In a move that could define gall, the North Carolina NAACP has started a website devoted to exposing prosecutorial misconduct in the state.
That would be the same North Carolina NAACP whose legal redress committee chair, Al McSurely, penned a guilt-presuming, error-ridden memorandum of law defending Mike Nifong's case.
And it would be the same North Carolina NAACP whose lacrosse case monitor, Irving Joyner, preposterously asserted that Nifong dropping the rape charges in December 2006 would help Nifong's case.
And it would be the same North Carolina NAACP that raised not a peep of protest at Nifong's ordering the DPD to run a rigged lineup.
Despite its record of enabling prosecutorial misconduct, the state organization professes amazement that only one newspaper (the Herald-Sun) reported on its new venture. The organization is discovering that credibility, once lost, can be hard to regain.
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47 comments:
By its terms this website is not concerned with prosecutorial misconduct in general, but only against "Black and poor citizens of North Carolina." And then the organization wonders why no papers cover this event! Maybe if they were just opposed to all prosecutorial misconduct the website would get a better reception.--Buddy
They just can’t let go, [privileged white males at Duke] [the the proofreading isn’t that good either]
“Several articles on the site contrast the the international frenzy that erupted after [privileged white males at Duke University] were accused of rape without the evidence to support the claims, with the continuing and deafening silence of the political and media establishments over injustices committed routinely against minorities.”
http://www.ncprosecutorialmisconduct.com/
By "black and poor", do they mean "black" or "poor" or both together? Or, are they deliberately ambigious?
Rhetorical queries, of course.
A few good comments were left. I wonder if they will vaporize them like that ex-Duke professor that likes to sing.
Why should MSM cover an organization that can't even update its website more than once every 9-12 months?
Remember how long it took for them to take down the rape allegations?
They gotta be centered in Duhh. Maybe they should try using a water filter that gets the lead out.
This used to be a worthwhile organization. It is a joke and is as outdated as the term "colored people" which is still included in its name.
This organization's founder W. E. B. DuBois ended up as a communist in Ghana. The organization still suffers today from his (mis)leadership. Too bad that it was not led by someone like Booker T. Washington, a far better and more sensible man than DuBois.
The chapter in this area that includes Alan McSurely has as many white people as black people -- maybe more. These are guilt-ridden white liberals who treat black people like pets and mascots. It is a sick relationship where reparation-seeking, woe-is-me blacks are allied with white moral narcissists who are happy to keep black people trapped in a cycle of self-pity, pointless anger, and de facto bondage.
If you go to an NAACP meeting and see a lot of white liberal weenies there, don't walk, RUN away. They are just there for moral preening and to alleviate their guilt about being white. It's all about them and they are the latest plantation massahs.
Go read "Enough" by Juan Williams, "White Guilt" by Shelby Steele or "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell.
I was shocked that the NAACP only cared about black folk (should not have been - the title is colored people) and the ACLU sat back and watched the guys civil rights be violated, without a word. I stopped contributing to both organization over a year ago. Won't ever be donationing dollars again. I give the same monthly amount to the poor homeless, who are suffering so much.
The NCNAACP, and others, lost a fabulous opportunity to recruit white, male, financially capable individuals to it campaign for justice.
So long as the NCNAACP seeks justice only selectively, its campaign will fail.
"Why should I protect your children from injustice, if you will not protect my children?"
Jim Peterson
(partent of three white, male, more-or-less privileged children)
I sense a concerted, covert and quite broad public relations campaign, with perhaps some underlying strong arm tactics, aimed at blunting the public relations nightmare besetting Duke.
The Duke Chronicle adopts a "we're beyond the lacrosse case" editorial position and then goes silent ... nothing but silence from the Board of Trustees ... the local NCAAP adopts a patently self-serving and guilt-absolving position ... etc. etc.
I'd love to be the fly on the wall hearing conversations behind the scenes, conversations intent on dampening the negative consequence of egregious behavior.
And the timing is prescient. For civil justice will grind as slow as a glacier with the consequence that many will lose interest, for there is no such thing as a McJustice burger served in quick time. Such is our system of civil litigation.
But this argues for a realistic examination of goals and objectives with the development of a long-term strategy ... a strategy intended to thwart the effects of public relations chimera ... and importantly the rise of faux scholarship with its attendant attack on traditional values, values upon which our country was founded and upon which a great nation was built.
This is serious stuff folks. It requires a commitment to the long haul.
