Friday, November 09, 2007

Updates

WRAL's Julia Lewis reports,

Several Durham police officers have been placed on leave pending a major internal investigation, and WRAL has learned the probe might center around sexual misconduct.

Meanwhile, Liestoppers reports that Dr. Brian Meehan has been replaced as lab director and general manager of DNA Security.

Another testament to the power of the extraordinary Kristin Butler.

And a strange column from Michael Gaynor suggesting that because Dr. Meehan was not "familiar with the details of Ms. Mangum's story," his failure to record all the test results in his report might be excusable, and might even suggest that DNA Security shouldn't be held liable for its misconduct. (Of course, both his own lab's protocols and state law governing non-testimonial orders required Meehan to report all test results, whatever the details of Mangum's story.) Criticism of Meehan, Gaynor suggests, was caused by "Reade Seligmann attorney Brad Bannon" having "asked a very broad and ambiguous question" to open the cross-examination. It was this question (which few, if any, people in the courtroom on Dec. 15 considered ambiguous) to which Meehan--falsely--answered no, as part of an apparent strategy of bluffing his way through the court appearance without revealing the exculpatory tests.

What should Bannon have done? He should have quoted from a June 2006 column from Gaynor(!), and asked Meehan about that. Gaynor's conclusion: "DNA Security was a Nifong victim too." Based on Meehan's sudden departure from the lab director's position, it seems that even DNA security disagrees with that analysis.

162 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they were a bit too "close" to the prostitutes that work here. But mustn't cast aspersions - afterall - jumping to conclusions would be wrong.

On the other hand, maybe this will link back to the Duke case and Crystal Gail Mangum. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Meehan's out? Great. It's long overdue, but welcome news nonetheless.

Debrah said...

"WRAL has learned the probe might center around sexual misconduct."

Under two former chief of police...Trevor Hampton and Jackie McNeill...there were accusations of a prostitution ring regarding the former.......and sexual harassment (directly accusing the chief) charges for the latter.

Durham really knows how to choose them.

LIS!!!

Anonymous said...

There is no small irony here. A corrupt police department fabricates false charges of sexual misconduct against innocent college students, only to be accused of departmental sexual misconduct.

Ed Sodaro MD

mac said...

They have an internal investigation with regard to sexual misconduct? How long has that been going on?

The imagination staggers toward (as yet) unfounded speculation: is CGM - (and perhaps some "unidentified" DNA)- part of this misconduct?

mac said...

Dr. Meehan, we will miss you!

Of course, we may get to know you better in the near future, the same way we got acquainted with you the first time: in court, with you testifying.

Anonymous said...

The imagination runs wild on how this could tie back to CGM and her associates....

"When asked by WRAL's Julia Lewis whether police officers are under investigation for having sex with prostitutes, Lopez replied, "At this point and time, we are conducting and investigation into some allegations of misconduct.""


Alum8284

mac said...

I'm sorry, but the Dee Pee Dee continues to remind me of Dee Cee's infamous police force, at a time when they vetted - (and approved) - a number of felons and other miscreants.

I'm sure there are good officers on the force, but they live in a place not unlike Gotham City in "Batman Begins." When they see corruption, who're they gonna tell?

Anonymous said...

Whew!! Bell just barely managed to get re-elected, just in the nick of time!! Talk about being lucky!! Or, talk about being sleazy. You just have to wonder about the timing. The only good news here is that it would appear that some of Durham's finest are off the streets.

Anonymous said...

From the WRAL report...

"It's not about secrecy, it's about confidentiality," he told WRAL. "You don't want to smear a good officer because of an allegation until we've gotten to the bottom of it."

However if they were white, male, college athletes then they would gladly tell you all about them.

Anonymous said...

Wow, just imagine that! I have been screaming for almost 3 years about the seriousness of the derelict law enforcement in Durm.

This is by far an isolated incident. Ironic they will be investigated for sex charges, will they just be "slapped on the hand too?!"
Rhonda

Anonymous said...

"It's not about secrecy. It's about confidentiality," he told WRAL. "You don't want to smear a good officer because of an allegation until we've gotten to the bottom of it."

Oh.

Was David add-it-up Addison on this memo? Sgt. Gutless-lieb?

Debrah said...

"History will look on Stuart Taylor, Jr., and KC Johnson as this generation's version of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein."

Johnsville News shares the identical essence of Diva clairvoyance!

Anonymous said...

'When asked by WRAL's Julia Lewis whether police officers are under investigation for having sex with prostitutes, Lopez replied, "At this point and time, we are conducting and investigation into some allegations of misconduct."'

eeewwww, just, eeeewwww. How can the citizens of Durham trust their police department to even direct traffic? The rot appears to be all encompassing.

Anonymous said...

You gotta wonder about a system that got these people to the positions they were in to start with. But I suppose with Durham, as with most similar cities (New Orleans, Cleveland, Detroit, etc., etc.,) you could almost anticipate it. Pitiful.

trinity60

Anonymous said...

According to the June 2007 link on Liestoppers, Meehan was the founder of DNA Security. Does anyone know if he is the owner or part owner? If he doesn't have any financial interest in the company, then he probably wouldn't mind taking Nifong down with him, either in the lawsuit or in a possible federal investigation.

According to the link, Meehan "has qualified as an expert witness for courtroom testimony in six different states/jurisdictions including North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Pennsylvania." Somehow I suspect that came to an end in December 2006.

One Spook said...

Durham is like a bad STD ... it just keeps on giving. This City is so disfunctional that if it were not so dangerous it would be almost sad.

Dr. Brian Meehan has been calling NITWIT (Nurse-in-Training-With-Inept-Training) Tara Levicy to see if there are any openings where she now works.

Meanwhile, preliminary 2007 Weblog Awards final vote totals show that DIW won by a landslide in "Best of the Top 3501 - 5000 Blogs."

Of the 10 Blogs nominated in this category, DIW tallied 47.4% of the vote. The next closest finisher was "The Galloping Beaver" with 14.5% of the vote.

Full Disclosure: I did vote once for "The Galloping Beaver" simply because I liked the name ...

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Well = in this Xmas season, there does appear to be a Santa Claus, More than anyone, Meeham deserves to lose everything in this evenet.

Anonymous said...

DPD officers suspended for sexual misconduct. Hmmmm...

Perhaps maybe Crystal Gail Mangum--the drug addled false accuser found to have on and within her body enough spermatazoa to act as sperm bank of Durham's largest fertility clinic--was involved with servicing these officers (and other well-placed government officials)?

Perhaps *that* explains why she has been protected every step of the way?

Thanks that make you go Hmmmmm...

Anonymous said...

When asked by WRAL's Julia Lewis whether police officers are under investigation for having sex with prostitutes, Lopez replied, "At this point and time, we are conducting and investigation into some allegations of misconduct."

"It's not about secrecy. It's about confidentiality," he told WRAL. "You don't want to smear a good officer because of an allegation until we've gotten to the bottom of it."


Yeah--due process and "innocent until proven guilty" when it comes to the DPD.

But no such thing as due process for white boys from Duke--they sure didn't worry about smearing the Duke 3 with FALSE allegations, did they?

DAYAM...this money quote ought to help the boys recover even more $$ from the filthy dirty rotten DPD.

Debrah said...

Below is a most interesting item I found at Slate. This is a published e-mail from Stuart to the former NYTimes columnist Anthony Lewis in 2002. The subject matter--especially the part I have accentuated in bold--is relative to KC and Stuart's current work:


the breakfast table

from: Stuart Taylor Jr.
to: Anthony Lewis

Affirmative Action for Juries?
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002, at 5:09 PM ET

Who are these people?

Dear Tony,
You really must stop sending me letters that give me so little to quarrel with. You seem right about the president's weak commitment to civil liberties. You seem right about the alarming sweep of the original military-trials order. (Quibble: I think that it was planned from the start that detailed fair-trial rights would come later, and that the administration never intended to be executing people on 2-1 votes, and thus I don't see those rules as a mere cave-in to us critics.) And you seem right about the need for a more robust commitment of American resources to rebuild Afghanistan and help other poor countries. (Quibbles: I do hope that the administration will drive a hard bargain with Europe on sharing the Afghanistan burden. And I hope that it will avoid pouring money down rat holes and into Swiss bank accounts, which is where much of our foreign aid has gone in the past.)

You even seem right in tweaking me for ducking all of the Bush environmental policies you criticized yesterday. I confess that I have been too busy (or too lazy) to read up on them. I am inclined to agree with your view that most are probably bad environmental policy. On the other hand, I'll bet that if we dug into them, we would find that allowing more roads in national forests would create lots of new jobs, for people who need jobs, and would find no popular consensus that snowmobiles despoil national parks. For this reason I am usually hesitant to assume, when this or any other administration does something I don't like, that they must have done it as a favor for logging company fat cats (who employ lots of people) or other monied interests (ditto).

An op-ed by Professor Jeffrey Abramson of Brandeis in this morning's New York Times brings me back to race. He discusses the federal appeals court decision this week overturning the 1997 convictions of Lemrick Nelson Jr. and another African-American on civil rights charges for the killing of a Hasidic Jew during the Crown Heights violence of 1991. The appeals court faulted the trial judge for his misguided effort to engineer the jury selection process by deviating from the usual rules so as to produce racial balance in this racially explosive case. For example, to avoid having "too many" black jurors, he kept one Jewish juror on the panel as an alternate even though that juror was unsure he could be fair. Abramson writes: "It is important to remember that jurors do not, in the political sense, have constituents to represent," lest "the noble ideal of representative juries collapses into a vulgar invitation for jurors to be loyal to their own groups, and ultimately undermines all confidence in the jury system."
Right. But I sympathize with the trial judge's impulse to tweak the process to avoid ending up with an all-black (or almost all black) jury—or an almost all-white jury, in some other case—in such an interracial murder case. Our diverse racial and ethnic communities are becoming so balkanized and polarized that more and more jurors see themselves as representatives of feuding racial factions even when the judges do everything right. And I see the obsession, in academia and among civil rights groups and many politicians, with emphasizing racial difference and racial grievance rather than with finding common ground as part of the problem. If it makes sense to apportion jobs, government contracts, seats in college, professorships, congressional districts, and Supreme Court clerkships on the basis of race, why not seats on juries? This seems to me a microcosm of how the increasing pervasiveness of the racial classifications that we call affirmative action (or diversity) is poisoning our civic discourse.
In order to get beyond racism, it seems, we have become obsessed with race. Now that you have retired from writing your column and have more time for leisurely contemplation, I am counting on you to find a way out of this box.


Best,
Stuart

Anonymous said...

sigh ...........sexual misconduct investigation in DPD -----
just more of the same in Durham ......

and now, BM is no longer at DNA security as "Mr Obfuscation"

What could be next?

Anonymous said...

Is Meehan a Communist?

Anonymous said...

I repeat my original question of several months ago.

Whose DNA was that on Crystal???

Anonymous said...

JLS says...,

Lopez replied, ... "You don't want to smear a good officer because of an allegation until we've gotten to the bottom of it."

There is some real irony here. But I guess since Lopez is new, I should be hopeful this is a more an new way of handling things rather than ironic.

Anonymous said...

The absolute vacuum about CGM fascinates me:who is she? Who does she work for? Who does she pay off?
Where is she from? Why isn't she being prosecuted?
How many escort agencies out of Durham? Who runs? Who protects? Who supplies? Who are constant users? Police involvement?

Anonymous said...

My, my, my...... How this news causes the mind to race...
Was he TOO CLOSE to the case?

Could this explain what the DPD Chief was AWOL during much of the time, and surrendered "control" of the investigation to Nifong?

Could this mean that some of the "unidentified" DNA found in the "nappy headed ho's" unmentionables, have now been identified?

Could this explain WHY no charges have ever been filed against the lying "ho"? Could she have threatened retaliation?

Boy I'm glad I'm willing for the wheels of justice to proceed - and NOT create a case from whole cloth or organize a lynch mob....

mac said...

Since we don't know who is under investigation, always remember rule #1: this is Duhh.

Considering that this is the City of Duhh, we might not want to be so quick to assume that the investigated officers are the ones who perpetrated the hoax.

It's possible that it's a set-up against those who were against the hoax. Like the internal investigation of Sgt. Shelton. On the other hand, this could be a back-door way to get rid of the hoax participants without admitting that they were part of the hoax.

