2007-04-12

Innocent Black Naval Cadet Charged With Rape

I am trying to get to the bottom of this news story about a black Naval cadet and football team quarterback, Lamar Owens, which RL commenter Uptown Steve offers as a case of a black guy having done to him what got done to the the cracker Dukesborro Boys: a false rape allegation. Steve faults me for not publicizing this like I have the Duke guys; I'm certain that I would have publicized this if massive daily protests materialized declaring for certain that Owens was guilty, if his local DA had gone on national TV declaring his guilt prior to DNA testing, maintained the assertion of guilt after DNA testing produced negative results, and if media personalities and local citizens on national TV had declared that this rape of a white girl represented ongoing massive degradation of white women by black men. Or if simply I encountered any article showing that an innocent guy of any "race" got unjustly accused and arrested of raping a girl of any "race".

Perhaps all the hysterical personalities who invested so much time into declaring the Duke boys guilty should have invested their energies into exposing the innocence of Owens. That way I might already know about this, and why it is that Owens is innocent. Instead, my web search uncovers very little. One of the few articles shows that Owens is getting lots of official support by his hometown Georgia honkey Republican US Rep, Jack Kingston, who has taken Owens' case to the US congress, according to an article proudly carried by none other than a republican website:

"A military aide for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said the Owens' visit only solidified the congressman's resolve to help the midshipman. Congressman Kingston has been involved in Lamar's case since the beginning. He's written two letters to (the Navy secretary), one in the fall and one this past week, wanting to reiterate this concern that this case comes to a fair and impartial resolution, both for Midshipman Owens and for the Navy."

Here's the best I can find about the Owens case: He claims that a honkey ho classmate invited him to her academy dorm room for consensual sex (making them both guilty of violating military law), after she had been drinking all night. He says that during consensual intercourse, "she became unresponsive, after which he stopped and left." Owens got charged in military court, because the alleged incident occurred at an academy dorm. The military judge commented in the trial record that the "defense had taken the alleged victim's testimony apart like a Swiss watch." Result: jury (presumably mostly white) found him not-guilty of rape, but guilty only of "conduct unbecoming an officer for having sex with the woman in her dorm room and disobeying an order to stay clear of her," with no jail time.

I agree that in a case depending only on two conflicting testimonies that we mustn't assume that one testimony represents "beyond reasonable doubt" resulting in one of the parties being convicted of rape and imprisoned. Thus I certainly agree with that verdict of acquittal, but find no evidence that any white folks protested that verdict, or had prior to trial excoriated Owens in any way as was done to the Dukesborro Boys. The question of justice here, as best I can tell, breaks down as:

1. Should the accusations here even have gone to trial? I think not. A girl says "he raped me", and a guy says, "we had consensual sex." A text page from this girl proves that she invited him to her room late at night after drinking. On what basis can a prosecutor or even a police officer have for believing the accuser over the accused here?

2. Should Owens have gotten charged and convicted of "unbecoming" behavior? Should his accuser? It appears possible that the accuser here might have invented a false allegation to shield herself from getting these very charges leveled against her! If he didn't rape her, how does only he get these charges? Were they both not guilty of this? I welcome more info on this. The issue remains about his possible expulsion from the Navy, and it is this that the evil honkey republican southern Rep is trying to defend him against. I assume that this Rep has some good reason for us to believe that Owens is innocent, and am eager to find the case for that view.

A similar case running concurrent with Owens' involves his teammate, a honkey named Kenny Ray Morrison, has people on the internet insisting he along with Owens is innocent. However, I can't yet find articles explaining why I should believe this. This article about Morrison's trial has him on the stand claiming that he had consensual sex with his two accusers (I assume white) on different nights; one testified that he raped her while she was passed out from a date-rape drug that he slipped her, and the second described him raping her while she was awake. Result: conviction by a city jury, two year's prison, and expulsion from the Navy.

As far as I can tell, Morrison has no US Congressman advocating for him, as does Owens, and will have prison time and a hard core prison record, which Owens will not.

Thus I see here as yet no reason why this case shows that black guys are getting any less consideration from the legal system than white guys are, or how Owens' case matches that of the Dukesborro Boys. I await Steve to demonstrate this to me.

8 comments:

Paul Hue said...

http://www.newschannel9.com/articles/players_11351___article.html/utc_woman.html

Came across this case, of college players at UTenn-Chattanooga getting charged with gang-raping a girl, then the charges got dropped. Can't find many other details, or any other articles yet. This article says that the players had no money, and that they and the accuser belonged to the same unspecified "race."

uptownseteve said...

"Thus I see here as yet no reason why this case shows that black guys are getting any less consideration from the legal system than white guys are, or how Owens' case matches that of the Dukesborro Boys. I await Steve to demonstrate this to me."

This is easy..

The Duke boys walk without a trial.

Lamar Owens is acquitted at a court-martial and still being punished.

Duh.

Paul Hue said...

Steve: The crackers claimed to have had zero physical contact, and got charged even after negative DNA results. The black guy admitted to sex, so we had two competing characterizations of the sex -- the accuser's and the accused's. Sadly in the US, black and white men both get arrested in these situations, as demonstrated by the charges against the black guy's honkey teammate. That guy admitted to sex with two women, and they both claimed that it was non-consensual. Both guys, black and white, got arrested and charged. The black guy got acquitted of criminal charges, he got convicted of non-criminal military charges, and has a white Georgia republican rep helping to keep him from getting discharged.

The cracker got convicted and tossed from the military with apparently no support from any big shots.

I support this black guy, but I still have yet to find the reasons why the judge concluded that the defense destroyed the prosecution's case. I don't see how this case demonstrates racial injustice, but merely legal bias against men when women accuse them of rape.

uptownseteve said...

"I don't see how this case demonstrates racial injustice, but merely legal bias against men when women accuse them of rape."

If Owens was white he would never had been charged.

Paul Hue said...

I disagree, especially in the face of his white teammate getting charged and convicted in a similar circumstance. Mike Tyson got arrested when accused in exactly this circumstance by a black woman, just in case you believe that the accuser's categorization as "white" plays a significant role here.

uptownseteve said...

Hue, there was evidence that Morrison used a date rape drug to knock his victims out before raping them.

Owens engaged in consenual sex but the Naval Academy honchos were so upset that he boned a white female cadet that they trumped up charges like "Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer" in order to nail him on something.

Paul Hue said...

Yes, I know that some evidence existed of a date rape drug for the white guy.

Please provide us support for your assertions that the only reason that Owens got charged with rape was that he was black, and that only because he was black did he additionally get charged with violating rules against even consensual sex among cadets on navel housing property.

uptownseteve said...

Because I was in the military (USCG)for almost 7 years and the hypocrisy surrounding sex was breathtaking.

The UCMJ prohibits fraternization but not only were there blatant examples of officers and enlisted people dating, several eventually got married.

UCMJ also prohibited homosexuality but there were several overt gay Coast Guardsmen stationed at USCG HQ.

The thing that all these people had in common were that they were white.

The only time the USCG judicial system decided to exercise UCMJ laws against sex between CG members were when it was suspected or discovered that black men were sleeping with white women.

I don't care whether you believe it or not.

I worked in Personnel at CG for 3 years and saw it with my own eyes.