Another O.J.?
I caught a bit of the live coverage of the Duke rape investigation forum yesterday and I couldn’t help but see shades of the O.J. Simpson case. District Attorney Mike Nifong received applause from the mostly black audience at N.C. Central, where the alleged victim is a student, when he said that “this case is not going away.” The questions which followed, though, frequently resulted in negative reactions aimed at Nifong. Why compare it to O.J.? Because the race issue has taken center stage, and more specifically because of some of the questions asked of Nifong. One woman asked who it was that walked the rape kit to the police department, after complaining that the alleged victim was taken to Duke Hospital, rather than UNC or another which would have no conflicts of interest. She then said outright that she strongly suspected evidence tampering. I wonder who the Mark Fuhrman of this case will be.
Others asked why no arrests had been made yet and expressed their beliefs that it was because the accused were white. Many of the students asked questions about race in general and about long term strategies to address issues of race and crime. This stopped being a simple case of alleged rape early on due to the fact that the accused were members of a Duke athletic team. It has now become all about race — at least as far as the media coverage and the politics of the matter are concerned.
Update: ABP has a take an interesting take on this from the viewpoint of a former prosecutor.
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