The NAACP people seem to bask in the glow of disaster and throughout my life, they always have.
I'm not afraid of them anymore.
::
GP
From the Motion to Change Venue:
"28. … In another article, the President of the NAACP announced that this group would “monitor the work of investigators and prosecutors as the case against…Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann moves forward.” He then stated: “the allegations against he pair ‘suggest a downward spiral from privilege and advantage to decadence and deviance.”
29. The next day, the NAACP sponsored a “mass prayer meeting” at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church…Barber’s comments followed a breakdown of the case by NAACP lawyer Al McSurely, who characterized District Attorney Mike Nifong as an ‘honest’ public servant, and the accused members of the lacrosse team as ‘white boys mainly from the North who started drinking beer at 2 p.m.’ McSurely said the players’ defense attorney would be quick to roll out complex, ‘minute by minute accounts of the night of March 13-14, verified by ATM receipts and testimonies of cab drivers in an effort to obscure what really happened – a crime that, in his estimation, probably took only 10 minutes. “That’s all it takes….I won’t say anymore on that,” McSurely said. The article further noted that when a request was made for “even-handed justice,” it was met by laughter and giggles."
Their credibility wasn't "lost".
They Chained it to an anchor and deep sixed it.
Why in the world would the NCNAACP be worried about prosecutorial misconduct in NC? Didn't they assure us over and over again during the LAX case that Mike Nifong was a fantastic prosecutor who wouldn't file charges against anyone unless he had abundant evidence to back up those charges? I know Nifong's gone now, but his worshipful trainees (e.g. Tracey Cline) are still in charge of the D.A.'s office. Clearly, there's no reason for anyone to worry about prosecutorial misconduct in Durham.
"I was shocked that the NAACP only cared about black folk (should not have been - the title is colored people)"
I wasn't shocked that they only cared about black people, given their name. What I expected to see from them with regards to the Duke Lacrosse Burning me "now you know what it's like" statements, and otherwise general apathy.
What shocked me was to learn that the NAACP is actively in favor of prosecutorial misconduct so long as the victims are white.
"the state organization professes amazement that only one newspaper (the Herald-Sun) reported on its new venture. The organization is discovering that credibility, once lost, can be hard to regain."
This is the first good surprise this case has provided me with in a long time. The NAACP lost all credibility with me a long time ago - it's nice to see the press finally treating them with the respect they deserve now (none) rather than with the respect they deserved several decades ago.
Let Jackson, Sharpton and Wendy Murphy be next.
The NAACP, feminism, cell phone companies, utilities etc are all special interest groups. Our legislators fail to consider what is good for the country as a whole and cater to those special interests who will bring money and votes. With the present system we are doomed.
I forgot about the "monitoring the work of investigators and prosecutors" - Didn't do a good job of that.
"As with the Duke Lacrosse case, the truth about Jena will eventually be known." Craig Franklin
Malkin at JWR
"Credibility, once lost, can be hard to regain." Indeed.
All the rhetoric and bells and whistles aside, the NAACP showed quite clearly that they are for anything but equality between races.
What are we to make of an organization that is willing to tell outright lies in order to further it's position? Not much I'd say. Mike Nifong should be their poster boy.
It's kind of a shame. I don't think anyone can argue that North Carolina doesn't need a watchdog group looking out for prosecutorial misconduct. But a site run by the NC NAACP, specifically supported by Al McSurely, the author of the blatantly biased and error-ridden "82 Crimes and Torts" memorandum, what reason is there to have any confidence in this site? If there's anyone who can watch the watchmen, the NC NAACP has proven it isn't them.
It's a statement on the atrocious performance of the NC NAACP that when I read through this website they've put up, I wonder immediately "How many of these 'facts' about the atrocious misconduct of prosecutors are just as false as the false 'facts' of the McSurely memorandum?"
The website does mention the "prosecutorial misconduct" of the Duke Lacrosse case...of course in terms of how white privilege helped and was completely opposite of the JJ case. UNBELIEVABLE. Do these guys actually believe this or is is strictly for shaking down money?
Their credibility wasn't "lost".
They Chained it to an anchor and deep sixed it.
So, why don't all of the people who are journalists and lawyers research their crimes, and report them? Unless they sing on each other, it is the only way to make the pigs squeal. Watergate was but a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to what goes on now.
