Transitioning to a new year

2011 – a year in review

2011 was a dynamic year for Tar Heelians with respect to social justice, economic, and political issues. It was also the year that ushered in the “flog” – a portmanteau of Flash and blog – an animated video format in which to present blog-like material… essentially, being an interactive documentary. Economic disparities were brought to the fore with the emergence of the Occupy Movement this year. The discontent with the status quo of the few rich getting richer while more and more individuals and families fall into the depths of poverty. Big corporations like banks, which unabashedly steal real properties and funds from its customers and anyone else they can, merge for the purpose of increasing their bottom line for the benefit of the executives and upper echelon, by creating monopolies to increase the cost of their services and products through loss of competition, while decreasing their bottom line by laying off employees. Environmentally, a new threat has emerged in the form of “fracking,” which threatens to pollute the groundwater with chemicals and carcinogens so that natural gas energy companies can increase their bottom lines. Politically, politicians, such as Renee Ellmers and Stephen LaRoche, are behaving hypocritically and unethically, serving their own needs and not those of the people who put them in office, and putting lobbyists before their constituents… just like any other year.

The most noteworthy stories of 2011 are listed below in the order of their significance. Story Number One – the charging of Crystal Mangum with first degree murder in the death of Reginald Daye. This media controlled story is the height of vendetta justice and is being muzzled by news outlets on a local and national basis. The main problem with this case, which is being prosecuted by Durham Assistant D.A. Kelly Gauger, is that Reginald Daye was removed from life support, after which he died. The fact that he was in a coma for a week prior to the plug being pulled was kept from the public. There was never any explanation as to how Daye slipped into a coma on his third postoperative day following emergency surgery for a stab wound to the left torso… nor has there been any curiosity about it by the media. Two autopsy-related reports have major disparities, with one being criminally fraudulent in its representation of multiple alleged injuries that could not possibly have come from a single paring knife stab wound. Again, no curiosity by the media. There is no nexus between the stab wound to the body and the comatose condition of Daye, and yet despite all of the above, the autopsy reports concluded that Reginald Daye’s death was due to complications of a stab wound to the chest… this after his emergency surgery was considered a success and he was expected to make a full recovery. The media, the politicians, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations are working together in an effort to allow our criminal justice system to saddle Ms. Mangum with a murder conviction… one which she did not commit. Even her attorney Chris Shella is complicit in this travesty for he has yet to file a motion to have the murder charge against his client dismissed. The larceny charge Ms. Mangum faces from the stabbing incident of April 3, 2011 is flawed, as well. Mangum was charged with two counts of larceny for taking from the scene of the stabbing two money orders… money orders for which she paid. The remitter was listed as Reginald Daye as the money orders were to go towards rent in a symbiotic relationship in which she and her three children were to secretly share his apartment. Daye wanted the money orders to go towards beer and booze, and this was the crux of that fateful evening’s argument. Common sense suggests that had Daye had the money to purchase the money orders, then he would have used it to purchase beer, and there would have been no confrontation. Again, the media is not curious on this point.

Story Number Two – the racist pardon policies of Governor Bev Perdue. Earlier this year, in February, the Governor’s Executive Clemency panel denied the pardon of Erick Daniels without explanation. He was denied a pardon because he is an African American. Erick Daniels needs the pardon so that he can receive monetary compensation for the more than seven years for which he was wrongly imprisoned for an armed robbery that he did not commit. When pressed by Harr for a reason for the denial of his petition or a pardon, the General Counsel for the governor stated that it had conducted its own investigation which generated questions as to Daniels’ actual innocence… an investigation in which it could not share any results due to “confidentiality concerns.” In addition, another African American, Shawn Massey, who was unjustly incarcerated for twelve years, was denied a pardon. And, Glen Edward Chapman, a black man who was sentenced to death in 1994 for a murder he did not commit and was released from death row in 2007, applied for a pardon from the governor on March 21, 2011. No word yet, as the governor continues to drag her feet with the apparent strategy of not granting a pardon by indefinitely delaying a ruling about it. While these race-based injustices continue, the NAACP, other civil rights groups, and politicians enable the injustice by looking away and keeping mum.

Story Number Three – Harr’s discrimination lawsuit against Duke. This legal filing is basically the result of a big institution (Duke University) trampling on the rights of an ordinary individual. Duke, like many mega-corporations, believes that it can do so with impunity because it has big bucks and the media in its back pocket. As its ally, the media kept Duke’s egregious mistreatment of Harr secreted from the public… this to prevent public pressure and embarrassment from forcing it to do the right thing. That Harr has filed Pro Se had forced Duke to rely upon the Courts, as Magistrate Judge P. Trevor Sharp was quick lie about the facts of the case in order to mislead the Court into ruling in favor of Duke’s Motion to Dismiss the action by Harr. Duke’s discriminatory and malicious actions in its plan to have Harr arrested for being a Nifong supporter, the media’s collusion in preventing the public from learning about it, and the magistrate judge’s unethical misconduct on behalf of the Duke defendants, is an affront to the civic, fair-minded citizens of this state. Although this drama has not played out, if there is any justice, then Harr most definitely will prevail… and Harr will not be the only winner. It will keep establishments and institutions from being able to perform acts of discrimination against individuals based on a person’s beliefs, thoughts, opinions, and/or allegiances.

2012 – looking forward

In the coming year, this blog site will update the three important stories listed above. It will continue to cover as many instances of injustice as possible in order to bring awareness and enlightenment about stories which the mainstream media tries to conceal and keep hidden. The bulk of these blogs and flogs will be devoted to criminal justice issues and cases, with those related to Duke Lacrosse/Nifong having precedence. In addition, some entries will tend to focus on economic, environmental, and political injustices as they are all, to an extent, intertwined.

The introduction of the flog in 2011 was a major boon to the presentation of news and opinion. Its main advantage is that it is a perfect format for the reading challenged. In addition, its interactivity enables the viewer to peruse important documents and look over diagrams, photos and other images which support the narrative. Despite its major advantages over the read-only blog, its main drawback – the fact that each flog takes a lot of time and effort to produce – will limit the number of flogs produced in the coming year. Experimenting with an all flog site this past year, reduced the blog site output drastically which resulted in the inability to cover many important stories. Mind you, flogs will continue to be posted on this site, but not as frequently. It is my plan to publish one to two blogs a week, with an occasional flog thrown in. Still in the pipeline is my epic flog about one of the worse, if not worst, instance of injustice in Tar Heel criminal law.

This coming year I will also try and reply to more comments than I have in the past. As I do not have internet at home (too expensive), my time online at the public library, though free, is limited. I continue to welcome all comments regardless of their position, and appreciate the commenters making the effort to give feedback about the postings.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and Christmas-related holiday, and I wish you all good health and much happiness in 2012. For my part, I will try and bring you vast amounts of enlightenment in the coming year. 

Harr v. Duke - a directory of legal documents

Notice UPDATE 12-15-11: All of the buttons work appropriately, however, I have not been able to solve the problem with returning straight to the directory. I will continue working to try and resolve that problem. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Click on the link below to access. All narrative is on the flog, so get ready to read fast. At the end of the three minute flog is a directory for documents.

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/harrvduke.html

Enjoy and become enlightened!

NCAA - a parasitic group

Click the link below to access the flog:
http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog12.html

NCAA – a parasitic group – its members with a repressive, gluttonous, and hypocritical soul
Bent on disrupting college athletic programs for the benefit of its avaricious goal
while Justice casts a disapproving eye on its actions that claim a gruesome toll.


“I want everyone to remember why they need us!” These are the memorable words from my favorite movie, “V for Vendetta.” They are shrieked by England’s governing High Chancellor to his henchmen in charge of executing his commands. Although set some time in the near future it is more than likely that these very words could come from the mouths of the leaders of the NCAA today.

The NCAA, which stands for the National College Athletic Association, is a parasitic organization that feeds off the toil, sweat, bruises, and broken bones of collegiate athletes. A self-proclaimed overseer of college sports, this male dominated group of wealthy individuals has appointed itself as the all-mighty and undisputed regulator of college sports… determining rules and regulations that are all too often vague and discriminatory, and handing out fines and penalties like a cop in a speed trap.

This sedentary and essentially useless gang rakes in the money, hand over fist, that is generated by the physical and emotional sacrifices of the young gladiators on the fields, courts, and arenas. The university athletic system would work fine without the NCAA, so in order for the NCAA to make itself relevant… that is, to remind the university, athletes, and public why they need it… the NCAA conjures up scandals and issues stiff penalties for the most trivial of alleged offenses. And, this group has assigned as one of the most egregious behaviors that of giving assistance to a struggling athlete… lest he/she lose amateur status and be considered a professional. Heaven forbid.

While members of the NCAA wade in dollars flowing in from the toil of college athletes, they rebuke those poor, and disenfranchised players for accepting any money, gift, or assistance, no matter how meager or inconsequential. This rule, which is prejudicial in its nature, causes the greatest impact to the poor, disenfranchised, and minority athletes… for example such a rule would have no bearing on the financially endowed and coddled Duke lacrosse players.

Although the NCAA claims to place a high premium on university athletes obtaining a first-class education, its motivation, like that of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Energy, or any other capitalistic mega-corporation is its bottom line. Drunk with power it pretends that its actions are altruistic rather than avaricious.

When former president of the NCAA, Myles N. Brand passed away recently, Mark Emmert was selected to fill the leadership role of the NCAA. Mark Emmert, whose annual salary and compensation package from the NCAA is in the seven figure range, emphatically stated, “It’s grossly unacceptable and inappropriate to pay players… converting them from students to employees.” It is apparent that Mr. Emmert would rather keep them as the slaves that they are… who generate for the organization well over a billion dollars in revenue annually. For example, the three week NCAA basketball tournament in March kicks out more than $771 million annually in television rights alone. Yet Emmert and his administration cronies want an ever-increasing slice of the pie that was baked from the efforts of college athletes, many of whom are struggling just to get by.

