A Perfect Storm - The Duke lacrosse "rape" case

The Stripper Has No Clothes by Ann Coulter - HUMAN EVENTS :
"Stuart Taylor Jr., the liberal but brilliant legal reporter for the National Journal, described the New York Times' coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape case as '(w)orse, perhaps, than the other recent Times embarrassments.' For a newspaper that carries Maureen Dowd's column, that's saying something."

I am indebted to Ms. Coulter's latest column which discusses the NY Times article mentioned in the paragraph quoted above, as well as reporting from the Raleigh News and Observer, to supply key missing pieces of the puzzle presented by the alleged rape of an exotic dancer my members of the Duke lax squad.

The elements of the "Perfect Storm" which transformed an insubstantial allegation of a crime in North Carolina into a national news event are now apparent.

From the beginning, we have seen the political angle, an ambitious attorney, recently appointed county prosecutor and seeking election for the first time and eager for a cause to rally the African American vote. This is a story we have all seen before in real life and in the movies (from The Front Page to The Bonfire Of The Vanities). This alone would not make this incident a great national scandal.

We also figured out fairly early that the "victim" was not the most reliable of witnesses. Her story was vague except where the specifics were contradicted or beggared belief.

Now, comes the final element of the "Perfect Storm." As recounted by Ms. Coulter, the Raleigh paper has turned up strong evidence of prejudice against Duke students on the part of the police officer heading the investigation. In this case, it seems that, contrary to approved procedure, the investigator kept no contemporaneous notes and the only written record of his initial interview with the defendant four months after the fact.

Let me say that I understand from my own college days (which included being picked up by the local police for putting up Republican campaign posters in a Democrat city) just how much trouble college students can get into. And, I spent a decade working in law enforcement, so my sympathies are generally with the police. But, no profession is without the occasional practitioner who is employed in the wrong field of endeavor.

So, now we have a much clearer picture of how this storm gathered so much energy - a police investigation that was, at best, incompetent and perhaps prejudiced; a prosecutor both inept and corrupted by ambition; a victim whose story has evolved through too many expedient revisions to be reliable; and a willfully credulous press and special interest constituencies including a large segment of the Duke faculty fanning the flames.