Rhonda Fleming
Cleveland, Ohio
Something interesting to note about this "ncprosecutorialmisconduct.com" website -- on the morning of 11/14/2007, there were 2 comments on the first entry (http://carolinajustice.typepad.com/hkonj/2007/11/nc-naacp-launch.html). Both comments were critical of the NC NAACP, pointing out the arrogance in assuming that when they issued a press release more newspapers should have covered it and those that did cover it should have done so more prominently, and the arrogance of contrasting the attention paid to the Duke lacrosse case vs. the attention paid to cases of prosecutorial misconduct against black/poor defendants without mentioning that they, the NC NAACP, strongly supported that prosecutorial misconduct as it was occurring.
By the afternoon, both comments had vanished.
I and at least one other left biting comments on the website. Now they have indeed vaporized them and switched to comment moderation enabled.
Why am I not surprised? At one time the NAACP was really for civil rights, not black only rights. Of course they had white members then as well.
Funny.
anonymous asked:
" Do these guys actually believe this or is is strictly for shaking down money?"
The "outer party," the supporters who send money and show up for demonstrations, may or may not believe it. As far as the "inner party," the leadership, is concerned it's strictly for shaking down money.
"A few good comments were left. I wonder if they will vaporize them like that ex-Duke professor that likes to sing."
Michael and all......when or if you ever allude to poor Rojstaczer again, always use his name.
It's only fitting that someone as low as that man who would choose not only to slam young men at his former place of employment, but out of what was clearly professional jealousy.....
.....slam UPI in the pettiest way possible.
And then....not have the balls to take criticism from others. Roj is clearly a product of the same 88 mold we know so well.
Also remember that Rojstazcer used to live in Trinity Park.
Just knowing that is reason enough to ignore his critique of KC and Stuart's work.
I sure hope he can write songs better than he reads.
The Jena Hoax is worse than the Duke Hoax. Where's the college fund for a real victim?
"So, why don't all of the people who are journalists and lawyers research their crimes, and report them? "
(1) They're guilty liberal white boys who've been taught that all whites are racists and blacks are categorically incapable of being racists, and even considering attacking the NAACP gives them a blinding cognitive dissonance headache.
(2) They don't want to be called racists by the NAACP and have their paper picketed.
(3) They don't want to be called racists by other reporters.
(4) Noone else is investigating it, therefore it can't be a real story. (Reporters are for the most part a bunch of sheep in wolves' clothing.)
(5) To criticize an organization whose word they once treated as unquestionable would implictly admitting an error, which is strictly against the rules of journalism.
(6) When your editor wants a story finished in ten minutes, it's nice to know that Jackson and Sharpton will always give you a quote.
(7) Even if they consider the NAACP as ridiculous as PETA, PETA's antics sure sell a lot of papers.
"Watergate was but a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to what goes on now. "
But that involved investigating a Republican, which is much more palatable to your average journalist.
"Now they have indeed vaporized them and switched to comment moderation enabled."
I left a comment this morning and it still isn't up. Apparently this comment, despite its lack of profanity, vulgarity or racist language, did not meet their site's standards:
"Where are the major network news outfits, 60 Minutes, the national news magazines?
Flat on their backs laughing at the notion of the Mike Nifong Cheerleading Squad running a website against prosecutorial misconduct."
Most amusing to me is the lack of any positive comments that they could stand to approve. Are these guys too lazy to even make up some "sock puppet" commenters?
The President of the United State - Richard M Nixon - tried to steal the Constituation. That is not a drop in the bucket to me and I would suggest - most Americans.
Is Joyner a Communist?
Anonymous said...
Is Joyner a Communist?
11/15/07 12:10 AM
From the NCCU School of Law web page on "faculty presentations":
October 19th - Panelist at "Why We Can't Wait" Civil Rights Conference at North Carolina Central University School of Law discussing Economic Justice.
Sounds like a probably to me.
KC:
Coleman sold out. Pressure was applied and he saw the "error of his ways". It happens all the time.
In the end he will live to regret it. Selling your integrity for a pittance is a bad bargain.
Ken
Dallas
I don't agree with "Coleman sold out" at all. He is a tenured Professor. According to what I have read, the school can not get rid of tenured staff with dynamite. You guys can not handle anyone or any thing that does not agree with your metanarrative about the case.
anon 1:10 PM said:
You guys can not handle anyone or any thing that does not agree with your metanarrative about the case.
What is our metanarrative about the case?
the guys
I know it's old news, and I know I've already commented, but it's just so delicious I can't leave it alone. I am so enjoying the NCNAACP's impotent petulance:
Where are the major network news outfits, 60 Minutes, the national news magazines?