Emmert’s attitude is not surprising, considering his background. Prior to assuming the position at the NCAA, Mark Emmert was the president of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington. Behind the basketball and football coach, Emmert earned the third highest salary, and among public university presidents during the 2008-2009 academic year, his salary of $620,000, making up part of a $905,000 compensation package was second highest in the nation. Sitting on boards of big corporations, such as Weyerhaeuser, brought in another $340,000 annually for Mr. Emmert.

When the University of Washington was under a protracted period of dire financial straits, Mr. Emmert refused to consider a cap on administrators’ salaries. In kind, the administrators backed Emmert’s excessively high salary, claiming his leadership was responsible for bringing in top faculty, and that he was deserving of it. Due to his salary demands, Mr. Emmert was criticized soundly at the Pacific Northwest institution.

Currently, the NCAA is fighting a class action lawsuit against one of its provisions which limits athletic scholarship to pay only room, board, tuition, and books… a fight that will be played out in the court rather than on the field.

Now, I am not alone in my negative assessment of the NCAA. Dr. Boyce Watkins, a college professor of eighteen years experience, stated, “The NCAA is likely the most corrupt system in America, behind the prison industrial complex.” In his online article of October 2011, titled NCAA Athletes Finally Demanding to Be Paid: A Professor's Perspective, Dr. Watkins accurately challenges the NCAA’s hypocritically bogus claim to be concerned about the academic integrity of the schools in its charge and their commitment to see that the student athletes receive a quality education. Dr. Watkins bluntly tells it like it is: “I've seen countless cases in which athletes have had a tremendous amount of pressure put on them by coaches who are only hired to win games and earn their multi-million dollar salaries. Studying becomes an extracurricular activity for the athlete who is being coached by a man who is only rewarded for a high winning percentage, not graduation rates. By systemic design, any athlete who tries to put academics ahead of athletics is severely punished for doing so.”

Not unlike the Salem Witch Trials back in the day, the NCAA is quick to make unsubstantiated accusations, then stand by them regardless if later disproved. The attacks, which accounted for a wide swath of suspensions for the University of North Carolina football team in 2010, had a detrimental effect not only on the athletes, but the head football coach and his staff, the athletic director, a tutor for the players, and an academic chairman.

In a News & Observer article of June 30, 2011 titled “Stewart defends his role”, Todd Stewart, a DJ from Washington DC, called ridiculous the NCAA allegations that he was a financial adviser who provided more than $7,000 in improper benefits to UNC football players. According to the NCAA, the bulk of the $7,216.20 that Stewart was alleged to have illegally given to football players was in the form of traveling expenses… which Stewart denied. Stewart did admit to lending his car to Tar Heel football standout Marvin Austin and allowing him to stay at his house when Austin came to Landover, Maryland for a visit. As Stewart went on to explain, his friendship with Austin goes back a decade before Austin was a high school football star. And the NCAA’s slipshod investigation also linked Todd Stewart to Pro Sports Financial… an accusation to which Stewart countered, “I never worked for them… ever.”

The NCAA also accused Stewart of giving to UNC defensive back Charles Brown a sum totaling $54.50. This so-called impermissible benefit netted Brown a one game suspension by this organization engorged with dollars made off the backs of college athletes.

The NCAA investigation into UNC’s football program forced the resignation of assistant coach John Blake, resulted in the eventual dismissal of head coach Butch Davis, and led to Professor Julius Nyang’oro stepping down as chairman of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at UNC… the latter action snared in the imbroglio surrounding UNC linebacker Michael McAdoo.

The tragedy involving Michael McAdoo is insightfully explained in an op-ed piece titled “Who failed the player?” written by former NC Justice Robert F. Orr appearing in the August 2, 2011 News & Observer. He accurately suggests the platitudes emanating from the leadership at UNC of concern for “academic integrity” ring hollow. UNC leaders intently wooed Butch Davis to build a football powerhouse from the mediocre program in place at his hiring. In acquiring talent need to fulfill this mandate, Davis went to Tennessee and recruited Michael McAdoo with the promise to help him develop into an NFL prospect and for the university to provide assistance academically.

In the fishing expedition launched by the NCAA seeking out football players who may have received some impermissible financial aid, McAdoo was caught in the dragnet. The NCAA accused him of having unauthorized tutorial help and it labeled one of his papers as plagiarism because it contained a several paragraphs or passages from other sources… but sources which were given mention. Based on this alleged indiscretion, the NCAA permanently banned McAdoo from participating in college sports, a draconian and much harsher penalty than handed down by the school’s Honor Court… which did not interfere with McAdoo’s athletic pursuit.

On his behalf, McAdoo testified that he did not knowingly or intentionally seek to violate any NCAA regulation when accepting tutorial help or in writing the class paper. He then went through the proper channels in seeking reinstatement to play football at UNC. This move was derailed when Durham Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson denied a temporary injunction to allow him to play college football while he challenged the ruling from the NCAA. With his hopes of continuing his college football career dashed, McAdoo tried out for an NFL team and was picked up by Baltimore Ravens… but at great financial disadvantage as his compensation for not being selected in the draft was severely restricted.

McAdoo then filed a suit against UNC and the NCAA for violating his rights… a lawsuit which was dismissed by Judge Hudson, the very judge who had tossed out McAdoo’s earlier injunction. No surprise there. Hudson avoided the legal and constitutional arguments of McAdoo’s suit by stating that the lawsuit was moot as McAdoo had been signed by a professional team and that he was therefore ineligible to play college ball in the future.

I agree wholeheartedly with the conclusions drawn by Honorable Justice Orr, who stated, “I submit that in all of this Butch Davis kept his part of the deal, as has Michael McAdoo.”

The biased media has not sat on the sidelines as this controversy swirled. They instantly went into attack mode vilifying UNC Assistant Coach John Blake with over-the-top negative coverage. Blake’s sin was that he was a close friend of a sports agent and was communicating with him. And when the cowering UNC chancellor, Holden Thorp finally scrounged up enough mettle to ill-advisedly fire Coach Davis – unjustly, in my opinion – then the media jumped in like a pack of wolves.

Prior to his sudden and unexpected firing, Davis had agreed to release a redacted copy of his personal phone records to the media. However, once he was axed as head coach, the issue was moot, and he did not. Then a coalition of media outlets, led by The News & Observer, had the unmitigated gall to go to court seeking those phone records. It has been shown that when The News & Observer sets its sights on a target, as it currently has with Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline, it will devote limitless time and resources to bring down its prey. For example, when UNC gridiron standout Marvin Austin was under NCAA scrutiny for accepting impermissible assistance in the form of forgiven parking tickets, the newspaper diligently spent innumerable man-hours searching through traffic records.

The NCAA’s self-serving flames of purported scandal in university sports programs that are fanned by the media have resulted in chaos, confusion, and anxiety on campuses across the country. The toll the NCAA charges has had on the University of North Carolina’s administration is evident, as its greenhorn chancellor, Holden Thorp has been shell-shocked into making reckless and impulsive decisions while kowtowing to the Indianapolis-based organization. Instead of vigorously defending its program against the trivial complaints listed in the June 21, 2011 Notice of Allegations, the timorous UNC leadership folded, offering up a list of penalties to mitigate action against it by the NCAA. One of its self-imposed sanctions for its grievous misdeeds is to decrease its scholarship allotment.

A tinderbox of the potential of sanctions by the NCAA has spread to North Carolina State University, where the Wolf-pack Nation called out one of their own for receiving impermissible benefits. Evidently, in May 2011, North Carolina State basketball forward C. J. Leslie was in an accident which disabled his car. Without transportation, he borrowed the car of a friend for a week. In addition, this friend paid an apartment application fee for Leslie’s half-brother. For these two so-called “violations,” NC State dutifully reported Leslie to the NCAA, and declared Leslie to be ineligible to play basketball. The university then filed a reinstatement request with the mighty NCAA. The “magnanimous” organization agreed on the condition that Leslie serve a three game suspension and make “foregoing charitable contributions” in the amount of $410.

The Leslie case is yet another example of the absurdity of the rules and regulations the NCAA has placed on the student athletes. Without transportation, what was Leslie expected to do… walk? Take a bus? Even if someone loaned Leslie money to rent a car, then that would be considered an impermissible benefit.

In a November 30, 2011 News & Observer article titled “Former Wolfpack player barred,” it was disclosed that Eric Leak, a former NCSU receiver, was the person who allowed C. J. Leslie to borrow his car when Leslie’s car was rendered inoperable after an accident. According to Leak, the NCAA falsely accused Leak of paying a rental application fee for Leslie’s half brother… something Eric Leak denied. He did, however, admit to lending two months rent to NC State basketball player Tracy Smith… a close friend of his since they were both in high school.

C. J. Leslie was forced to donate $410 to charity to cover a loan attributed to Leak, which Leak evidently did not make. Because Eric Leak lent his car to C. J. Leslie and helped long-time friend and NC State basketball player Tracy Smith with two months rent, he has been banned by the university for which he honorably played and represented… his crime being that he helped out two NC State athletes, one a longtime friend, in their time of need. Eric Leak should be praised instead of penalized… banning him from having contact with current or future NC State athletes, banning him from using the school’s athletic facilities, denying him the right to rent a suite at the RBC Center or Carte-Finley Stadium, and in the disassociation letter from NC State athletic director Debbie Yow, Leak is prohibited from accepting complimentary tickets from the players or coaching staff, and he cannot purchase season tickets.

