Silence is Sickening

Governor Easley, Attorney General Cooper, Attorneys Coman and Winstead: You Know.

We Know You Know.

Whatever happened in the DA's Office in Durham at the investigation gone terribly terribly bad, you know who was involved. Every one of you does.

You need to come forward and tell the public.

Do not be afraid of retribution on the North Carolina Democratic Party. Do not be persuaded that somehow this happened to one or more "good guys."

If what the evidence says is true -- that three young men were Nifonged on a false charge -- the people responsible are not good.

This seems an elementary statement, I know.

But I can see loyal party members sitting around convincing themselves that it would be disloyal to turn on fellow "politicians"-- why, the guys who were involved were just a little "over the top." In real life, they're funny. They call their mothers once a week. They share potential party contributors' names with friends. They attend church.

Last Spring, Nifong was just a little too camera drunk, a little too"worked up." It was a scene straight out of "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe. Indicative of election times.

The alleged racial accusations slung at the players, who were white? Those were just ..."public edification" not "campaigning." Ditto for the ugly remarks overheard by the world. "Hooligans" and "Rich Duke Daddies." Har, har.

After all, this guy is not just Easley's appointed District Attorney, but now an elected DA. The career prosecutor's dream.

And the three boys? They were... privileged young white Duke kids from up north, for Pete's sake!

I can see you, Mr. Easley and Mr. Cooper, going down this crooked path, justifying your silence. And it makes me sick.

Because, of all the occupational hazards that must come with going to school in Durham, one of them should not be false prosecution. And no, forcibly Nifonged by Easley's chosen appointee doesn't make it better!

Unfortunately, many of us still want to believe there is justice for ALL in North Carolina, there is a tendency to presume that this malicious prosecution was an aberration. That he and his accomplices are "good guys."

I see it in the references to the "ongoing investigation" farce that endures in the AG's office.

I sense it in the "denial" expressed by spokeswoman Noelle Talley over the "situation" -- the leak of charges being dropped and the (shocking!) lack of cooperation by the accuser.

But amateur politics is one thing. The implication that this Nifonging, if true, is somehow a prosecutor that "got out of hand" is just plain wrong.

Nifonging is not part of a spectrum of behavior, the regrettable end game when narcissism and ambition are ignited by a faltering campaign and fanned into flames by the larger community's permission.

No. Obstruction of justice is a crime. A very serious one.

Those who commit it are criminals, not "good guys."

I don't know what happened in that office, and in that investigation, over in Durham. Ultimately, that will be a matter for the court system to decide. But who was in on it is something the public needs to know. Now.
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They shouldn't have to wait for the political landscape to clear.
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Every member of your team knows who was involved, whether it was Nifong and the false accuser alone or not.

Until the special prosecutors come forward with that information, free on bond isn't enough.

Shut down the Hoax.

Joan Foster