himself before he deceived others.
Nothing that District Attorney Nifong did suggests that he ever thought these players were guilty or that he ever intended to bring them to trial.
The photo lineup presented to the stripper was so completely different from standard procedure that it was virtually an invitation for a judge to throw out any identification resulting from it -- and without that identification, there was no case.
This was not about winning a case. It was about winning an election.
Nifong could not allow a standard lineup to be used to have the accuser identify her alleged attackers, or else her unreliability would have been exposed early on, depriving him of a case to use to get the black vote in his election.
There is not the slightest reason to believe that Nifong was deceived or mistaken. He was not some kid fresh out of law school. He had decades of experience as a prosecutor. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Nor was the New York Times a naive ingenue in these matters. It had backed Al Sharpton's fraudulent accusations of rape in the Tawana Brawley case, which had the same politically correct elements of a black woman accusing white men of rape.
Nor were the 88 Duke faculty members who promoted a lynch mob atmosphere naive. Most were from departments promoting the "race, class, and gender" vision of victimhood.
This case served their purposes. That trumped any question about whether the charges were true or not.
Don't expect any of these people to recant or apologize. But be aware of how wide and how deep the moral dry rot goes.
That such people are teaching students at an elite university is a chilling thought. That they promote a campus atmosphere where political correctness trumps the search for truth is painful.
That such attitudes and such atmospheres are not peculiar to Duke University, but are common on elite college campuses from coast to coast is a time bomb with the potential to destroy individuals and ultimately undermine the whole society.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
I will GLADLY kick in $50.00 for this! Please keep me informed as to particulars.
Where would I send the check? I’m good for 50.
I’m in for $25.
Freepmail to you.
placemark
If you are still planning on this, I am in for $50
Dear Professor. Your name appears on a published statement attacking the Duke lacrosse athletes falsely accused of misconduct.
Now that the players have been proved innocent, I am wondering if you and your colleagues will soon apologize for the public humiliation that your name caused them?
It would seem that university professors should be the first to apply critical analysis to problem solving and look for firm evidence before attacking the innocent. Your students and their families suffered because of your actions. You owe it them to redress your mistake.
stanley.abe@duke.edu
srinivas@duke.edu
sarah.beckwith@duke.edu
Paul.Berliner@duke.edu
Tolly.Boatwright@duke.edu
Silva@duke.edu
Jack.Bookman@duke.edu
Matt.Brim@duke.edu
Bill.Chafe@duke.edu
Leo.Ching@duke.edu
Clark@duke.edu
Rom.Coles@duke.edu
Michaeline.Crichlow@duke.edu
Kim.Curtis@duke.edu
Roberto.Dainotto@duke.edu
Leslie.Damasceno@duke.edu
Ariel.Dorfman@duke.edu
Laura.Edwards@duke.edu
Grant.Farred@duke.edu
Jeffrey.Forbes@duke.edu
Mary.Fulkerson@duke.edu
Erin.Gayton@duke.edu
Jehanne.Gheith@duke.edu
Margaret.Greer@duke.edu
Michael.Hardt@duke.edu
Erik.Harms@duke.edu
Joe.Harris@duke.edu
Kerry.Haynie@duke.edu
Karla.Holloway@duke.edu
Bayo.Holsey@duke.edu
Mary.Hovsepian@duke.edu
Sherman.James@duke.edu
Alice.Kaplan@duke.edu
Keval.Khalsa@duke.edu
Ranjana.Khanna@duke.edu
Fred.Klaits@duke.edu
Claudia.Koonz@duke.edu
Robert.Korstad@duke.edu
Pedro.Lasch@duke.edu
Caroline.Light@duke.edu
Marcy.Litle@duke.edu
Ralph.Litzinger@duke.edu
Michele.Longino@duke.edu
Wahneema.Lubiano@duke.edu
Anne-Maria.Makhulu@duke.edu
Tamera.Marko@duke.edu
Paula.McClain@duke.edu
Louise.Meintjes@duke.edu
Sean.Metzger@duke.edu
Walter.Mignolo@duke.edu
Alberto.Moreiras@duke.edu
Cary.Moskovitz@duke.edu
Mark.Neal@duke.edu
David.Need@duke.edu
Diane.Nelson@duke.edu
Jocelyn.Olcott@duke.edu
Charles.Payne@duke.edu
Charlie.Piot@duke.edu
Ronen.Plesser@duke.edu
Quilligan@duke.edu
Jan.Radway@duke.edu
Tom.Rankin@duke.edu
Marcia.Rego@duke.edu
William.Reichert@duke.edu
Deb.Reisinger@duke.edu
Alex.Rosenberg@duke.edu
Marc.Schachter@duke.edu
Stephanie.Sieburth@duke.edu
Laurie.Shannon@duke.edu
Pete.Sigal@duke.edu
Irene.Silverblatt@duke.edu
Joshua.Socolar@duke.edu
Kristin.Solli@duke.edu
Helen.Solterer@duke.edu
Somerset@duke.edu
Roxanne.Springer@duke.edu
Rebecca.Stein@duke.edu
Kenneth.Surin@duke.edu
Susan.Thorne@duke.edu
John.Transue@duke.edu
Maurice.Wallace@duke.edu
Priscilla.Wald@duke.edu
Kathryn.Whetten@duke.edu
Robyn.Wiegman@duke.edu
David.Wong@duke.edu
Tomiko.Yoda@duke.edu
ping
I’m in for $25.
Indeed, this man is a national treasure.
Sowell has written some great columns over the years, but this is one of his best.
Pray for America. Pray for conservative leaders to rise up in our schools, our government, and our media to set us back on the right path. Without divine intervention, I don’t see how this situation can be reversed. We are too far gone.
I agree that this is one of Dr. Sowell’s best columns. I love reading the pieces he writes about the eltists in academia.
If I indicted you via “guilt by association” then I too would never get hired with my Berkeley degree.
In my own name, I absolve you.
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