Debbie Yow and the NC State athletic department should be ashamed of themselves for rebuking Leak for his actions of kindness, generosity and humanity. The policies of the NCAA have prodded athletic directors, such as Debbie Yow, to enforce irrational policies that are discriminatory against student athletes who are poor, disenfranchised and people of color.

If the NCAA is so concerned about agents or former student athletes giving financial help to struggling students, then the NCAA should open up its coffers and provide assistants to the student athletes in need… the very ones who are responsible for generating money for the NCAA and paying the excessive and exorbitant salaries of the NCAA executives and administrators.

The tolerance of the NCAA by the universities, I believe, is not without bounds. The fat cats at the NCAA who are prospering at the expense of the labor of student athletes need to seriously address the issues of paying athletes for their efforts with full scholarships and other compensation… as has been suggested by Professor Boyce Watkins. It needs to do away with its obstructive and mean-spirited rules and regulations, and place the athletes ahead of its members’ insatiable fiduciary appetites.

To paraphrase a line from my favorite movie, “The universities should not be afraid of the NCAA… the NCAA should be afraid of the universities.” 

On April 14, 2010, Duke University kicked Sidney Harr off campus

Click link below to access the flog:

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/fl13.html

Read the transcript of the flog below:

Today, in the early morning hours of November 20, 2011, I retrieved from my post office box the following correspondence… a first class letter from the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court in Greensboro. The one page letter from the Clerk of Court appears to have been drafted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011, and the envelope has a postmarked date of Friday, November 18, 2011.

Most likely the letter was delivered on Saturday, November 19, 2011, however I had spent all that day inside my apartment trying to complete a flog and did not visit my mailbox that day.

The envelope contained two sheets of paper, with one page consisting of the aforementioned letter of November 16th from John S. Brubaker, the Clerk. Evidently, the letter was submitted by Deputy Clerk Trina Law.

This document made mention of an accompanying recommendation made by the Magistrate Judge, and it included a time limit of Monday, December 5, 2011 by which to respond to the recommendation.

The second enclosed page consisted only of the heading with my name and address, which I have redacted for this flog, and which was visible in the window of the envelope. Otherwise, the page was blank without any body or text.

Therefore I have no idea as to the identity of the Magistrate Judge or his/her recommendation. I know not whether he/she sided on my behalf or that of the defendants regarding their motion to dismiss.

On Monday, October 3, 2011, I purchased round-trip airline tickets for a Thanksgiving trip to the west coast. My departure from Raleigh is scheduled for early tomorrow morning, Monday, November 21, 2011, with a return date of Sunday, November 27, 2011.

When I fly out of Raleigh first thing in the morning, I will not even be able to visit a post office until I reach my final destination late in the afternoon on Monday. After landing at the airport, I must take a bus and a train to complete my trip. Most likely, the earliest I will be able to mail a letter to the Clerk of Court will be on Tuesday morning, November 22, 2011… and it will be mailed from California.

In the letter I plan on drafting shortly, I will request that another letter be sent out with the inclusion of the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation. Furthermore, I will seek to have the time allotted for my response to be reasonably and fairly extended beyond the date of December 5, 2011.

Until I am aware of the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation and the basis for his/her recommendation, then I am unable to begin work on a response.

I will keep you posted.

Salute to the Occupy Raleigh 20 and 8 - Complete and unabridged version

Click link below to access flog (Please allow up to a minute to download)
http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog11unab.html

The blog/flog transcript is printed below.

The Occupy movement that began on Wall Street in August 2011 and spread throughout this nation and across the globe, made a splash in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday, October 15, 2011. It culminated after dusk with the arrest of twenty determined and courageous economic freedom fighters.

Held on the south side of the Capitol Building grounds on a pleasant autumn day, the demonstration was a successful and orderly event, with a crowd at its zenith which I estimated to be at around two thousand. In contrast with a few other Occupy rallies elsewhere which were marred by vandalism, violence, and pepper spray, the Raleigh event was remarkably orderly… loud, but not boisterous… emotionally heart-felt, but not fanatical.

Lack of violent confrontations can be attributed to the following: 1) a well mannered, responsible, and respectful group of participants; 2) state and city police officers who comported themselves professionally and with restraint; and 3) the presence of legal observers, trained by the National Lawyers Guild, to document and record circumstances surrounding arrests and activities that might invoke a physical response by the ever-present police.

Unfortunately the success of meaningful movements often requires sacrifices by those who are disenfranchised and who are fighting for their rights and the rights of those similarly disadvantaged by the few in power.

On Saturday evening October 15, 2011, twenty brave individuals stood their ground in a peaceful protest on the state grounds of the Capitol Building. In doing so, they were arrested by police on orders given from those in power... those bent on breaking the backbone and resolve of the movement in order to maintain the skewed and immoral status quo wherein the rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer.

The brave Occupy Raleigh 20, who sacrificed for the 99 percent of Raleigh citizens who are being victimized by an economic system that enslaves most of them, are deserving of the gratitude and respect of us all.

The distribution of wealth in the United States of America continues its dramatic shift towards the wealthiest. Over the past decade alone, the top one percent of Americans have seen their percentage of the nation’s wealth increase from 40% to 43%. Over that same time frame, the bottom 80% of Americans have seen their dismal 9% of the nation’s distribution of wealth slip to 7%.

This disparity of wealth can be attributed to greed, with the well heeled and big corporations adopting tactics to improve their bottom line at the cost to consumers. Lobbyists, who are nothing more than professional bribers, are hired by big company CEOs to bribe politicians to pass bills that are profitable to their company’s interests. Many times these bills call for the deregulation of rules that are in place to protect the environment, protect workplace safety, to protect consumers from financial abuse, and to protect health by maintaining clean air and water.

Most Republicans and corporation-friendly Democrats introduce bills that will roll back regulations that will benefit the bottom line of the CEOs and big businesses at the expense of the consumer and public.

Republicans also feed the unethical growth spurt of wealth for the wealthiest by clinging to the Bush-era tax-breaks for the wealthy… which was initially designed to be temporary. The tax rate that the wealthiest Americans pay is now lower than that paid by the bottom 80%.

When faced with the growing deficit, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and other Republicans draw the line when it comes to ending the tax break for the wealthiest, and instead trumpet cutting spending on domestic programs that help the poor, disenfranchised, and people in need. That the rich should pay their fair share in taxes to help address the deficit is a non-starter for the Republicans… who put profits before people and their country.

The excuse touted by the GOP for lower taxes for the wealthy is their claim that it will create jobs. Even some Democrats such as North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan and Governor Bev Perdue have embraced tax breaks for corporations as a way to stimulate job growth.

Such measures are futile, as the well-heeled and big corporations will only hoard the money gained and not use it to hire workers. Hiring workers does not help a company’s bottom line… it is an expense for the company. Corporate executives try to get by with as few employees as possible, often increasing their workload while their salaries remain stagnant.

The paucity of jobs in America is in large measure due to jobs being outsourced or manufacturing set up overseas where there is an abundance of a cheap workforce. It increases the bottom line for the companies, however it also increases the number of unemployed Americans because these jobs are lost. But that is of no concern to the avaricious company bigwigs.

Another way corporations increase their bottom line at the expense of the number of people employed is through the merger of competing companies. The top executives in these deals usually make out like bandits, while many of the workers whose jobs are now redundant, are let go. In addition to a more streamlined staff with fewer workers, the newly forged company will be on the road towards becoming a monopoly, having one less competitor. This is good for big business, but bad for the consumer. Once a business has obtained the status of being a monopoly, the stage is set for it to exploit the many dependent upon its products and services… no competitive pricing to prevent price gouging.

No doubt you are wondering how Republican candidates hope to remain in power when 80% of the population is markedly under-represented in wealth distribution statistics. They get the poor and disenfranchised to vote for them by using the foundation of magicians’ tricks and illusions… misdirection. They misdirect the public’s attention with other petty issues lacking substance and value. For example, instead of addressing the problems of a lack of jobs, economic disparity, the rise in homelessness, and the increased numbers of families falling into poverty, the Republicans concentrate their efforts on the following: passing a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage; requiring photo IDs for voting; setting up roadblocks to a woman’s right to get an abortion while reducing funding for the valuable services provided to the poor by Planned Parenthood; repealing the state’s Racial Justice Act; and forcing those on public assistance to submit to drug testing.

All bogus issues intended to capture the people’s attention while they, with the endorsement of lobbyists representing the well-heeled and mega-corporations, proceed to shift economic power and wealth from the 80% to the wealthiest.

When it comes to tackling the real issue of joblessness the Republican’s pat answer is to decrease taxes on corporations and the wealthy so that they can create jobs… but that has been shown to be ineffective as they will stockpile the revenue and continue to slash their working staff in order to increase their bottom line.

When banks, having squandered their assets through risky and immoral business practices, received a bailout from the American people, the first thing many of them did was distribute bonuses to the bank’s upper echelon. They did not use the money to make reasonable loans to the people or help with foreclosure relief. And with regulations about to kick in to limit the percent banks can collect for debit card charges, the banks are instituting monthly debit card fees. In other words, the banks are charging people to spend their own money.

What Republicans do not seem to understand or want to accept is that for the nation’s economy to do well, the majority of everyday American’s must do well. It is those in the lower 80% who purchase goods and services, which in turn fuels production, which leads to hiring. Snuffing out the buying power of the majority is a major obstacle in turning the country’s economy in a positive direction.

The positions presented above are echoed in a November 2010 article of the Triangle Free Press, titled, “I’m Rich – Tax Me More.” It supports the futility of job creation by providing tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations.

