Secondhand Sun

If there was any doubt that the Duke University Rapists' Club Lacrosse Team intended to harm the dancers they hired on the night of their ever-more-infamous party, here's some additional info from a search warrant:

The victim stated she did not think the names the suspects were providing her were their own. She stated one male identified himself as Adam, but everyone at the party was calling him Dan. In addition, the witness/co-worker stated the men at the party told her they were members of the Duke Baseball and Track Team to hide the true identity of their sports affiliation - Duke Lacrosse Team Members. In a non-custodial interview with Daniel Flannery, resident of 610 N. Buchanan and Duke Lacrosse Team Captain; Mr. Flannery admitted using an alias to make the reservation to have the dancers attend the Lacrosse Team Party.

One team member, Ryan McFadyen, wrote an email on the night of the party.

tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off white cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond

Lawyers for the captains of the lacross team ares obviously at a loss, because they're claiming the email proves a rape did not occur. In yet more proof that you can't throw an e-rock on the Internet without hitting an asshole, commenters and posters at various blogs - most notably Jeralyn of Talkleft, who doesn't get the courtsey of a link - are also claiming that a rape did not occur. Given that the victim left behind four fake fingernails (which came off while she was clawing at someone who was strangling her) and given that the DA found it productive to take DNA samples (useless if there was no physical evidence from the woman), the people who keep talking about how maybe-there-wasn't-really-a-rape and we-don't-KNOW-for-sure can go stick their heads in a beehive.

Oh - I almost forgot. The author of that lovely email above? His smug mug was at a Take Back the Night Rally following the assault, according to the New York Times.

Coincidentally, McFadyen attended a ''Take Back the Night'' march on campus on March 29.

''I completely support this event and this entire week,'' the player told The Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper. ''It's just sad that the allegations we are accused of happened to fall when they did.''

Sad. Is that what they call it, Ryan?

Posted by Joanna at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The assault of an African-American women by three white members of Duke's lacrosse team has been getting wide coverage in the blogosphere, and now by a few major papers as well: Washington Post article here, New York Times here and here.

The blog Justice 4 Two Sisters is covering the whole story, while Ampersand has a link round up at Alas, A Blog.

Finally, Pandagon has some analysis of gang rape: The gang rape is the essential scene of the patriarchy.

As for me, I had a dustup with a co-worker over this at lunch today, fielding questions about why "they" are trying to make a racial issue out of this, why that woman was working as 'a dancer', why she had kids, why they didn't DNA test the one black guy on the team as well.

Answer key: (1) Because when someone yells racial slurs at you and attacks you, that is a racial issue, (2) Because she needed money to put herself through school and support her family (3) Because she had sex and got pregnant, and no that does not negate her right to consent to further sexual activity for the rest of her life, and (4) Because she said the attackers were white.

You would think we'd be past the time when women attack other women for daring to be raped. You would think.

Posted by Joanna at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)