Is That Legal?

Although I admire the Duke womens' lacrosse team, I generally don't think people should get awards for doing the obviously correct thing. They just look especially good by contrast to everybody around them- from Nifong to the potbangers to the gang of 88 professors- acting so badly.

It's a shame that Nifong's egregious conduct has over-shadowed what is indisputably poor behavior on the part of the male players...everything from hiring strippers to dance at university-owned housing to hurling racial slurs at the dancers as they left the premises (which, by the way, has remained undisputed). It seems clear that no crime was committed by the team, but that doesn't mean they should be eligible for canonization in the wake of Nifong's errors.

That's my problem with the female players' show of "solidarity," and, now, the argument that they should be lauded for standing by their peers...

The fact that Nifong blew it, and acted in a horribly unprofessional manner, doesn't prove the inverse-- that is, that the players were poor scapegoats who didn't do anything wrong. They acted poorly, both as students and as atheletes, and there is certainly no need to praise those female players who "stood by them."

Maybe they should get an award for being aware of the principle "innocent until proven guilty," unlike a lot of professors.

I doubt a service award is appropriate. But a part of me thinks that an article or two lauding them, or at least a blogpost, as a remedial measure for all the crap they got for a stance that, while not mandated by the evidence available at the time, was at least reasonable.

I wouldn't give them an award. That seems silly.

I would like it if all the bloggers and pundits who said such nasty things about the Duke womens lacrosse team when they came out in support of their male counterparts would apologize. I'd also like a pony.

Eric, I agree that the behavior of the lax team members was an embarrassment. I'm told that it is par for the course among undergraduate men these days. I'm surprised that undergraduate women, like those on the women's lacrosse team, tolerate it so readily. One note, however: the e-mail that you cite at Lindgren's post -- the one about killing and skinning a stripper -- apparently is a paraphrase or quotation from a novel that is taught in three different literature courses at Duke. Obviously, people make choices about what they quote or paraphrase, but if that's what was done, it's a bit exculpatory.

ELM: Well, of course, if the email actually said, "hey, check out this wild passage from this novel I'm reading in my literature course!" and then reproduced the passage in question, I agree that that would be significantly exculpatory. I am not aware that it said that, though. The way it was reported, the passage reflected the email author's own plan/fantasy.

If I knew nonetheless that the idea came from something he was reading, and that he presented it as his own, I would see that as only very minimally exculpatory -- or maybe not at all. I mean (WARNING! WARNING! GODWIN'S LAW TRIGGERING MOMENT RAPIDLY APPROACHING! TAKE COVER!), if I spend the afternoon reading Mein Kampf in a History course, and then email my friends that evening about the necessity of eliminating the Jews, I don't think I'd deserve much of a culpability discount for getting the idea from my reading.

Yes, Ralph Luker. Also, the potbangers outside the lacrosse house held a sign stating "Castrate". I don't know if that was a quote from a book, or not, but I'd say calling for mutilation or amputation of peoples' limbs is a pretty serious issue. One could reasonably argue that the Duke lax team members were in physical danger from every mentally ill (or just hateful) person in Durham County, so again I must admire the women's lacrosse team for showing the character of a civilized society in the midst of barbarity.

Wow, it seems that my above post is grammatically incorrect and unintelligible.

It should have read,

I doubt a service award is appropriate. But a part of me thinks that an article or two lauding them, or at least a blogpost, would be a nice remedial measure for all the crap they got for a stance that, while not mandated by the evidence available at the time, was at least reasonable.

The Duke Women's Lacrosse team deserves an award for seeing the obvious better than many of their professors, even without having yet earned degrees.

And just what was so obvious?

Answer: None of those Lacrossers had to steal what they were accused of stealing. It is for sale, cheap, wherever blacks congregate.