By Scott Tibbs, March 23, 2016
It is easy to buy into the narrative of "good guys vs bad guys" when reading about crime stories. In my younger days, I certainly bought into it. And while most police and prosecutors are good people, there is no doubt that there are not only bad apples but openly evil people serving as both. Ten years ago my journey began in becoming much more skeptical of law enforcement and much more uncompromising on civil rights and due process.
March 13 was ten years since the fateful party that led to convicted murderer Crystal Gail Mangum fabricating charges of "rape" against the Duke "University" lacrosse team, and thoroughly corrupt prosecutor Mike Nifong pursuing a conviction despite knowing the charges were false and withholding evidence that proved the players were innocent in order to frame them for the fabricated "rape" that never happened.
Ann Coulter had some excellent observations shortly after the story broke. Here is one of the best:
| You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money. |
Obviously, no one deserves to be falsely accused of rape, and no one deserves to have a thoroughly corrupt prosecutor try to frame them for a "crime" that they not only did not commit, but never even happened. But if the Duke lacrosse team were respectable young men who did not hire women to take their clothes off for money, convicted murderer Crystal Gail Mangum would have never had the opportunity to fabricate allegations of "rape" against them.
But that is not the real story here. No, that would be the criminal actions Mike Nifong, especially intentionally hiding evidence that proved his victims were innocent. Nifong attempted to frame innocent men in order to advance his political career. He was disbarred, but served a pathetic one day in jail for his crimes against the Constitution.
Nifong is the worst actor, but not the only guilty party. The faculty of Duke so-called "University" openly went after innocent men for a "rape" that was fabricated out of thin air, and the administration (particularly Richard Brodhead) trampled over due process and civil rights by banning the men from campus. This was one of the most shameful debacles in the history of higher education.
The fabricated "rape" in 2006 serves as a reminder why we must never compromise on civil rights and due process, and how we must root out and expose corruption in the criminal justice system.
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