Murphy Predicts Riots in the Streets

Appearing on FOX News yesterday, rabid Hoax proponent Wendy Murphy predicted "riots in the streets" of Durham if the charges against the victims of Durham County D.A. Mike Nifong’s hijacked Hoax are dropped, as anticipated. Ostensibly, Murphy was there to discuss the allegations against three University of Minnesota football players, arrested Friday on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old woman. Quickly, however, her segment turned into another bitter assault on the demonstrably innocent victims of the Hoax.

Citing the difference between the immediate arrest of the football players, who were identified by the alleged victim in Minnesota, and the "failure" of Durham police to quickly arrest the lacrosse players, who were only described vaguely as "short," "chubby," and "white" by the false accuser, Murphy bemoaned the disparate treatment. Offering the usual rhetoric of "white and rich" vs. "black" as the cause for the difference. Murphy's comments bring to mind the words of Cash Michaels in an interview with NPR's Juan Williams last April.

Describing the sentiment in Durham's black community, Michaels said:

“If the alleged suspects were black players and the victim was white, they would have been rounded up, arrested, and they would have been waiting in jail for their DNA results.”

Murphy's inciting commentary also reflects several comments made last April at the frenzied NCCU pep rally for indictments.

"Why did the accused rapist get a chance to chill out at the Duke University. The moment that they were accused there should have been an arrest. I want to know why were they not arrested?"

"We all know that if this happened at Central, and the young lady was from another school or another persuasion, the outcome would have been different. They would have been in jail."

"You all know that if this happened—the young lady was from another school or another persuasion, the outcome would have been different. They would have been in jail."

"My understanding from this family this young lady has identified the three men who have raped her. They should be in jail."

"Within the last couple of years, a white female was assaulted allegedly by a black male, a black student at Duke was going to his work study job, the police grabbed him, put him in jail, and later said oops, sorry, mistaken identity, but you met the profile. Those lacrosse players met the profile, why weren‘t they arrested? Now, what is the differences? Is it the billion-dollar a year operating budget of Duke which can buy anything and everyone?"

Incredibly, as Hoax observers await the anticipated dismissal of the charges, Wendy Murphy's commentary hearkens back to the pep rally atmosphere that Rony Camille, student and assistant editor of NCCU's “Campus Echo” newspaper described on April 11, 2006 as "really, really, really tense" in an interview MSNBC's Dan Abrams.

ABRAMS: Explain to me, Ronnie. Listening to a lot of the sentiment there at your university, it sounds to me like if you step back from—step back a little bit and you talk about this rationally, what they are really saying is we have seen other examples where the police have misbehaved or where police have targeted people because of their race. It really doesn‘t sound like they have got a real good argument about why anyone should have been arrested here, right?

CAMILLE: Yes. Dan, and it‘s getting right now really, really, really tense. I was there earlier today and just to see the students and members of the community ask these questions to the D.A. was just really, you know, it made you think for a second about what was going on.

ABRAMS: See, I guess I don‘t understand what it is they want from the D.A. They want him to just go forward and arrest, you know, it sounds like the D.A. has identified, based on our analysis of everything he has said. It sounds like the D.A. has identified maybe one, possibly two of the people but not all three. Are the people in the community saying just go arrest the whole team?

CAMILLE: That‘s what they are—basically the overall feel is that they want, you know, the team should have been arrested. DNA should have - - the extension of the DNA should have taken, you know, two weeks and it was overextended.

ABRAMS: Uh-huh. They have got to know, you know, it‘s a good school, smart people, they have got to know that that‘s craziness, right, the idea they are going to go in and they are going to arrest the whole team?

CAMILLE: Well, you know, there are some people that don‘t really think logically...

After setting the stage by repeating the cries of last spring, Murphy, who in a December email to colleagues proclaimed Defendant Nifong her "prosecutor of the year," expanded on her vitriolic diatribes of the past year with her new prediction of "riots in the streets."

