Category: Society

It’s really hard to keep a calm perspective on the Duke Lacrosse rape allegations in the face of this (from Sports Illustrated):

In the e-mail, addressed “To whom it may concern,” the player says he has “decided to have some strippers over” to his dorm room, “however there will be no nudity.”
“I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off,” the author of the e-mail says, adding in vulgar terms that he would find the act sexually satisfying.
The e-mail was signed with what police said is the player’s jersey number.

According to the article, the email was sent out from the player’s Duke dorm room just before 2:00 a.m. – just a couple of hours after the rape allegedly occurred.
Somehow, the player’s lawyer has determined that this email confirms what the player has been saying: that there was no sexual activity at the party. (from WaPo)

“While the language of the e-mail is vile, the e-mail itself is perfectly consistent with the boys’ unequivocal assertion that no sexual assault took place that evening,” said attorney Robert Ekstrand. The e-mail “demonstrates that its writer is completely unaware that any act or event remotely similar to what has been alleged ever occurred.”

Really? That email demonstrates a number of things to me, but innocence is not among them. Feel free to read it for yourself, though, at thesmokinggun.com. Maybe I’m being judgmental again.
There’s something seriously miswired in that boy’s head.
The good news is twofold, both of which seem to indicate the University has finally caught up with the problem:

1. Duke has cancelled the rest of its lacrosse season, and
2. the coach has resigned.

Unfortunately, the bad news is also twofold:

1. they haven’t brought charges yet, so I’m still trying for temperance (the nasty sexist, elitist, racist… oops, sorry, slipped), and
2. the fact that it happened at all.

So – still no proof that the rape occurred… but DANG there’s a lot of smoke and stink around that team, don’t ya think?
Prior entries on this story here and here.