Talking with JinC regulars – 7 - 2 - 06

(One of a series of posts in the original web log tradition: notes and "thinking out loud." These posts will be most easily understood by regular visitors and are written with them especially in mind. But others are welcome. John)

I just went back on the comment threads through June 24 and removed spam. I think I got them all. But the spammers keep slipping new ones in. You’re smart; you’ll ignore them and keep scrolling.

I left a number of comments for you all. I hope you see them.

A big thanks to those of you who are linking JinC items/posts to places like Free Republic, Court TV, etc.

Isn’t that great news about Cheek. He turned in about 10,000 signatures and he needs 6303 “verifieds” to get on the ballot. The people who worked Cheek’s petition drive are very experienced. I’m betting Cheek has more than the number he needs.

I read in the Dur H-S yesterday that Monks says he’ll support Cheek if his name is placed on the ballot.

I hope you’re finding the Charns/CrimeStoppers posts interesting. The process Charns has begun could be long but IMHO it will lead to very important information about how the investigation was conducted in those critical first weeks, including learning more about the DA's office and DPD's respect for the rights of the young people they were investigating.

I plan to post in a few days my lay person’s take on Charns' June 13 email to Dur. City Mgr. Baker and Police Chief Chalmers.

I’d like to share an example of what I'm plannig, and ask for your feedback/advice.

Charns' email includes:

In response to my initial request for certified copies of all city of Durham and Durham Police Department press releases or posters concerning the Duke lacrosse alleged rape investigation, some records were released to me. I do not believe all records concerning these posters were given to me because I received a certified copy of the poster that I provided to the city as proof instead of copies of the poster from police department files or computers. (bold mine)

How about that? What were some police thinking when they copied Charns’ poster and sent it back to him as their response to his request for a copy of a poster that was in DPD’s files?

Why didn’t Charns receive a copy directly from police files? Or a photocopy of a poster in the DPD's files?

With those questions in mind we read what Charns wrote next:

If records have been destroyed or deleted, I request records concerning the destruction of the records including but not limited to authorizations for their destruction and the date of their destruction.

We need to remember that Charns is only implying; not asserting.

When I interviewed Charns on June 29 he’d not heard back from DPD. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

I’ll end this with a “Happy Four of July” to you. In fact, I’ll do more. This post, Freedom at the Raleigh News & Observer, should give you a July Fourth smile if you haven't already seen it.

John
http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2006/06/freedom-at-raleigh-news-observer.html