I wonder what Sacco and Vanzetti would say?
Duke lacrosse players:
I suppose if by American you mean "Durham, North Carolina," and by modern you mean "since 2006," yeah, i guess they might have a point.
. . . one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history. . .
I suppose if by American you mean "Durham, North Carolina," and by modern you mean "since 2006," yeah, i guess they might have a point.
Labels: 27701, Duke lacrosse
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
32 Comments:
The absurd exaggerations uttered by these kids show an utter lack of knowledge about the history of American judicial disasters, a complete lack of a sense of proportion and most of all, yet another outburst of ridiculous privilege.
I think that if they win their case against the city, there should be a mass local tax boycott. Yes, they were wronged, but there is absolutely no moral justification for taking money from a relatively poor city to make some rich kids even richer.
By
Anonymous, at 10:45 AM
Duke University lacrosse: historically oppressed since 2006.
By
Anonymous, at 12:48 PM
Actually, after reading Until Proven Innocent (it really IS chilling, folks), I'm sorry those lacrosse guys aren't suing for more.
By
Anonymous, at 5:58 PM
The facts will be proved in court that the Durham DAs Office with the assistance of Durham PD Senior & investigative Officers attempted to convict three innocent young men for a crime that never happened. They knew it never happen. It may go directly up to the City Manager, Mayor, and a local Judge
Richard D. Emery, a New York-based civil rights attorney representing Seligmann, said the players were "committed to making this case about stopping Durham and any other city from falsely accusing and convicting innocent people."
"This is not about money for the boys, though obviously they deserve compensation," Emery said. "This is about sending a message to public officials who only get the message when they have to pay the money."
What you really should be worrying about is why did this happen?
Be prepared Durham for as much as a 100 million award in a Federal Court and more lawsuits. It's that bad! I urge all citizens to go to City Hall and start complaining why did this happen. It has only been the utter malice with which these players have been treated which has caused this lawsuit. The trouble is that elected officials who could have settle this matter are part of the conspiracy to cover it up.
By
Anonymous, at 8:03 PM
In S&V there were two actual dead bodies and a large amount of missing cash. In other words, an actual demonstrable crime had been committed. Compare that to the Duke lacrosse case where there was NEVER any evidence of a crime. So says the NC AG.
And S&V were anarchists which generally had the goal to destroy the government often by assassination (Leon Czolgosz on line one) and setting off bombs. Talk about your hooligans. But no one was able to demonstrate that they peed inappropriately and bothered the neighbors or they really would have been in trouble.
And you had to go all the way back to 1920 and then call it modern? Try to change the subject all you want, it's not going to help.
BOHICA
Durm get ready for your fully justified spanking. Maybe as you pay your tax bill each year in the future you'll remember to not elect crooks. The other half of the suit is to put corrupt Durm under the supervision of an adult. You should have taken the $30 mil deal when you could have gotten it.
By
Locomotive Breath, at 8:12 PM
What I don't understand is how the neutral Durhamites sat back and did nothing while the names and home addresses of the 40+ lacrosse players were handed out to every psychopath in (or visiting Durham), from the New Black Panther Party to the church fanatics screaming that any evidence in favor of the accused were "Satan's tricks!" How would they like their home addresses, where their families live, made available to those people? Don't complain about the lawsuits now.
By
Anonymous, at 10:24 PM
You're all entirely missing the point: these are incredibly rich kids already. They have nothing to worry about financially, ever.
One of them also went on and on about how much he 'understands injustice now'. As the director of the local ACLU pointed out, if they do understand injustice so well, there are piles of unpaid summer internships working to review wrongful convictions.
So far, none of them have taken him up on the offer, preferring instead to try and grab money from a city whose residents have suffered countless historical injustices.
Can anyone here tell me what good a large compensation package will do? Who will it benefit? The bitterness left by this case is bad enough, a large compensation packages for these kids will do nothing but deepen historical rifts, creating yet more future disasters for the social fabric of the city. If they understand injustice, as they claim to, how about working to heal the community rather than attempting to exact revenge?
By
Anonymous, at 11:25 AM
durhamfood: Sometimes a financial "spanking" is all that's left, as a lesson to a city (any American city) that there are consequences for bad behavior. Has anyone in Durham even apologized? (Besides Nifong's self-serving apology?) Don't you think financial punishment just might set an example for other communities that would act as badly as Durham did in the midst of the rape hoax? Right in Durham: Christina Headrick who runs Carolina Memories. She gave out the names and hometowns of every individual member of the lacrosse team to the potbanging lunatics, thus endagering their families. Any apology from her yet?