Or maybe it's possible that Lopez is a City of Duhh version of Chief Gordon, and the Caped Crusader is likewise in town. Biff. Bam. Pow.

Lots of speculation.

Anonymous said...

One should not make 'Broad' statements, but the question of why a false accuser can walk free, has become 'Crystal' clear to me.

The up-side is, now Anne Allison can go off syllabus in her Hook-Ups lecture to discuss a ‘Hooker Blows Police’ line-up identification. (AGAIN)

Anonymous said...

traveler, you said: "One should not make 'Broad' statements, but the question of why a false accuser can walk free, has become 'Crystal' clear to me."

Didn't you mean to say "walk the streets free"?

Crystal's 'aura of protection' is the key to solving many mysteries, not just the chief's disappearance but the DPD squad car that was going to check on her "young-uns" that night. No wonder they had to destroy those tapes. No wonder the judge wanted the cell phone records kept private.

Anonymous said...

"The imagination staggers toward (as yet) unfounded speculation: is CGM - (and perhaps some "unidentified" DNA)- part of this misconduct?"

Does this explain why a Durham judge was so concerned with the privacy issues raised by looking at the numbers in Crystal's cell phone?

I'd love to see an NTO for the entire DPD to give DNA samples, so we can finally find out who else's was on Crystal.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
traveler, you said: "One should not make 'Broad' statements, but the question of why a false accuser can walk free, has become 'Crystal' clear to me."

Didn't you mean to say "walk the streets free"?
---------------------------
Clever YOU, that is good. I was semi-surprised what I did say made it, if you get my drift-Right? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind...or something like that...

Anonymous said...

What is Gaynor smoking??

He acts as if Brian Meehan was a white-coated academic happily toiling away in the ivory towers, happily focused on the simple question of "do these DNA samples match any of these 46 reference samples" and completely unaware that "no, but they match other people altogether" was a result of significance that should have been reported.

Kids, this is the same Brian Meehan who told Soucie of the DPD that his lab was willing to drop their prices in order because they really wanted to be involved in the case. No matter what you can argue Meehan didn't know, Meehan knew he was working on a criminal case. Meehan knew that the only reason they would be paying for expensive DNA testing was to identify or confirm their suspicions to the identity of the perpetrator(s). Meehan had to know that any specimen he discovered represented, at the very least, someone who had to be ruled out as a perpetrator.

Anonymous said...

KC said:
"And a strange column from Michael Gaynor ..."

Strange? Tortured beyond belief. That was the most painful read of a Gaynor column yet. That guy writes worse than Cash, and that's saying something.

Excuse me, I must go claw my eyes out now.

Anonymous said...

Meehan should take solace in learning a valuable lesson:

If you lie down with mangy dogs, you're liable to get fleas.

Gaynor can use lawyerly parsing all he wants to cast DNA Security as a Nifong victim. As an everyday ordinary citizen, I see DNA Security and Meehan, in particular, as willing participants in Nifong's scheme. Not necessarily to frame the lacrosse 3, but as a means to secure favor which would lead to more work from Nifong in the future. In the hurly burly of events in 2006, Meehan's moral compass was severely damaged. Maybe it already was well before he and Nifong ever met. It quite possibly would have happened with any other defendant(s) Nifong happened to present to him. Meehan was looking for revenue enhancement opportunities for DNA Security. The lacrosse 3 were simply the means to that end.

The world is a better place if Brian Meehan, Ph.D., never gets near a lab and opportunities to provide "expert" testimony ever again.

Anonymous said...

If there's one thing this blog has taught me, it is to honor the presumption of innocence - a brick in the foundation of the American justice system. As angry as I get thinking about the terrible injustices rendered by the DPD in the Duke case (injustices proven factually in a court of law), we should allow the accused their day in court before rushing to judge them.

Anonymous said...

From WRAL Article: "All of our police officers do an excellent job," - Councilman Eugene Brown

Yeah, real 'bang up' job they've done. no pun intended

Anonymous said...

Flashback: Political Correctness - Duke is not Antioch?

All Duke alumni should read this article in full at
'THE WEEKLY STANDARD’
Duke is not an Antioch yet, but as you read, you will see the seeds of destruction being sewn at Duke today. It is the alumni trying frantically to save Antioch, and some value to their degrees.
---------------------------------
Death by Political Correctness
Who killed Antioch College?
by Charlotte Allen

“Antioch College, a 155-year-old liberal-arts institution best known nowadays for a campus culture that long ago drifted from the progressively liberal to the alarmingly radical.

A visitor to the campus might infer that ultra-radicalism doesn't sell.”

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/306jqecg.asp?pg=2

Michael said...

Didn't Liestoppers do a "Please come forward" wanted poster for the police and Nifong?

That's pretty amazing that they wouldn't want to make investigation information public for the police but that false accusations are public against the accused.

Linked from Butler's article was a story that Durham has 144 days of water left. Seems to me that that's a huge problem down there.

Anonymous said...

Scott said:

Meehan was looking for revenue enhancement opportunities for DNA Security. The lacrosse 3 were simply the means to that end.

The world is a better place if Brian Meehan, Ph.D., never gets near a lab and opportunities to provide "expert" testimony ever again.


Yes, but only slightly better, because the structural flaws that tempted Meehan remain unchanged.

I find the whole system of forensic labs, both independent and law-enforcement run, extremely worrisome. There is strong incentive to bend the truth to help the customer (usually a prosecutor), a well established history of such truth-bending happening (often with no consequence to the truth-benders even when discovered), lots of forces to protect dishonest labs (the same ones that protect dishonest cops and prosecutors) and little to nothing in the way of regular, independent oversight.

Debrah said...

H-S letter:

Pakistan's troubles show lawyers' worth

The president of Pakistan has declared a state of emergency, suspended the country's constitution, instituted military control and taken power for himself.

In doing so, he has fired the nation's chief justice. Leading the opposition to this totalitarian move are the country's lawyers. They are in the streets protesting while being beaten and arrested because they are standing up for the constitution and against tyranny.

It demonstrates the point that Shakespeare was making in Henry VI when his characters made the point that before you can take over a country and change its laws you must kill all the lawyers. This should be an example for all Americans that we are a nation of laws, and lawyers are protectors of those laws and thereby our nation's freedoms.

I hope the next time we hear lawyer jokes in America, or hear the political demagoguery thrown at the legal profession, even if we laugh, we stop and think about the importance of lawyers and the law to our American democracy. I doubt there are many lawyer jokes being laughed at in Pakistan today by freedom-loving people.

The writer is president of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Joe Cheshire
Raleigh
November 9, 2007


*********************************************

Yes Joe, I quite agree.

However, we have people like the self-interested Erwin Chemerinsky who is a well-known law professor at Duke....until he moves back to California very soon to spread his brand of hypocrisy on your beloved law once again.

While you and your team were working around the clock for justice, Chemerinsky and his Duke colleagues didn't have much to say.

And the one--Coleman--who did has now reneged.

What to make of such people as examples? They are teaching our future lawyers that justice is a moving target and must conform to their ideology in order to have significance.

As your letter appears in one local outlet, Chemerinsky self-righteously condemns a target he likes--from afar, as is his habit--in another local outlet.

Too easy.

Where were people like the Chem when Reade, Collin, and David needed help on his own campus?

No Joseph, we should not forget the great good that many lawyers do in this country for justice.

And we should not forget those who follow your lead only when the cause completes their political purposes.

You should tell Erwin Chemerinsky to provide a better example.

Anonymous said...

Lopez was "imported" from Hartford, CT a city plagued with crime and corruption, therefore, this should not be a surprise for the new chief.

John said...

If it is true the Meehan report strictly complied with the terms of the Court Order for the testing, then I suppose one legal question would be whether the Order and the broader terms of the protocols as a matter of law are somehow mutually exclusive?

Did Meehan have the option to ignore the protocol requirements by strictly sticking to tests and analysis ordered by the Court in his report on the results? What is the legal status of "protocols", are they just best practice guidelines or are they mandatory as a matter of law?

Since the Order appears only to have covered the nature of the tests and the analysis to be conducted, and the protocols cover the content of any DNA test results reporting, I do not see how Meehan has much of a leg to stand on, even if the protocols aren't legally mandatory. To help him, the Order would also have had to use limiting words in a specific reference to the actual reporting.

But, while his difficult 3-point shot ultimatley rims out, IMO it is a nice little bit of defense lawyering by Gaynor. Maybe he'll get a client out of it ... :-)

Debrah said...

For a good laugh

Oh, the humanity.

One Spook said...

A few things ... I was quick to comment on the DPD as were others ... the "old" DPD that allowed miscreants like Addison and Gottleib to flourish.

Yet, Lopez is the new Chief and his statement that "You don't want to smear a good officer because of an allegation until we've gotten to the bottom of it." certainly is consistent with a committment to the presumption of innocence.

The value of that concept is one thing all of us on this Blog seem to embrace, so I believe we owe Lopez the benefit of the doubt.

And, while we can all engage in titillating speculation as to whose DNA is on Crystal, that too isn't very productive. I think we'd all benefit by exercising patience and waiting for the facts to come out --- a concept many of us have blamed media pundits for NOT doing.

And finally, if as KC wrote, " ...state law governing non-testimonial orders required Meehan to report all test results ..." is true, then Gaynor's verbose, turgid argument in his column is a complete waste of bandwidth. Gaynor may be an educated guy, but reading his columns is torture at best.

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Traveler: Nice pick-up on the Antioch article. Very interesting.

Joe K

Anonymous said...

What undermines Gaynors column is that he refers to Meehan as a scientist, not a lawyer. That may be true but he does put himself forth as an expert witness. To be an expert witness he should have some understanding of the law, especially as they pertain to his field. From the (past) DNA Security website: “He has qualified as an expert witness for courtroom testimony in six different states/jurisdictions including North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Pennsylvania.” He should also be able to handle himself in court, especially during examination by defense attorneys.

Anonymous said...

Hello, my fellow KC fans,

Is there a place on this website where we can let KC know about (minor) errors in the book?

Anonymous said...

traveler @11/09 9:16 AM:

...was semi-surprised what I did say made it, if you get my drift-Right? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind...or something like that...

It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

...and don't miss the references to "orders from the D.A.": "Look out, kid, don't matter what you did." Re the G88: "Look out, kid, you're gonna get hit by losers, cheaters, and six-time users." And for Durham: "Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."

Actually, I'd like to nominate "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as a Candidate for Official Anthem of the Scandal if "Locomotive Breath" hasn't seized the title already.

The catch-phrase correlations to the Durham/Duke disaster are striking, if not downright prophetic (KC will appreciate "don't tie bows..."). No references, however, to Paul being dead.

dave

Anonymous said...

Chemerinsky , like others, is getting out of Durham as fast as they can. I quess he had no interests in this event.

Anonymous said...

Does the DNA Lab still have a contract with the Florida Police? Is Nifong still on the Animal Control Panel? What does Meeham's Lawyer Anton have to say about all this?

Anonymous said...

Sunday is day after tomorrow, what's the chance of a "Time to confess" pot-banger rally outside the DPD.....

Anonymous said...

I have a few questions: This alleged police sexual misconduct news story, breaks just days AFTER the election. The electorate of Durham might have been better served if this story broke on Monday, or would that news have tarnished the mayor?

What do you suppose the LAX3 attorneys are doing, laughing as they get ready to stroll down easy street?
A gold-paved street at that.

What do you think the Durham attorneys are doing, hiding in a dark hole, shredding
Crystal’s little Black Book?

Is Crystal attending ‘Pole Dancing school” on
Jesse Jackson’s dime?

Pesky questions these-

Anonymous said...

In Durham it gets "curiousier and curiouser" and as Mr. Taylor has suggested, it will get "uglier and uglier".

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be precious if Crystal Mangum was one of the prostitutes involved in this case.

Anonymous said...

Anyone care to guess how long it will take for the NY Times to pick up the Durham PD story? A week? A month? Never?

Anonymous said...

I've been saying SINCE AUGUST that we need to know who the 4 DNA on Crystal came from.

Well... I don't personally need to know.

But I think that the Justice Department officials need to know.

Is that data still available, or did Meeham take it with him to his new "job"?

Anonymous said...

Just knowing Crystal had DNA present doesn't tell you who it's from unless you have someone to match it to. You can't expect her to tell the truth about it, can you?

However, if you made all the Durham cops submit samples to prove their innocence, then that should do it, right? And none of them need lawyers, either, of course.

