14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book About Shocking Injustice, June 19, 2007
This review is from: A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)
This is a powerful book that is co-written by a gradate of Duke University who came to realize just how despicable the actions of both Duke administrators and faculty have been in the Duke Rape Hoax.
This book provides an especially powerful indictment of the maladministration of University President Richard Brodhead and quotes the following passage from a letter sent to Brodhead by a Duke alumnus:
"You are quoted as saying, `I embrace athletics at Duke.' My God, President Brodhead, if the way you treated those three players, the team, and the coach is your idea of an embrace, what do you do when you dislike someone or something?"
The above quote is well worth rereading and pondering.
Other insights from this book include:
*If all 46 members of the lacrosse team deny both doing anything wrong themselves and having any knowledge of any other player doing anything wrong, then the administration should have taken this as proof that nothing wrong happened. This reveals a shocking lack of common sense by the Duke adminstrators.
*The Group of 88 faculty members who ran a number of ads urging students to form opinions about the case based solely on race and class and forget about emerging facts about the case, are people who are committed to politics and not to justice.
*Prior to his indictment, Colin Finnerty was widely regarded by his friends and teammates as being the guy who was least likely to be prosecuted due to his being the nicest guy on the team.
*Wes Covington was interviewed for this book and told of Nifong's arrogant behavior. One day, an intern approached Nifong and want to shake hands with him. Nifong's response? To refuse the handshake on the grounds that, "I don't shake hands with interns."
*Durham Police Department Sergeant Mark Gottlieb complained to Covington that Nifong was pressuring him to arrest players sooner rather than later.
*Bob Ekstrand was also interviewed for this book and he related a chilling story of how Nifong wanted to have two of the players arrested in class, purely for reasons of publicity, but was blocked by a judge.
All in all, a great book about shocking injustice in the Land of the Free.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shame on Duke Administration and faculty, July 25, 2007
This review is from: A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)
Definitive and excellent review of what went on at Duke during the Lacrosse Rape Case. Confirmed my beliefs that actions of President Broadhead, Trustee Chairman Steele, and the Group of 88 professors behaved disgustingly and failed to support their students. Following the notice of innocence, none had the decentcy to offer any apology to the students and their families. What was once a proud part of my life in attending Duke is now full of shame for the school. The only way for Duke to start working back to being the school it once was is for all of the above named administration and the 88 faculty to resign.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly Detailed and Riveting!, June 18, 2007
This review is from: A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)
I have followed the Duke Lacrosse Case closely and thought I was completely filled in until I read this thoroughly researched and very detailed account. The authors obviously went to great lengths to get the inside story and they wrote it with a strong sense of compassion while at the same time not holding back their disgust and disappointment for the Duke administrators, the Group of 88, the police, Nifong, the New Black Panthers, etc. One of the authors is a NY Times best seller while the other is a Duke alumnus who is very passionate about his love for Duke, but maintained that his mission was to report the truth no matter what he found out while visiting Duke during his research. And that's just what the authors did. They uncovered unknown details from insiders closely involved with the story. Some of the revelations truly shocked me.
I commend the authors for their obvious concern for the players and their families and for their detailed descriptions of the three falsely accused players. The picture is not at all the one the media led us to believe early on. In fact, if half of the facts in the book about the three young men are true, it is beyond me that Nifong was able to get as far as he did with his prosecution. But he's getting what he deserves now, as the authors predicted. They also suggest that criminal charges are on the horizon and it looks as though they might be right.
There is a legal side to the book which lays out how the case progressed. Thankfully, the authors, both attorneys, had the sense to put it into simple terms so readers could understand every step of the process.
All in all, it is an excellent book, one that fills in all of the missing facts and doesn't add the fluff that some books do. I highly recommend it!
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