By
Anonymous, at 4:25 PM
They are not some spoiled brats. Reade & Collin are from liberal Democratic families. The Civil Attorney for Reade Seligmann Richard Emery is a noted Civil rights attorney. Columbia ACLU activists.
Quit living the lies that Nifong and the city spread. Durham still hasn't got it. This is a Massive Corruption Case. It goes from City Manager, Mayor, Judge, DA, Police Chief, Deputy Police Chief, and down the line.
It was an intentional frame job. The award could be hundreds of millions. And frankly Durham had their chances over and over and over again. Don't blame them, blame your corrupt leaders!
By
Anonymous, at 7:05 PM
This is a Massive Corruption Case. It goes from City Manager, Mayor, Judge, DA, Police Chief, Deputy Police Chief, and down the line.
It was an intentional frame job. The award could be hundreds of millions.
i'm really glad to see we're able to avoid hyperbole in our conversation about this case.
By
Barry, at 7:13 PM
So what if the families are democrats? How does that make them less likely to be spoiled brats? They are massively rich families. Go take a look at their houses, schools, etc. As for being a 'noted civil right lawyer': so were Fred Phelps and Alan Dershowitz. 'Nuff said.
As for the financial 'spanking': How does taking money away from pretty poor folks and giving it to rich people a 'spanking'? Can you point to one single instance where this kind of penalty guaranteed no corruption or personal false accusations happened in a city ever again?
A healthy community is pretty much the only way to reduce such cases in the long run. A financial penalty will just piss people off and do no good whatsoever.
By
Anonymous, at 8:42 PM
durhamfood: You still just don't get it. What does one's financial resources have to do with it? If a poor person murders a wealthy person, shouldn't the poor person still do prison time? It's the same with lawsuits. If, in this case, poor people were part of the lynch mob trying to hurt innocent people, let them pay. (Besides, the Duke boys' families have long histories of charitable work, so the money they get will greatly be used for good causes).
By
Anonymous, at 10:29 PM
There's a rather big difference between the damage done by putting a person in prison and taking a very large amount of money from a city that can hardly afford it.
Again, can you give me an example of a sizable city where an enormous financial penalty made sure stuff like the lacrosse incident doesn't happen? I'm still in no way convinced that this is about anything but revenge.
By
Anonymous, at 10:39 PM
durhamfood : Well, even if you're right, if it is just about revenge, I think that would be justified too. We're talking about a Durham population that would gladly (even if they could now) see those guys spending 30 years in prison.
By
Anonymous, at 7:59 AM
No. The justice system is not about revenge. We've moved beyond that era. The entire point of modern legal systems to precisely to avoid the concept of revenge.
As for the Durham population wanting the three boys in jail: can you show me a poll that backs up your claim please?
By
Anonymous, at 8:28 AM
Stop the madness!! The lacrosse kids are not from "liberal Democrat families". My god -- as a proud liberal, I should sue YOU for $300 million for trying to wrap those albatrosses around my neck. For god sakes, one of them has a Mommy Dearest who runs a public relations firm whose clients include a long, long list of extreme right wing causes and, yes, it's hilarious but true: Homeland Security. She's a shill for Homeland Security.
Which makes their protestations of injustice that much more hilarious.
Personally, I'd like to hear from that gay man in Washington, D.C, who had the crap beat out of him by one of the defendants: I think HE should get to decide how much that darling boy deserves for having his precious reputation ruined.
By
Anonymous, at 10:46 AM
Might I add a feminist perspective here, because this case has more than a stench of good old-fashioned sexism to it: when these boys were accused of rape, their defense lawyers felt free to drag every detail of the accuser's life into the press, leaving no unsavory aspect unturned, short of her personal hygiene and, well, I take it back: they dragged her private parts through the mud, too. Nothing new here, happens all the time to women who bring rape charges.
So now we are being asked to swallow (pun intended) the idea that these young men are perfect angels whose reputations are worth $30 million?
Sorry, fellows: regardless of whether the young lady had been roofied into lala land, or was a vicious liar, or was part of some worldwide conspiracy to defame privileged young men is entirely beside the point. What is the point is this: it's your turn now. It's your tune to have your reputations examined in the minutest detail in the pages of every newspaper who cares to pick up the story.
