Zarko on Top Villains in the Duke Lacrosse Hoax--Brodhead at #15--

 

http://falserapearchives.blogspot.com/2011/04/top-villains-in-duke-lacrosse-hoax-by.html

 

Top Villains in the Duke Lacrosse Hoax by Zarko

It was not necessarily easy to pick a list of the top 15 greatest villains in that disaster of a Hoax. Some are sharing a spot in this list, as they are often difficult to tell apart in their nonsensical screed. The hatred the people on this list displayed for justice, freedom, and other traditional democratic values is astounding. Their methods of perpetrating injustice at any cost, including self-deprecation, is a testament to how far we still have to go before we can truly make a great society.

I have excluded the two principal villains, District Attorney Mike Nifong and the False Rape Accuser herself, the Hoax Enabler, Crystal Gail Mangum from this list, as they were clearly the #1 and #2 criminals otherwise. . . .

#15: Richard Brodhead, Wahneema Lubiano, Karla Holloway, Peter Wood, Maurice Wallace, Thavolia Glymph, and the rest of the Group of 88

There are more 88ers coming lower in the count, but these are the people I couldn't fit in this list.

The Group of 88 are 88 Duke professors with a chip on their shoulders, an irrelevancy complex, and an almost obsessive hatred of a large variety of things, often male and white. The lacrosse team provided a very easy platform from which to launch their views.

The original "Listening" ad and Wanted Poster provided enough fuel for the fire of hatred to last a long time. Under the guise of 'anonymous' students, the 88ers provided their own quotes damning the team. Lubiano even characterized it as a stake through the heart of the Lacrosse team.

Of course, when the case collapsed and the 88ers were (slightly) taken aback, they would no longer claim the ad was about the Lacrosse incident, but about other, more 'lofty' goals, such as speaking out against the sexism and racism on campus.

Facts, of course, were stubborn things, ignored exclusively by most people on this list.

One note however, is the signatory Arlie Peters. He distanced himself from the G88 and did not sign the clarifying statement later on. For that, he needs to be applauded. The rest continued their hatred long after the case they once so cherished... collapsed so utterly.

For a list of their behavior, google.com, KC Johnson and others provide ample information.

Finally, the president of Duke, Richard Brodhead. He was not an 88er, but he certainly shares their views. Many people attest to his intelligence, and I have no reason to doubt any of them. He is a very smart, suave man, with a great eloquence, which is clearly lacking in most of the company he keeps (on this list and the 88ers in general).

When Finnerty and Seligmann were arrested, he gave his speech of: "If they did it, it's appalling. If they didn't do it, whatever they did is bad enough".

He knew, at that point, that all Seligmann and Finnerty did was drink beer. According to Brodhead, that was enough to warrant a 30 year prison sentence.

He failed his university, he failed his institution, he failed academia in general, and he failed to reign in a mob of morally destitute gangsters.