a) Duke students are pretty much universally hated in Durham, because they're, well, Duke student. Just like Columbia is in Harlem and Yale is in New Haven. So most of you should drop the faux hatred of Yuppie elitism. About half of all Duke students get some form of financial aid.

a-1) In NC bonding someone out costs 15% of the bond (+2.5% if you use a credit card). So with 100K bail set that's $15,000 down the toilet day one. That's about one third of one year's total expense for college just thrown out the window. Each family has incurred $400-500K in legal expenses. If you imagine in your overheated hairy Marxist lesbian macrobiotic manhating fantasy world that anyone you've ever met let alone 95% of the people who go to Duke actually have a half million dollars to throw in the garbage then you need to either get on or off drugs; whichever you're not.

b) It was the local MEDIA that tried convicted and executed these guys, day one, as soon as the charges were made.

c) It was the local MEDIA that turned it into a "Women Against the Night, Vigil" moment.

d) It was the local MEDIA that made it a race issue and invited the Black Panthers to come down.

e) Everyone knows that convicted felon, stripper, 'escort' accuser will wind up on the cover of People Magazine soon.

a) Duke students are pretty much universally hated in Durham, because they're, well, Duke student. Just like Columbia is in Harlem and Yale is in New Haven. So most of you should drop the faux hatred of Yuppie elitism. About half of all Duke students get some form of financial aid.

a-1) In NC bonding someone out costs 15% of the bond (+2.5% if you use a credit card). So with 100K bail set that's $15,000 down the toilet day one. That's about one third of one year's total expense for college just thrown out the window. Each family has incurred $400-500K in legal expenses. If you imagine in your overheated hairy Marxist lesbian macrobiotic manhating fantasy world that anyone you've ever met let alone 95% of the people who go to Duke actually have a half million dollars to throw in the garbage then you need to either get on or off drugs; whichever you're not.

b) It was the local MEDIA that tried convicted and executed these guys, day one, as soon as the charges were made.

c) It was the local MEDIA that turned it into a "Women Against the Night, Vigil" moment.

d) It was the local MEDIA that made it a race issue and invited the Black Panthers to come down.

e) Everyone knows that convicted felon, stripper, 'escort' accuser will wind up on the cover of People Magazine soon.

Which is pretty damn cool.

President Juan Peron as the leader of the 'Committee of Special Defense'.

I mean the journalists. If I were one, I'd seriously reexamine my field, or at least admit that I'm just a mercenary whore.

Nice namecalling. How......multicultural of you. I guess my experience there for the last 11 years is somewhat different than yours. But you're the namecaller, so you must be right. BTW, good use of those tuition dollars, yo.

It's like the Batsignal. Whenever there is a racial event anywhere, Al appears in a sizzle and an acrid puff of smoke to de-negrify the situation. Well at least he's using his powers for good and not for evil.

But we tend to blur over the fact that colleges for all their free thought sidewalk Marxist liberation politics horseshit are also dens of micromanagement soccermommyism. Fact is, if it were anyone else in that house AND NOTHING HAPPENED BUT A PLAIN OLD COLLEGE PARTY, then everyone would have been cited, ticketed, suspended (and kicked out of student housing permanently if they had been in student housing) possibly arrested and charged with any number of common felonies as is the practice in NC vis a vis drug and alcohol violations and people under the age of 21.

Even the private universities like Duke have embraced an almost pathological zero tolerance take no prisoners indict everyone suspend everyone procedures driven zero accountability no appeal ethos. So in the end, the students not only got off, they got off better than most people in a party gone bad situation would - legally speaking. Now you can chalk that up to pretty much whatever prejudice or bigotry you like. But in practice it has more to do with any ADA prosecution the biggest charges and ignoring all the little ones. But those little ones, at least down here in the TarHeel'd belt buckle of the Bible Belt are still pretty damned expensive for mere mortals to cope with.

The accuser will face no charges, Roy Cooper said so. Going afte a 27 year old convicted car thief stripper with 2 kids, civilly is pointless.

Going after Nifong civilly is symbolic at best. There are so many layers of things that have to occur first: Bar ethics hearing and only then possible criminal prosecution and only then a civil action. So that's years out and rather silly.

Duke? Nah suing Duke for damages for suspending them is a nonstarter. Universities have a million policies to hide behind to justify anything they want.

For the record there are lots of middle class people enrolled at Duke. I know it's not Trust Fund Hippie Berkeley College of Environmentally Friendly Tofu and Terrorism but it's not exactly the Royal Academy of Underbites either. If you're looking for exclusive schools in the area look at Meredith college and Peace college. Both are essentially finishing schools for the cotillion set. Oddly though Meredith puts on a great Holocaust rememberence speaker series every year. So I guess that's two Salon strikes against them....

And Duke's next door rival, Chapel Hill really isn't any less exclusive. For out of state students it's not even all that less expensive either in big scheme of things.