So bring it on: let's see it. You want us to show you money? Show us the evidence. Let's see the evidence of that night before you got busy taking cabs about town and saving the receipts. Let's hear how much YOU had to drink. Let's see the cell phone photos of YOU dancing around. Let's find out how sober YOU were. But let's not stop there. Let's take a look at your backgrounds and any prior charges brought against you and how you've behaved in the past. How many people have you slept with? Did you pass on any sexual diseases? Because if you did, I move we knock ten grand off the award. Let's see your record of discipline at school. I'd like to know just how many badges short of Eagle Scout you three fell, because I'm taking off $5k a piece for that. Let. Us. See. It. All. Show us the evidence. And this time? Let's see some evidence released by someone other than YOUR attorneys -- because something tells me these young men had reputations worth a little something to the far south of $30 million... like maybe in the Patagonia range?
By
Anonymous, at 11:01 AM
anon 10:46 : There was no gay man beaten up in D.C. by Colin Finnerty. No gay man. No one beaten up. A lie by the press. Get with the program. I think you're still back in 2006. The only homophobes in this case were the New Black Panthers invited by Durham to shout death threats at the accused by ferocious homophobe Victoria Peterson (who incited the Panthers to burn the lacrosse house down). Now black Durham has suggested Victoria Peterson for city council!! No lessons learned. Where were you people during all of this? When protestors waved a "Castrate" (mutilation) sign? Or did you go along with it? Did durhamfood provide the pots for the potbangings? You're complaining now?! (Oh well....what else can we expect from a city that tries to lynch innocent men but adores Michael Vick?) -Joe Tynan (jtlooking@aol.com)
By
Anonymous, at 4:59 PM
anon 11:01 : Well.....I guess you can keep your fingers crossed and hope that those bad bad dirty MEN (yuck!) will be exposed as having spread diseases around. You're hoping to get SOMETHING out of standing in the cold banging pots.-Joe Tynan (jtlooking@aol.com)
By
Anonymous, at 5:07 PM
You know what I'm loving about this whole thing -- the Duke alumni frothing at the mouth crowd is now eating it's own. Inevitably, the people defending the boys and the family went too far, they let greed take over -- and now they're suing the very people who backed their cause in the first place. Because don't think the lawsuit will be paid by only those who voted for Nifong! And any goodwill the boys may have had for being wrongly accused is completely evaporating in the face of their greed -- no wonder their only defenders now come from Florida and Texas.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
You know what else I love: that the families have fought long and hard to keep the evidence against their nasty little boys out of the press and now the NY Times is suing for access. Between that and the lawsuit proceeding the one thing they thought they could bully their way out of will happen: we'll get to see the evidence and find out what those boys were doing that night... and you know what? Something tells me they weren't sitting in a circle singing "Kumbaya" and feeding orphaned kittens...
By
Anonymous, at 5:14 PM
Dear Joe,
Here on this planet, we have a handy dandy little technological wonder called the "Internet". If you adjust your foil hat, you may even be able to access it. It will allow you to use a search engine we Earthlings call "Google" to pull up information on the charges brought against Colin Finnerty for gay bashing and his subsequent sentencing. It does require the ability to read, of course, but perhaps your handlers will set aside your nightime readings of Little Lulu comics and bring you up to speed.
For the rest of you, just type in Colin Finnerty, D.C. and gay man.
Enjoy!
And thanks, Joe, for reminding us of his name. If not for people like you, we'd all have long since forgotten it.
By
Anonymous, at 5:30 PM
I say we have go around Durham taking a collection...how much do you people think we've have to pay the players to get themselves video-taped sitting in a circle singing kumbaya and feeding orphan kittens? Totally worth it!
By
Anonymous, at 6:14 PM
Yes! DO type in Colin Finnerty and "gay man" and get the full story. Anon, will you come back when you're corrected? And no, nobody is forgetting his name. It's part of history now. Kitty Hawk = Wright Brothers. Durham = Duke rape hoax and Nifong. The two major NC stories. And I live in NYC, where Until Proven Innocent (with its rave reviews from the ACLU and the NY Times) is flying off the shelves. You guys are just bitter, bitter, bitter. Remember : When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind. Joe Tynan (jtlooking@aol.com)
By
Anonymous, at 7:46 PM
Food : It'd be better than those YouTube films of those dorks banging pots and pans outside the lacrosse house. What were they screaming? "Real men tell the truth!" LOL. Is that some kind of Southern hospitality tradition? JT
By
Anonymous, at 7:50 PM
Of course Joe lives in NYC! The players have to import their supporters from across state lines these days. I guess the blinding aura of their halos is just too much for us local folk to endure... we are blinded by the light! We are blinded by the light!
