Duke Lacrosse Scandal, Your Thoughts

Hey All,

I assume all of you have been following the Duke Men's Lacrosse scandal, where three of the mens lacrosse players are accused of raping a black stripper who was hired for an off-campus party. In the past weeks, the head coach of the team resigned and the season has been cancelled. DNA tests have been taken of the entire team, and recently an e-mail has been discovered with threats to skin and harass another stripper. Just google it to see all the details.

I'm a Duke graduating senior, and campus has been torn, as have relations between Duke and Durham. I have several opinions on the issue, but I welcome some discussion.

I feel that even if the DNA results come back negative, there is still the possibility that a condom was used. Also, there are rumors that the stripper was a prostitute, and that she could be crying rape because they used racial slurs against her. The lacrosse players are *******s based on my interaction with them. Most of them are from suburban NY, NJ, CT, and are typical cocky upper class white students who think the world revolves around them. I think there is a long road ahead for the players, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this matter.

Also, if any of you have any questions about Duke or the team, feel free to ask.

Matt

This is the first time I've heard of this.

I'd need more evidence to sway my mind towards either rape or hooker.

Something to follow, though.

Reading everthing I have about the story, I can't figure out who's telling the truth.

On one hand, I can definately see this as a bunch of "upper-class" well-to-do guys who felt they were better than this stripper and thought it gave them the right to take advantage of her, especially when alcohol was involved.

On the other hand, this could be a case where the "stripper" was really a prostitute and saw the situation as a way to exploit these "upper-class" white kids....

In any case I don't think there's enough evidence for anyone other than those involved to make a solid case either way.

A similar situtation occurred with the St John's basketball team a couple years back. In the end, the stripper was arrested for making the whole thing up. The email that kid wrote, while twisted, makes me think they were unaware that the girl objected to anything. The last thing you would do if you were worried about the cops coming to arrest you for rape would be start joking about it.

Here are some articles for those of you who are unfamiliar with whats going on.




http://<a href="http://www.wral.com/...l&psp=news</a>

http://<a href="http://www.wral.com/...etail.html</a>

It was just anouned that DNA results came back negative!