Duke Lacrosse Case Charges to Be Dropped

I'm new to the internet (I'm sure that's it).. and can't find the Youtube video of Jesse Jackson yappin about how that no decent society would put these three boys through something like this and how someone owes them about $500 million each for what they've gone through. Can someone help me find that video?


or to put it another way....

If a white woman had accused 3 black college guys of this crime and had the same amount of guilty until proven innocent going on, you bet your bottom dollar (and the whole farm if you want a big payoff) that Jesse Jackson would be down there right now with his lips flappin about the injustice that's been done to these fine young men.

Jesse Jackson is the ultimate racist.

 

But why did the 88 feel they needed to say anything at all? If my employer was involved (even peripherally) in a highly publicized, criminal legal proceeding I would think they shouldn't say anything other than "No Comment" This letter had a purpose, and that purpose was to make a political statement. The guilt or innocence of the accused seemed an afterthought at best.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Apr 12 2007, 01:44 PM) [snapback]422127[/snapback]</div>

Innocent until proven guilty, that is the american criminal justice system. It seems as though the high and mighty members of academia at Duke were looking to make a political statement reaffirming everything they believe and preach to the members of the student body, and society in general. This statement was a politically correct commentary on these three young men.

Can you imagine a statement like this if the accused would have been three black students who were not athletes? Never.

Maybe next time they want to make a political statement they will know the facts before they rush to pat themselves on the back.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(malorn @ Apr 12 2007, 05:33 PM) [snapback]422214[/snapback]</div>

[sigh] The continual oppression of White folks is just sickening, isn't it?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Apr 12 2007, 06:54 PM) [snapback]422266[/snapback]</div>

The double standard is what's sickening. I guess Jesse and Al are too busy dancing on the Imus grave to go down and eat crow at Duke.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Apr 12 2007, 06:54 PM) [snapback]422266[/snapback]</div>

I guess oppression and injustice is ok as long as the victims are white in your book. Why are you not outraged by all forms of injustice and oppression?

 

It is insufficient merely to say, "The charges have been dropped."

In this case, the state attorney general actually declared the men innocent.

There is a HUGE difference between those two concepts. Usually, law enforcement will back out saying, "there isn't enough evidence to convict"--leaving open, or even stating, their belief that the accused is, in fact, guilty.

This allows law enforcement to save face and look like they did no wrong.

It is virtually unknown for law enforcement at any level actually to declare a finding of actual innocence like this. At the very least, such a declaration makes law enforcement look like idiots. Even worse, it opens the doors for all sorts of lawsuits, monetary damages, and maybe worse for all involved.

That this is a finding of actual innocence should be shouted from the rooftops and burned into everyone's brain. The stigma immediately transferred away from the accused and over to the law enforcement individuals who perpetrated this injustice.

The stigma also transfers to the members of the Duke faculty who jumped on the law enforcement bandwagon. Frankly, all of Duke university needs to be cleaned out and started fresh because of this.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cc9150 @ Apr 13 2007, 12:03 PM) [snapback]422682[/snapback]</div>

yeah, that sounds just a little bit excessive. plenty of the faculty here were reasonable and did not jump to conclusions like the ones in the news. we all know the story of a few rotten apples but not all of the faculty are like that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 13 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]422709[/snapback]</div>

I agree. Jumping to conclusions about all the faculty at Duke is just as bad as the way some people jumped to conclusions about the original rape accusations.

 

Those that were silent were just as guilty as those who signed the petition against the accused.

Where was the opposite faculty, those outraged at the faculty who signed the petition? Those people didn't exist.

Remain silent, and be just as guilty as those you implicitly support. This was an important issue, and those 88 faculty members should have been called on the carpet by a decent number of their colleagues the moment their petition became public.

 

uhhh, they didn't make the national news but that doesn't mean they didn't exist. sure, there wasn't a reply letter until the students had been reinstated at the university. and that letter took a lot of flak as well.

both sides stand quite strong... we had a faculty member resign over the students coming back, and we have the other side welcoming them back into their classes.

did you want the university to stop all its endeavors and fall into a pit of faculty and admins just arguing amongst themselves? come on. we had a lot of internal dialogue here that wasn't all published or broadcast on the news.

there is room for criticism, certainly. and plenty of it. but there is also room for positive comments. isn't that the truth of any response to a crisis? nobody does it perfectly.