Too bad none of them can spell hypocrisy!

Debrah said...

Aren't they giving out the Weblog Awards in Vegas tonight?

I suppose they will announce KC....so someone should post this if you know where the info will be.

Anonymous said...

Gaynor's bio is 7 paragraphs long! It should be 1, maybe 2. That's a red flag.

Anonymous said...

What in the world is wrong with Gaynor to write this stuff? Good for a laugh though.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Is Meehan a Communist?

11/8/07 10:20 PM
-----------------------------------
No. You're thinking of Ho Chi Meehan.

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 12.03:

"Is there a place on this website where we can let KC know about (minor) errors in the book?"

You can e-mail me.

Debrah said...

Ed Bradley died a year ago on this day.....and people like Mikey and Meehan are still walking around.

Anonymous said...

It seems Michael Gaynor had to devise a new way to blow his own horn. He had to figure out how to, yet again, say that he broke the DNA story back in June 2006. Of course, when you "break" a story, usually that means that someone actually reads it, and it becomes public, common knowledge.

What probably happened in June 2006 is that Gaynor wrote another impossibly wordy article with terrible grammar, and the article (like this most recent one) contradicted itself every other paragraph. I'm betting it also rambled. By rambled, I mean it was wording, and it jumped from idea to idea, nimbly, pimbly.

I would read Gaynor's June 2006 article, but this latest one exhausted me.

Sure, Mr. Gaynor, I believe you: Brian "Mr. Obfuscation" Meehan was really a misunderstood "HERO OF THE HOAX."

Do you think Meehan is smart enough to understand DNA science but too stupid to know that unexplained DNA from multiple undisclosed sex partners is not relevant evidence? Do you think that Meehan DIDN'T talk to Nifong about this?

Anonymous said...

The Antioch saga continues at Columbia-

One of the theories is,
that radical students aided and abetted by radical faculty, brought on the demise of Antioch College.

If you read the article below, you will see the Antioch CANCER has left the Ohio bloodstream, and metastasized itself at Columbia in NY.

Duke needs its surgeons on hand in more ways than one.

I think I have a new word for the Word Index--“Antioched“
Meaning, you’ve led “yourself” to your own destruction.
----------------
The all-purpose Columbia University hunger strike
By Michelle Malkin • November 9, 2007
Excerpts:

“The presumption of [white guilt] infuses the hunger strikers “demands.”

“We demand support and autonomy for the [Ethnic Studies program], which is crucial to a critical intellectual experience in a [progressive university.”]

“[The editorial board] of the Columbia Spectator [student publication] attempts to distance itself from the desperate, unfocused grievance-mongers, but concludes that the administration should capitulate anyway.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/09/the-all-purpose-columbia-university-

Anonymous said...

anon @11/09 2:10 PM asks:

Is that [DNA on Crystal] data still available, or did Meehan take it with him to his new 'job'?

From what I can gather from the 12/15/06 hearing, "Attachment 3" to the DNA Security report contains the electropherograms of everyone's DNA found in the rape kit sampling of stains from CGM's panties. Which means the data on the "unidentified 4" is sitting right there in the report. Meehan/Nifong intended that it remain buried there, but defense attorney Brad Bannon brilliantly ferreted out the evidence. It's too late to make that data go away now.

All that's needed is for blood/hair/semen samples to be taken from individuals unknown in order to find DNA matches with the rape kit sample and we'd know who the "unidentified 4" are.

Not that anyone's going to give out "match" samples voluntarily– only the entire Duke lacrosse team was expected to do that– but if one of the civil suit lawyers could figure out a reason for the court to subpoena samples from, well, the DPD for starters, things could get interesting. Or uglier and uglier.

dave

Debrah said...

I had never seen this before.

Take a look at this early clip from Nancy Grace. She is beating up on Duke's Stephen Miller.

I'm so glad that I never watched her show during the case.

She is quite possibly as insane as Mikey.

Mangum's Mama Grace

Debrah said...

Was this long article in the New Yorker ever discussed here?

This is from 9/06 and is quite long.

It's interesting to revisit some of the coverage after a year has past.

I don't remember this one, however.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the new "ncprosecutorialmisconduct.com" website supported by the NC-NAACP, which particularly highlights the support of William Barber and Al McSurely ... isn't that a bit like creating a "Readiness for Military Action" website and highlighting the endorsement you got from Neville Chamberlain?

Anonymous said...

Several responses have suggested that Crystal Mangam might have been involved with the newest Durham Police scandal. For the love of humanity, I pray not. There's a limit on how low any lying, junkie whore should have to go.

Anonymous said...

Deborah...you are on today...very interesting stuff...

Inre: "...What to make of such people as examples? They are teaching our future lawyers that justice is a moving target and must conform to their ideology in order to have significance...."

With all the due respect to Mr. Cheshire, I'm reminded of the three MDs visiting about who represents the easiest operation.

The first says, "It is clearly architects. Everything is color-coded. You make you incision, find the bad mauve piece and then replace it with a new mauve piece."

The second says, "Yes they are easy, but I find Engineers are the easiest. Everything is precise. You make you incision, find the bad 12.12562 and replace it with a new 12.12562. There is no ambiguity or subjectiveness. Everything is clear."

The third say, "You are both wrong, lawyers are by far the easiest operation."

The jaws drop on the other two thinking of all the malpractice insurance premiums and added staff requirements. One says, "Have you lost you mind."

The third responds, "You both are looking at this all wrong. Lawyers only have two moving parts, there mouths and there ass holes and there interchangeable."

This case should bring clarity, that if one needs an attorney, spend all you have to get the best.

On the other hand, when does one ever really need to call a University President?

Anonymous said...

If you believe there should be a federal criminal investigation in the case, a new U.S. Attorney General has been confirmed and sworn in today in a private ceremony. You can write to the new U.S. AG at:

Michael Mukasey
Attorney General of the United States
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC
20530-0001

I suggest emphasizing that the civil rights of Collin, Reade and Dave were violated under color of law by the Durham police and prosecutor's office.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Is Meehan a Communist?

11/8/07 10:20 PM
-----------------------------------
No. You're thinking of Ho Chi Meehan.

11/9/07 3:46 PM


Not to be confused with HOE Chi Mangum.

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight - Duke knows it has a racist law on its books forbidding sale of property to Negroes. Duke does nothing about that racist law. Duke only erases that racist law after it is embarrassed into doing so by a former alumnus and a student writer.

Christ, how many damned times does Duke have to keep proving that whatever it does NOT do (does not fire Kim Curtis, does not censor the Gang, does not defend the lacrosse players, etc.) is 'bad enough'?

mac said...

One Spook 11:50 am:

I agree; there are several (and probably more) possible explanations for Lopez' investigation:

1. Lopez is trying to clean up the culture of lawlessness within the Dee Pee Dee, and to turn it into the DPD.

2. The accused are innocent.

3. The charges are a way for the City of Duhh to rid themselves of some cops who may well cost them tens of millions of dollars - or more, without admitting error in the lacrosse hoax.

4. The charges are related to CGM and the hoax, and DNA coverups are being exposed for what they are; higher-ups are likely involved, maybe way-higher-ups.

5. This is similar to the allegations of the prostitution ring within the department, and they're hoping to get sued again.


As you said: all speculation. I hope it is #1 or #2 on this list, though a part of me would prefer that the others would be true. While I have little respect for the City of Duhh, it sure would be nice to see it change back, into a real civilization. Question is: when was it a real civilization? And is it worth saving?

Better ask Bruce Wayne.

mac said...

Gaynor's comment: "that makes sense to me" is silly.

If there were samples of 4 unidentified males, the presence of such materials means that she wasn't clean of materials.

Let's compare it to colored dirt thrown on a white rug: there's red dirt and blue dirt. Allegedly, red dirt was thrown on a rug, but no dirt matching the red dirt is found. Fine, Mr. Gaynor might say, (and Tara Levicy, too,) it's because it either didn't land on the rug, or it was swept up by the vaccuum cleaner.

Then the investigation finds (from the vacuum bag) that there not only was the absence of red dirt, there was an abundance of blue dirt.

That shows that the red dirt wasn't absent because of the process of vacuuming, or because it was somehow mysteriously blocked by some ethereal presence: it was absent because the red dirt was never introduced to the carpet. No red dirt means it was never near the carpet.

Especially since the carpet said that no one used a plastic cover to block the dirt, and indeed, it "made her breath smell bad."

However, it wasn't the red dirt that made the carpet's breath smell bad: perhaps it was the blue dirt?

In any case, the presence of the blue dirt proves that the carpet was in serious need of vacuuming. We need to note that the carpet obviously hadn't been vacuumed if there was the presence of blue dirt. Lots of it.

Anonymous said...

What is the possibility that certain members of the DPD were regular clients of Precious?

Who did she know in the DPD and what exactly was their relationship?

From whom were the 4 samples taken from?

Anonymous said...

To suggest that a DNA lab director doesn't understand the implication of foreign DNA on a "rape victim" is just absurd. Meehan testified, when he was discussing his concerns about privacy, something to the effect that if it were his son, he wouldn't want his DNA profile published in a document that was sure to be made public. In addition to this statement letting us know Meehan knew much about what was going on in this case (i.e. w/ documents being made public) -- wouldn't he also have understood that if it was his son charged with rape -- and DNA testing showed his DNA not present but other foreign DNA present -- that this would be critical evidence to his son's defense??

Meehan knew - we know he knew.

I don't think we'll ever know exactly what transpired between Meehan and Nifong (and the two DPD officers). I believe there was more of a conspiracy than will ever be acknowledged (and I'm not generally a big conspiracy believer....) -- unbelievable that there are NO notes from those meetings -- none of the 4 took any notes? Unbelievable.

Gaynor is just nuts.

Anonymous said...

when you run prostitutes, the first order of business is to make an accomodation with the local vice squad. needless to say, refusal to see the handwriting on the wall will hasten your "arrest" as a pimp.
oftentimes, arrangements such as these can lead to complications when the activities of one of the girls attracts the public's interest.
running suppression on a fake felony charge also oftentimes requires the compliance of a friendly forensic pathologist, unless the target has been professionally disabled, e.g., cyanide/DMSO spray.(google "Fahmy Malek", the best in the field, here)
Durham, of course, is amateur land, where God only knows of the conflicts that could be uncovered connecting CGM to local authorities, although the fact that she is still alive is a strong indicator of weak links

Anonymous said...

FYI: I looked at the site to see what the buzz was about, and it is disgusting.
-------------
Duke Chronicle
Gossip Web site abuses free speech
During the past two weeks, www.JuicyCampus.com has created an uncomfortable buzz at Duke. The Web site hosts a 100-percent anonymous message board that challenges students with the motto "C'mon. Give us the juice."

The site, which was started by a recent Duke alum, currently has thousands of threads in which faceless posters have said inappropriate, gratuitous and at times slanderous things under the umbrella of anonymity.

This alum has redefined online entrepreneurship in a very scary way. And at this point, he should take a long hard look at the site he has created.

http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/11/09/Editorial/Gossip.Web.Site.Abuses.Free.Speech-3091582.shtml

Anonymous said...

Gaynor repeatedly proves that his vacuous analysis cannot be trusted. He is a bloviating know it all who cannot move his ego out of the way long enough to keep his facts straight. If anyone takes his writing seriously anymore they have a serious need to be misinformed.

Anonymous said...

I finally read Gaynors piece. I admit that I felt slightly more sympathy for Meehan afterwards. In essence, Gaynor said that DAs are the ones with ultimate responsibility to see that the rules are followed in the presentation of evidence and that Meehan, as a lowly Lab-Person, was merely following orders. But even in the military, where chain of command issues are no-kidding, the reception of an illegal order does not confer immunity to the one who does an illegal act. State Laws and standard lab protocols seem to have been clear enough on these points raised.
The other thing I would say (to Gaynor) is that successful internet commentary must resemble billboard advertising like that put up beside a highspeed urban freeway - you have a few seconds to get your main point across and people stop reading the instant you confuse them.

Anonymous said...

“no justice, no peace” eloquently spoke about lawyers with interchangeable orifices'(Tender Eyes)edit.

Wah Wah is not going to be pleased today. It is rumored that the “Queen” of profound loquaciousness has described D-I-W posters as crass, gross, rude, unlettered,unrefined, crude, imbalanced, blog- hooligans +++..... all in one sentence.

