In Time, The Feds Will Come To Durham

The last two days I’ve posted here and here on Raleigh N&O stories concerning a letter attorney Jim Cooney, representing Reade Seligmann and his family,addressed to Craig S. Morford, acting U.S. deputy attorney general in Washington; Christopher J. Christie, U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, and Anna Mills Waggoner, U.S. attorney for the middle district of North Carolina.

The N&O reported it obtained the letter through a freedom of information request and that Cooney could not comment on his letter. (see here)

The letter disclosed North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has asked the federal Justice Department to assist in an investigation into “the events of this prosecution” during what’s known as the Duke Hoax.

The letter also disclosed the unexplained, last-minute cancellation of a meeting set for Raleigh which was to include representatives of the state’s AG’s office and JOD officials, including some who’d come to Raleigh from Reade Seligmann’s home state of New Jersey.

The letter doesn’t identify who was responsible for the cancellation. But since only higher ups in the DOJ could have directed the New Jersey-based JOD officials not to attend the meeting; and since the letter is addressed to Morford, who’s currently acting Attorney General because that office is currently vacant, it’s obvious where Cooney thinks responsibility lies.

It certainly sounds like someone with a lot of clout didn’t want that meeting to happen.

If you don’t believe that's the case, just ask deputy secretary of the treasury and Duke BOT chair Bob Steel.

Does the meeting's cancellation mean the Feds aren’t coming to Durham?

Here’s what a commenter, Jack, says:

There will be no Federal investigation. We all toss around the ideas that politicians are corrupt, that they want to cover their back sides, etc.

I believe that the conduct of the public officials in the Lacrosse case is just the tip of the iceberg. An in-depth, legitimate, thorough and unbiased investigation could undermine the legitimacy of many governmental entities, not to mention Duke University.

There’s a lot of truth in what Jack says. And he may turn out to be right about the Feds not coming in.

But I think eventually they will.

Yes, this Justice Department under President Bush has shown itself to have just what the DOJ under previous administrations for more than forty years have had: a two-race policy whereby DOG’s quick to get involved when there’s any suggestion blacks might have been victimized (look at how quickly DOJ got involved in Jena), but very slow to get involved where whites are concerned, even when they’ve clearly been victimized and the state’s attorney general is asking DOJ to get involved, as is the case now.

And we all know the very wealthy and powerful Duke University, which often speaks out on public matters and routinely lobbies the federal government, has said nothing to encourage the Feds to come to Durham and investigate possible crimes committed against its students.

Still, I think the Feds will come.

They’ll be forced to.

The injustices committed during the Duke Hoax are too massive and too terrible to be ignored.

We know only something of those injustices now.

We’ll learn much more about those injustices in the future.

A police-state frame-up attempt which was carried out over many months, involved dozens of co-conspirators and sought to put three innocent young men in prison for decades is a horrible thing to learn about. It makes decent people angry and concerned for their safety when in the hands of the law.

But we don’t know a quarter of all that was done to first trash the lacrosse players and generate public anger against them; and then to pick three of them for a frame-up that would send them to prison for most of the rest of their lives.

When the public learns more of what happened, especially the many lies we were told and the deliberate crimes that were committed, all that won’t mean much to the sort of people who go to pot banger rallies and circulate “Vigilante” posters.

But decent people are going to be angry and they’re going to demand something be done.

Public awareness followed by public pressure will, at some point, force the Feds to come to Durham, something they should have done long ago.