Shots In The Dark: More on the Defendants

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

More on the Defendants

Lawyers for the two alleged rapists say that one of them wasn't even at the party.... and Durham Country D.A. Mike Nifong says he's given up on the search for a third suspect.

By the way, remember all the talk about what rich kids these lacrosse players are? Well, one of the defendants is from Essex Fells, New Jersey, which does sound like a faily posh place—in 2000, the median household income was $175,000. The other is from Garden City, New York, a Long Island town which is not particularly posh at all....

One of these days when I have the time, I hope to go back and look at how class was used against these defendants before anyone even knew who they were—how, in this case, being a poor, working single mother—a stripper—actually helped the accuser's credibility, while their broad socioeconomic profile was used to stigmatize the defendants. I'm not saying this is good or bad, just pointing it out as a factor in how journalists covered this case.

¶ 7:51 AM

Comments:

I find it disingenuous that you should invoke, seemingly arguing that the players turn out not to be "rich kids" after all, that Garden City, NY is not "particularly posh" when the NYT article clearly states that the father of Collin Finnerty of Garden City is "a prominent Wall Street executive who is on the board of Newcastle Investment Corporation."

# posted by Anonymous : 8:49 AM

Actually, you're right—that would obviously make him well off. Mea culpa.

But the larger point stands, I think—these kids' backgrounds were used to characterize their character long before we knew anything specific about them or the evidence in the case. (And we still really know nothing about the evidence in the case.)

# posted by richard : 8:56 AM

I assume you read the email by Ryan McFadyen:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0405061duke5.html

Also, the team's silence:

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/422462.html

It's not completely irrelevant to mention the socio-economic background of the accused and the victim in media coverage of this case. I agree that coverage should focus on the facts - but I think that particular fact does help give context for what was going on that night.

# posted by Anonymous : 9:39 AM

And Garden City is hardly a middle-class enclave. Regardless of what his father does, my first assumption in hearing that he grew up in Garden City would be "rich kid".

# posted by Anonymous : 9:42 AM

Garden City is one of the most affluent towns on Long Island.

# posted by Anonymous : 9:50 AM

Okay, okay! I was wrong about Garden City. Nonetheless, I haven't heard anything that convinces me that the socioeconomic background of these kids is relevant to the case at hand...that's a gross generalization that liberals would be up in arms about if it were applied to people from a disenfranchised group. (Unless, of course, it were used in an exculpatory way.)

# posted by richard : 10:08 AM

Of course, applying such generalizations to disenfrechised groups adds to the disenfrechisement, which makes it quite different from the case in which they are applied to the privileged. In that case, it only slightly redresses the privilege. Are you seriously claiming that the alleged perpetrators have been negatively affected in a way that their savvy, well-paid lawyers can't largely neutralize in the end? Thinking of the numbers of rich people who have survived scandals in their younger days and emereged unscathed (e.g. Ted Kennedy), I am not particularly concerned about them.

Also, don't forget that the alleged victim has also been a target of a fair bit of demonization (just think of Fox News, and Tucker Carlson on MSNBC, and Rush Limbaugh, etc.).

# posted by Anonymous : 8:35 PM

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