Perhaps the garrulous one is just a few paragraphs short of finishing that “Forthcoming” (You done me wrong) article for the "Whatever Publishing Company.” You can’t expect her to be at her best with a bright light shining in her face.

Shhhhhhhhhh--PLEASE, she is counting words, 500 more to go, just two paragraphs!

“Help Dr. Thug,” “#@%&*)^%#@!*^(!@#$%^&*(!)@*#&$^%@#," (That‘s 10 GOOD words at least)“

“Farm Animal writer, _______We have a problem” “Don’t go axing me, my orifices' done left town.”

Strip to the waist-er, “ I am having enough trouble unbuttoning my blouse, not now."

”Help KKK", “My orifices’ are in Veeeeery rarified air, go axe Bill.”

"Getting a STRAIGHT answer around here is almost impossible.”

“Chuckle, you’ve come to save the day. Nice cape by the way.”

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
God only knows of the conflicts that could be uncovered connecting CGM to local authorities, although the fact that she is still alive is a strong indicator of weak links.
--------------------
Clever one, I think you’ve got it! Haven’t we said a million times, where is Crystal? Who is protecting her?

How about a witness protection program?
Sound far-fetched?

Debrah said...

I hope that some of you get a chance to read the above cited New Yorker article from last year.

For example this little gem is its last paragraph.

Don't read it while eating.


Brodhead reflected on all that had happened as we chatted in his office in July, and said that it brought to mind Shakespeare’s “Othello”—not for its obvious associations with interracial passions and violence but for its lesson on prejudgment. The scene at the beginning of the play, he said, was particularly instructive. Desdemona’s father hears about his daughter’s relationship with the Moor, and he sighs, “Belief of it oppresses me already.
“He doesn’t say, ‘Oh, now I see what you’re getting at,’ ” Brodhead said. “He’s saying, ‘Now I realize that I always believed it’—‘Belief of it oppresses me already.’ It’s probably, to my mind, the greatest literary image of the action of prejudice—how a story is told to engage something in the mind that brings with it absolute certainty that derives from the nature of the stereotypes.”
He had located a clarifying point of reference in the lacrosse ordeal, and he became animated. It had been a headlong narrative, driven partly by a willingness to affirm favored certitudes about justice.
“ ‘Belief of it oppresses me already,’ you know?” he continued. “And the thing is, we actually can’t blame people for being subject to this, because it is so deeply human. And if, from day to day, we’ve seen people in the throes of this, we recognize that as a dimension of our humanity. At the same time, it really is our obligation to resist it, because, you know—truth and justice, they are scant phrases unless we try to take the trouble to make them have a reality to them. And what do truth and justice mean? Truth and justice mean something opposite from our preconceptions.”



Brodhead tries to pull himself out of his own spider hole of prejudgment by going into a flighty Shakespearean mode.

What a wretched and cowardly man he is. He literally sickens me.

Anonymous said...

Where is the evidence that there were only four unidentified DNA samples found in her?

The lawyers have been very careful to state that there were "at least" four unidentified males.

Bill O'Reilly said there were at least seven and I believe Stuart Taylor has said there were eight or ten.

The report is hard to read but it looks like it says nine or ten.

Debrah said...

H-S:


Police probe prompts queries

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun

Reports that internal affairs investigators are looking into whether city police officers have received sexual favors from prostitutes have at least one activist wondering whether official misconduct explains why the east Durham sex trade still flourishes.

The investigation, which went public Thursday when Police Chief Jose Lopez briefed elected officials, prompted the suspension of five officers assigned to the Durham Police Department's District 1 office. The patrol officers and detectives who work in District 1 police east Durham, the most crime-ridden part of the city.

Three officers supposedly have been exonerated, but there's no word on when the investigation will conclude.

In the meantime, city officials are refusing to release the names of the suspended officers, and activists such as Durham Crime Cabinet member Melvin Whitley are fretting about the probe's implications.

"For a long time, officers have been telling us they couldn't arrest prostitutes because they inform on other people," said Whitley, a Harvard Avenue resident prominent in Mayor Bill Bell's just-concluded re-election campaign. "But when I'm reading the story, I'm thinking there might have been another motive, too: If they get arrested, somebody might say something."

Whitley added that he's "always thought it was mysterious that on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, prostitutes could have free reign on our streets and no one would move against them."

Meanwhile, District Attorney David Saacks confirmed that his office has gotten a heads-up from investigators, but he added that to date, it hasn't received a formal or informal report from police.

"I think they wanted to know if they could get court orders for something if they needed it," Saacks said on Friday. "So far, they haven't."

Lopez has said the department warned Durham County prosecutors and the FBI that it might need their help. His boss, City Manager Patrick Baker, said the allegations could constitute criminal misconduct and at the very least involved conduct unbecoming an officer.

Saacks said once police submit a report to prosecutors, "we'll sit and figure out what we need to do with it." He did not rule out the possibility of asking for assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation and the state Attorney General's Office.

As for the suspended officers, Lopez said officials are holding back their names because he deems them critical to the ongoing investigation.

"I will have to decline forwarding the information at this time due to the fact that such release could compromise an ongoing investigation," he said, adding that he would reassess his position as the probe nears its completion.

Area lawyers immediately criticized the chief's decision, noting that state law specifies that, among other things, the names of city employees and the date of their "most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation or other change in position classification" is a public record.

The General Assembly has said that such data's ties to a criminal investigation "shall not affect its status as a public record."

"The Durham Police Department has a legal obligation under the Public Records Law to provide the requested information as promptly as they can, which, in this case, would be immediately," said Amanda Martin, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association. "There is no legal justification for the position taken by the Police Department."

Durham lawyer Alex Charns -- who's gone to court against the city several times, including once in defense of police officers targeted by false allegations of a department-run prostitution ring -- said city officials habitually violate the records law.

"They need to be sued on a regular basis," Charns said. "The city's public records history is atrocious. They've made some headway in areas, but it's my opinion that if they were sued on a monthly basis by the news media or public-records requesters, that wouldn't be enough to make them meet their obligations."

Debrah said...

Below is a letter in the H-S today from someone upset about columnist John McCann's anti-gay opinions.

Homosexuality has never been a big issue with me because I couldn't care less what someone else is doing in their bedroom.

However, there are some activists who make this an issue by flaunting their lifestyles in such a way that comes across as forcing others to change their own ideas about the subject.

In this particular case, if John McCann were not a black man he would never be allowed to publish such anti-gay-ultra-religious-Bible-quoting columns as he does on a regular basis.

He's entitled to his opinions; however, he is forever proselytizing and needlessly offending readers.

Imagine if a man or woman of any other race were to write such things.......as a "columnist" of a newspaper.

They'd be driven out of town.
*******************************************

Spreading intolerance, hate isn't 'cute' either

I have never before been moved to write a response to a column until I read John McCann's Oct. 26 opinion piece titled, " 'Queens' worth watching."

I respect McCann's right to his opinion and the right of a newspaper to publish any opinion it sees fit, but I am very disappointed to see heterosexism so clearly and casually displayed in my hometown newspaper. The column is a sad reminder that such misled beliefs not only exist, but have a wide audience. It is these beliefs that make growing up gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender so challenging.

We have a real problem in this world when it comes to homosexuality, and the problem isn't that "Ellen's [DeGeneres] lifestyle isn't cute ... according to God." The problem is that many of our citizens are afraid to be open about who they are and who they love. The problem is the high rates of victimization, discrimination and suicide among LGBT teenagers. The problem is that some people and some churches in our community are spreading intolerant beliefs and making light of it.

Mikel Barton
Durham
November 10, 2007

Debrah said...

Why hasn't KC posted the word "Winner" on the Weblog Awards box?

Anonymous said...

Debrah,

I thought Peter Boyer did a fantastic job on that article when it came out,and it reads just as well now. While I do not believe President Brodhead should continue to lead Duke, I very much appreciated his usage of Odysseus at the outset of the article to illustrate the thinking behind why Duke still held firmly to the model of the student-athlete, even as most other elite academic institutions have embraced more limited athletic programs.

Also, President Brodhead's reference at the very end of the article to Othello and the danger of prejudice in any inquiry seeking truth seemed to me particularly apt. I quote from the article which quotes President Brodhead briefly quoting Shakespeare and interpreting the quote in light of human limitations and obligations:

“ ‘Belief of it oppresses me already,’ you know?” he [President Brodhead] continued. “And the thing is, we actually can’t blame people for being subject to this, because it is so deeply human. And if, from day to day, we’ve seen people in the throes of this, we recognize that as a dimension of our humanity. At the same time, it really is our obligation to resist it, because, you know—truth and justice, they are cant phrases unless we try to take the trouble to make them have a reality to them. And what do truth and justice mean? Truth and justice mean something opposite from our preconceptions.” ♦

Most definitely we can agree at least on this.

Observer

Anonymous said...

Barry “unapologetically” Saunders;

It’s encouraged that Duhites frequent strippers and git down-n-dirty with the home girls in the hoochie koochie joints. Oh yeah, who cares about the strippers in this case? They are what they are. In this case, they’re less than human…

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/saunders/2004/story/306725.html

“The club was what it was. Unapologetically. There are things some men like. They don't brag about those things, but neither should they have to apologize for them.”


… So DUDE, “she’s a stripper,”why should the Dukies be DIFFERENT??? Did your pimp hat brim get bent out of shape? Looks like you’ll need to find a new joint to spend your Confederate currency, Dollar-Bill Barry Saunders.

http://www.newsobserver.com/215/story/422770.html

“It's obvious, though, that something dirty took place in there.”

“…something wrong… had occurred there…”

“Wanna bet they're somewhere scratching their helmeted heads going, "What? All of this support for a stripper? An exotic dancer? Who'd have thought people would get so worked up over a little boys-will-be-boys horseplay? Gosh, she's a stripper, dude,…”

Debrah said...

Graduate student assaulted

Duke students should fear Durham residents.....not the other way around.

Anonymous said...

Durham, of course, is amateur land, where God only knows of the conflicts that could be uncovered connecting CGM to local authorities, although the fact that she is still alive is a strong indicator of weak links

11/10/07 1:25 AM


We know Crystal Mangum is alive--exactly how? Hmmm?

We haven't seen hide nor hair of the lying hoe since before her 3rd illegitmate baby popped out her hatch.

Does ANYONE even know where she is?

Oh, and speaking of that baby.

Has anyone considered the baby could well be the progeny of a very highly placed Durham government official? I mean, we never did hear anything more about the COURT ORDERED paternity/DNA tests, did we?

Were DNA/paternity tests ever carried out? Did DNASI handle the baby's DNA/paternity tests? Where are the results? Is this another cover up?

::::thinking, thinking:::::

Anonymous said...

RE: Mr. Gaynor's article

As I understand it absolutely, positively, without a single doubt, the fullest of all possible reports on the DNA evidence collected on the basis of a NTO has to be turned over to the defense as soon as practicable after the test results become available.

The US Constitution, NC statutes, and ethical rules bind the prosecution and its vendors to strict adherence in this matter.

The protocols of DNA Security no doubt reflect the saliency of this requirement to hand over all of the DNA evidence upon its availability.

I am not really familiar with the training someone like Dr. Meehan would have had on this, but it is very difficult to imagine he did not understand the rather massive legal foundation undergirding the company protocols.

I am happy for Mr. Gaynor to make the argument for Dr. Meehan's innocence, though, and jar us into a closer analysis of his role.

On Mr. Gaynor's hairsplitting of Brad Bannon's question about multiple DNA sources and his explanation of Dr. Meehan's "No"--namely, there were not multiple DNA sources in the rectum, just on the panties--it seems an enormous stretch, but possible. I think we would have to review the tape, not just the transcript, though, to make a judgment. Dr. Meehan certainly acknowledges quickly enough after the initial question the presence of multiple DNA...but I would have to defer to someone who actually saw the testimony.

My personal inclination would be to interpret Dr. Meehan's "No" exactly the way Brad Bannon interpreted it...that Dr. Meehan with his "No" had testified there were not DNA samples from multiple males found. If Dr. Meehan meant his "No" the way Mr. Gaynor now argues, it really was incumbent upon Dr. Meehan, it seems to me, to explain (1) while he was under oath to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and (2) without further probing from Brad Bannon EXACTLY what he meant by "No."

Observer

Debrah said...

Provocative and optimistic:

WSJ

Anonymous said...

