Duke President Richard Brodhead still cuts the team no slack in his statement, despite the fact that all of the press reports and his previous statements have omitted the fact that the team's GPA was one of the highest on campus:
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Duke University's troubled lacrosse team will resume play next season, but under strict rules and close monitoring after three players were charged with rape, school President Richard Brodhead said Monday."I am, I know, taking a risk in reinstating men's lacrosse," Brodhead said in a prepared statement. "The reinstatement is inevitably probationary."
Kevin Cassese--an assistant under former coach Mike Pressler who resigned under pressure before any of his players were charged-- will take over coaching duties for now.
You'd think, now that the prosecution's case has begun to stink more and more, and given that Brodhead has already punished many innocent young men by canceling the team's seaon, he would stop taking every opportunity to publicly lecture the lacrosse team. No such luck.
As Lew Rockwell put it in his thorough look at this case:
Today, the only "blue wall of silence" is coming from Nifong and the Durham police, as defense attorneys continue to ferret out lies, lies, and more lies as they study police reports and the official records. However, now that Nifong is silent and the case is beginning to stink, the national journalists have moved on.
La Shawn live-blogged the press conference, here:
Does anyone remember seeing or hearing similar press conferences when black ball players raped or assaulted white co-eds? Me, neither. As I said, looooooowwwwwer standards.Question for white readers: Why don’t white communities rant and rave and call press conferences when white women are raped by black men?
I grew up in neighborhood near Duke-- a neighborhood that has had the honor of having more than one serial rapist bear its name over the years. In those cases, the rapists were black and most of their victims white. The national press was largely unconcerned. There were very few candlelight vigils in town for those victims. There were no dialogues and "healing conferences" held.
The Duke women's lacrosse team ended up honoring the men's team with sweatbands that said, "No Excuses, No Regrets," instead of "Innocent," as had been previously reported.
But the girls fell short in their quest for a national championship, losing to Northwetern in the semi-finals, 11-10 in overtime.
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