Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Duke Rape--Nifong Gone Wrong UPDATED

UPDATE: LieStoppers reports that Duke is to reinstate Seligman and Finnerty:

Citing the "unwarranted harm" that continued leave would impose on the falsely persecuted young men, Duke University has invited Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty to return to the University for the spring semester as students in good standing.
Pardon me for being an ungrateful observer, but if it were me, I'd say, "Screw you, Duke." The school administration and coach ruined an athletic season. Readers may find that the least of these guy's worries, but time will make this loss more profound. It takes years of hard work and discipline to get to these guy's level of play. There's that. And then there's their academic careers. Going to school with their friends. And then there's their professional careers.

A commenter at Liestoppers says: This is what we call an attempt to mitigate damages in legal jargon.

Absolutely. Remember, too, that the WHOLE team was considered suspect and hung out to dry. That's 43 kids or something, none of which had squat to do with this accusation. It defies imagination that the girl was raped 43 times (or more) but that didn't stop the faculty adnd administration from jumping on ALL of them.

Imagine how different their lives would have been during this difficult time had the school presumed their innocence. Oh sure, Duke would have received castigation from the politically correct within and without. Had the school taken a week or two to gather information, put the kids on a temporary suspension to check things out, perhaps the case against the men would have looked as suspect as most every fair-minded person thought it to be at first glance. But no, the institution rushed to judgment. They participated in the ruin of reputation, achievement and futures.

Screw Duke. (UPDATE: OK, that's not a very Christian reaction, I know. I'm still working on my attitude. I just can't imagine why any parent, forget Seligmann and Finnerty would go back to the school. They would be targets--locals, police, students, faculty. They wouldn't be physically or in any other way, safe. Duke's president knows this. He's just covering his rear. The whole thing is a joke.)

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Are you following this? Greta Van Susteren was all over this the week I watched cable. Mostly, she was all over Mike Nifong. What I couldn't believe was that she actually had guests who attempted to defend his actions. The most notable defender was, of course, a feminist. Here's Nifong's latest blasphemies via Rhymes with Right:
"I don't feel that I'm part of the problem. I feel that I have assisted in revealing the problem," Nifong said. "Durham has some healing to do. And I need to be part of that healing process, and I need to have something to do with how we move forward."
The man is delusional. He seems to perfectly represent Durham. Parents, don't send your kids to Duke.

I read some feminist blogs about this case and found them depressing (an older link--it was difficult to find anything but silence on most feminist blogs) and outrageous. The basic premise was: ignore the facts of the case, believe the woman until proven otherwise. Which translates to: assume guilt on the part of the alleged rapists until proven innocent. The only proof that she wasn't raped would be a complete retraction by the victim and even then, it was probably coerced because of the pressure she felt. There is no way a woman would lie. Women don't lie. Here's one example by Suzanne Reisman at BlogHer:
The Duke rape case. Charges of sexual assault (see comments) rape were ultimately dropped against the three white lacrosse players from privileged backgrounds. The alleged (not my choice of term, but the charges were dropped, so I suppose I need to use it) victim was a black student who was hired to strip (notice the passive voice and victimhood inherent--she's not a stripper choosing her profession, she's a student who strips, why she is noble!) at a party at the team’s campus house. A nasty smear campaign was launched by the defense from day one. Regardless of the outcome, I’d like to know why there was not much outcry over alcohol-soaked parties featuring strippers for sports teams. (This is no doubt a "teachable moment" for parents of college-aged men. Their behavior while wrong in my book, was not illegal. They should know that they have A LOT to lose and should refrain from putting themselves into positions where one person's word can ruin their reputation, if not life. Likewise, I see a teachable moment for parents of college-aged daughters. Being a stripper and prostitute is dangerous business. You are always unsafe in this situation, especially when alcohol and groups of rowdy men are involved. Stripping is not illegal, but it is unwise. You have a lot to lose. You could be hurt or worse. When you choose this profession you already lose your reputation and good name. Don't be a stripper and don't prostitute yourself.) [my comments in red, -ed.]
Some feminists though, only see the men as responsible. And that would be true, IF a rape happened. In this case, it didn't. In this case, a woman falsely accuses men. She is wrong. She is responsible. She is, as Susan Estrich says, A LIAR. This is what makes me crazy as a woman. How can women be liberated if they refuse to take responsibility for their actions? In addition, false accusations are doubly damaging--they hurt the wrongfully accused and ultimately, they hurt the cause of women, and in this case, black women especially.