"Why aren't you paying attention to us? You're supposed to pay attention to us! You always paid attention to us before! It's not faaiiirr!!!"
I bet if they don't start getting coverage soon they're going to up the ante - either go on a hunger strike or hold their breath until their faces turn blue.
We use to say about deceased Senator John Connlly "that folk did not get to see him without a hundred thousand dollar bribe." I doubt Professor Coleman sold out - let alone for a pittance.
White Privelege Template:
1. Secure a marketable education. This may involve years of deferred gratification and personal sacrifice.
2. Leverage this education into a marketable job skill with geographic transportability.
3. Once you're secure in your skill sets, then you can breed responsibly, if you so choose.
This has been the secret to white and asian-american success. It's difficult to move ahead in life when your priorities are substance abuse, unprotected sex and hanging out blaming white people for your lack of progress. Oh gosh. Did I say something insensitive and hateful?
Re: 9:17
Black Privilege Template:
1. Secure a marketable education. This may involve years of deferred gratification and personal sacrifice.
2. Leverage this education into a marketable job skill with geographic transportability.
3. Once you're secure in your skill sets, then you can breed responsibly, if you so choose.
Imagine that. Same for white, black, yellow ... the whole goll durn rainbow.
The NAACP blog is concerned about prosecutorial misconduct in NC as it effects the Black and the poor.
This blog is primarily concerned with prosecutorial misconduct in connection with a single case and with all the dangerous PC issues in academe and the media surrounding it.
The Innocence Project addresses wrongful convictions and DA misconduct whether a victim is Black, White or green.
If the NAACP request for statewide reforms is adopted, everyone will benefit. If the equitable remedies sought in the lacrosse case civil suit are ordered, same thing. And the IP will continue working to get falsely arrested, charged, tried, and jailed victims of all races finally freed.
What a happy - though merely partial - outcome this will be.
Yes, the NAACP lost it's golden opportunity to create a (ital) rainbow coalition (end ital) by pandering to its base (good thing we don't know any other groups that do that!). And it would have been nice to see their mea culpa, but that's apparently not going to happen.
Still, I really hope the NAACP succeeds in getting State criminal law procedures changed as it has urged.
And, in the end IMO it matters little whether plaintiffs in the lacrosse case civil suit get $1 or $500 million, so long as they win and the suit becomes a catalyst for change.
So I also dearly hope the civil suit goes to judgment and wins BIG on the equity side, so that prosecutor and police procedures in Durham are put under strict court supervision as requested.
It could be a model for similar situations in the rest of the country. And they do exist ... the fundamental injustice of the Duke case is not unique, sad to say.
So, in the interim, let's all feel free to continue to castigate everyone else's hypocrisy and revealed biases.
That way, we, in the most inclusive possible sense of that word, never have to look at our own.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thoughtful and reasonable comments @ 11:15 AM, up to:
So, in the interim, let's all feel free to continue to castigate everyone else's hypocrisy and revealed biases.
That way, we, in the most inclusive possible sense of that word, never have to look at our own.
-------------
I believe the injunction was: first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
One doesn't preclude the other, and both are obligatory.
John at 11:15 --
I realize that you sincerely believe what you say, but what you are saying is that a group which vigorously advocated for prosecutorial misconduct when the victims of that misconduct were outside their "base" are exactly the kind of people who will usher in reforms that will help more than their "base".
I don't think so.
Getting criminal reforms passed into law is, in theory, a great thing. But hey, guess what? The right of a defendant to a fair trial was already part of the law, and the NC NAACP tried to turn that upside-down and turn it into the right of an accuser to a fair trial. The principle that a change of venue is needed when the otherwise obvious venue has had its emotions inflamed by unfair publicity was already well-understood -- it was the NC NAACP who tried to insist that the case must be tried before a Durham jury because a Durham jury would have more blacks on it. What good does it do to pass a reform into law if even the people who pushed for that law are going to ignore it when it's inconvenient?
Which are they going to really do more of: press for color-blind reforms in the law which will help all innocent defendants? Or try to intervene in individual cases, blustering and pontificating (and fabricating) in order to help out the "black" side of the case, whether that be defendant or complainant?
As for your unsubtle insinuation that anyone complaining about the NC NAACP's hypocrisy and revealed biases, must, by the logic of the pretentiously glib, must be overlooking biases that are conveniently equal -- when the mote in my brother's eye happens to be six f***ing feet across then it just might be logical to concentrate on that one first.
