This past Friday, all students received a letter from Larry Moneta warning of the threat of a drive-by shooting at the lacrosse house and reporting other slurs made toward other students in the area. Then yesterday, The Chronicle reported of an assault on a Duke student at Cook Out on Hillsborough Road.
To his credit, Moneta alerted students in enough time for them to take precautions against any threat. However, there was no warning for the student at Cook Out, and for others in the future. But there is a great amount of blamed to be placed on District Attorney Mike Nifong.
Nifong has constantly fanned the flames of this controversy by creating a media spectacle and giving multiple interviews in which he repeatedly makes derogatory and confrontational comments about the lacrosse team. He presumes their guilt, a move that many believe is a ploy to gain an edge in his bid for re-election.
While a prosecutor has the right to publicly state his reasons for filing charges, and while an elected official has a right to campaign through his actions, Nifong also has a responsibility to the city that elected him. That responsibility was violated when he took a sensitive case and fostered a dangerous mob mentality in Durham, mostly to further his own cause.
By speaking of the alleged incident in such inflammatory terms before anyone has been formally charged, Nifong has not only slandered 46 currently innocent young men, but he has also charged the community with racial hostility. He made our campus unsafe not only for lacrosse players, but for all other students, as well.
Tom Austin
Trinity '08
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