2006-04-18

Duke Rape Arrests, Update

This article -- by the Nation of Islam's Final Call -- is one of the best summaries I've encountered. While presenting important info, it also omits important info.

“A lot of us are sick and tired of our women, our sisters and our mothers being violated. We need to take a stand.” Yet the article doesn't present racial statistics on the reported rapes of black and white women, and the reported racial composition of their attackers.

"Hours later" she was taken to the hospital, where she "obviously" looked like she was beaten. “I knew somebody had beat her because you could look at her face and tell that her face was swollen,” the alleged victim’s father told The Herald-Sun newspaper. “It was all around her eyes and her jaw was swollen. She tried to get out of the car, but she couldn’t walk. Her leg still hurts.” Yet Stripper 2, the security guard, and three cops called to the second 911 call didn't think she looked beaten. It will be very interesting to compare the photos of her in the final moments at the rape house to photos of her at the hospital looking "obviously" beaten. And the photos appear to show that (1) her legs had injuries when she arrived at the honkey house, (2) her legs got injured some more while falling after leaving the house, and (3) she had trouble walking independant of what went on in the bathroom. This is the first indication that anybody has linked her leg injuries to a rape, whereas the photos show leg injuries clearly unrelated to a rape. Would the medical examiners have diagnosed "consistent with rape" without these injuries? What happened between the grocery store parking lot and when she arrived at the hospital? How much time elapsed? With whom was she with?

“We stand against the use of racial slurs and the vilification of anyone." No word about allegations that the strippers not only hurled racial slurs, but started the exchange.

"...the White male participants became rowdy and started hurling racial slurs at the Black dancers, the alleged victim told a local newspaper that they both became frightened." Yet numerous reporters who have viewed "the photos" concur that for the few minutes of dancing, several photos were taken throughout, and they show all the honkies seated back with their hands to themselves. The photos also show the accuser leaning into the honkies and slapping one of them, after which the photos show everyone with gloomy dispositions, but no honkies crowding the strippers. The strippers and the honkies all agree that one of the honkies asked if the girls brought sex toys, the girls said no, and one of the guys suggested a broomstick, which angered the girls. The guys claim this comment (which is not illegal) prompted the slap (which is illegal).

"...a statement from NCCU Chancellor James Ammons." This guy was a VP at FAMU when I was there, and I had to negotiate with him during a few of my Black National Freedom Fighter days.

"Almost daily demonstrations by Duke University students outraged that administration officials not only kept quiet about the alleged assault for more than a week, but had not punished the lacrosse players for underage drinking." Since most of the Duke protesters are white, this counters all the talk of racism. And do these people want every scurrillous accusation to race into the headlines? We see what happened here: this led to immediate castication of the accused before a clear amount of evidence appeared. Do these demonstrators want to do this when some white strippers accuse some black Duke or NCCU guys? As for prosecuting underage drinking, do the black students at NCCU *really* want that? In my extensive experiance at black universities, and at black parties at white universities, I hardly think that this is a genuine demand.

Even people who only care about black people should be very careful about the demands that they make in this case. Black males compose roughly 12% of the US male population, but compose 40% or more of the alleged perpetrators in reported rape cases. Even if the Duke honkies are guilty, this could not have been clear a week after the incidendent, when the blustery, shrieking protests began. Even today, is it so clear that anybody outside of the case can be 100% certain? The angry protesters should keep this in mind.

At the recent forum at NCCU, one of the righteous race-baiters described how a year or two ago a black Duke student got incorrectly arrested for rape charged by a white women, and then released after a few days. The race-baiter used this as evidence that some of the crackers in this case should have been arrested within days. But logically somebody could use this as an example for why students on both campuses should have banged pots everyday outside the accused guy's dorm. Or why the white boys should have been arrested... and then released with charges dropped after the negative DNA returned.