Well, it seems that it is important to know to whom the DNA discovered on and in Magnum's person originally belonged. Who is Baby Duke's father? The male members of the DukeGroup88 should be required to test their DNA for purposes of establishing paternity as should the Durham Police Department's male members and the male family members of the female officers. There is proable cause as these people live and work in Durham. If no matches are found, road blocks can be extablished on I-85. There random DNA testing of males driving by the city of Durham can be conducted. All the while groups of ignorant people can bang pots and march and give interviews that corroborate their ingnorance of all facts concerned with the case and shouting "whose your daddy" like it matters or that they had a daddy.

Anonymous said...

The great Durham soap opera, "All my Children," staring Precious. The central theme can be based around Precious' deep question to her children... "who's yer daddy?"

And in episode 5, sugar daddy Barry Saunders can show the youngsters how wear their pimp hats off to the side. And David Addison could make a "wanted" persons poster for suspected fathers. Maybe he should start with his photo first.

Debrah said...

TO observer (11:36 AM)--

Indeed, it seems that both you and I were drawn to Brodhead's reliance on Shakespeare at the end of the article.

But you see, neither of our posts had yet emerged and we both highlighted the same paragraph.

A deliberate diversion.

That is what people like Brodhead do. I read him like a book.

Of course the particular quotes he used were apt. By that time he had had many months to sift through his poetry and his favorites from the Classics to find "just the right words".

Something really profound to stress what a lofty, literate man he is.

All of these antimacassar niceties do not eclipse his self-serving cowardice and the harm he did to the lacrosse team.

I would have preferred a Shakespearean allusion to a little pointy-headed prick who runs an elite university....instead.

Anonymous said...

Debrah said...
Provocative and optimistic:

WSJ

11/10/07 12:09 PM


What a load of horse pucky.

I have no intentions of voting for Barack Obama--and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with his parentage/race, the fact he has a Moslem education in his background or any other PC garbage.

As a (white) die-hard Ronald Reagan conservative, Obama's politics and mine don't match.

THAT is why I won't vote for him.

He could be purple with pink polka dots and if he still had the same political bent he has, I wouldn't vote for him.

It has ZERO to do with race.

Anonymous said...

Debrah said...
“Of course the particular quotes he used were apt. By that time he had had many months to sift through his poetry and his favorites from the Classics to find "just the right words".
---------------
Brodhead in dreamy thought:
Tubing along with Shakespeare on his river Avon, nodding off, pleasant thought that-

Brodhead in reality thought:
Tubing along with Dante on his river Stix, wake up Bro, you’re toast, pleasant thought that-

Debrah said...

TO observer--

I'm sure you saw the little butt-for-brains Orin Starn inflicting his views on Boyer.

Everyone--including me--has wondered why Coach K was so silent; however, this New Yorker piece explains some very interesting dynamics between Brodhead and K from the beginning.

Coach K liked the fact that Brodhead had to grovel and court him so he would stay.

I wish I had read this article last year.

Anonymous said...

MAC: Your red dirt/blue dirt analogy was like Meehan expert testimony except it was relevant and it made perfect sense. Thanks!

P.S. The dirt around here is all dirt-colored dirt.
__________

Mike Gaynor needs to give Meehan some credit here. I know Mr. Obfuscation seems rambling and stupid, but geez, to think Meehan didn't know EXACTLY what he was doing would be the same as saying he has the mental capacity of a weasel (when he actually shares the moral capacity of the weasel). MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

Looks like some of the Gang of 88 has done up KC on Wickipedia.

Too bad those clowns think that such trash will stop the forward motion that KC and Stuart have put in place.

Do think that KC should clean up the info though...

However, astute readers ( some Wikipedia readers do understand the difference) will notice that the Bibiolography entries are all hostile to KC.

Hmmm...

As for middle aged paunch and balding, well until now I never knew that was a crime.

As for supporting Obama, after what he did in cozying up to Mayor Bell, and after his questionble Middle East relationships, now that is a different thing.

I know that the Prez race is going to be hard this year, but I just think that KC on Obama is ??? oxymoron???

Anonymous said...

The Shakespeare character who comes to mind in connection with Brodhead is Polonius, who sententiously advises his son "to thine own self be true ... thou canst not then be false to any man" and then, when his son has gone, advises his manservant to follow the son to Paris and spread malicious rumors about him among his friends, with the idea that such slander of his son's character will then elicit word of any misdeeds that the son actually did do.

Lip service to integrity and honesty covering up a malicious slanderer -- Brodhead should get a little deja vu from contemplating that.

Anonymous said...

Just for the record, on President Brodhead and Othello...I equate President Brodhead's behavior in the Hoax most closely to that of Iago, Othello's miserable assistant who puts "poison" in Othello's "ear," leading Othello to doubt the virtue of his virtuous wife, the doomed Desdemona.

Although President Brodhead comes across very well in the New Yorker article, we all watched his quiet tributes to due process, the "poison" he put in the "ear" of some, the innuendo he did not correct, the sheer lies of his administration and faculty he did not challenge regarding the former LAX defendants, which left him deeply compromised. I imagine even Shakespeare would be most fascinaed by President Brodhead's subtle treachery.

Observer

Anonymous said...

I think Meeham's rambling was an act to not committ to any thing. It was successful. His behavior at the 12/15 was quite different than later appearances. Of course, on 12/15, he though he was smarter than everyone else and could confuse the lawyers with DNA talk. Thanks Brad and Jim. Unless, you think you are the father of Crystal's baby, why would you care who is the father? don't care whose DNA was in the test, as long as not the Lax team. I do not care about any hooker ring - do not see this having any thing to do with the event. It is the oldest Profession. All Nifong, All the Time.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, both Brodhead and Steel were out of their league. They will forever be known for their failure in this incident. They deserve it.

Anonymous said...

DEEP THOUGHTS ON RACISM: Get to Know the Enemy/Coda

Part IV of I

Conventional racists and reverse-racists share a number of fundamental traits. Sure, Aryan Nation yokels may chew more tobacco than their counterparts at Duke, the NCNAACP and Delaware, and they may even have fewer teeth, but the number of teeth or the amount of Skoal one packs next to those teeth have little to do with one’s worldview. Let’s, instead, explore some relevant underlying traits all racists have in common.

A. WE THINK [insert color] MEN CAUSE ALL OUR PROBLEMS

Anybody with such a simplistic worldview, who doesn’t factor in things like ability, effort, financial means, chance or karma, circumstances, inner drive, the economy, peer pressure, parenting, cultural influences, moral values, education and a billion other factors, is just plain D - U - M, dum. Yet, the college-educated folks at Delaware University and the KKK share this viewpoint.

B. WE ARE HUMORLESS AND LOUD

Cultural Anthropologists at the Harvard University Center for Racial Anthro-Sensitivity conducted experiments to determine the humor and loudness levels of both moonshine- and spritzer-drinking racists. Their report concludes:

“If you saw that ‘Seinfeld’ episode in which Elaine stole the Ziggy cartoon, you might remember the guy who saw the cartoon taped to Elaine's office door, who said: ‘You shouldn't make fun of pigs.’ That guy would be a perfect PC racist or Klansman if he was surrounded by 70 other zombie-like, dead-eyed people, all shouting: ‘YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE FUN OF PIGS!’ These folks are statistically and scientifically proved to be humorless and loud.”

Classifying All Racists, TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY, at p. 412 (Stu Pedasso, ed., Nov. 2007).

C. WE WIN IF WE GET RID OF THE [insert “BLACKS” or “WHITES“]

The yellow-toothed racists want to rid the country of the other race. The white-teethed racists want to rid certain boardrooms, classrooms, courtrooms, executive bathrooms and similar places of a pre-determined number of the other race.

D. WE DO ANYTHING TO ACCOMPLISH OUR GOALS

Racists will burn crosses, beat heads and lynch people. Reverse-racists will use the thing they most despise, racism, to achieve their goals. First, it takes a racist to believe that someone cannot achieve a goal or high standard because of color or national origin. Second, the actual use of a person’s race to determine anything at all (other than a person's race) is, well, racist.

E. CODA

I have a coda here just because Piot and Holloway always use it. I think it makes what I write seem cooler and smarter than it really is. MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

Make that "fascinated."

I suppose that given Prof. Chafe's stated desire to rid Duke of its Div I Athletics, the simple fact LAX was reinstated might be considered a victory of sorts.

And Debrah, you are right, the last paragraph or so of the Peter Boyer piece really sticks with the reader.

Observer

Anonymous said...

Let's see now--we have DPD officers investigating sexual misconduct in the department.
Other humorous possibilities:
1)The Klan of 88+ serving as authorities on justice and equality
2) The Duke Culture Initiative making judgments on student groups violating the doctrine of fairness
3)The Duke BOT evaluating the role of the administration in the handling (or mishandling) of the LAX HOAX.
4) The Duke administration serving as advocates for the HOAXed LAX'ers
5)A just and honest police department and DA's office.

What's up with all of this? About time to remove Durham from the map (as though Mayor Bell and Councilwoman Catotti won't accomplish that in short order)
Thanks KC and the Sunshine Band of DIW followers.

AMac said...

Rebecca Bynum has a review of Theodore Dalrymple's new book "In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas."

Many of Dalrymple's writings in book-length essays and at "City Journal" describe the practical effects of such notions as "all ideas are equally valid." He traces how the world-view embraced by many of the Group of 88 can promote oppression. Worth a look.

mac said...

Amac 11:02

Thanks for the link!
It reminds me of the town in which I live, and also of local counties, which are obviously discriminatory against persons of certain races, both White and black:

It is obvious that one or more of these are not allowed to attend - (nor graduate from) - the so-called "free" public school system: a significant segment of the groups in question wander the streets during school hours, or otherwise pursue the pursuit of nothing.

It is also obvious that adults of certain races - (depending upon location) - are barred from using community college trade-school facilities and programs, Job Corps and so forth, which teach trades such as welding or plumbing, and virtually guarantee employment if the participant successfully finishes the program. Considering the number of persons in the urban setting who prefer street corners or the basketball court, it is clear that these men and women are not allowed to participate. Or perhaps these are persons who prefer to pursue the pursuit of nothing.

In rural areas, where there are many men and women who prefer to join friends and relatives in large gatherings that have no particular purpose, other than burning certain types of weed and using derivatives of pseudoephedrine, it is obvous that there is a similar kind of discrimination. Or the pursuit of nothing has become their chief aim.

Our Constitution does guarantee the pursuit of happiness, and for some, perhaps, happiness is the existentialist "nothing."

It may be hard to understand that persons might choose to pursue the pursuit of nothing, but the trend doesn't stop at the street-level: this is also expressed at great universities such as Duke University and at the University of Delaware, where Angry Studies and Silly Studiesare taught by some who have made a career out of pursuing and producing nothing.

Fight for your right to pursue the pursuit of nothing. Or Nothingness, if you happen to be a Philosophy Major.

Anonymous said...

Gregory, I would never argue with the master. So when I read A. WE THINK [insert color] MEN CAUSE ALL OUR PROBLEMS and thought that's not exactly right, I had to read it again and think about it. I was thinking old style racists thought All____are_____. Maybe All ____ are a problem but not the "cause" of all our problems. Then I got a shudder as I thought about the similar "they are the cause of all our problems" hatred used by Hitler.

I like it better when you make me laugh.

Anonymous said...

"Unless, you think you are the father of Crystal's baby, why would you care who is the father?"

I care because a ) there was some speculation that Crystal was sexually active with members of the DPD; and

b ) It was reported that the baby was due to be born 9 months after the party. I'd like to be sure the press corrects that lie, and that the public gets the message.

Anonymous said...

All this literature jazz is getting too heavy for me. I want to talk sports. Last year, the two Super Bowl coaches were black. I hadn’t even given that a thought, UNTIL, I was reminded of it every 10 seconds.

In my mind, the fact that I did not give it a thought, should have been proof of the true success of the civil rights movement. Not so, I was not giving the two men their due for their years of struggle against “The Man.”

Spike Lee was given huge airtime to bash President Bush and the Katrina Mystery, disguised as a pre-game story. One black “ play by play announcer” groused that if 85 percent of the players are Black, then 85 percent of the coaches, should be black as well. I kid you not.

It seems to me, that the football teams might need affirmative action to get the white/black balance back into the ratio deemed suitable, by somebody. Or, is it only a sports sickness if the white count gets too high? Silly me thinking being color-blind was a good thing.
Go Packers!