Even Warren Buffet, one of the country’s wealthiest individuals, has encouraged legislators to enact reform that would increase the tax on the upper-tiered income earners. As he has repeatedly illustrated, the wealthiest pay considerably less taxes as a percentage of income than the poor and dwindling middle class.

Duke Power is a large corporation providing essential utility services to people and businesses in several states. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is also a corporation that makes a product… delicious ice cream. Both companies are comprised of executives, managers, and a workforce.

In June 2010, Progress Energy, a competitor of Duke Energy in North Carolina’s utility arena, announced that it planned to lower rates for its customers beginning in December, with residential customer seeing drop in average of $4 per month.

A month following the lower rates of Progress Energy kicking in, in January 2011, Duke Energy announced that it would be acquiring Progress Energy in a merger. With a straight face, the CEOs of these two companies claimed that the merger would cut their costs and their customers’ bills.

On the first account, they were correct, as the merger allowed the firings of many employees, especially in redundant positions. So overhead in the way of salaries was slashed, thereby increasing the company’s overall bottom line. Layoff notices were sent to 11,000 Progress and 17,000 Duke employees… with an estimated job loss of 2,000.

Not only that, but get this… they want to pay for these layoff by, you guessed it, raising utility rates for its customers. This is what I call a really bad joke.

In addition, Duke Energy wants the lawmakers at the General Assembly to enact laws that will facilitate their ability to hike rates. Send in the lobbyists, as the majority of Republicans and some Democrats can be easily bought.

Another ruse for raising utility rates is to raise capital in order to build more nuclear reactors. I submit that a more fair, ethical, and reasonable way for Duke Energy to raise money would be for them to make cuts in the exorbitant salaries and compensation packages that the higher-ups enjoy. In 2010, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers earned nearly $8.8 million, while his counterpart at Progress Energy, William Johnson earned more than $5.1 million. You can bet that there are others in the high tiers of these companies who also receive excessively and embarrassingly high salaries and benefits.

Now, contrast this company with the pre-1995 model of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream that operated under CEO Ben Cohen, and which currently embraces the Occupy movement. In my opinion, Ben & Jerry’s in pre-1995 was a paragon for a corporate model. At the time, it followed a pay ratio guideline wherein the highest corporate leaders earned no more than seven times that of an entry level employee… its lowest wage earner. Unfortunately, this policy ended with the 1995 resignation of the company’s CEO, Ben Cohen. At that time, the highest paid executive at Ben & Jerry’s, President and COO Chuck Lacey, earned $150,000.

I believe that the seven-times salary ratio applied to executive and entry level wages is more than fair. When compared with Duke Energy, for example, even with the hypothetical entry wage being an annual salary of $50,000, the Duke’s CEO Rogers earned 177 times that of an entry level worker. In reality that figure is probably higher than 200 times.

There is no doubt that greed did not drive the company that was Ben & Jerry’s in ’95. It was evident that its priority was on providing a quality product for its customers. It was evident that it valued its workforce. It was evident that it desired to provide the public with a reasonably priced product.

I have never been a purchaser of ice cream, or an eater of ice cream. Not because I don’t like ice cream… because I do. I just never purchased it. However, due to Ben & Jerry’s support of the Occupy Movement, I am going to financially support Ben & Jerry’s ice cream by purchasing its products.

One soapbox speaker at the October 15th Occupy Raleigh event, Hope Turlington, talked about the short shrift given to Dorothea Dix Hospital by the legislators and politicians. Private businesses, salivating at the prospect of confiscating the prized grounds and the subsequent commercial development of them by the private sector, have sent their army of lobbyist to bribe public officials and politicians to relinquish the mental health facility that has served the mental health needs of the people for one and a half centuries. This, in order to further the aspirations of private developers and to increase their bottom lines.

The closing of the mental health facility at Dorothea Dix makes no sense when there is an acute shortage of beds for the mentally ill who require in-house care. In an August 7, 2010 News & Observer article titled “Mentally ill often turned away,” a study is cited that shows many North Carolinians languish for days in hospital emergency rooms waiting for psychiatric beds… the wait on average being roughly two and a half days.

The problem is exacerbated by a Republican led General Assembly that has made deep cuts into the state’s mental health budget which has resulted in fewer available psychiatric beds. Courting business interests, North Carolina legislators have shifted much of mental health care from state institutions to privatized centers. As a result many of the individuals who require treatment are left out in the cold if they lack insurance coverage.

Instead of directing state money towards renovating and repairing the Dorothea Dix hospital, the General Assembly has allocated money to transfer patients from the Raleigh institute to other facilities, such as the Central Regional Hospital at Butner, just north of Durham. Critics of this move state that isolating these patients in a rural setting deprives them of the cultural stimulus that can be found in museums, concert halls, and other venues in downtown Raleigh. In addition, the support that the in-house patients receive from friends and relative in Raleigh is lost when they are transferred to Butner and elsewhere.

Health care for the poor and disabled has been cut by cold hearted politicians pandering to the well-heeled and corporations… with reductions in the amount of payment that goes to doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. And most despicable of all, those at the General Assembly have sought to address budget woes by closing one of three schools devoted to the deaf and blind.

Since the fateful arrests of October 15, 2011, Occupy Raleigh protesters have maintained a presence on the south side of the Capitol Building grounds. Although moved from the Capitol grounds that night, protesters were assured that their rights to assemble on the public city sidewalk surrounding it would be guaranteed. So the faithful, diehard, and determined protesters occupied the seldom traversed sidewalk 24/7. Day in and day out. In the warmth of the sun and during the harsh inclement weather.

To better enable themselves to have endure a more comfortable existence, the Occupiers set up tables upon which to store supplies, documents, food supplies and blankets… all well out of the way of the few sidewalk pedestrians. Barricades used to prevent Occupiers from trespassing on the Capitol grounds were utilized to support the numerous signs, placards, and banners which espoused the main grievance of economic inequality and corporate greed. The sidewalk occupation was nicely maintained, clean, and posed no threat.

Occupiers had peacefully maintained a vigil on the sidewalk for more than a week and a half without any trouble, and it became evident to those in power that the movement was not going to just go away. Neither time, rain and cold winds, the oppressive dark nights, nor an intimidating show of force by authorities were able to budge the Occupiers from the pavement. So, with the city sidewalks being in use, the state of North Carolina, under Democratic Governor Bev Perdue, stepped in.

Moses Carey Jr., the Secretary of the mysterious North Carolina Department of Administration issued an order to the Occupiers… using the pretense of complying with an ambiguous statute to maintain and care for public property. The true intent was to disrupt and put and end to the occupation.

Given but just a few hours to meet the conditions set forth in the order, the Occupiers complied, and all tables, boxes, supplies, and other items were disassembled and removed from the sidewalk. However, the demonstrators remained and continued their peaceful protest.

One occupier was Margaret Schucker, who was disabled with a bad back, a condition exacerbated by standing for long periods. So she sat peacefully in her own folding chair, clearly not obstructing sidewalk traffic. The ubiquitous police force, however, demanded that she not sit down. She was threatened with arrest if she continued to remain seated. However, like Rosa Parks who refused to relinquish her seat in the bus, Margaret Schucker refused, as well. And, like the Civil Rights heroine, Ms. Schucker, amid the outrage of other protesters was handcuffed like a criminal and placed in the paddy wagon.

Seven other brave and sympathetic protesters, who sat or linked arms in solidarity with Ms. Schucker, were also cuffed and herded like cattle into the paddy wagon by police.

Now the biased media, which gets its orders from the well-heeled avaricious upper echelon executives, as usual skewed the story in favor of the top 1%... which is not surprising since these head honchos with their embarrassingly excessive salaries, are amongst the 1%.

ABC-11 News even went so far as to “blame the victims,” by bringing up the cost to taxpayers for providing overtime for the police. Larry Stogner, ABC-11 anchor stated that their investigative I-Team found out that it cost $22,000 “in taxpayer money” for policing the October 15, 2011 event, and that the police bill for overtime ran $1,500 per day.

First of all, had budget saving measures by Republican politicians not decimated the ranks of the police force, there would be no need to pay overtime. Secondly, it was not the Occupiers who assigned and scheduled the police officers to maintain a round-the-clock show of force at the sidewalk. The demonstrators have always been peaceful and cooperative with the authorities.

Instead of enforcing the law, protecting the public, fighting crime and taking criminals off the streets, Raleigh’s men in blue apparent overriding duty was to arrest a law-abiding disabled woman who was merely sitting in her own folding lawn chair.

Like the twenty before them, the latest eight Occupy Raleigh occupants gave their fullest demonstration measure… and were arrested for this just cause. They too, deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. Now, a tribute to these heroes… the Occupy Raleigh Eight.


Salute to the Occupy Raleigh 20 and 8

Click Link below to view flog

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog11redo.html

Blog/Flog transcript is below:

The Occupy movement that began on Wall Street about one month ago and spread throughout this nation and across the globe, made a splash in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday, October 15, 2011. It culminated after dusk with the arrest of 20 courageous and bold economic freedom fighters.

Held on the south side of the Capitol Building grounds on a pleasant autumn day, the demonstration was a successful and orderly event, with a crowd at its zenith which I estimated to be at around two thousand. In contrast with a few other Occupy rallies elsewhere which were marred by vandalism, violence, and pepper spray, the Raleigh event was remarkably orderly… loud, but not boisterous… emotionally heart-felt, but not fanatical.

Lack of violent confrontations can be attributed to the following: 1) a well mannered, responsible, and respectful group of participants; 2) state and city police officers who comported themselves professionally and with restraint; and 3) the presence of legal observers, trained by the National Lawyers Guild, to document and record circumstances surrounding arrests and activities that might invoke a physical response by the ever-present police.