from this perspective, there was support for the students from many faculty as well as unneeded judgment. i believe that reflects society as a whole. we had the take-action-now people banging pots and pans in front of their house after the news reported that the students were being uncooperative (which, funny enough, they were cooperating just fine and thanks to nifong word got out that they were stonewalling the cops) and we had the people decrying the pot-bangers, saying we should reserve judgment until we find the facts.

while you would expect academics to lean more toward the latter side of the spectrum, we are all people after all, and we all do stupid things. does that mean we should fire all the world-class faculty that help to make duke the leading university it is to "clean out" the university? no. it means more dialogue should be encouraged, it means we have a ways to go yet in our roles as human beings. it means no, we are not perfect and there is always room for improvement. and it's a catalyst for change.

no matter how painful, we do need reminders that we need to be constantly changing for the better.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 13 2007, 01:47 PM) [snapback]422857[/snapback]</div>

One wonders, with 88 professors willing to publicly sign their name to a document that the average person could have told them wasn't such a good idea, just how "leading" Duke can be....

I agree you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water, but what, exactly, do you think they were they trying to accomplish?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Apr 13 2007, 03:24 PM) [snapback]422932[/snapback]</div>

Wow, thats a heck of a lot of assumptions about a decently large group of people...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Apr 13 2007, 04:24 PM) [snapback]422932[/snapback]</div>

You left out that they want Iran to have nuclear weapons. <_<

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 13 2007, 10:40 AM) [snapback]422581[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(malorn @ Apr 13 2007, 11:34 AM) [snapback]422648[/snapback]</div>

The Duke case is a travesty. Nifong abused his office for apparently political reasons, and he is facing disbarment. If there is evidence that he withheld evidence, which there seems to be, he should also be subject to criminal prosecution. And he will most likely face civil suits as well.

Duke should bend over backwards to make up for the injustice toward the three students. As far as firing the entire Duke faculty, or bulldozing Duke and replacing it with a shopping mall; well maybe those are extreme remedies. I don't know what is a proper response to the 88 professors who signed that petition, keeping in mind that Nifong had for all intent already convicted the three students in the press, but perhaps forever having this serious lapse of judgment attached to their academic reputations is sufficient.

But all this outrage about how these students were persecuted because they are white- do people really have this view of America that whites are the primary victim of injustice?
I read an editorial about the Duke case- one that was less hysterical than many of them, which ended with:

Do all the angry white guys who are so incensed over the Duke case and Imus getting fired really believe that they are the oppressed class in America? Here's an article about a black man who served 18 years in prison for a rape that he did not commit. It is only one of a number of these cases that has been brought to light by The Innocence Project. There are many people in this country who are ill-served by our system of justice; who are wrongly convicted and serve time in prison. Who knows how many innocent people have died in prison, or have been wrongly executed. Not too many of them are rich, white guys.

Now don't get me wrong- I really do feel for these three young men whose lives have been dragged through the mud because of the political ambitions of a rogue prosecutor. But I also feel for the numerous victims of injustice who can't afford expensive attorneys to get justice for them, and who rot in prison because their stories aren't as sensational as the Duke case, and, frankly, a lot of people don't give a damn about because they aren't part of our race or class. To those who demand justice for the Duke students but are indifferent to the plight of these people, I say- Why are you not outraged by all forms of injustice and oppression?

 

The proper response for those 88 faculty members is to give them what they want to give their students: political re-education.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Of course, I'm talking about relatively simple things--like forcing them to read, learn, and take a test on the Constitution of the United States of America. Things like that.

However long it takes for them to get the idea, that's how long their political re-education should take.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Apr 11 2007, 01:38 PM) [snapback]421617[/snapback]</div>

I certanly don't understand this or your agreement. Why should this girl get off scott free? She has caused enormous damage and should be punished IMO.

Wildkow

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(05_SilverPri @ Apr 13 2007, 04:01 PM) [snapback]422918[/snapback]</div>

and harvard's president made disparaging comments about why there are fewer women than men in academia. i suppose that drops harvard off the list of influential and leading american universities too. but that wasn't major headlines so maybe not?

no matter where you go, there is a weakest link in each chain.

one can only take the word of the people involved, who claim that the letter was being drafted long before the lacrosse incident happened. i personally don't believe that story. they claim their intent was to push for social change on campus, for race and gender issues. again, don't see it. so whatever their motive, they are now too ashamed to admit it, which says quite a bit.

i will not stand up for them because i don't agree with them. but they are not representative of the whole university, and that's the point i'm trying to get across.