Lacrosse Update. Not Good

I guess the difference, these days, is that these types of things are being reported. I am, though, tired of hearing about gang rapes.

Then there is the men's lacrosse team. In as ugly a story as is likely to be reported in college sports this year, a black exotic dancer says she was beaten, strangled, and raped at a party hosted at a house rented by the three Duke lacrosse captains. The woman, who says she was told she'd be dancing for a few men at a bachelor party, told police she fought fiercely against her attackers, losing four fingernails in the process.

Initially, the lacrosse team denied it all. It was all overblown, they said, although they did admit hiring a dancer and doing some drinking. The drinking was certainly no surprise. The Winston-Salem Journal reported this week that 15 of the 47 players on the team had previous misdemeanor chargers 'stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior.'' In fact, police have reportedly been called to the house four times since September.

And then the police found four red, polished, broken fingernails at the house.

Suddenly this began to look a little more serious. As one of the local papers pointed out, a first degree rape conviction carries a prison term, at least 16 years for someone with no prior convictions. Slowly, slowly, the university began to react. The athletic director announced that the team, which was considered a contender for the national championship when the season began, would forfeit two games.

Although the players still stonewalled, refusing to talk to police and hiring attorneys who claimed that the DNA tests the police ordered were 'mammothly unconstitutional,'' the students on campus weren't buying it. There were three days of campus protests, including a candlelight vigil last Saturday night.

On Tuesday, there was finally a change. The captains announced that they had decided not to play another game until, in the words of the school president, 'a clearer resolution of the legal situation,'' is reached. This sounds like one last attempt to take the high ground. They suspended themselves until this can be straightened out.

But if they really wanted to resurrect their image they'd cooperate with the police. Instead, since the team provided so little information, police took DNA samples from virtually everyone on the roster. The players had better hope their sample doesn't turn up anything suspicious. Police also said that if a rape is proved, there was the possibility that bystanders might be charged on the grounds that they could have stopped the incident but did nothing.

The DNA tests are due back next week. There is no telling what they will reveal, but we do know a few things: One, the police say they are fairly certain a rape occurred; two, news reports indicate police were able to collect compelling physical evidence from the woman when she sought medical care; and finally, we know the community and the student body are up in arms and expect action.

Even if we take race out of it, and Lord knows I think that there are a lot of white men who think of black women as sub-human (as did their great grandfathers), this must stop! This isn't about women, how they dress, what they do for a living or how late they stay out at night. It is about men who absolutely, positively do not have respect for women. Period! Violence towards women seems to be escalating in society, and despite education and campaigns to tell young men that "no means no" there seems to be a segment of men who don't seem to think that they will get caught or punished for their barbaric behavior. Are these "gangs" of men human beings or are they packs of dogs?