"Mr. Nifong says based on what evidence he’s seen so far—broken fingernails, a make-up bag, cell phone, a shoe and approximately $400 in cash left behind at the scene, in addition to the forensic rape exam report from the hospital—a brutal rape did occur." But the fingernails contained no DNA, and despite having two full days to dispose of this evidence, the guys in the house left it all out in the open, "consisent with" a drunken, violent, expelled visitor being given a chance to return under sober circumstances and reclaim her property.

Did the guys rape her? Did they drug her? The people who answer Yes seem to have committed themselves to this answer prior to reviewing important data, including the DA. Count me among those who are uncertain, who believe on balance that probably no rape occured, but who are willing to change our minds as more evidence materializes.

11 comments:

Travis said...

One of the men arrested, Colin Finnerty, is already facing legal troubles in D.C.

In November, Finnerty and two men attacked a gay man in the Georgetown area of the city. Finnerty was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and enrollment in a Diversity Program, which will not be complete until September.

http://www.sovo.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=6252

Paul Hue said...

I agree that Finnerty got accused of a horrible act in that case, and I know no reason to doubt the voracity of those charges. In a group of 38 or so varsity sports participants, surely there is a few horrible people. But I hardly doubt that the rate of horrible people is any lower amongst strippers.

The charges or rape against three members of any sports team is not inherently unbelievable; but neither is the charge of a false rape allegation tendered by a stripper. Looking into the facts of this case, though, the balance seems to me to come down on the side of the accused in this case. Did the accuser here finger Finnerty before she learned of his criminal background? And speaking of criminal backgrounds, you are aware that this accuser has a documented history of acting unethically, erratically, illegally, and outrageously against her stripper customers: she stole the car of one of her lap dance customers, then drove recklessly in a police pursuit.

While I agree it is not a stretch to doubt Colin Finnnerty might rape a woman, will you agree that it is not a stretch that this accuser might lodge a false rape allegation against one of her customers? If we open our minds to these possibilities, and then examine the facts so far, I think that at the very least there is more than "reasonable doubt" about her allegation.

Paul Hue said...

This is perhaps the best analyses I've found:

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5515998

The racists who side with the accuser simply because she's black are making a very big mistake, given the high incidence of black men accused of rape, including accusations involving incorrect identification, and outright false accusations. Even if the accuser in this case turns out to be telling the truth, these racists have set a standard: if a woman makes a rape charge and identifies an assailant, they now are on record insisting upon absolute acceptance as inviolate the accusation, arrest the accused, and procede even if dna results are false.

The genderists who side with the accuser simply because she's a woman face the same hypocracy if their own brothers, fathers, or sons end up accused of rape.

Paul Hue said...

Here's a pretty good outline of the photo timeline. It doesn't mention the accuser slapping one of the guys. It has a 20 minute gap, 12:10 - 12:30, giving the accuser 20 minutes to get out of the front room, raped by three guys, then out on the back porch smiling and falling down.

The pre-gap photos show bruises and cuts on her legs, and only a few guys, all keeping a safe distance from the strippers. This contracts the strippers' claims that there were over 40 guys in the room, and they became very aggressive.

The post-gap photos show new injuries associated with the accuser falling down, and red markings on a porch rail that defenders claim are wet fingernail paint.

Where was stripper 2?

Did one of the arrested guys really get picked up by a cab at 12:15?

Paul Hue said...

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=134&id=3313

This article presents a feminist claiming that this story advances two "myths" about rape, which are actually strawmen: (1) that the "victim" is identified always as "a stripper" instead of also as a "mother and student", and (2) that because the "victim" was perhaps drunk or drugged that this "somehow justifies rape."

Yet, although few stories fail to inform that the accuser is a mother and student, her status as a stripper is integral to the story, whereas her status as mother and student are not.

And *NOBODY* has suggested that her intoxication (volutary or not) justifies rape. All skeptics want prison for any guy who drugged or raped her. But her intoxification casts doubt on her story. She apparently did not report that she had been drugged; and if she had been drugged, its unlikely that she could be "100% certain" in identifying her assailants. It is more likely that she would simply report, "I got drugged and somebody raped me, I'm not sure who." If this had been her story, more of us would find her assertion credible.