The only plausible outcome, if you're a feminist, is that this case would have been good if it weren't for Mike Nifong's conduct. Well, that, we'll never know. But looking outside his gob-smacking (channeling a little Andrew Sullivan there) behavior, the facts aren't on the alleged victim's side. But the liberal elite, even the New York Times, the professors on Duke's campus, even the lacrosse coach and college president assumed the worst. They bought the fundamental "racist" narrative. No facts could dissuade them. Jim Kouri says this via Modern Tribalist:

When it comes to interracial rape and sexual assault, the statistics contained in the FBI's Uniform Crime Report and the Department of Justice's National Crime Survey during Wilbanks' study revealed that white rapists chose black victims 8,448 times.

However, black rapists chose white victims in 17,572 cases. In other words, according to Wilbanks, there were more than twice as many black-on-white rape cases as there were white-on-black cases. Overall white-on-black violence cases numbered 100,111, whereas black-on-white cases totaled 466,205. Therefore, blacks using violence against whites is over four times more likely than the reverse.


LaShawn Barber notes the lack of concern for other rapes and crimes committed in Durham. She calls is "Selective Outrage". Indeed. The notion of diminishing race and class as an issue, a noble idea of Martin Luther King, will continue to be undermined by selective outrage. Fair-minded people don't want to worry about being wrongfully prosecuted or being ignored as a victim. Mike Nifong did both as Betsy notes.

So will the liberals among us learn anything from this? Will they take some time for "critical self-reflection"? Doubtful. You know, these people talk about the "dehumanization" of blacks and women when these cases happen. That the victim is removed from her person-hood and this disembodied non-entity. And yet, that's exactly what happened to the accused. Their faces plastered everywhere with the words WHITE, RICH, PRIVILEGED (See above). They were not people.

Well, here's a little bit about one of the guys involved. His name is Colin Finnerty, the skinny guy with floppy hair. He has a mother (I know, shocking). He has a family. And these people, as I've noted before, have had to endure this process, that isn't anywhere near over, I might add. Until all charges are dropped, this case has legs. About Collin (via Johnsonville News):
“What gets me so angry,” Mary Ellen told me, “is that I held this child in my arms; I protected him. He was a good kid in high school. He was never a curfew breaker — and I was the strictest mother in America, according to all of the kids. The boys always worked hard and their spending money they earned. It was never handed to them, despite all these articles that talk about spoiled rich kids.” Mary Ellen explained that her grandparents were Irish immigrants who lived in the Bronx; her grandfather was a New York City firefighter. “Everybody had a brogue in my mother’s family and drank tea out of the saucer, not out of the cup. When I met my husband, he was working seven days a week and has supported himself basically since he was 15. He paid off college loans for the first 10 years of our married life.”
And then the Finnerty family experienced this:
In May, they went to Durham for their second son Kyle’s graduation from Duke. The visit had been planned as a celebration for the whole family, but they wound up leaving Collin and the younger children at home. After the festivities, the Finnertys caught a yellow cab back to the airport. “We were guarded, talking about graduation, the weekend and Kyle — nothing else,” Kevin said. “The black cab driver drove us to the airport and got out to help with our stuff. Out of left field, the driver gives me a hug. And then he’s crying, he’s teary, he’s shaking my hand with two of his hands. He’s holding on to me. ‘You don’t know me,’ he said, ‘and I don’t know you, but I am a parent, too. I want you to know that I am praying for you and your son.’”
It is a story like this that gives me hope. While the race and gender and class-mongers foment rage and division, many common people see the truth of the matter. And anyone who has a sense of fairness worries during cases like this. Wrongful prosecutions and wrongful abrogation of justice harms all Americans black or white, male or female, rich or poor.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." --Martin Luther King Jr.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The stripper’s body was completely void of any sign of a sexual assault, the innocent boys were devoid of any scratches, bruising, or marks, and the alleged crime scene was completely devoid of DNA that would be expected in a violent gang rape.

It is impossible that a crime scene with three drunk men in a small enclosed room with a fighting and clawing woman being orally, virginally, and anally penetrated not leave any DNA evidence of urine, blood, vaginal fluid, sweat, fecal matter, scat smears, saliva, tears, or semen... especially if condoms were used. How would they take off the condoms during all this chaos without spilling, smearing, or touching the content inside or outside of the condom?

When investigators questioned the stripper after DNA tests on the semen from multiple men found inside her vagina and rectum didn’t match any of the Duke players on the entire lacrosse team, the stripper admitted to having had sex with at least three men around the time of the alleged rape including her boyfriend and two men who drove her to Duke.
The DA Mike Nifong didn’t talk to the prostitute about her wild claims of gang rape, in which she described in great detail, claiming no finders or any other objects were used to penetrate her, yet Nifong did conspire with the DNA lab owner to hide evidence that proves the three victims of this lie are innocent.