Unfortunately the success of meaningful movements often requires sacrifices by those who are disenfranchised and fighting for their rights and the rights of those similarly disadvantaged.

On Saturday evening October 15, 2011, nineteen brave individuals stood their ground in a peaceful protest on the state grounds of the Capitol Building. In doing so, they were arrested by police on orders given from those in power... those bent on breaking the backbone and resolve of the movement in order to maintain the slanted and immoral status quo wherein the rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer.

The brave Occupy Raleigh 20, who sacrificed for the 99 percent of Raleigh citizens who are being victimized by an economic system that enslaves most of them, are deserving of the gratitude and respect of us all.

Now a tribute to some of the Occupy Raleigh 20…

Since the fateful arrests of October 15, 2011, Occupy Raleigh protesters have maintained a presence on the south side of the Capitol Building grounds. Although moved from the Capitol grounds that night, protesters were assured that their rights to assemble on the public city sidewalk surrounding it would be guaranteed. So the faithful, diehard, and determined protesters occupied the seldom traversed sidewalk 24/7. Day in and day out. In the warmth of the sun and during the harsh inclement weather.

To better enable themselves to have endure a more comfortable existence, the Occupiers set up tables upon which to store supplies, documents, food supplies and blankets… all well out of the way of the few sidewalk pedestrians. Barricades used to prevent Occupiers from trespassing on the Capitol grounds were utilized to support the numerous signs, placards, and banners which espoused the main grievance of economic inequality and corporate greed. The sidewalk occupation was nicely maintained, clean, and posed no threat.

Occupiers had peacefully maintained a vigil on the sidewalk for more than a week and a half without any trouble, and it became evident to those in power that the movement was not going to just go away. Neither time, rain and cold winds, the oppressive dark nights, nor an intimidating show of force by authorities were able to budge the Occupiers from the pavement. So, with the city sidewalks being in use, the state of North Carolina, under Democratic Governor Bev Perdue, stepped in.

Moses Carey Jr., the Secretary of the mysterious North Carolina Department of Administration issued an order to the Occupiers… using the pretense of complying with an ambiguous statute to maintain and care for public property. The true intent was to disrupt and put and end to the occupation.

Given but just a few hours to meet the conditions set forth in the order, the Occupiers complied, and all tables, boxes, supplies, and other items were disassembled and removed from the sidewalk. However, the demonstrators remained and continued their peaceful protest.

One occupier was Margaret Schucker, who was disabled with a bad back, a condition exacerbated by standing for long periods. So she sat peacefully in her own folding chair, clearly not obstructing sidewalk traffic. The ubiquitous police force, however, demanded that she not sit down. She was threatened with arrest if she continued to remain seated. However, like Rosa Parks who refused to relinquish her seat in the bus, Margaret Schucker refused, as well. And, like the Civil Rights heroine, Ms. Schucker, amid the outrage of other protesters was handcuffed like a criminal and placed in the paddy wagon.

Seven other brave and sympathetic protesters, who sat or linked arms in solidarity with Ms. Schucker, were also cuffed and herded like cattle into the paddy wagon by police.

Now the biased media, which gets its orders from the well-heeled avaricious upper echelon executives, as usual skewed the story in favor of the top 1%... which is not surprising since these head honchos with their embarrassingly excessive salaries, are amongst the 1%.

ABC-11 News even went so far as to “blame the victims,” by bringing up the cost to taxpayers for providing overtime for the police. Larry Stogner, ABC-11 anchor stated that their investigative I-Team found out that it cost $22,000 “in taxpayer money” for policing the October 15, 2011 event, and that the police bill for overtime ran $1,500 per day.

First of all, had budget saving measures by Republican politicians not decimated the ranks of the police force, there would be no need to pay overtime. Secondly, it was not the Occupiers who assigned and scheduled the police officers to maintain a round-the-clock show of force at the sidewalk. The demonstrators have always been peaceful and cooperative with the authorities.

Instead of enforcing the law, protecting the public, fighting crime and taking criminals off the streets, Raleigh’s men in blue apparent overriding duty was to arrest a law-abiding disabled woman who was merely sitting in her own folding lawn chair.

Like the twenty before them, the latest eight Occupy Raleigh occupants gave their fullest demonstration measure… and were arrested for this just cause. They too, deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. Now, a tribute to these heroes… the Occupy Raleigh Eight.
n

Another featherweight defense for Crystal Mangum in her upcoming trial for the murder of Reginald Daye?

Interactive Flog
Running time: 25 minutes

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog9.html

NOTE: Click the link above to access the flog, or read the script below.

Tracy E. Cooper was a correctional officer with fifteen years of service in the state of Illinois. Tragically, on September 28, 2010, at the age of 42, Officer Cooper passed away. Records acquired online state that he died as a result of an assault that was alleged to have occurred months earlier.

According to documents, on January 25, 2010, Cooper escorted a convicted felon to court, at which time the judge ordered for the felon to be unshackled. Upon being freed from his bonds, the young man bolted in an attempt to escape. Officer Cooper subdued the would-be fugitive by wrestling the convict to the floor, during which time he injured his left shoulder.

When his traumatized left shoulder failed to heal, it was later determined that Cooper had torn his left rotator cuff. Approximately eight months later Cooper underwent surgery to repair the damaged shoulder. Unfortunately he never emerged from the general anesthesia, and he was pronounced dead the following day.

The Illinois Department of Corrections has recorded the cause of death to be an “assault” and the weapon used, a “person.” In other words, the inmate who attempted to flee in January 2010 is being held responsible for the death of the correctional officer in September 2010… eight months later.

I have a problem with this reasoning on many levels. My reading of the incident suggests that the inmate was attempting to escape and that Correctional Officer Cooper executed his job appropriately by its prevention. The injury to Cooper’s left shoulder was plainly work-related and not a result of an assault. It might be different had the inmate charged at Cooper and knocked him to the ground… but that did not happen.

In addition, it is obvious that the proximate cause of Officer Cooper’s death was due to a complication in surgery, most likely due to a problem with the administration of the anesthesia. The injury sustained eight months earlier had nothing to do with Cooper’s passing.

With Cooper’s death being attributed to the incident eight months prior, and it being deemed to be due to an assault, then the inmate, for attempting to flee the courtroom, could be charged with murder… a totally ridiculous and inappropriate charge.

This is the same emotionally irrational logic used in Reginald Daye’s death. The stab wound by Crystal Mangum had absolutely nothing to do with Daye’s death… and everyone knows it, including the prosecutors, the medical personnel at Duke University Hospital, the medical examiners, and the media.

A stab wound made by a paring knife that only damaged the splenic flexure of the colon should have been easily managed without residual effects… Reginald Daye should have made a full recovery.
The pathetic autopsy reports purposely shed no light on the cause of death in Daye’s case, giving us no more information than was initially available from the media on April 13, 2011… that Daye sustained a stab wound, and that he died. For the medical examiner to say that he died of “complications of a stab wound” provides not a scintilla of enlightenment. The links connecting the stab wound to Daye’s death ten days later are omitted… again, on purpose.

I no more agree with the Illinois DOC that the cause of Tracy Cooper’s death was due to an assault eight months earlier, than I do with Durham Assistant District Attorney Kelly Gauger’s position that the stab wound to Reginald Daye resulted in his demise ten days later. The cause of death in both cases is folly and lacks serious merit and consideration.

The amazing cases of Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn

On life support, twenty-one year-old Cory Harrison was not expected to come out of the coma, and his doctor in Spain recommended that no heroic measures be taken if he were to contract a life threatening infection. The coma was the result of severe head trauma he sustained when he landed on it after falling from a second story balcony onto a cobblestone pavement while working at a summer job in Spain. In addition to a skull fracture, he had fractures of his ribs and vertebrae.

Although many neurological practitioners did not expect him to recover consciousness, Cory Harrison did just that… but only after more than seven weeks in a comatose state. Currently he is undergoing rehab and physical therapy to help him regain use of his extremities and the ability to speak. Because he was not pulled off life-support prematurely, Cory had the opportunity to emerge from his comatose state.

On April 3, 2011, 29 year-old Joshua Martin Wrenn was arrested on a warrant for assaulting his wife. Shortly after being booked, Wrenn was involved in an altercation with correction officials during which he lost consciousness. He, like Reginald Daye, was taken to Duke University Hospital and placed on life support in its intensive care unit.

Doctors told Wrenn’s mother, Kathy Treadway, that her son was brain dead. However, on the advice of an attorney, the family would not allow doctors to remove him from life support… because that would prevent them from filing a lawsuit against the state for inflicting wounds that rendered Joshua comatose.

Then, on May 30, 2011, approximately eight weeks after being beaten into unconsciousness, Wrenn surprisingly emerged from the coma… no longer requiring the ventilator, making eye contact, and moving his extremities. He is far from being fully recovered as he is partially paralyzed, and has yet to talk… morbidity possibly in part due to several strokes he suffered during hospitalization. According to his mother, he is making progress, slowly but surely.

Now, contrast these two cases to that of Reginald Daye. For certain reasons, which have been concealed from the public by the Duke University Hospital staff and media, Reginald Daye went into a coma on the third post-op day. Prior to lapsing into unconsciousness his evaluation had him on the mend from the stab wound to the torso. Specifics surrounding his downward spiral and his week-long coma were shielded from media consumers, their first awareness that the hospital course of Mr. Daye had gone terribly wrong was with the announcement of his death.

Although I have not been privy to actual events, my sources have stated that Daye passed away shortly after he was taken off life support. In other words, the neurologists had determined that Daye had suffered irreversible brain damage – was “brain dead” in the layman’s parlance – concluded that he would never awaken from his comatose state, and electively removed him from life support with the consent of Daye’s family. The cessation of supportive measures by the medical staff was the proximate cause of Reginald Daye’s death and not any actions that preceded it.

