Well, at least two people think that, despite their innocence, the Duke lacrosse players should be punished for having a party.
At the defense press conference yesterday, someone with an NPR name badge (didn’t catch his name) asked if the three players regret going to the party on that fateful night. One of the attorneys told the man that he had a faulty sense of proportionality. Most college kids go to parties where beer and alcohol are served, even when they’re underaged. Hiring strippers also is not unheard of (hey, that’s what these two women did for a living, isn’t it?). To imply that they should spend 30 years in prison because of this indiscretion is just outrageous. But what are you gonna do? It’s NPR.
It’s also Barry Saunders today in The News & Observer:
Lost in the post-dismissal jubilation was the fact that these dudes, like the Duke lacrosse players in general, weren’t the proverbial choirboys. You couldn’t tell that from the after-party news conference, where defense attorney Joe Cheshire practically canonized them for their athleticism, scholarship and community service.
Community service? Is that what they call parties where strippers are verbally abused and threatened with broomsticks?
But this is probably just a cost-cutting measure for The N&O. Most papers today had to go out on the streets to find ill-informed yahoos to make absurd comments tinged by their racial prejudice. The N&O has one right there in the office.