PS:
AMac said...
Rebecca Bynum has a review of Theodore Dalrymple's new book "In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas."

(There you go again: That is good, now everyone is going to start another round of thinking!)

Anonymous said...

anonymous 11/10 3:35 pm

"Looks like some of the Gang of 88 has done up KC on Wickipedia.

Too bad those clowns think that such trash will stop the forward motion that KC and Stuart have put in place.

Do think that KC should clean up the info though...

However, astute readers ( some Wikipedia readers do understand the difference) will notice that the Bibiolography entries are all hostile to KC."

I dunno, I think that would be hard to do. After all, those guys are the experts in historical revisionism and retrograde adjustment of worrisome facts.

And also, no fair. Their only weapon is the ad hominem diatribe. How can they win an argument if they can't call names and point? That strategy has always worked before with their gulluble devotees. You are being just ... just SO insensitive.

Anonymous said...

Warning: too long and somewhat OT, but, unlike amac, I was stumped initially by the title.

Always ready with something else insightful, amac has linked us to Ms. Bynum's review of Mr. Dalrymple's (do you love that name) book and the very legitimate argument that without some tradition, some prejudice we are left with the individual man as the measure of all things, checked only by the law. The "freedom" sought by this tradition free approach (and here Dalrymple seems most deeply concerned with the modern rejection of the family structure--very like Patrick Moynahan), he argues, turns quickly to "totalitarianism," or something similar, where those at the bottom of society exercise "freedom" to the point of landing themselves in prison or at the very least becoming wards of the state.

Dalrymple states:

"Conformity to any rule is felt as a wound to personal sovereignty, as is the exercise of any authority exterior to that of the ego. Far from settling questions of the rightful exercise of power of one person over another, the attitude engendered by a partial reading of Mill (or handed down as a kind of philosophical rumour) turns all human interactions into questions of power. This is particularly so for those who are, or feel themselves to be, at the lower end of the social scale. Their dignity as absolute sovereigns, as the Sun Kings of their own soul, is the most frequently infringed; life for them is a long series of acts of lèse majesté by others. Their ego is like a wound that is never allowed to heal, that is constantly re-opened by reality, into which salt is ever rubbed by those with greater power or prestige than themselves."

Dalrymple comes to this conclusion after many years of working as a psychiatrist in a prison filled with adults born out of wedlock and raised by a mother and her succession of often abusive, disinterested boyfriends. But what he is calling "prejudice" or "traditional" thinking on family structure is really born out, as we all know, by lots of hard factual data.

I have been trying very hard to reconcile Houston Baker's elevated standing as an academic and his assertion that he has more in common with prisoners than with his colleagues down the hall. From a man at the very top of the social scale, a Distinguished Universtiy Professor who as far as I can tell teaches exactly one course (an Honors course, which probably means by invitation only) in African American Literature, no doubt the subject of his choosing, at an excellent American university, where he was wooed and welcomed with great fanfare, this lamentation reveals more about his own twisted state of mind, probably, than it does about American society. Prof. Baker seems to "feel himself to be at the lower end of the social scale," despite verifiable external reality, and in that sense I would argue he is actually a prisoner of his own prejudice both about himself and the rest of the world.

So where does that leave us with Dalyrymple? Quibbling a little with his use of "Prejudice" for all it gets our attention. Dalrymple's issue with the modern notion that "all ideas are equally valid" seems to be his frustration that those who have little understanding of facts regarding a particular subject seem to feel their opinion equally "valid" as one held by someone fully in command of the related facts. What Dalyrymple "praises" is not really "prejudice" as we commonly understand it, but judgment and "preconceived ideas" grounded solidly in evidence and facts.

Ms. Bynum closes her review with this fabulous quote from Mark Twain: "I know that I am prejudiced on this matter but I would be ashamed of myself if I were not." --A sharp contrast, it seems, from President Brodheads' "Truth and justice mean something opposite from our preconceptions."

But maybe it's not really such a sharp contrast. Even a sense of what generally holds true in our world based on study and thoughful analysis (the "prejudice" to which Twain and Dalrymple seem to refer--some might call it enlightened judgment) is very different than searching for truth in a particular instance. We know the latter always demands the intellectual rigor of setting aside "prejudice" in even its most evolved forms. And this holds whether we sit on a jury, conduct an experiment, or research a question.

Happy Sunday

Observer

Anonymous said...

Friday night I sat at a business dinner with 4 people from Durham. The conversation eventually migrated to the Hoax. Wanting to be careful to sensitivities of all, since they were business colleagues, I "tip toed" around, until I learned how intensely angry they were.

Once was furious that the "innocent" citizens were going to have absorb the (potential) $30 million on their taxes. But she did NOT blame the Lacrosse guys. She acknowledged the complicity of DPD, Duke, politicians, etc.

When she said that the GOOD people of Durham are helpless against this, I countered with the facts of Tuesday's election and the 22% turnout. The conversation got really interesting them with the following opinions being offered. I share them here as one more perspective for my blogmates.

1. Q. Why didn't more people vote on Tuesday?
A.Because there was nobody decent to vote FOR

2. Q. Why didn't some decent people run for office?

A. You don't understand. In Durham right now, decent people don't stand a chance. They also don't want to put themselves and their families through the political ringer that it would require.

3. Q. So you're content just to sit back and let your town go down the tube and be the laughing stock of the nation while the DECENT people are held check-mate?
A. Actually, there is a lot going on behind the scenes in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, a kind of grassroots movement of Decent concerned citizens. There is more than you can see. But it is there and growing.

Other topics concerned the strangle-hold Duke has on the City/ County as the major employer. One surmised that Duke would be paying off the city's $30 million "under the table". Others thought that Duke helped to defeat a public transportation effort to connect the employees who have to drive long distances to work at Duke, because there would be lost revenue from the expensive parking permits if the effort went through.

These folks were employed by Duke but certainly NOT in love with it! Although the major employer of the area, it is NOT seen as a good neighbor.

Others mentioned some efforts of local churches to make a difference in some of the poorer schools... going in to volunteer support to the teachers and the poorest of the poor students by cleaning up the school, providing supplies, etc. all on their own time and money.

Several other positive efforts were mentioned that I don't want to reveal for fear that doing so may elicit backlash from some of the "ENEMY" who read this.

Although these people were not public officials nor people of rank, I got a sense that they were people who cared and were part of what is now a rather humble but growing movement to take back the ground that they forfeited ( they acknowledge that fact) to the liars and cheaters.

In addition, I told them about this blog, and how wide-ranging the concerns are and how very strong the feelings are about what is going on in Durham... from many different perspectives. They were surprised. The GOOD people of Durham feel alone, abandoned and ridiculed.

They need a leader (s) who will bring them together, give them hope, and restore their community.

My opinion is that the lawsuits may have to play out before the good folks are able to go public, but they can certainly begin in small but significant ways now to lay some groundwork for DECENT candidates in the next elections.

We need a Moses.

God ALWAYS had a remnant.

So while we are trashing Durham, we may want to remember that remnant of GOOD folks who still live there, and care, and are bearing the brunt of the cost and the ridicule.

It is not inappropriate to hope and pray that when the smoke clears, and the rubble is seen and removed, that Durham can become better than it has ever been.

We need to offer that hope to the GOOD folks in Durham, while they go through this, and then offer some real support when the rebuilding begins.

dsl

Anonymous said...

"It seems to me, that the football teams might need affirmative action to get the white/black balance back into the ratio deemed suitable, by somebody. Or, is it only a sports sickness if the white count gets too high? Silly me thinking being color-blind was a good thing."

It's quite interesting that sports has come up in this. Quite often sports is implicitly invoked as a metaphor to justify affirmative action measures: the desire to have a "level playing field". And make no mistake, a level playing field is a good thing to have.

But I don't know of any sport where success accruing to one team is taken as evidence that the playing field is not level.

mac said...

dsl,

So many in Duhh have bent their knees to Baal, it's hard to see that there are...maybe 7,000 others, who haven't.

Like Abraham and the Lord, bargaining for Sodom and Gomorrah, pondering whether or not there are enough righteous men left...

I pray that you are right, and that the City of Duhh is reclaimed as the City of Durham; I wish those decent citizens strength and perseverance and wisdom, and to move about their business reclaiming the town with something resembling the gifts Paul mentioned: love, patience...

Somehow, the weeds have been planted among the crop, and the weeds think that they ARE the crop.

In a Lord of the Rings analogy:
I'm not quite as hopeful as you are, considering that Saruman has kept Grima (Wormtongue) as the editor of the Hurled Scum (=S#!+ Happened,) and that Smeagol is still in charge at Duke; Denethor is City Manager and Theoden (representing City Council while still under the spell of Grima-Wormtongue.) The Dee Pee Dee is still infested with Orcs.

Does anyone see an Aragorn in the land? Not even a Bilbo to be found!

God help the real Durhamites; let them be rid of the denizens of Duhh.

Anonymous said...

Re: Shakespearean quote for Mr Brodhead:

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5:

... it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing

Debrah said...

TO 2:24 PM--

Listen, I see no reason to behave the way the anti-GWB posters behave.

Obama is a very charismatic candidate. Just saw him for the full hour on Meet the Press--its 60th anniversary.

He's a valuable player because unlike so many candidates who have run, he is able to be effective--and seemingly in an authentic way--in both white and black communities.

Do I agree with his platform? No.

However, if it is a choice between him or Hillary.....or John-Boy Edwards, for that matter.....my vote would be for him.

Debrah said...

TO Duke Dad--

Very, very good!

Anonymous said...

dsl said:
So while we are trashing Durham, we may want to remember that remnant of GOOD folks who still live there, and care, and are bearing the brunt of the cost and the ridicule.

It is not inappropriate to hope and pray that when the smoke clears, and the rubble is seen and removed, that Durham can become better than it has ever been.

We need to offer that hope to the GOOD folks in Durham, while they go through this, and then offer some real support when the rebuilding begins.

dsl

11/11/07 9:22 AM


Wow. Very moving insight.

Basically, Durham has (and is) going through a man-made Katrina. Their rebuilding process is different--and yet--the grief is similar and many dynamics are similar.

A poster mentioned earlier those who seek to pursue nothing (or nothingness). Many of the problems in New Orleans and Durham can be tied directly to those people.

The people who are content to pursue nothing (or nothingness) are also the people who vote into office Mayors like Bell and Ray Nagin.

So when an act of God or man rocks the city--there's no safe and sturdy foundation from which to rebuild. It's every man for him or herself--and the truly GOOD people are hurt most.

THEY are the ones whose toil and taxes, blood, sweat and tears fund and produce the rebuilding.

Once the GOOD people have served their purpose--their wallets have been tapped--they're sidelined by the likes of Mr. Wonka of New Orleans, or Bagdhad Bill Bell of Durham.

These buffoons tell the GOOD people they are unimportant. They're called vile names (ie, racist), belittled--AND to add insult to injury--told *they* are the root of the city's problems (ie, racism).

Durham is every bit as sick as New Orleans.

Durham DOES need to rebuild.

But Durham doesn't need to rebuild houses, schools and what not--Durham needs to rebuild trust and good government.

Those are not easily built and take but a moment to destroy at man's hand.

Just random thoughts this morning. Hope they make sense...

Debrah said...

H-S:

Where are all those up-in-arms voters?

Nov 11, 2007

One way to look at the results of Tuesday's election is as another example of Durham's civic complexity, bordering sometimes on self-contradiction.

That thought occurred to me as I was responding to a question about Durham from a couple of public-policy types.

We are well-known for our tendency to see gloom in all directions, even while enthusing over much about our city. We complain and worry that folks elsewhere belitle and look down on us, even as we consistently get high marks as a place to live and welcome thousands of new residents every year.

And in a city that some might characterize as up in arms over crime, fiscal mismanagement and inefficiencies, voters robustly returned incumbents to office and wrote county and city governments a check for over $200 million in spending.

Crime is emblematic of our conflicted image.

It's tempting to downplay crime to burnish any city's image. By and large, we don't do that in Durham, a civic strength, if one that strikes outsiders as odd and leads them to exaggerate the problem we're so open in discussing.

On the other hand, it's an easy problem to inflate, especially if for reasons conscious or subconscious it's a neat way to foster fear.

Do our Triangle neighbors do that from time to time? Well, that's the conventional wisdom and there's evidence it may be true.