Doctors are not gods and their prognoses are not 100% accurate. If that were the case, then Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn would both have been removed from life support and would have expired many weeks before their miraculous awakenings. Like Harrison and Wrenn, Reginald Daye deserved the opportunity to recover. However it was not to be because before a week’s time had elapsed, Daye was removed from life sustaining treatment at Duke University Hospital and allowed to die.

From media coverage just days following his emergency surgery the public had been led to believe that Daye’s course would be uneventful and his recovery complete. But that was not to be and mysterious events at the hospital resulted in a loss of consciousness as well a cardiac arrest. And while Daye lingered in a coma over a long seven day period, the media kept mum about the frightening and unexpected chain of events… with the public first learning of his condition after he was pronounced dead.

Why the rush to remove Daye from life support? Were there those with decision making powers who were concerned that he might recover and deprive the prosecution of charging Mangum with murder? The plug was pulled on Daye before the public even had an opportunity to enter into a debate about his comatose condition. With all certainty, Mangum was not responsible for Reginald Daye’s death or his coma.

If Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn could awaken from their comatose states and be weaned off life support measures, Reginald Daye should have been entitled to the same opportunity.

Mangum defense strategy: genius, inept, or Judas-like?

According to The Herald Sun, Crystal Mangum’s attorney, Chris Shella of Durham, entered a motion with the court on September 20, 2011, asking that his client be given a psychiatric evalution. Superior Court Judge G. Wayne Abernathy signed the order shortly thereafter for the purposes of supposedly determining whether or not she is mentally competent to stand trial for the murder of Reginald Daye.

This unexpected defense move was a surprise and one which I feel undercuts the original strategy which stated that she acted in self-defense. Shella had initially and repeatedly stated that Mangum stabbed Daye to prevent him from continuing to beat her up. It has been established that the two, prior to the incident, had been arguing about money orders which Mangum had purchased in the name of Daye to pay rent on the apartment the two symbiotically shared. Mangum wanted to use the money for rent, whereas Daye wanted it to purchase beer and alcohol.

Prosecutor Kelly Gauger and the state have never presented a motive for Mangum’s actions in stabbing Daye. Is the public to believe that she stabbed him without provocation in order to “steal” the two money orders that she had purchased? Or did she merely succumb to an underlying urge to kill boyfriends as the media would have you believe? The prosecution lacks a motive for the stabbing, while on the other hand, the self-defense argument for Mangum makes sense.

The prosecution has a weak murder case against Mangum, as a cursory look at the arrest warrant and grand jury indictment documents will show. Like the autopsy reports on Reginald Daye, both the warrant and indictment lack any information regarding the alleged murder and consist only of one generic sentence statements. Contrast it with the indictment of the trumped up case with which Crystal was charged in 2010.

Furthermore, you will notice that no where in the arrest warrant is there any mention of Reginald Daye being stabbed “seven times” or “multiple times.” ABC-11 News had frequently and erroneously stated that based on the arrest warrant Crystal Mangum stabbed Daye multiple times. This is simply false and misleading… and is typical of mainstream media reporting on this subject.

In addition to lacking a motive, discrepancies between the April 13th and 14th 2011 autopsy reports fail to provide a cause of death and introduces the strong likelihood of criminal fraud in the report of April 14th. There is nothing to support Crystal being driven by insanity to stab Daye, nor anything to suggest she is mentally unable to understand the charges that she faces or her legal situation. It seems to me that Shella undercuts Mangum’s self-defense position by suggesting that she is mentally incompetent and her mental status may have had something to do with her actions the morning of April 3, 2011. That is why his motion seeking a mental health evaluation is so troubling.

To my knowledge, Elisa Baker, who was convicted of killing, dismembering and burying her stepdaughter Zahra Baker, never had her mental faculties brought into question… she was never ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for competency.

My concerns about this psychiatric evaluation tactic venture far beyond legal matters. With her being transferred to Central Regional Hospital in Butner for evaluation, concerns about her well being and even her life are brought to the fore. Had a psychiatrist or psychologist been sent to Durham’s Detention Center for the evaluation, I would be far less anxious. Within the confines of a mental institution, however, where she is vulnerable to mind-altering drugs and treatment that is shielded by confidentiality policies, anything is possible… and I am fearful for her.

Transferring Mangum from Durham to Butner also deprives Crystal of what little access in visitation that she has to those who support her and care about her. How long she will be held at that institution is an unknown.

Weight of the prosecutor’s case

In 2010, the state of North Carolina’s trumped up case against Crystal Mangum had the weight of straw, and the prosecution was able to prevail in several misdemeanor charges which were: child endangerment, injury to personal property, and resisting a public official. Despite a feather-weight defense by attorney Mani Dexter, the
prosecution was unable to convict Mangum of the felony charge of arson. The jury deadlocked because a few of the jurors with a conscience refused to convict her when they had doubts about her responsibility for setting clothes ablaze in a bathtub. Fact is that the Durham Police officers were the only ones with the motive, means, and opportunity to set the fire.

Crystal Mangum now faces murder charges for a prosecution case that has the weight of dust. The question is whether Mangum will get another featherweight defense performance. Initially I had hopes when attorney Shella challenged the state regarding its murder charge because an autopsy report had not yet been released that specified a cause of death. My hopes were bolstered when he told the media that Crystal acted in self-defense. I have been sent into a tailspin by his recent motion to the court seeking mental evaluation for his client.

A more effective and appropriate tact would be for Shella to ask the court to dismiss the murder charge as the autopsy reports clearly fail to show a nexus between the stab wound and Daye’s death, the discrepancies between the two reports strongly suggests biased criminal fraud, and the elective removal of Daye from life support by hospital staff automatically exempts Mangum from responsibility for his death.

The lack of curiosity on the part of the media and the inactivity on the part of politicians and community leaders reinforces their willingness to allow the state to continue to purse its ruthless persecution of Crystal Mangum as retaliation for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case.

Recently a reliable source stated that prosecution notes handed to defense as discovery, contained a written interview with Reginald Daye in which he admitted that prior to being stabbed he had dragged Crystal Mangum by her hair and “slapped her around.” This admission should be more than enough to have made the prosecution entertain the likely possibility that Ms. Mangum acted in self defense the morning of April 3, 2011. However, despite this, Prosecutor Gauger has pressed forward with her prosecution of Mangum in this case… a waste of county resources and taxpayer dollars, and a slap in the face of Lady Justice.

I have been taking action on behalf of justice by enlightening the people with flogs and by writing letters. Also, I have filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina State Bar against prosecutor Kelly Gauger for her malicious and merit-lacking prosecution of Crystal Mangum.

I am in a quandary as to what to expect next of defense attorney Chris Shella. Whose interests will have his highest priority… his client Crystal Mangum, or those of Duke University Hospital, state medical examiners, the powerful Carpetbagger families of the Duke Lacrosse defendants, and the state? Only time will tell.

A time when the Bench needs to step in and toss out

Because prosecutors often pursue criminal charges against defendants that are totally without merit, vendetta-based, and/or frivolously pursued, judges in the state of North Carolina have the ability to dismiss charges before they even reach the jury.

In a recent Durham case, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson felt compelled to dismiss murder charges against Michael C. Dorman II because Durham police had allowed crucial evidence to be destroyed. In this particular instance, the judge issued his order following a hearing brought by a motion presented by the defendant’s attorney. The charge was dismissed despite the fact that Dorman was in possession of the murder victim’s skeletal remains and an alleged confession to another party.

On July 7, 2011, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner dismissed a murder charge against Antonio Smith because the prosecutor failed to present any evidence that Smith committed the stabbing death for which he was standing trial. The charge was dropped even though Smith had previously been charged with another murder.

As in the aforementioned murder trials of Dorman and Smith, the trial judge in the murder case against Crystal Mangum would be well within justifiable bounds to dismiss the murder charge against Mangum in Reginald Daye’s death. The basis for dismissal would be as follows: (1) the major discrepancies between the investigative report of April 13, 2011 and the autopsy report of April 14, 2011; (2) that the autopsy reports were totally inadequate, full of omissions, did not express a specific cause of death, and did not link the stab wound to Daye’s death; and (3) Crystal Mangum had nothing to do with the removal of Reginald Daye from life support, the true and proximate cause of Daye’s death.

Prosecutor Kelly Gauger’s case is further weakened by the fact that the prosecution has offered no motive for the homicide, and the fact that public sentiment fueled by the mainstream media has insidiously tainted the public and the state’s attitudes against Ms. Mangum.

I believe that Mangum’s attorney Shella should have filed a motion long ago to have the murder charge dismissed. Because it seems to me that such a motion is not forthcoming, it is my hope that Judge Abernathy will take the initiative to step in and toss out the murder charge against Crystal Mangum… a charge that should never reach the hands of a jury. 

Prosecutors value death penalty as an important tool in winning convictions

On Georgia’s death row for more than two decades after being convicted of killing an off-duty police officer, Troy Davis was finally put to death recently after a barrage of actions to stave off his execution failed. What is alarming is that Davis’ conviction was based solely on eyewitness testimony of nine individuals, seven of whom later recanted… many citing intimidation by authorities and their youth at the time of the incident as accounting for their false statements which implicated Davis.

That police use threats to elicit statements and testimony from vulnerable individuals is not disputed by most observers of the criminal justice system in North Carolina and elsewhere. Such tactics were used to convict Glen Edward Chapman of two murders for which there was no forensic evidence linking Chapman to the crimes… crimes which he stated he did not commit. Specifically, two of his younger relatives falsely told investigators that Chapman confessed to them that he committed the crimes; claims which they later admitted were untrue and the result of duress applied by law enforcement officials.

