They don't use ropes anymore. Too messy. Now-a-days it's done with malicious prosecution. This time they picked a different minority: rich, white kids.
By now everyone but the hopelessly clueless (that includes 2,000 people in comas and the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.) knows the story. On March 14, 2006 the Duke University lacrosse team held a party in the rented home of several of the players. Two local women were hired to "entertain". (For the first few months of this story the women were referred to as students. Lately they are being called strippers.) The stories as to what happened vary slightly but the end result was charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault filed against three students: Reade Siligmann, Colin Finnerty and David Evans. All three were at the party at some point and all are lacrosse players. It is becoming increasing clear that being at the party and being lacrosse players were the only "crimes" committed.
The woman who made the accusation has changed her story more often than George Bush explaining WMDs. Her companion can't back up a single piece of the victim's version of events beyond the fact that both women were drinking before they arrived.
Some things are clear. The accuser was blind drunk. She had had sex with someone earlier that day but no DNA evidence exists to support any rape charge. One of the accused Duke students can prove that he wasn't anyone near the party when the attack supposedly occurred. A photo array was shown to the "victim" and she identified our heroes. Unfortunately, all of the people in the photos were at the party at some time. That's like being asked to identify a priest and being shown pictures of six men in Roman collars. This mess doesn't even rise to the level of, "he said, she said".
But wait! A few additional facts need to be mentioned. The Duke lacrosse players are white. The student/strippers are black. The population of Durham County is 40% black. The population of the city of Durham is 44% black.
Enter Mike Nifong, District Attorney for Durham County. Nifong is a career prosecutor who was appointed to the job of DA when his predecessor was appointed to the bench. His first election challenge was on May 2 when he faced serious primary opposition from two other Democrats. Mr Nifong reasoned that the good people of his county would hold it against him on election day if he went soft on these rich , out-of-state white kids. Having counted noses prior to the election he determined that many more of the noses were black than white.
Nifong was getting a lot of heat. Rev. Jesse Jackson offered to pay for the educations of the girls involved from the coffers of the Rainbow Coalition. (The Rev. Jackson has considerable experience paying for "scholarships" from Coalition funds, mostly to his illegitimate offspring and their mothers.)
Nifong won the primary (in Durham that's tantamount to winning the general election). Our DA now has the sticky problem of explaining to the courts, the public and some very expensive legal talent representing the boys, what evidence prompted him to file charges in the first place. Even a video of the party failed to reveal any evidence of a crime...beyond a truly bad choice of entertainment options.
The three lads from Duke have actually managed to spin themselves into victims; no mean feat for white kids accused of sexually assaulting two black "students". In a piece on "60 minutes" the camera loved them. They came across as earnest, credible and most importantly innocent. The accuser, as yet unidentified, has made enough conflicting statements to earn herself the Twanda Brawley Award.(By the way, Rev. Al Sharpton, famous for his cartoonish defense of Ms. Brawley in 1987, is sitting this one out.)
Well, if DA Nifong thought the pressure was intense when this mess got started he must be squeezed into a diamond by now. The heat is being applied by everyone in North Carolina that owns a law degree and a phone. The North Carolina Bar has filed ethics charges against Mr. Nifong. The US Attorney General is considering examining how the way the case has been handled to determine if anyone's civil rights were violated. The Justice Dept. is recommending that all complainants, defendants and witnesses be Renditioned to Guantanamo for questioning. (Considering Mr. Gonzales' civil rights record, the Duke boys would be better off with help from Rev. Sharpton.)
Anyway the rape charges have been dropped and the rest of the case is falling apart as we speak. Mr. Nifong has made so many bad decisions that he appears to have no way to extricate himself. But hey, I know a guy who owns a ranch in Crawford, Tx with whom he can commiserate. Perhaps they can collaborate on a book called, "Administering the Public Trust For Dummies...by Dummies".
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