On the heels of last night’s post about the smear campaign and hostility toward Jill Carroll, I have some balancing of my own to add about a recent issue: the Duke lacrosse team and accusations of rape.
Polimom wrote last week about this story, and in the days since, several oddities have surfaced that further muddy the water already swirling in Durham.
Race and Politics
The situation at Duke couldn’t be more racially charged, and it’s a sad commentary on America’s race relations that much of the analysis and discussion centers on geography (North vs. South). Bad enough at the individual level, but Newsweek has an article suggesting that politics may be playing along racial lines:
There is, however, possibly a different side to the story—a chapter from another Tom Wolfe novel, “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” a tale of a prosecutor exploiting racial tensions with a trumped-up charge. The players say they are completely innocent, that no one had sex with the stripper that night and that they will be vindicated by DNA tests expected early this week. Joseph Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the players, says that the prosecutor has unfairly tried the players in the media to serve his own political agenda. (Nifong is up for re-election in May and one of his opponents is black.)
Considering the extremely high-profile of the accused (and their related financial resources to legally fight charges), Polimom thinks it’s unlikely that the accusations have been “trumped-up” by the DA. I’d find that scenario more believable if the players were non-entities.
Odd timelines
But there’s more going on, as this Raleigh News Observer article discusses:
Just before 1 a.m. that night, someone called 911 and complained that people outside the house, which had been leased by three lacrosse players, had shouted racial slurs. The rape was reported about 30 minutes later.
One of the players’ attorneys, James “Butch” Williams of Durham, has said the first call was suspicious and might have been part of a setup.
Nifong dismissed that theory, saying a hoax would have to include faking injuries to the woman’s body. A doctor and nurse determined after the incident that she had signs and symptoms consistent with her story.
I agree that there’s something strange about that first call (both 911 tapes are posted on the News Observer site), but the woman’s injuries seem to make that moot. I’m more disturbed, frankly, by the (apparent) fact that when the search warrant was served two days later, there was so much physical evidence found. Did the accused team members not see it there? For two days? That bothers me.
Innocent until proven guilty
Primarily, though, Polimom agrees that the case has been tried in the media – including blogs. Including mine.
For the record: I do think a sexual assault occurred. I also believe there were racial overtones – particularly given the neighbor’s statement, which includes hearing one of the party-goers say, “Hey b——, thank your grandpa for my nice cotton shirt!”
Nasty.
However, it seems obvious that police are sitting on a great deal of information we don’t know about, and since there have been no charges yet, that’s as it should be.
The story is very important, but it is so inflammatory that it requires all of us to back up and take a deep breath. Jumping to conclusions is like pumping an emotional bellows, and I can hardly call out others for smear campaigns if I’m doing it myself.
Time. Facts. Wait…