Let me state here at the beginning that I do not have it in for the Union Pacific, B&O, Southern Pacific or any of the myriad other rail transportation companiers in America. The kind of railroading I'm against is where police and prosectors home in on a suspect and won't let go despite evidence of innocence.
We have seen that in the Duke case where the charges against the 3 Duke lacrosse players is demonstratively false. The accuser's story has changed in very significant ways over time. None of them matching the evidence. The accuser couldn't identify any lacrosse players in the first two line ups. None of her early descriptions matched any of the boys she picked. And on. The case is a bust and yet DA Nifong couldn't quit. He needed the case to win a hotly contested primary election.
However, similar cases are reported all over America. What is unusual in this case is that the boy's parents were in a positioin to fight back. They have good lawyers who have investigated and destroyed the case before it even came to trial. So badly destroyed that the original DA in the case is now up before the bar on charges.
However, most such cases never get the spotlight or the resources this case did. Who gets buried by such tactics? Poor people. Many blacks, hispancics, and poor white trash. Which brings me to the Duke Chapel. Rev. William Barber spoke yesterday at Duke Chapel. A sermon. KC Johnson discusses what he heard.
I decided to watch the webcast of Barber's sermon to hear what he had to say. With copious references to Martin Luther King, Jr., Barber organized his talk around the "devastation of denial" when Pontius Pilate gave into the mob and denied clemency for Jesus.
"The refusal to acknowledge what is right in front of us," declared Barber, "can be devastating," even more so when accompanied by a denial of responsibility to change what is bad. Any "attempt to deny injustice covers us with the blood of guilt," since "all the denial in the world will not save us from ultimately having to face reality." To replace this atmosphere, "what we need today is a theology of truth and not denial."
Then he goes on to discuss all the Rev.'s individual and collective denials. In other words the Rev. is trying to support a case that doesn't exist.
What he needs to do is turn his whole mind set around. Which is very hard. What Rev. Barber needs to focus on is bigotry free justice. I'm not just talking in a raicial or other similar context. I'm talking about situations where there is a rush to judgement, which in itself is a kind of bigotry. Bigotry is the art of avoiding evidence contrary to preconcieved notions. We know this happens from the numerous cases of people on death row exonerated after many years in prison. We also know the system is reluctant to re-examine the evidence when it is available. Which means that the system thinks it has a lot to hide.
What I think the Rev. should do is join the anti-railroading society. Because, if the prosecutors would pull this on white boys look at how much easier it would be to do to blacks. How do poor people come up with even a retainer for top lawyers?
Rev. Barber needs a serious attitude re-adjustment.
Well any way. We should help our brothers get back on track rather than pick fights with them. It would be the Christian thing to do. Funny thing is I'm Jewish.
What is badly needed is a special, independent prosecutorial force, complete with SWAT units, with the power to arrest, try and imprison *only* government officals who abuse power in this manner.
Brother Bark · January 29, 2007 03:13 PM
What is badly needed is a special, independent prosecutorial force, complete with SWAT units, with the power to arrest, try and imprison *only* government officials who abuse power in this manner.
(Please delete the duplicate above, which has a misspelled word).
Brother Bark · January 29, 2007 03:14 PM
While I don't disagree with the thrust of your point, I am resigned to the fact that asking NAACP leaders to adjust their attitutes is futile. That organization has invested too much in the idea that the primary cause of black misfortune is white racism. They see nothing but white racism in every unfortunate incident that envolves person of both races. It's too deeply ingrained. In current parlance, "It's in their DNA."
Nice writeup. Only problem is that the Southern Pacific railroad was merged into Union Pacific in 1996 and the B&O was merged into CSX in the early 1980s....
Grover · January 29, 2007 04:27 PM
Grover,
All I know about railroads I learned from playing with model trains.
I think you give too much credit to the Duke players' lawyers for destroying the DA's case, and not enough to plain dumb luck. It's frightening to think what might have happened without all the evidence placing them away from the scene, like ATM receipts, access card readers, taxi logs, security videos, etc? Without those, I would probably take the accuser at her word, and that scares the hell out of me.
Dave G · January 30, 2007 08:14 AM
If you played with model trains a long time ago, those were the major railroads at the time and you probably had equipment for those railroads. Interesting side - none of the railroads in Monopoly exist any more. Guess they weren't such great properties to have after all!!
Grover · January 30, 2007 10:34 AM
The Southern Pacific merged with the Santa Fe, not the UP.
"Railroading" is a problem, but let's be careful. Many crimes don't leave "smoking-gun" evidence. Many criminals are clever, or have money or influence, or clever lawyers.
In such cases, the villains can be captured and convicted only by dedicated effort of police and prosecutors. Society needs cops and DAs with bulldog determination, who won't be paralyzed by every conceivable doubt. Even to acknowledge any doubts at all can play into the hands of a defense lawyer.
But that means greater need for some agent to follow up, to supervise, and pull them off when there s a mistake. The focus and determination that makes good investigators and prosecutors also predisposes them to overcommit to a case, overlook its flaws, and stick with it when they should drop it.
The adversarial structure of the justice system suggests an answer: an independent agency to review and challenge prosecutions: but in private, so the discussion can be untrammelled.
Rich Rostrom · January 30, 2007 02:02 PM
Engineering is suffused with doubt. It is how engineers arrive at (or near) truth.
Keep sifting until there are only true answers. Beyond a reasonable doubt.
Since the prosecutor's job is justice, not just conviction, it seems like a bit of doubt would be a good thing.
I know that the very best engineers can entertain doubt and certainty at the same time, however that is unusual. Which is why there are design reviews, by people not involved in a project. The job of the reviewers is to pick holes in the design and the process. Some times ideas come up that are so good that sections of a design are ripped up and redone.
The Southern Pacific attempted to merge with the Santa Fe in 1986, but the merger was overturned by the federal government. In 1989, Denver and Rio Grande Western bought Sounthern Pacific and they were merged into Union Pacific in 1996.
Santa Fe and Burlington Northern merged in 1995 to form BNSF.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
The Duke pulpit is sadly a place for a whole lot of political posturing, and has been for a long time.