That's part of the reason that McKinney Advertising employes asked CEO Brad Brinegar, "why are you giving us a death sentence" when he announced the firm's move from Raleigh to downtown Durham.

And, while I don't like to pick fights with friendly media competitors, it's hard to escape that conclusion when News and Observer columnist Barry Saunders last week wrote about the fatal shooting in the downtown library parking lot in the pre-dawn hours of Election Day. It was, he suggested, an example of Durham's cascading crime problem that figured so heavily in the mayoral campaign.

Let's see. Four guys from Raleigh and Greensboro are accused of carjacking an SUV -- in Raleigh. They drive to Durham, try to break into a business but are spotted -- by undercover Durham cops, doing what we hope cops do, stopping crimes.

They're apprehended after a chase by Durham police, after one bad guy pulls a gun as a reminder that being a police officer is life-endangering work, and is in turn fatally shot by the police.

Which proves that in Durham "crime is more than just a perception problem," as Saunders wrote?

Whatever, most Durham residents concluded our crime problem -- which does need to be aggressively addressed -- wasn't going to be handled more effectively by turning the mayor and two incumbent council members out of office.

Bell's victory with 58 percent of the vote over Thomas Stith, who made crime a cornerstone of his challenge, was reminiscent of President Bush's description of the 2006 congressional elections -- "a thumpin'".

Factoring in dismal turnout, with just one voter in four going to the polls, further suggests that citizens weren't ready to march on city hall with torches and pitchforks, much less toss the rascals out. Only one registered voter in 10 was dissatisfied enough to show up and vote for Stith. Even fewer voted for the council candidates who most clearly challenged the status quo.

School bonds are another fortunate study in Durham's registering approval of the existing course. Nearly eight voters in 10 voted to let the county borrow nearly $200 million for school projects, which almost certainly will mean an increase in property taxes.

Consider that approval in the context of widespread skepticism about government spending (several counties recently have rejected school bonds), the now-past but still fresh chaos at school board meetings and the stark fact that fewer than half the households in Durham County have children in public schools.

Even Durham's street bonds, which might have been vulnerable giving the customary grousing about city hall's spending and inefficiencies, sailed to an easy victory.

Maybe that three-fourths of the electorate that stayed home is the angry part. But their silence on Tuesday doesn't give them much standing to complain.

Bob Ashley is editor of The Herald-Sun.

Anonymous said...

Gregory @ 11/10/07 8:55 PM

re: DEEP THOUGHTS ON RACISM: Get to Know the Enemy/Coda

I have a coda here just because Piot and Holloway always use it. I think it makes what I write seem cooler and smarter than it really is. MOO! Gregory


It's smart enough. Let no one assume that in aiming for the jocular, you're not going for the jugular.

dave

PS. I also appreciate the cool and smart employment of titles with colons. This is de rigueur in academic publication. You introduce the title with a catchy phase, designed to lure the unwary into thinking you've actually written something readable, a momentary flash of hipness or relevance, an ironic nod of solidarity with the masses you know will never make it through the second half of the title, before proceeding to the business at hand. Example: "Long Time Coming:..."

Followed by: "The Nationalization and Coordination of Italian Railwway Transport Systems Under Benito Mussolini, 1922-1935." (One very cool aspect of the colonized title is that the catch phrase of the first half is interchangeable and can be used to preface any number of unrelated subjects, adding the dramatic value of suspense to the title, until one has waded all the way through it. Example: "Long Time Coming: Punishment of the Wicked in the Eschatological Theodicy of St. John of Damascus.")

It is impossible to produce an academic book or journal article without resorting to the colon. If the U.S. Copyright Office approves my colon® patent application, I shall be rich.

mac said...

Debrah,

Ashley makes a couple of good points, but his interpretation of why so few went to the polls is probably faulty. Most of the time, when people don't vote they see that those names on the ballot are just more of the same. SSDD.

It's like going shopping at a store that doesn't have what you need or want.

Why go back? And you certainly don't appear at Walmart with "torches and pitchforks" when they're out of cat litter.

Debrah said...

TO "mac" (12:50 PM)--

True enough.

The previous thread contains a very lengthy comment from a self-identified resident of Durham for 15 years.

He/she makes some thoughtful points, but goes on to ignore or deny the fundamental problems that almost anyone--inside or outside the place--knows very well.

I started to respond, but most residents are in denial. They will be hit with reality when an already slow housing market makes it impossible to sell their homes to anyone because who wants to move there...even when the real estate is cheaper?

I have always enjoyed many things about Durham--some great restaurants, an eclectic environment with interesting people...etc.--however, there is no getting around the clique that runs the place.

I have experienced it first-hand in the past. There's a lot more that I could say and things that I know, but why bother?

Just revisit the group that was chosen to serve on the so-called Whichard Committee if you want to see how clique-ish things are there.

To enjoy the place at all, just go there for entertainment.....and don't get to know the structure of the place because it's depressing.

An acquaintance of mine who moved to Durham in the 1990's from out-of-state told me the place was a corrupt sewer then.

He was a talented black guy, but was unable to get positions he applied for because they were always reserved for friends and relatives of the embedded clique.

He began to hate the place. He would talk about how dumb and incompetent the then-police chief Jackie McNeill was, and that he was a "good old boy" with city officials and that's why he was chosen.

We all remember what happened with that clown.

It's understandable that residents there wish to gloss over the truth, but this is not about someone's race, it's about corruption and incompetence...and has been identified as such by both black and white interested parties.

Also, any comparison of Durham to places like Madison, Berkeley, and other college towns is ridiculous.

Some still attempt to dress up the squalor.

Debrah said...

The ever-thoughtful Diva will be giving holiday gifts of UPI along with bumper stickers reading "Don't tase me bro'!!!"

Even though I would never put a bumper sticker on my own car, I find that most Americans have a strong affinity for them.

Even an addiction.

Like the Diva's Wonderland addiction!

Gary Packwood said...

a Duke Dad 10:57 said...

...Re: Shakespearean quote for Mr Brodhead:
...Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5:
... it is a tale
...Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
...Signifying nothing
::
Excellent.

Applies also to the metanarrative indoctrination used in a few classrooms at Duke.
::
GP

Debrah said...

Last night I went over to a dinner at someone's home with a friend--just platonic. LOL!

The home of the hosts was obscene. They had an indoor pool with a running fountain. The whole place had semi-Corinthian columns which made the place look more like a palace.

Just ridiculous for two people with no children. I suppose this "dream home" is their "child".

I will stick to the Diva townhouse villa! I'm certainly not that wasteful even if I could afford such a place.

Anyway, I only stayed a few hours, but there was a guy from Canada with whom I had a stimulating Diva-chat and he knew all about the Lacrosse Hoax and KC.

KC-beyond-borders.

LOL!!!

The anemic Gang of 88 can only scream for attention!

Anonymous said...

New positive review of UPI:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/soundlife/story/201066.html

The Duke University rape scandal seemingly had it all: sex, money, race, greed, power, ego.

But there was one thing it didn’t have: a crime.

The scandal began with members of the Blue Devils lacrosse team hiring two strippers for an off-campus party, turned into allegations of a gang rape and finished with an exoneration of the players and the disgrace of the district attorney. And despite the attention of the national media on the private school in Durham, N.C., the case lingered for months before the fraud was exposed.

How could something like this happen? That’s what “Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case” set out to explain – and the answer isn’t pretty. The authors, Stuart Taylor Jr. and K.C. Johnson, use painstaking detail to prove that a mentally unstable stripper, an opportunistic district attorney, bitter cops and crusading faculty members used an unquestioning media and a town split by racial and economic divides to destroy the lives of three innocent students.

snip

Debrah said...

Here is the link to the new UPI critique.

Anonymous said...

The "Gang of 88" who unconvincing complained about the "horror" of racist White on Black rape on the campus of Duke -- should be asked to comment on the much more prevalent Black on White rape the entire nation is experiencing...

For starters - where is the outrage over the REAL racist rape in Tennessee?

A rape hoax in Durham, received 1000 times more media attention than a REAL horrific rape/sodomy/torture/dismemberment/murder in Tennessee...

One must wonder HOW and why the focus on a racist hoax in Durham takes precedence over a factual horror.

Read it for yourself and ask yourself as to who should be screaming the loudest about racist rape in America..

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

The black racists in Durham and on the Duke faculty can't alter reality, simply because they choose to....or because it serves their "anger studies" curriculum..

The "88" and their pot banging supporters are, in fact - sowing the seeds of their own deserved destruction.....

Anonymous said...

I think the circumstances of the event were known early on, particulary when the DNA was negative to the team. Despite Neufeld, the DNA does not lie. The problem was getting a judge in NC to stop the train. Clearly, Titus and Stephens are dirty judges. It took the potted plant to do away with the illegal gag order and force Nifong to show most of his cards. I disagree with a purposeful frame or fraud. Nifong just wanted to get elected and is a bully, who thought and did have the defendants in his cross hairs for nine months. He was to dumb to get off the tiger. Judges, through their inaction and hateful manner should be paying the price also. The rest is from the noise machine. DPD were going along to get along with Nifong.

Anonymous said...

If you want more information about the police department in Durham, read the:

‘Durham police crime report 4th quarter 2006’(It also lists totals for the year)

It is complete with graphs, and it describes the offenders as Black, Hispanic, or White. The graph on rape is especially interesting.

http://www.durhampolice.com/news/pdf/070305_2.pdf

Anonymous said...

Congrats on another excellent review!

Back to Othello and President Brodhead, I have to correct my earlier comment. It's "pestilence" (A. II, Sc. III) in the ear, and to be fair, Iago is far more overtly malevolent than President Brodhead.

Regarding Macbeth (just to play with this a little bit since a duke dad brought it up), maybe President Brodhead, a more honorable but weaker soul than Iago, has been corrupted by circumstances...more like Macbeth, who was a reasonably fine man until the witches got hold of him and put a "pestilence" in HIS ear.

And that brings me back to my theory that Durham has really been placed under a spell, which to date is the best explanation I can find for what's going on down there.

"Something wicked" (A. IV, Sc. I) surely came Durham's way and made life there nonsense, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury," (A. V, Sc. V) but most definitely this tale (unlike President Brodhead's interview to which a duke dad referred) signified something quite important.

I am happy to hear there are quite a few good citizens in Durham who understand the significance and are trying to address the glaring issues.

So much of Shakespeare's drama depends on the utter misapprehension of truth (whether by frame or otherwise) and base human motivation "I say put money in thy purse"--how ironic that President Brodhead is a Shakespearian scholar. He of all people should have been prepared for this.

Observer

Anonymous said...

4:01 PM

Isn't the mainstream media supposed to be unbiased in its attempts at gathering the news . . . a word might be professional in its behavior toward its responsibilities and duties as are carried out in the pursuit of "truth" presented to the ordinary public of a shared republic . . . and so much for that bull****, or as the Queen said, "Off with their heads," and down the rabbit hole that is Durham to the neverland of the Dukedom beyond. I know . . . two diffent books but the one reality of Wonderland.

Anonymous said...

mac and Deborah... back to the rebuilding thoughts of this AM.

Who said "All that it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing". Durham is a perfect ( but not the only) example.

Mac mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah. All the Lord asked for then was just 10 righteous people and for them, He would spare the city.

I can personally find you 10 such in Durham.

But the timing is also important.

You can't build on rubble. And there is a LOT of rubble that has to be cleared FIRST.

Then we return to the quote that should sober all of us, lest we get too self-righteous about our own backyards: "Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty"

EVERY generation is responsible for their own cities on their own watch. We can only hope that when our time comes to pass the baton, there are sturdy hands to receive it.

Debrah said...

From Johnsville News:

Nathan Nicholas Taleb's best selling book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, is a provocative big picture look at how colliding and cascading social forces are capable of causing unpredictable outlier events, or Black Swans. A Black Swan is a reference to the fact that "before the discovery of Australia, people in the Old World were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence."

A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.
The 2006 Duke University lacrosse case is a perfect example of a Black Swan. The scandal was a shocking jolt at a leading academic institution. It was frequently referred to as the "perfect storm," because of its explosive mix of race, class, sex, athletes, and the South.

The media jumped on the story and made it into a scandalous saga about race and class at an elite university (Duke is called the Harvard of the South) located in a predominantly black city. The three accused lacrosse players were cast as privileged white students, who critics charged were running wild on campus and ended up gang raping an innocent black stripper. It all turned out to be not true.