I do agree with that because of Rape Shield laws, these boys, who are obviously innocent can still be found guilty. Between 1985 and 1995 35% of innocent men sent to prison for rape, were found innocent through DNA testing, but today’s “victim’s advocacy groups” want to use DNA only to convict anyone, while ignoring all DNA evidence that proves the self-proclaimed “rape-shielded” accuser is lying about being raped.

Melissa Clouthier said...

Nice guy,

You present the facts that the elites chose to ignore. The bigger problem, of course, is that a lot of these facts never came out, because as Finnerty's father notes, had Nifong received all of them from the defense he would have had to share them with the grand jury. And he had to suppress evidence to the Grand Jury as it was. His actions are criminal and it looks like he'll be prosecuted (I hope).

Also, this case brings up the need for a potential Shield law for those prosecuted of this crime. The damage done to those on the receiving end of a false accusation is long-term, if not permanent.

Anonymous said...

I read some feminist blogs about this case and found them depressing (an older link--it was difficult to find anything but silence on most feminist blogs) and outrageous. The basic premise was: ignore the facts of the case, believe the woman until proven otherwise.

Doc, is there anyone or anything out there who can save us males from the Femmies?

Other than The Handmaid's Tale or Islam?

Anonymous said...

Being attacked by feminist for just suggesting that these boys may be innocent had made me harsh.

I must remember when answering your blog that most women are like you(I hope).

I sent a letter of bullet points to Nancy Grace, and she put it on her show and teared them apart. I use to admire her for her passion to defend victims, but I soon realized that only certain victims deserve her empathy, and it's almost never the male victims. I realized this true of most feminist nd "victim advocacy groups".

I do think that real rape victims, if not all victims, deserve empathy. I think I have, in some feminist blogs, harshly criticized Rape Shield laws, but I do understand a need for them; however it should be extended to men.

You're a breath of fresh air (for lack of a better clich'e), There's hope that there's still good women who treat men like door mats.

Anonymous said...

*** who don't treat men like door mats.

"You're a breath of fresh air (for lack of a better clich'e), There's hope that there's still good women who don'ttreat men like door mats."

Melissa Clouthier said...

If I were a man, I would not invite a stripper/prostitute into my home. It immediately becomes a he-said, she-said situation.

Let's just put it this way, if either party in this situation were adhering to any sort of morals, this situation would never have happened.

Men who don't want to be falsely accused must be circumspect. But just as proper behavior on the part of a woman doesn't guarantee her safety and exemption from rape and assault, men who try to lead upright lives can also be falsely accused. This is where a truly just legal system comes in.

When a rapist gets off on a technicality, that is not justice. When a false accuser can ruin a reputation with impunity that is not justice.

This is why Mike Nifong is such an abhorrent creature. HE should examine the evidence and make a fair-minded decision. But he chose political expedience. Unfortunately, he's not the first DA to do this. Nor will he be the last.

DAs the way things stand, have absolute power...it very often corrupts.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I hear what you’re saying, but lets look at it a different way. Well two different ways.

If I were a woman I would not falsely accuse a group of boys of rape, but if I did I wouldn’t have to worry about it because most state and federal laws will protect me even if I’m lying. Many DAs would not prosecute women who falsely accuse anyone of rape for fear that “victim advocacy groups” would accuse them of hurting future rape accusers – which includes the false-rape accusers.

Now, the “thought” of blaming these boys because they hired a couple of strippers… would you follow this “thought” through as to blame a stripper if she was really raped? Basically this “thought” is to blame the victim for letting them selves become victims.

Dr. Cloutier, I’m not attacking you. I agree with you, and I agree with people taking responsibility for their own actions and where those actions may lead.

I’m not sure where this passion comes from, but I want to stand up for these boys! I don’t know them and I’ve never been to Duke. I’m not black or white (in ethnicity). I grew up very poor, but living in Hawaii, food and activities could be supplemented from the ocean. I was happy in my very small world, but for a short time around six through eight years the Department of Human Services thought my grandparents were too poor to care for me and my brothers, so I spent a few years in foster homes where these people had a lot! I changed. I loved my uncles but I didn’t want to just settle for any job so I can drink myself blind on weekends, and rejoice on getting a great deal on a used car while living at home with my wife and kids.

I spent all the money I had from graduating from high school to my first year in college. I wrestled in high school, but my wrestling coach said because of title IX UH Manoa had to eliminate their wrestling team. I applied for student loans which my grandparents were against because they were afraid I get too far in debt, and they would not be able to help me out. The financial aid office offered many scholarships, but the amount of financial help offered to women far surpassed that offered to men. I got straight As for the first two years, and straight As except for one or two Bs the two last years, but all I could get in assistance was a tuition waiver for one semester as I worked three jobs and was living off credit cards in my junior year when I was introduced to “stripping”.