Troy Davis refused to admit to taking the life of another… something that he maintained until he was put to death by the state of Georgia. More likely than not, Mr. Davis was truly innocent of the crime, and his insistence of maintaining his innocence is what most likely was responsible for his execution. Surely the case against Davis was extremely weak, at best. However, despite the hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and around the world who wanted his execution postponed to allow for closer scrutiny, the state of Georgia acted with Draconian expediency in moving forward with taking his life.

Unfortunately, the death penalty sentence and execution was carried out to appease and satiate the family of the fallen police officer, Mark MacPhail. Circumstances surrounding MacPhail’s death are tragic, in that he was coming to the assistance of an African American assault victim when he was shot and killed. I have great sympathy for the family of the courageous man, however I do not see how taking the life of an individual who is most likely innocent can assuage the grief. When the family members thirst for blood has ebbed and logic and common sense bring to light that they had a hand in the death of a man not responsible for their loved one’s death, their grief can only be compounded.

But it is prosecutors who benefit most by the death penalty. Many studies have shown that the threat of execution does little to deter the commission of murder. However, as has been shown recently in cases of Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson, the threat of facing the death penalty can be a powerful incentive for innocent people to plead guilty to a crime that they did not commit. Both men confessed to second degree murder with full knowledge that they were innocent. Not only that, but the Buncombe County prosecutor Ron Moore withheld from the defense attorneys exculpatory DNA evidence prior to Kagonyera and Wilcoxson accepting the plea deal offered by the prosecution for confessing to second degree murder. Mark Rabil, a defense lawyer and co-director of the Innocence and Justice Clinic at the Wake Forest University School of Law said that the Kagonyera/Wilcoxson case is a prime example of how much the threat of capital punishment can distort the criminal justice system.

There are many innocent people in prison who have confessed to murder and other crimes in order to avoid receiving the death penalty. In addition, there are many innocent individuals on death row who steadfastly maintain their innocence in spite of a state sanctioned execution looming over their heads.

I am currently devoting much of my time working to help a man on North Carolina’s death row who I strongly believe is innocent of any capital crime. Nearly a year’s worth of research and investigation has gone into this project, and I hope to have a compelling and comprehensive flog documentary about it posted online within the next month or two. It will be a real eye-opener, and represent the best case yet for the abolishment of capital punishment.

The death penalty should be removed from the state’s arsenal of weapons used to get innocent people to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. The fact that the death penalty is doled out disparately based on class and color is, alone, grounds for calling for its demise… especially since its execution is a finality which cannot be reversed. Financial considerations also fall on the side of doing away with the death penalty. But perhaps the strongest reason for abolishing the death penalty is because it is morally wrong. In a nation that prides itself on being religiously Christian, how can it justify taking the life of a man or a woman? What would the Man from Nazareth think? 

Governor's racist pardon policy denies compensation to wrongly incarcerated African Americans

Click the link below to view interactive flog:

http://justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog8.html

Wake County prosecutor Tom Ford prosecuted Gregory Taylor for the 1991 murder of Jacquetta Thomas. Although he lacked evidence against Taylor in the death of the black woman, Ford maliciously pursued the case against Taylor because he would not implicate African American Johnny Beck, who Taylor knew to be innocent.

Ford used perjured testimony from compromised individuals, who faced their own criminal charges and jail time, along with hocus-pocus SBI lab work, to win a conviction against Taylor which carried a life sentence.

It was only after Taylor served seventeen years in prison that his case was brought before the Innocence Inquiry Commission by Attorney Christine Mumma and the NC Center on Actual Innocence, and he was unanimously declared innocent by a three judge panel. This ruling was enough to free Greg Taylor from confinement behind bars, but he required a pardon from the governor in order to receive the maximum compensation of $750,000 from the state for which he was entitled.

Governor Bev Perdue took her time, causing undo stress and anxiety for Taylor and his family, before finally issuing the pardon in May 2010.

Erick Daniels, an African American who spent more than seven years wrongfully incarcerated for an armed robbery he has adamantly and repeatedly said he did not commit, is equally deserving of a pardon so that he can receive compensation from the state as mandated by the General Assembly. In February 2011, the Office of Executive Clemency denied Erick Daniels’ request for a pardon. When I confronted the Governor’s Office about the denial, Mark A. Davis, the general counsel for the governor told me in a letter dated July 26, 2011, that they had conducted their own investigation. According to their findings, they did not definitively establish Mr. Daniels’ actual innocence, and due to “confidentiality concerns,” they could not share details of their investigation.

Mr. Davis lied in that letter, as the Governor’s Office conducted no investigation, and that is why he cannot share any details of it… and not because of “confidentiality concerns.” Furthermore, there was no forensic or scientific evidence to connect Daniels to the crime, he did not even fit the description of the armed masked perpetrator. The robbery victim fingered Erick Daniels based solely on the shape of his eyebrows in a middle school yearbook.

In addition, another man, Samuel Allen Strong, admitted to committing the crime for which Daniels served seven years. Strong not only fit the initial description of the robbery suspect, but had a past criminal record that included armed robbery, and at the time of his confession was in jail on a separate armed robbery incident.

Despite all of the above, and a declaration of innocence from Judge Orlando Hudson, Governor Bev Perdue expects the public to believe that Erick Daniels very likely was involved in the September 2000 crime.

A May 21, 2000 article in The News & Observer titled “Innocent Charlotte man spent 12 years in prison” tells of the wrongful conviction of Shawn Giovanni Massey on charges of a 1999 kidnapping and armed robbery. He served twelve years of a fourteen year sentence, convicted solely on eyewitness testimony. The only problem is that the victim went to the prosecutor with concerns that she had mistakenly identified Massey, because the perpetrator had cornrow braids and Massey did not.

A striking similarity between the cases of Massey and Daniels is that neither man fit the description of the armed robbery perpetrator, who in both instances was described as having cornrow braids. Erick Daniels and Shawn Massey each had closely cropped hair.

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist, in rare prosecutorial candor, admitted that his office botched the case by failing to disclose to the defense that the victim expressed doubt about her identification of the defendant… and eyewitness identification was all that the prosecution had with which to charge and convict Shawn Massey on the serious crimes of kidnapping and armed robbery. In other words, there was no forensic evidence tying Shawn Massey to the crime.

Gilchrist did not identify the prosecutor, and The Charlotte Observer writer Gary L. Wright, who was undoubtedly operating under the well-established media PAPEN (Protect All Prosecutors Except Nifong) policy, didn’t apparently make the effort to identify the prosecutor responsible for bringing an eyewitness case to trial and obtaining a conviction without disclosing exculpatory evidence to the defense about the victim’s own doubts about the accuracy of her identification. District Attorney Gilchrist also stated that he thought the prosecutor did not intend to withhold the information from the defense attorney, and that it was nothing more than a case of bad judgment.

It is interesting to note that The News & Observer glosses over such egregious missteps and malfeasances by prosecutors such as this that occur routinely throughout the state; yet use the least provocation to go after Tracey Cline, the African American Durham District Attorney, who worked under the former D.A., Mike Nifong, and has treated him with civility and respect. This has made her a target of Carpetbagger Jihadists… but that is another story.

On his release in May 2010, law professor James Coleman, a co-director of Duke’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic and Innocence Project, drove Massey from the state prison in Greenville to Charlotte where he was reunited with his family.

Although Professor Coleman and I are diametrically opposed in our positions regarding the Duke Lacrosse case and Mike Nifong, I consider him a good friend, and I credit him with preventing Duke University from arresting me on a trumped up charge for being a supporter of Mike Nifong… again, that is another story.

Since being freed, Massey has been unable to land a job, and earlier this year, the governor denied him a pardon. Upon learning that his pardon had been denied, Shawn spiraled downward into a deep depression.

Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, is unsympathetic to the plight of those whose lives have been destroyed by the state through wrongful incarceration, stating, “This is not a welfare issue. The last thing we need to do is to set up a new program just for people who’ve been exonerated.” I strongly disagree as money alone will not help the wrongfully imprisoned adjust once released and not help them emotionally heal from scars inflicted by the state.

The state has a duty to make things right for these innocents. Many experience painful flashbacks and some struggle with relationships. Most all have had difficulty finding employment. As a wrongly incarcerated man for 18 years, Darryl Hunt summed it up when he said about the state, “They put you out with no help as to how to adjust.”

A September 4, 2011, article in The News & Observer by Mandy Locke titled, “Freedom is sweet, but new problems set in,” described the extraordinary challenges which face those exonerated and released after many years of incarceration… a sampling of which follows.

Darryl Hunt at 46 is battling health issues including a stroke after he spent 18 years on death row. He referred to a misconception when he stated, “Everyone assumes we are okay because we are free. There is so much more to it.”

Dwayne Dail, now 43, spent nearly two decades in jail and finds life after prison overwhelming. He suffers from panic attacks and flashbacks to abuses he sustained while incarcerated.

Leo Waters is 62 but feels decades older. He served 21 years in prison for robbery and rape. A disabling back injury sustained in prison forced him out of a job after being released because he frequently called in sick. Since his experience he now keeps to himself and feels uncomfortable around people.

Shawn Massey, now 38, said about his life and situation, “I’m just trying to keep my head above water.”

Even the compensation of $50,000 per year of a wrongful incarceration with a $750,000 maximum is inadequate. Duke University, in a shakedown, shelled out $20 million to each of the Duke Lacrosse defendants even though they never spent a day in jail. Surely the state can do better than it has.

To an objective, rational, and reasonable individual it is evident that Gregory Taylor, Erick Daniels, and Shawn Massey were all unjustly convicted and wrongly served lengthy prison sentences. Of the three, only Taylor has received a pardon and the compensation that he is entitled to as mandated by the General Assembly… which is a pittance when one considers that they were deprived of a human’s most valuable possession… freedom.

