The national media has for the most part ignored the latest Crystal Mangum case and nothing has been heard from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
Some of you may remember the 2006 Duke lacrosse team rape case. Crystal Mangum, a black student at North Carolina Central University who worked for an escort service and as a stripper, accused three white Duke lacrosse players of having gang-raped her at a team house party. The three accused team members were arrested, the team coach was forced to resign and the team’s season was cancelled.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson came down to lead the usual street protests against white racism. 88 left-wing Duke faculty members placed a full-page ad in the student newspaper thanking the demonstrators for judging the accused lacrosse players guilty, and charging that a racist and sexist atmosphere pervades the university’s campus. And, of course, the media had a field day fueling the racial animosity between whites and blacks.
The case against the three accused rapists was led by an overzealous and unscrupulous district attorney who was up for reelection and played up to Durham's black community. Despite evidence that those accused by Mangum were innocent and that she was never raped at the party, the DA plowed right ahead and conducted a judicial lynching.
After all the damage had been done by the DA, the media, and by Sharpton and Jackson, the case fell apart when the Attorney General’s office determined that Mangum’s accusations were a pack of lies. The charges were dropped a year after they had been filed and the DA was disbarred for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation." A lot of lawsuits were filed against the city of Durham, its police force, the DA, and against the university.
Crystal Mangum had several run-ins with the law afterwards, but she did graduate from NCCU in 2008 with a degree in – you won’t believe this – police psychology. Her degree wasn’t much help because things really went downhill from there.
In April 2011, Mangum stabbed her boyfriend and was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill by inflicting serious bodily injury. The charge was upgraded to murder when the boyfriend died of his wounds in the hospital. On November 22, 2013, Mangum was convicted of second degree murder and immediately sentenced to prison for a term of 14 to 18 years. Unlike the Duke rape case frenzy, the media has for the most part ignored Mangum's murder case.
Al and Jesse, let’s hear from you now! The ‘Gang of 88’ professors, let’s hear from you now! And all the talking heads on TV and other media types who rushed to judgment in the Duke rape case, let’s hear from you now! Hmm, all I get is deadly silence.
1 comment:
But maybe her police psych classes helped her understand herself better and give her some self esteem as a murderer. After all, self-worth is what is truly important, isn't it? (Even if you are a worthless lump of shit you should be able to feel GOOD about yourself, shouldn't you?)
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