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A Travesty of New Proportions

Well how about that? Time-stamped photographs and DNA evidence have apparently gotten the Duke Lacrosse players off the hook. After the city of Durham and the country have protested, marched and, in extreme cases, threatened violence toward the Duke lacrosse team, I believe that the accused, Duke University and especially the former Duke coach Mike Pressler are owed one hell of an apology.

This incident has not only ruined the national title-contender’s season but has perhaps ruined the program in its entirety. Duke has forfeited this season’s remaining games, lost one of the greatest coaches in the game and has had it program severely tarnished which will cause a lack of interest from recruits.

This tragic incident should remind every American what “innocent until proven guilty” means. Just by accusing the lacrosse team of this vicious act, a 27 year old student from NCCU has brought down a powerhouse on the lacrosse scene. This should not be allowed to happen under any circumstances. The members of that lacrosse team have seen their reputations ruined forever because a young black girl claimed she was raped by some white lacrosse players. Obviously someone is not being truthful and the lacrosse team has the evidence on its side.

I know that there are a lot of people who do not follow lacrosse or even know what the game is so I will put it in perspective. Imagine that a few players on the Duke Basketball team were being accused of a similar crime. The season would be canceled, Coach K would be forced to resign, most of the good players would transfer and there would be no McDonald’s All-Americans in next year’s recruiting class. That is the kind of havoc the accuser along with the media has caused.

One of the overlooked issues within the case was that there are three MAJOR discrepancies with the alleged victim’s story.
When the first call was made, the person calling claimed to be a passer-by who had racial slurs shouted at her. Later on however it was discovered that the caller was in fact the second dancer at the party. This is important because the call was made after the alleged rape occurred but there was no mention of it, only that racial slurs had been shouted. Obviously the caller saw the racial slurs as the important issue at the time.

The police arrived two minutes after the call was made and reported the house to be quiet. Where do you hide forty-seven drunken members of a college sports team in two minutes? Sounds like Duke could have a contender in the hide-n-seek championship as well.

The women were reported as leaving the house together but an hour and a half after the first call was made, the second caller picked the accuser up while she was walking alone in the street. so after being raped there are some choices that a person must make: go to the police or take a midnight stroll down a deserted street.

Those are a lot of big discrepancies and I did not see one of them talked about on ESPN or FOXNEWS. That is unethical reporting and should never happen again. I cannot think of a single greater catastrophe in all of sports…..ever. Yeah sure SMU got the death penalty in the 80’s and Pete Rose bet on baseball. But those instances involved a guilty party and the punishment was deserved. Did Mike Pressler deserve to lose his job? Did the Duke Lacrosse program deserve to be destroyed? I think not.

2 replies on “A Travesty of New Proportions”

duke I think it’s irresponsible to comment on this story until everything is sorted out. That means all facts. I personally refrained in writing a story on this until all is known. That’s where I think the media in this country is wrong. We write on every little soundbite or tidbit. This story is going to be bad for all no matter how it turns out, because of that it is definitely a travesty, but for whom?

ok I agree with you in that it is not right to speculate on a situation without all of the facts. However, I also believe that something needed to be said about the way the media reacted to and portrayed the incident. Remember that only three players were allegedly involved and that the entire team and student body were threatened with drive-by shootings, and gang-violence. Whether the THREE players are guilty or not doesn’t matter because every innocent player on that team will never escape this incident. This incomplete coverage caused the lacrosse coach to be forced into resignation and will cause the demise of a powerhouse program.

This incident is bad for everyone but it was made a lot worse by the media, especially for Mike Pressler and Duke University.    

Thanks for the feedback.

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