$30M lax settlement with Durham justified

Do the three formerly indicted men's lacrosse players deserve $30 million? Of course not. Should Durham be held liable for $30 million? Absolutely.

"Deserve" doesn't have anything to do with it. $30 million is comprised mainly of punitive damages-a modest sum considering the blistering smack in the face so many elements of Durham need and deserve.

$30 million is the least of Durham's worries. Residents should be asking how a corrupt district attorney's office could remain silent throughout this affair, how an entire police department could do the same, how a man like Sgt. Mark Gottlieb can still carry a badge, how consecutive judges could allow this charade to continue and actively enable it, how a population could nominate and elect an overwhelmingly corrupt prosecutor and how The Herald-Sun continues to sell papers after maneuvering the county into precisely this sort of legal quagmire. They should reconsider the dangerous biases along lines of race, class and gender with which as humans we often seem to comfort ourselves and instead reflect on how the people to whom they look for education, information and leadership have used those biases and prejudices to manipulate them.

Most importantly, we should all ask how city and University leaders, after everything that has been exposed, could have learned absolutely nothing.

Not every citizen of Durham supported former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong and the symbolic prosecution of innocent men because of what they are and supposedly represent, yet every citizen will suffer for it. Very few Duke students and alumni participated in this affair, and yet our University will suffer for years as a result of the blubbering cowardice, deceit and shortsighted betrayal of certain administrators and many deplorable ideologues who forced the hands of weak men.

I'm not sure which is worse-the widespread corruption, or the current, frantic attempts to cover up and justify such conduct that lead to further liability. Duke and Durham leaders are covering their own fannies at the expense of Duke and Durham.

Kenneth Larrey

Trinity '08