That's the headline for incredibly wrong-headed, blindly political piece of trash by Terry Moran.
The three young men who she accused are truly innocent of the charges brought against them according to the North Carolina Attorney General and the investigation led by his office.
But perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans is just a bit misplaced. They got special treatment in the justice system--both negative and positive. The conduct of the lacrosse team of which they were members was not admirable on the night of the incident, to say the least. And there are so many other victims of prosecutorial misconduct in this country who never get the high-priced legal representation and the high-profile, high-minded vindication that it strikes me as just a bit unseemly to heap praise and sympathy on these particular men.
So, let me see if I get this right. If a defendant gets "special treatment in the justice system--both negative and positive" (whatever that means), being falsely accused, ridiculed, reviled, plastered on the covers of magazines and newspapers for over a year, subjected to intense and viscious cruelty is ok? That's justice?
Moran's argument doesn't get much better:
So as we rightly cover the vindication of these young men and focus on the genuine ordeal they have endured, let us also remember a few other things:
They were part of a team that collected $800 to purchase the time of two strippers.
Like it or not, hiring strippers is still legal in this country, at least in some places. You may not like them, but going to strip clubs is also legal. Not approving of the activity is fine, but that doesn't make it illegal.
Their team specifically requested at least one white stripper.
How does this prove a crime? Is it now illegal to prefer white women?
During the incident, racial epithets were hurled at the strippers.
And because some people used racial epithets, it means these three students did it? Does Moran have proof they did this? And even if they did, using racial epithets is not proof that the accused students would have raped a woman.
Colin Finnerty was charged with assault in Washington, DC, in 2005.
Even a first year law student knows evidence of past crimes cannot be used to show present guilt. Being was charged with assault (not convicted, mind you) is not proof that a person will commit rape.
But Moran saves the best excuse (and his real problem with the innocence of these students) for last:
The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists.
That is the real problem Moran (and many liberals) have with the fact that these students were innocent of any crime in this case. The students were Partying While White, a felony charge in the liberal legal system.
The argument goes this way: lots of black people are falsely accused of crimes and go to jail because they cannot afford the best legal counsel in the U.S. Since some number of black people are falsely convicted, it is ok for a certain number of white people to be falsely convicted. That's only fair.
How messed up is that reasoning?!
It is absolutely bizarre to me that anyone would say something like this, but there it was in black and white in the comments:
I don't feel sorry for the Duke LaCrosse players. When you look at the number of African-American men who have been charged and found guilty in a rush for judgement, they just received a "little taste" of what African-Americans have experienced for decades.
There are men who have served decades in prison only to be found innocent after spending 10-20 years of their life behind bars.
And this one:
One must feel some sympathy for these guys, but we must also remember that these are not upstanding individuals. They are priveleged rich men who finally had a year of adversity in their lives as a side effect of their reckless partying...boo hoo. The public will soon forget these men, and the tarnish will wear off their names soon after. Hmmm...I wonder what the after-party from their press conference was like.
And this one:
Let's be serious everyone. These guys are going to be alright. They had a rough year. But they come from rich and connected families. In a week, this will all pass and they will move on to be wealthy and powerful like they would have in the first place. They may have been exonerated of all charges. But I think it is naive to think that no improper behavior occurred that evening.
Essentially, the argument presented in these comments as well as the original post is not that falsely charging anyone with a crime is abominable, but that since it happens to some people, it is perfectly justified for it to happen to others.
It's interesting to see this sort of vigilante justice approved of by the left, given the history of lynchings in this country. I mean, in those cases, it was considered justified to murder a black man because certain people were sure that he had committed some crime (even if they couldn't prove it). It seems to me that the nutroots are showing that they haven't fallen far from that racist tree.
UPDATE: Protein Wisdom dissects this idiotic argument very nicely.
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