Making Ms. Murphy's comments most disappointing, last week there were visible signs of acceptance of the end of the Hoax from leaders in the black community. A Hoax supporting website, sponsored by the North Carolina NAACP, the Triangle Urban League, and three local black newspapers, cited concerns about the integrity of the investigation and the reluctance of the false accuser to cooperate with authorities as reasons for pulling its site down.

“OurHeartsWorld.com, the website sponsored by a coalition of community groups across North Carolina, is no more…

“Evidence turned over to the defense attorneys representing three players who were ultimately indicted for three first-degree felonies reportedly failed to confirm her allegations…

“The NCNAACP, the Triangle Urban League and three Black newspapers in North Carolina cosponsored the website…

“In December 2006 it was revealed that the accuser could not substantiate her rape accusations…

“Of course, the allegations against Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong per his handling of the investigation and exculpatory DNA evidence was also a factor in our growing weariness about the integrity of the case.

“And just recently, word that the accuser is not cooperating with the special prosecutors of the State Attorney General’s Office has also concerned us.

“If the essence of our support for her was ensuring her right to tell her story, but she isn’t doing it, then the reasons for continuing that support are fewer and fewer.

“We have consulted with the co-sponsors of the website, and they agree with our assessment that the time has come to pull the plug.”

Floyd McKissick Jr., the Chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party, also expressed concerns about the fairness of Defendant Nifong's treatment of the Hoax victims and wonderment over whether Nifong's misconduct was limited to the Hoax.

"The African-American community of Durham wants fairness, and the view is that if Mr. Nifong was not fair in this case, what's he going to be like in other cases?"

McKissick's comments echo the words of esteemed Duke Universtity Professor of Law, James Coleman. In an interview with Ed Bradley, Professor Coleman acknowledged the transparency of Nifong's motives while foreshadowing McKissick's query with his own.

"I think that he pandered to the community by saying 'I'm gonna go out there and defend your interests in seeing that these hooligans who committed the crime are prosecuted. I'm not gonna let their fathers, with all of their money, buy you know big-time lawyers and get them off. I'm doing this for you.' You know, what are you to conclude about a prosecutor who says to you, 'I'll do whatever it takes to get this set of defendants?' What does it say about what he's willing to do to get poor black defendants?"

As with most hyperbolic comments made by Ms. Murphy throughout her advocacy of the Hoax, her latest prediction seems based on little more than her own entrenched prejudices and selfish desire that the falsely prosecuted young men be sacrificed on the altar of her radical agenda. Despite the likely unfounded nature of her claims, Murphy's recent appearances in local black newspapers as a guest columnist and legal "expert" can only lend credence to her claims.

It should be noted, however, that even the most extreme critics of this site have recently downplayed the possibility of riots, calling that likelihood "trivial." Our most frequent heckler, who once predicted riots and contends that some Durham preachers described the deaths of Kirk Osborn and Ed Bradley as signs of God's vengeance, admits that riots, as predicted by Murphy, are not anticipated.

"you know nothing about Durham in general and less than nothing about the Durham black community. How can you get a sense of what the people in the black community know and think when you literally know none of them? Have you spoken with any Durham blacks? No. You are relying on an article from someone who spoke to maybe three black people in Durham. Well, I live here, go to church here and let me tell you that many of the churches are sending prayers up for Nifong and the victim and some of the preachers have preached on the case, including the deaths of Osborn and Ed Bradley and the subject of bought justice--you would definitely not like to hear the text of some of those sermons(lets just say that the defense and the bloggers like yourself are depicted as supporter of Evildoers and therefore servants of Darkness and are reaping the consequences). The support of Nifong in the black community is still strong.

"If you knew anything about Durham you would know that the attorney general is aware of this and is trying to wait for Spring Break at NCCU or even the end of the semester to annonce his dismissal to avoid any problems from the NCCU students. Durham has had riots before( in the 1960's) and that is the part of the town that went up first and it is close to downtown. This is a trivial concern, though, as times have changed and I do not think there will be any riot about a dismissal."

To its credit, it appears that FOX News pulled Murphy's sulfurous segment in later airings of reports on the University of Minnesota allegations.