In Waikiki there is a club called Fusions, and a few girls took me there after pizza for her birthday (I would go anywhere there was free food). The strippers were laughable. Nothing like I’ve seen on TV shows. The guys just came out and took of their clothes to music, and they didn’t even know how to dance. The girls bought me two drinks “Tom Collins” and I got loud with my criticism and after posturing one of the strippers that I could do better, I found myself in back stage, which was behind a curtain in a doorless broom closet, thinking: “how did I get myself into this!” I had to take off my underwear because it was old and had a not so small hole next to the Sears tag. If I backed down after they announced to the whole club of the challenge I would be booed and laughed at. I was completely panicked when they chanted my real name, so I sucked it up and did my thing. This is where I learned I was suppose to use a stage name and a g-string, but I won $50.00, which was a lot of money to me at that time, and this is how I got into stripping which paid off my credit cards and last year of school. During the next year I learned of “private shows” at people’s homes or hotel rooms and its dangers. I had shows almost every night for $250 ($125 for me/$125 to the manager), once I did three shows on one Saturday. I think that’s when I started slipping in my grades. I stopped doing private shows when I a group of guys held me down and one rubbed himself on my butt until he ejaculated on my lower back, and another ejaculated in my hair and rubbed it on my face. I guess it was good it happened because my grades slipped kinda far, and I was being called into meetings with genuinely concerned instructors.

By not doing private shows, I was able to get my grades up, but by this time I bought a used Mustang Convertible cash down and under $10,000 to avoid being reported to the IRS. I had a bunch of designer clothes, DKNY was my favorite, car insurance of $2,000 a year, and no savings. I did my obligated 2 club shows a week and made enough to get by, but I noticed that of all the students, male or female, that “stripped”, none graduated. Two of my friends went into the military to get out, and a few girls married out.

During one of my last shows, a mother used her older daughter’s driver’s license to sneak her 16 year old daughter in, and she followed one of my friends into the bathroom and had sex with him. I walked in and a couple of other guys were watching (in this club the men’s room was “Back stage”), I got changed and left to go to a study group at a frien’s dorm, a fellow stripper was suppose to come with me, but he wanted to watch. Later that night “my friend” led the police to me and I was escorted from the UHM dorm, and this is where I learned that since I witness this 16 year old girl having sex, mind you I didn’t have sex with her nor wanted to stay and watch, but since I was one of the strippers there, I was taken in for questioning of gang raping a minor.

The girl’s mother, who pulled me into a dark corner of the club, forced both hands down my thong and gave me a more thorough two handed genital examination than I had ever gotten from a doctor, claimed that I purposefully distracted her so my “partners” could have sex with her underage daughter.

The guys I worked with couldn’t organize anything. With the amount of money in the short amount of time to get it, and guys fighting over who took whose “client”, it was never a good atmosphere for cooperation, but here I was sitting at the police station for over six hours as people kept talking about “gang rape of a minor”. My “manager” who took half my tips for over two years, showed up with a club policy that I’ve never seen stating something stupid like “no employee is allowed to demonstrate anything that could be considered sexual behavior – including engaging in sex - while working.” BS!!! Everything we did was sexual! It’s not fair! It doesn’t seem that women have to take responsibility for their actions, but men do.

I’m not sure what happened, but no one was charged. One of the guys, who claimed to have a “client” as a lawyer, claimed that the “mom” was threatened with reckless endangerment of a minor, but I didn’t care. I could have lost my whole life that night, and Hawaii’s rape shield law may have protected the actions of the mother, but it wouldn’t have protected the information that I was a stripper, underage working at a club that served alcohol.

Now I have a great job, a huge house, nice cars, coach baseball and soccer, married to a beautiful girl, have four sons ages 5, 6, 7. and 8, and I’m scared for them. Boys as young as 6, have been charged with sexual harassment at their elementary schools all across the nation. Colleges are setting up “Sexual Conduct Rules” that would automatically blame the boy, which later could be used as a character issue if they ever face a false rape claims.

The problem of “false claims of rape” reaches farther than just not inviting a stripper/prostitute into your house. It’s every where. If certain feminist get their way, it’s going to be illegal just to be male.

Don’t have time to proof read. Baseball practice was cancelled due to rain, but the boys need to release some energy before they wreck the house!

Anonymous said...

White on Black rape is so rare that most web sites and blogs and government reports find one, two or zero instances in the last 10 years in most locales . Your FBI quoted numbers are massively incoreect and need more (Google) easily done research.