The harsh treatment of the lacrosse players by their own faculty and administration was one of the most shocking aspects of the scandal. It matches the story of the turkey that Taleb uses to show how the past is not a reliable tool for predicting the future.
The uberphilosopher Bertrand Russell presents a particularly toxic variant of my surprise jolt in his illustration of what people in his line of business call the Problem of Induction ... - certainly the mother of all problems in life. How can we logically go from specific instances to reach general conclusions? How do we know what we know? How do we know that what we have observed from given objects and events suffices to enable us to figure ot their other properties. There are traps built into any kind of knowledge gained from observation.

Consider a turkey that is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird's belief that it is the general rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race "looking out for its best interests" as a politician would say. On the afternoon of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, something unexpected will happen to the turkey. It will incur a revision of belief.

[...] How can we know the future, given knowledge of the past; or more generally, how can we figure out properties of the (infinite) unknown based on the (finite) known? [...]

The turkey problem can be generalized to any situation where the same hand that feeds you can be the one that wrings your neck. . .
The Duke lacrosse team was just like that turkey. The team, for years, had gone along thinking that their friendly faculty was looking out for their best interests and feeding them knowledge. The lacrosse players had no idea a false gang rape accusation would turn the faculty (and many of their own classmates) into a lynch mob that wanted to wring their collective necks. Or castrate and flunk them as the case might be.

The jolting display of hatred towards the players by the infamous Duke Group of 88, their supporters, and campus radicals, all tacitly approved by the Duke administration, signaled that something was seriously wrong with higher education. It was in inflection point. The academic bubble that was a liberal arts education was burst. The Black Swan had landed.

Taleb goes on to demolish the the value of the "Narrative Disciplines." That is, a discipline that consists in fitting a convincing and well-sounding story to the past. As opposed to an experimental discipline. All of the Angry Studies, that is, Women's Studies, African and African American Studies, etc. are narrative disciplines.

Taleb also spends time wringing the intellectual necks of story telling journalists.
Do media journalists repair to the nurse's office every morning to get their daily dopamine injection so that they can narrate better (Note the word dope, used to designate the illegal drugs athletes take to improve performance, has the same root as dopamine.)
He shows how "we fool ourselves with stories that cater to our Platonic thirst for distinct patterns: the narrative fallacy.... (it is actually a fraud, but, to be more polite, I will call it a fallacy.)" He defines a narrative fallacy as: "our need to fit a story or pattern to series of connected or disconnected facts. The statistical application is data mining."

Even if you have not followed the Duke lacrosse case you will find the The Black Swan an excellent book that helps to make order out of chaos and see the big picture for managing your own life and financial future.

Anonymous said...

Those twenty plus guys lives are not destroyed. They came out the good guys. A few million does not hurt either. Exposure of the kinks in the justice system is a good thing. Sorry it was them but could have been anyone with Nifong looking to get elected,

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Those twenty plus guys lives are not destroyed. They came out the good guys. A few million does not hurt either. Exposure of the kinks in the justice system is a good thing. Sorry it was them but could have been anyone with Nifong looking to get elected,

11/12/07 12:51 AM


One wonders if you would beso cavalier and singing this tune had *you* been one of those guys?

I think not.

I think you would have Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the entire racial grievance committee marching in the streets on your behalf--signing "We Shall Overcome".

Anonymous said...

I really liked the discussion of the Black Swan. Thanks for posting it Debrah!

Observer

Debrah said...

TO Observer--

Yes, The Black Swan is most intriguing.

Anonymous said...

MAC: You wrote about 300 words about nothing. Brilliant! If you do as Dave suggests and put in a coda and use a colon in the title, you will be able to publish it in "TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY." Seriously, though, superb idea done well!
___________

AMAC: Thanks for the book review! It was a little over my head, but thanks to some thoughtful commentary here, I understand it now. I think. I have seen, all too often, the real world operation of Dalrymple's primary thesis (in this case no less).
___________

Ruth: That was not a perfect argument, yes, but at least you got the drift!
____________

Diva: Time to read up on Black Swans! With billions of people going faster than ever before, Black Swans are more and more likely to occur (or at least get reported to us). Throw in Dalrymple's thesis, and we have THUNDERDOME!
____________

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: My retirement plan is to purchase a cheap set of weights ($100), some steroids ($800) and human growth hormone ($2,000). When they send me to the nursing home, I'm gonna impose my will on the rest of those seniors (priceless)!

Anonymous said...

6:57 I am as white as the snow - with freckles no less and as Irish looking as can be. Sad that you would think a dose of reality has to be black. THis is the kind of racism hurting the country. Not to say, you had the courage to write black, but just infer that I was. People have bad years - throwing that party certainly invited one.

Anonymous said...

To all of you potential Black Swan fans, don't miss Taleb's previous one:

Fooled by Radomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

It is not about futures trading.

dave

Anonymous said...

"I think the circumstances of the event were known early on, particulary when the DNA was negative to the team. Despite Neufeld, the DNA does not lie."

Peter Neufeld has been unfairly lambasted here and elsewhere for what the media falsely suggested were his comments on the Duke situation. However, I have read Neufeld's account (unfortunately, I can't seem to find it today) about how the comments attributed to him were collected -- essentially, the reporter asked a question about "in general, is a case with no DNA evidence a case where no rape occurred?" and he said "not in general; there's cases where rape really has occurred without DNA evidence being left or without it being possible to collect that evidence later. But it's not likely that a rape such as the one that's been described could have happened without leaving DNA." And the reporter said "Thank you, Mr. Neufeld" and went back and reported everything before the "but"; they specifically disregarded his case-specific comments and focused on his "general" comments.

Anonymous said...

Inre: Taleb's books. Both are excellent reads and will force you to begin thinking a bit differently about both risk and opportunity.

The turkey analogy is a bit misplaced. It is the faculty and administration that is advancing along as if nothing is changing. There will come a day when they will stand aghast wondering what happened.

It's time they become a bit more self-critical AND open their work to bona fide third-party critique.

Anonymous said...

dave @ 12:45

Is it possible that the entire course of this universe was established at its inception and the appearance of randomness is but the deterministic consequence of an infinitely complicated pre-determined mathematical model with algorithms reproducing the nature of randomness, but without the essence of randomness.

Let's consider a multi-dimensional Markov process with transition probablities that replicate the appearance of a random process, but which have a pre-determined outcome.

The consequence would be the allusion of randomness, an illusion, but imbued with certainty.

Anonymous said...

8:22 and others - I believe in democracy and the right of the people to choose the representatives of their choice.

Anonymous said...

3:42 That is an airbrushing of Neufeld's statement. You can find the original when you goggle his name. Neufeld was given lots of opportunities to correct or clarify his statement about the team DNA. He never choose to do so. I wrote the Innocent Project about his statement, as do thousands of others. He is stuck with it. Barry never commented at the time, but is in on the kill after the game have gone to ground.

Anonymous said...

Neufeld gave the olde saw - Lack of evidence does not indicate evidence of lack of crime,

Anonymous said...

You can argue about DNA all day long. But I know for D>>>> sure that a rape cannot be perpetrated when the guy is not THERE!

Anonymous said...

"3:42 That is an airbrushing of Neufeld's statement. You can find the original when you goggle [sic] his name. Neufeld was given lots of opportunities to correct or clarify his statement about the team DNA. He never choose to do so."

Obviously you need to go back and actually read what I posted before declaring whether it is correct or incorrect. You say that "the original" of Neufeld's statement can be found if you "goggle" his name, but according to his account of the interview, that is not true -- you cannot find his original statement because they did not print his original statement; they only took that portion of his original statement that made it sound like he considered the DNA evidence in the lacrosse case non-exculpatory.

Now, of course, you may choose to believe that Neufeld is lying through his teeth. You may choose to believe that a man who co-founded the organization which has done more than any other to exonerate falsely accused defendants through DNA evidence chose, in this one instance, to reverse his position. You may choose to believe that. However, I find it far more plausible that the same newspapers which were known to slant and to selectively report just about everything else in the lacrosse case chose to report only Neufeld's remarks about cases in general, which sounded like they dismissed the significance of the DNA evidence, and chose to withhold Neufeld's remarks about the specific case. Think about it -- if you were a reporter and had a chance to interview Neufeld in connection with a case, would the only questions you ask be about cases "in general", or would you ask what he thought of the specific case that was occupying the national attention? Yes, that's what I thought -- and yet they only printed his observations on cases "in general".

Anonymous said...

I believe that neither Neufeld or the Project he founded with Scheck, is interested in white males and probably white females, because they do not meet his political agenda. He was not a voice for his "science" when he should have been.

Anonymous said...

"Neufeld gave the olde saw - Lack of evidence does not indicate evidence of lack of crime,

11/13/07 8:09 PM"

The traditional form is "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," and it is actually quite an important rule to keep in mind, as long as you keep in mind two very important things:
* Absence of evidence of absence is not evidence of presence. Forgetting this leads to lunatic conspiracy theories based, literally, on nothing: the theorist imagines some wild scenario of a shadowy cabal, investigates, finds no evidence to support the theory, and concludes from this that the cabal has not only done their dirty deeds but covered up their tracks. Absence of evidence is neither evidence of absence nor evidence of presence.
* Absence of evidence is evidence of absence when the search for evidence takes place under such circumstances that evidence of presence would have been discovered. If you are searching for a quarter on the ground in an area that's 600 feet by 600 feet, not finding it is extremely weak evidence for it not being there. If you are searching for the same quarter in an area 6 feet by 6 feet, the failure to find it is much stronger evidence that it isn't there. And if you are searching for the same quarter on the ground in an area just 6 inches by 6 inches, not being able to find it in such a search makes it almost irrefutable that it's not there.

That last point is why Nifong's withholding of the unidentified male DNA was so stunningly dishonest. If there had been no male DNA located, one could theorize that the DNA of one or more of the lacrosse players was there but the test result was a false negative. Even when the prosecution acknowledged the existence of what they falsely called the "single male source" of Mangum's boyfriend, you could still theorize that the test had generated a true positive for the boyfriend's DNA and a false negative for some lacrosse player(s)'s DNA. But the probability was absurdly low that the test could have gotten a true positive for all those other sources of DNA and then a false negative for any other theorized source.

So, to return to Neufeld -- the comments he made about cases in general were in fact completely true -- about cases in general. According to his own account, he made other comments about the lacrosse case in particular but since the gist of those comments was "the crime that was alleged is one that would certainly have left evidence if it had occurred," the reporter chose to omit that from the story. Now, you can allege that Neufeld is lying; you can allege that he has some ulterior motive. However, we have already seen that the mainstream media was completely willing in this case to withhold whatever didn't fit the narrative of "these are privileged white boys guilty as hell," we don't actually have any need to theorize that Neufeld is lying. Occam's Razor.

Anonymous said...

Lawyer Williamson said that in this case "the Dna of others did indicate evidence of absence of the team." When claiming rape, the claiment must treat his/her body as a crime scene and immediately go to the ER for a rape kit to be done." Which of course, Crystal did (with police help). From what I have read, folk can not wait for days and weeks to past, take showers and wash cloths and provide good DNA evidence of contact. Neufeld never make that point clear with his statement. Please provide a link to his "in general" statements and where he was misquoted.

Anonymous said...

You do realize that Neufeld's comments about "absence of evidence" came months before the DNA of the multiple unidentified males was known about outside the conspiracy, right? Williamson said ". . . absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but here, knowing that there was DNA testing that shows evidence of other people, that is evidence of absence." Williamson affirmed the general principle that Neufeld is being raked over the coals for identifying as, yes, a general principle -- and now it seems that Neufeld is being faulted for not taking into account in April 2006 evidence that wasn't revealed until December 2006??

Anonymous said...

Please link to Neufelds' disclaimer and the general principle explanation,

Anonymous said...

KC,
A comment from one of your many admires.First,you are responsible for your comments.It's sad to see people so unhappy with the message they contort themselves to kill the messenger.You have been an important part of keeping three young men from a miscarriage of justice.Furthermore,you're an important part of exposing a toxic change in academic areas.
I do feel sorry for people whose world view of feelings of competence are threatened by your work.And,Ive certainly had times when I had my own self doubts.Here's a good point for your critics.If one person calls you a jackass,ignore them.If everyone does,start searching for a bale of hay.
Corwin