The reason for the denial of a pardon for Erick Daniels and Shawn Massey is obvious. It is because of the color of their skin… the fact that they are African Americans. Race is the determining factor in the governor’s decision regarding pardons of innocence. The onus is on the governor to prove otherwise, but to date Governor Perdue who publicly advocates for transparency in government is shielding a racist policy behind a claim of “confidentiality concerns.”

The reason Governor Bev Perdue feels at ease denying pardons to deserving African Americans who have been wrongly incarcerated is because the NAACP, black politicians, black community leaders, black religious leaders, black businesses, black organizations, and black media have remained silent about the blatant and egregious mistreatment of these people of color who are being victimized again by a Democratic governor blocking their access to the compensation to which they are entitled. The African Americans throughout the Tar Heel state are enabling the governor to proceed with carrying out her policies based on race by remaining silent.

State NAACP President William Barber, to my knowledge, has not commented on the denial of a pardon for Durham resident Erick Daniels. Neither has Durham politicians Senator Floyd McKissick, Representatives Larry Hall and Mickey Michaux, or Democratic Congressman David Price.

Prospects do not look good for another request for a Pardon of Innocence that is pending before Governor Perdue, as the petitioner is an African American named Glen Edward Chapman.

An article in the April 3, 2008 News & Observer titled “Another innocent inmate leaves state’s death row” is about Glen Chapman who spent fourteen years on death row for two slayings he did not commit. Again, information that a key witness identified someone other than Chapman was withheld from his attorneys. Furthermore, a forensic report showed that one victim most likely died from a drug overdose rather than due to foul play.

According to the article, defense attorneys stated that the only physical evidence tying Chapman to the one homicide victim was the result of consensual sex with the victim. In addition, it was never reported to defense lawyers that eyewitnesses had last seen the murder victim alive with someone with a history of violence against her in the days after prosecutors claimed she had died.

On August 15, 2011, I hand-delivered a letter to the Capitol Building for Governor Perdue requesting that she give Glen Chapman the pardon he deserves, so that he can receive compensation for the state’s injustices against him.

Later, I received a letter dated August 23, 2011, from Pat Hansen, the Governor’s Clemency Administrator who stated that my comments regarding a possible Chapman pardon would be taken into consideration. The Office of Executive Clemency’s response was appreciated; however, what I found to be extremely disturbing is that the office is apparently under the auspices of the North Carolina Department of Corrections. This seems to represent a grave conflict of interest and one that does not bode well for the interests of justice.

Odds for Glen Edward Chapman receiving a pardon of innocence from Governor Perdue are a long shot when one considers past history and the fact that Mr. Chapman is a man of color.

Equal justice for all demands that Erick Daniels, Shawn Massey, and Glen Chapman receive a pardon from Governor Perdue. That will enable them to receive compensation from the state for their wrongful incarcerations in accordance with law set forth by the state’s legislature. Tar Heelians of good conscience rooted in the principle of “equal justice for all” will accept nothing less. 

Trend towards mean-spirited media reporting

Since the inglorious days of the Duke Lacrosse party of March 2006 and its aftermath, it seems to me that the media has adopted and honed to perfection the art of cruel, inhumane, and malicious reporting. Without doubt, the Duke case provided plenty of fodder for the media-types upon which to cut its teeth, especially by going after former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. In kowtowing to the Carpetbagger Jihadist agenda to seek-destroy-annihilate anyone on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case, the media, with bloodlust relish, crucified Mike Nifong at every turn. No stone was left unturned when it came to Mr. Nifong, and truth, relevance, and objectivity presented no limitations. The worst example of a libelous attack against Mr. Nifong was by MSNBC senior legal analyst Susan F. Filan, who lied in an article by stating that Mr. Nifong asked his son to attend his hearing in an attempt to garner pity and sympathy. Then, based upon the falsehood that she had manufactured, she went to task attacking Mr. Nifong’s character. The truth of the matter is the opposite of the media-reality created by the Nifong detractor. Mr. Nifong specifically asked his son not to attend his hearing, but his son insisted upon showing support for his unjustly targeted father and was present at the North Carolina State Bar hearing; which was more a resemblance of a kangaroo court.

As stated earlier, everyone on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case was fair game for the media headhunters. Brian Meehan, the lab director whose company provided DNA results for the prosecution, was ridiculed by the media after he was unjustly axed from the company he helped establish. Duke Lacrosse case investigator Linwood Wilson’s personal bickering with his wife was dredged across the headlines… a perfect example of mountain making out of molehills. Vying for the cruelest coverage of all, was the way the news portrayed incidents involving the Duke Lacrosse victim and accuser Crystal Mangum. A litany of examples are on hand, with the most recent being the Reginald Daye autopsy report. Although the media has been alerted to the criminally fraudulent and bogus April 14, 2011 Examination of Autopsy Report, it has shown no curiosity as to how or why it differed from the Investigative Report of Death from April 13th. The media was quick to announce that the autopsy report showed injury to “six major organs”… the only problem is that the media relied upon the muscle called the diaphragm to be re-classified as an organ, which it is not. Furthermore, the report of the 13th , which is the far more reliable and accurate of the two, acknowledged only the splenic flexure of the colon as sustaining any stab related injury and receiving any attention during emergency surgery on Daye. ABC-11 television news was also quick to announce that Ms. Mangum stabbed Daye multiple times (seven) which was disproved by both reports. The media is at the ready to help the state keep concealed the truth behind Reginald Daye’s death from a stab wound… trauma from he most assuredly should have fully recovered.

Another gold mine source for the media has been provided by the NCAA’s investigation of the University of North Carolina’s football program. The self anointed organization headquartered in Indiana has as its objective to create athletic-academic crises in order to justify its relevance and the seven figure annual incomes of its top tiered executives. It pretends to place a premium on academic excellence while policing collegiate sports. Using a heavy hand it smashes the opportunities of many athletes to showcase their talents by arbitrarily handing out suspensions, fines, and banishments… usually for the alleged offense of accepting “gifts.” One UNC football player was deemed to have received a fifty dollar gift and the NCAA slapped him with a one game suspension. It is so ironic that the avaricious NCAA organization with it overstaffed and overpaid workforce is so bent on depriving a few athletes from underprivileged and disenfranchised origins from making a few bucks… this, while the NCAA is raking in the dinero hand over fist. Marvin Austin and Michael McAdoo were but a few of the students athletes caught up in the media storm, with McAdoo being cited for receiving “improper academic help” from a tutor. Although he received an F grade in the class, the NCAA tacked on an additional penalty… permanent ineligibility to play college football. The NCAA actions in this case, as in many others too numerous to recount, are examples of excesses in authority with draconian rulings that are arbitrary and capricious.

The media has been especially hard on the fired coach Butch Davis and one of his assistants John Blake. It seems that Blake had a relationship with a football agent of which the NCAA did not approve. Talk about piling on… Blake was unmercifully hammered in media. The News & Observer led the media charge against McAdoo’s professor, Julius Nyang’oro, who was forced to step down from his post as the chair of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. His alleged culpability was not informing the Dean about a hiring decision he made of a qualified instructor who happened to work as a sports agent.

The main problem at UNC is that its chancellor, Holden Thorp, is shell-shocked. The NCAA really did a number on him, as every miniscule perceived infraction that is connected with UNC college sports is immediately reported to the NCAA. It is pitiful the amount of power the NCAA has over Mr. Thorp and college sports in general. The universities and colleges should unite and force the abolishment of the NCAA which is nothing more than a parasite that is drunk with power and is running rough-shod over student athletes and college administrators.

The News & Observer sports columnist Luke DeCock wrote a truly bizarre article in the September 6, 2011 paper titled, “Withers made bad call with game ball.” Evidently, it’s not enough to just win the football game… now what you do with the game ball is what really counts? DeCock accused UNC football coach Everett Withers of “calling attention to the Tar Heels’ sullied past instead of their new future.” What does he think his article did? First, I, although not an avid sports follower, was unaware that the game ball was given to former coach Butch Davis… until I read DeCock’s column. Second, so what? Big Deal. It is evident that former coach Davis was largely responsible for recruiting many of the team’s members and helping them to develop into a force capable of defeating James Madison by the score of 42-10. The players naturally had affection towards the former coach and Davis was a friend of current coach Withers. So why not give him a game ball that the coach and players felt he deserved? Certainly such an action was not meant to embarrass an overly sensitive chancellor or serve as a detraction. More ink was given to the story about a game ball given by Withers to Davis than to the ponzi scheme which snared North Carolina State University Debbie Yow’s new basketball coach. Somehow, I do not think The News & Observer has its priorities straight.

Finally, there’s The News & Observer’s three part investigative series by J. Andrew Curliss which does a hatchet job on Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline. To summarize my assessment of the series, it was a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing. I am not the only one to be of that opinion. It is obvious that she is coming under fire because she is a friend of her predecessor Mike Nifong, and because she has treated him with civility… and the Carpetbagger Jihadist position strictly forbids that, as they follow the dictum that “the friend of my enemy is my enemy.” Claiming that Ms. Cline is under fire is a ruse to get the public to believe that there is widespread disapproval in her work. From what I see, the only disapproval of her job performance is from The News & Observer. Alas, a review of the media treatment of Ms. Cline is worthy of a blog itself.

Instead of hyping sensational stories with the intent of ruining careers, tarnishing reputations and destroying lives, all media-types should make a conscientious effort to report the news fairly and objectively. That would be the best service they could provide for its consumers. 

Coming soon: A flog about Governor Bev Perdue and her race-based pardon policy