Friday, March 31, 2006
Lynching? OJ? George W.'s DWI?
I can't stop reading about the duke lacrosse scandal. I am literally obsessed with it.
It sure looks bad for those guys, but let's presume for a moment that they didn't do it. That would make us the only ones besides their lawyers doing so. There is a little bit of evidence of contrary evidence. http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-718588.html. No one has been charged yet. Imagine you are 19-years-old, your name and picture are all over the internet. you are villified in print for wearing "duke lacrosse sweats and jackets apparently as a show of solidarity" and you actually didn't do it. Let's not put the scandalous cart in front of the factual horse.
That being said, imagine for a moment that they did. Heaven help them, because that is absolutely terrible. They should not be spared on account of "[sic] wealthy privilege, white privilege, or male privilege." But let's allow DNA and law enforcement to do its work. It seems difficult to trust a legal system which is so easily bought and/or manipulated, and the vigilence of the protesters is important to prevent that. However, banging pots and pans and demanding the helmets of eastern anglos as retribution for racial and economic segregation doesn't really seem appropriate in the same way that laughing it off as rowdy athletic boys-will-be-boys is completely unacceptable. The best thing we can do right now pay close attention. Don't let the university hide this from view. Don't let the accused cut a deal and hope we forget the whole thing if it doesn't go to trial. If what is alleged actually occured, there should be severe consequences even if they are not legal punishments. And if it didn't, we should not hold the swirl of rumor against them long-term.
other things we can do:
Stop calling for the president's head because he hasn't been harsh enough on students who haven't clearly done anything wrong. He is handling the situation appropriately. The season is suspended, and once all the information is made clear, I have confidence he will act appropriately.
Quotes from Brodhead include:
"While we await the results of the investigation, I remind everyone that under our system of law, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty," Mr. Brodhead said in his statement. "One deep value the university is committed to is protecting us all from coercion and assault. An equally central value is that we must not judge each other on the basis of opinion or strong feeling rather than evidence of actual conduct."
"How can I be surprised at the outrage?" Mr. Brodhead said. "If the things alleged are verified, they're outrageous."
Hard to argue with that.
also: stop villify lacrosse players unilaterally. I know it is fun and easy; "Hockey with butterfly nets" is catchiest epithet I have heard so far. But go easy on the stereotypes. You know better than that. http://www.deadspin.com/sports/lacrosse/
this is a fairly comprehensive daily index of articles about the situation. I encourage you all to remain attentive to the situation.
http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=118591
It sure looks bad for those guys, but let's presume for a moment that they didn't do it. That would make us the only ones besides their lawyers doing so. There is a little bit of evidence of contrary evidence. http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-718588.html. No one has been charged yet. Imagine you are 19-years-old, your name and picture are all over the internet. you are villified in print for wearing "duke lacrosse sweats and jackets apparently as a show of solidarity" and you actually didn't do it. Let's not put the scandalous cart in front of the factual horse.
That being said, imagine for a moment that they did. Heaven help them, because that is absolutely terrible. They should not be spared on account of "[sic] wealthy privilege, white privilege, or male privilege." But let's allow DNA and law enforcement to do its work. It seems difficult to trust a legal system which is so easily bought and/or manipulated, and the vigilence of the protesters is important to prevent that. However, banging pots and pans and demanding the helmets of eastern anglos as retribution for racial and economic segregation doesn't really seem appropriate in the same way that laughing it off as rowdy athletic boys-will-be-boys is completely unacceptable. The best thing we can do right now pay close attention. Don't let the university hide this from view. Don't let the accused cut a deal and hope we forget the whole thing if it doesn't go to trial. If what is alleged actually occured, there should be severe consequences even if they are not legal punishments. And if it didn't, we should not hold the swirl of rumor against them long-term.
other things we can do:
Stop calling for the president's head because he hasn't been harsh enough on students who haven't clearly done anything wrong. He is handling the situation appropriately. The season is suspended, and once all the information is made clear, I have confidence he will act appropriately.
Quotes from Brodhead include:
"While we await the results of the investigation, I remind everyone that under our system of law, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty," Mr. Brodhead said in his statement. "One deep value the university is committed to is protecting us all from coercion and assault. An equally central value is that we must not judge each other on the basis of opinion or strong feeling rather than evidence of actual conduct."
"How can I be surprised at the outrage?" Mr. Brodhead said. "If the things alleged are verified, they're outrageous."
Hard to argue with that.
also: stop villify lacrosse players unilaterally. I know it is fun and easy; "Hockey with butterfly nets" is catchiest epithet I have heard so far. But go easy on the stereotypes. You know better than that. http://www.deadspin.com/sports/lacrosse/
this is a fairly comprehensive daily index of articles about the situation. I encourage you all to remain attentive to the situation.
http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=118591
# posted by 8yearoldsdude @ 1:18 PM 
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Remain attentive to the situation? Isn't that what you're supposed to do for us? I hereby pledge to remain attentive to the situation by continuing to read about it here at Clovers and maybe sometimes the little blurbs that come up on Google news.
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