Fair enough to 12:57 and 2:04 - but why should we expect any more out of the NAACP than they've shown so far, and for the last 20 years?
So, yeah, they tried to spin the lax case for their own political agenda - the divisiveness of which I abhor - and, oops, they were completely wrong, and when it was proven how wrong they were, they didn't take a whit of it back ... and even backscrabbled to move it along.
I am sure the fund raising director has been too nervous and preoccupied to suggest a different course, what with recent Pew Trust surveys showing increasing class divisions in the Black population. Here's a snippet:
"This leads to what may be the most important finding in the poll: 53 percent of black Americans now agree that 'blacks who can't get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition.' " See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16260629
But, one doesn't have to get in bed - or at least completely under the covers - with the NAACP to believe that their proposal for state reforms is valid and worthwhile. Even if the NAACP couldn't care less, if adopted it will also benefit white, hispanic, and even Pacific Islander NC citizens too ...
I thought I would point that positive development out. And, yes, I added my snippy comment. That's because it often seems to me that comments on this blog mostly default to pointing out the manifest hypocrisy and bias of others - and with a level of outrage in which there is a frisson of what borders on glee.
And, since I'm biased too - against aggressive begging, the NY Yankees, and more important things I won't confess here - it just seemed odd how worked up everyone got when there was actually something positive in that NAACP story.
anonymous said...
We use to say about deceased Senator John Connlly "that folk did not get to see him without a hundred thousand dollar bribe." I doubt Professor Coleman sold out - let alone for a pittance.
11/15/07 4:55 PM
Who is "Senator John Connlly"? If you mean the late John Connally of Texas, then you should know that he was never a Senator. He was Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Treasury, the only three-term Governor of Texas, and most importantly, president of the Student Association at the University of Texas, but he was never a Senator.
"Hats off for Big John!"
RRH
Guys,
I don't really get what is so confusing. I was taught by a Doctor (well, not a real one, just a PhD) that "White innocence means black guilt." Doesn't that tidy little phrase explain everything this hate group, er, I mean "organization" does?
Also:
1) Blacks can't be racist;
2) Math tests can;
3) State sanctioned racial preferences aren't racism;
4) but not agreeing with them is racist;
5) A perfect SAT score is good, but being black was worth more on your admissions application to the "University" of Michigan until the Supreme Court of the United States had to step in and stop it;
6) and liberals are more intelligent because they agree with the premise of everything above, and your feeble little mind relies too much on reason and accountability to make sense of all of their wisdom.
The following is my letter to the NAACP I hand delivered last year
To NAACP,
I’m a twenty-five-year old African-American with center-right political beliefs. I support the fight for equality under the law, but I don’t support you. The reason is I don’t view your organization as a representation of me and other like minded people. I view your organization as a wing of the Democratic Party, oppose to law and order, and tolerance to criminal behavior.
I view your organization was a wing of the Democrat Party because you have not listen to Republicans and/or conservatives without partiality. I remember then candidate George W. Bush speaking before you and the ad that follow it in 2000. I remember the opposition to the PATRIOT Act. I don’t remember you thanking John Ashcroft of fighting against racial profiling. Recently a radio talk show host called Condoleezza Rice a coon. He was fired for it. Yes the host did apologize; however, it’s your actions that raise questions. Last night you actively campaign for him to return to his job. Trent Lott said if Strom Thruman was elected when he ran for president, we wouldn’t have the problems we have now. He apologized, but you did not campaign for his return as senator majority leader.
I view you organization as being opposed to law and order because you oppose the death penalty and harsh sentencing. At the same time, you’re not involved in crime prevention programs or promoting any. I interned for the states Probation and Parole last summer. I saw a lot of private organization participating in the program. I did not see your program. I did not see a NAACP file at Probation and Parole.
I view your organization as tolerance to criminal behavior because your organization has not been supportive towards police officers when they need your support. Recently a driver shot at police and drove off. His actions resulted in a deadly chase that killed an African-American couple. Instead of asking the community to put down their guns, instead of preaching nonviolence, you asked for the police records of the car chase in your press conference. You also asked for the community to call you if you saw the police doing something wrong, but not if you saw the criminal doing something wrong.
For these reasons, I don’t believe your organization reflects me or other like-minded people. I look forward to the day when your organization reflects all people regardless or beliefs, but it is not today.
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