But that has not been her story. And intoxification presents a non-rape explanation for some of her injuries, and motivation for erratic and crazy behavior, such as her previously stealing a car from a lap-dance customer and driving recklessly, or a false accusation of rape here.

Paul Hue said...

http://www.nbc17.com/news/8756511/detail.html

Striper 2's credability has problems, if it is true that the accuser slapped one of the honkies in reaction to a comment, and if it is true that a neighbor heard either or both girls shouting racial slurs at the guys. Her original 911 call created a very different impression: that the guys were outside shouting racial insults unprovoked at random black people. Her credability will also suffer if photos indeed falsify claims that the guys were numerous and aggressive during the 4-minute stripping, and if she has changed her story in recorded interviews.

She certainly has a financial incentive to oppose the rich honkies in a civil matter following the criminal proceedings.

Paul Hue said...

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/67221.htm

Everything that the accuser says that she left in the house was there two days later when police searched it, including fake nails and lots of cash. Is this what you would expect rapists to do in their own home (or their friends' home) where they raped a girl?

I'd sure like to reverse the "races" of the principals in this story. All the angry black protesters would surely be supporting black scholarhips atheletes in this situation, and so would the current supporters of the accused, all of who withheld support until facts emerged.

Paul Hue said...

One of the arrested crackers has what appears to be a pretty damn good alabi for the time during which the accuser says a gang-rape occured. Open minds can't help but wonder what the NCCU students would think if this guy was black and the accuser was white.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1858806&page=1

The black racists who decided instantly to treat the accuser's claim as golden will be an absurd position in the future when black guys get accused under similar circumstances. I certainly recall no fervent objections from this quarter when Kobe's accuser dropped the charge, and before that no fervent rallying behind the accuser or disparagement of Kobe's super-affluent upbringing, mega wealth, and "priviledge". Imagine the behavior of this quarter had Kobe denied any sex at all and accurately predicted a negative DNA result!

Meanwhile those of us who have kept an open mind in the Duke case also had an open mind in the Kobe case, and always treated his accuser with skepticism. The genderists, like these racists, are consistent in their own disingenuous way: they instantly believed Kobe's accuser just as they instantly believed the Duke accuser.

Paul Hue said...

http://www.wral.com/news/8820200/detail.html

Now comes word that the two arrested honkies had scratches visable on shirtless photos taken of them as part of the DNA testing. Now, what are the odds of finding scratches on two of 46 active lacrosse players? Couple that with pre-result loud and confirmed proclaimations from all defense attornies that the dna testing would be negative for all the players, and we still have quite a bit of room for reasonable doubt here.

The lunacy of the DA extends past his assinine and unneccessary public predictions (falsified *and* included on the dna warrent!) and proclaimations (before the investigation compeleted); the "dragnet" manner in which he collected that dna evidence potentially means that it could get supressed by the defense if it contains anything culpatory, such as these scratchs.

Can the defense attorneys suppress the police photos, but permit the dna evidence? And how many of the police photos show scratches? If ten of the guys had scratches and the accuser picks two or three of these guys, the scratches on the un-fingered guys will prove that the fingered guys could have gotten their scratches via the same non-rape mechanism(s) that the un-fingered guys did.

The story would be different if the accuser had on her fingernails the dna of these arrested, scratched guys. But her fingernails contain no such dna. I'm not convinced that the honkies are innocent; but I'm not convinced that the accuser deserves our unblinking, unquestioning, fervent support.

Paul Hue said...

Tonight on CNN two non-white female Duke students spoke out as friends of the arrested lacrosse players.

Paul Hue said...

The non-honkey defenders of the arrested say the guys worried that the strippers were doing drugs in the bathroom. These are the second and third non-cracker girls defending the guys. These sorts of testimonies, coupled with neighbor testimony that the strippers hurled racial insults at the guys, might greatly temper the racial aspects of this case, at least before a calm jury that has to consider everything.