And, uh, Joe...you might want to do a little googling yourself, because so far you look like an idiot. Are you misinterpreting the judge vacating the last few days of Finnerty's sentence perchance? Because, um, that is done for all youthful CONVICTED offenders in D.C. Or was that judge a hired actor? Is that what you are saying? Quick! Someone sign him up to run on Fred Thompson's ticket as Vice Prez, because, dang, he was convincing. Or maybe it was the courtroom and government employees who threw me off? Wait, I get it now: it was a media and government conspiracy! Paging Mr. Fox Mulder... Paging Miss Dana Scully!
Finally, honey, if all you can come up with when you think of N.C. history is Kitty Hawk... Oh, my. Such a mental giant you must be: how does the Isle of Manhattan hold your intellect?
Oh, wait. Silly me. You're from Long Island, aren't you? Boy, would that explain a lot.
P.S.: Danielle Steele flies off the shelves in NYC, too. But that doesn't mean you're going to marry a rich man and live happily ever after. So sorry!
By
Anonymous, at 7:58 PM
Why Joe T., bangin' pots and pans together is a shivoree -- don't they teach you folks nuthin' up there in the Big Apple? Lord have mercy, and you within spittin' distance of the Broadway revival of "Oklahoma" and all? Now, don't you make me carve a apple doll of you and stick my hat pins in it, hopin' to stimulate your intellect. I've got my hands full here makin' poke salad and cloggin' my way to the next shivoree! Yeeha!
By
Anonymous, at 8:14 PM
Those last posts prove why Raleigh just looks down on Durham. That's okay, hicks. If you can find anything about Colin Finnerty beating up a gay man you can send it to me. Meanwhile, stop behaving like petulant children angry about your punishment and pretending you did nothing wrong, and prepare to pay up. As the review of the book in the Greensboro News-Record states: "Until Proven Innocent should be on reading lists at Duke and throughout Durham, but it may be the last thing people there want to talk about." -JT (jtlooking@aol.com)
By
Anonymous, at 8:51 PM
Better give it up, JT -- when you're debating someone who has a sense of humor and you don't have one? You always come off looking worse, no matter what you say.
Trust me on this one.
By
Anonymous, at 9:13 PM
Joe's a paid shill for the lacrosse case book's publisher. Check out this page, at the bottom. Very tedious:
http://bluenc.com/jena-(in-pictures)---updated-with-news
By
Anonymous, at 9:56 PM
Both sides are pigs in the mud.
Dumb Derm and the Angelic Misogynists deserve eachother.
By
Anonymous, at 8:29 AM
What the heck is a Dumb Derm?
By
Anonymous, at 10:28 AM
For the record, some anonymous poster keeps accusing me of "giving out the names and hometowns of lacrosse players" on all these bulletin boards full of chatter about this case.
The information in question was Duke University team information - available on Duke's website and soon after the case broke, dozens of websites and blogs. I forwarded an e-mail sent to me from one listserve to another community blog/discussion site.
I regret participating in idle chatter about the details of the case and I think that there was a miscarriage of justice against the lacrosse players. However, I'm getting really tired of constant inaccurate, anonymous posts being made as far as what I did/didn't do in relation to the case.
I was guilty of having served on a community coalition to address issues related to the Duke party scene - binge drinking, sexual assault, drunk driving, public vomit/urination... At the time, I participated in various community discussion groups talking about the case because of the fact I had spent more than a year in meetings with Duke administrators, students, other neighborhood and city officials, discussing these issues. While I regret making several dumb comments about the progression of the lacrosse case, I attempted to encourage discussion to tackle issues in a general way (outside of being so focused on the facts of the case). As more media coverage unveiled law enforcements missteps and lack of any apparent evidence behind the charges, I stated so and left the discussion groups in question.
For this, I have received my share of public ridicule, threatening e-mails, etc. Whoever you are -- Mr. Anonymous -- you should stop. Or at least post your name so I can take appropriate action...
Sincerely,
Christina Headrick
By
Christina, at 8:18 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home