Don't be a hypocrite

To the select few stating they are ashamed to be a Duke student because 75 Duke students had their cases thrown out of court: why are you so bitter? (Note, your bitterness is rubbing off on me to the point where I am struggling to keep punches above the belt).

I can see that you actually wish ill on your fellow students, but I wonder why? Did that cute Sigma Nu in your class, the one who only talks to you when he needs your notes, end up asking the hot blond girl who sits in the back of the class to semi-formal instead of you? Is it just plain ole class envy and you, the intrepid class warrior, hate that some people could afford justice? Are you just self-righteous nerds? The sort of people that sit at home because you didn't even know about the party at Shooters' and begin to act like your own social failings are the fault of the cool kids?

At any rate, you are confused. First, you seem to be equating legality with morality (if you hold that it was not only illegal but wrong for people to drink while underage). Nice point, I wish that Rosa Parks was still with us so you could explain to her why it was wrong to sit in that seat. Go eat a sandwich, Gandhi-those laws are in place for a reason.

Further, you completely ignore the fact that the cases were thrown out because the police themselves acted illegally. It isn't like the loophole is that the police didn't use the right password when they barricaded the house and imprisoned a group of college students. The case was thrown out because of illegal search and seizure, as well as violations of due process and Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, actions which are actually immoral and not simply illegal.

But that was never the point for some people, it wasn't actually about right and wrong. It was about the fact that some people just don't like a lot of the students who got in trouble, and they really wanted them to get their comeuppance. Oh well. I guess you can still bank on your superior job prospects (yeah right) or something.

For years the police have treated college kids like stress balloons-any slow night can be spiced up with MIPs and drunk-and-disorderlies. Since most drinking offenses are difficult to fight in court and a cop's word is nearly always believed over that of a supposedly drunk college student, we get screwed over. Now fellow students (who are probably usually safely at home on Thursday, Friday, Saturday- Sunday- Monday- you get the idea) get on their high horses because for once, the police didn't screw a bunch of college students.

Further, it is a stretch to say that anyone bought his or her way out of this one. The lawyers involved offered their services at a discount (and did fine work at any price-well done on all counts to Bill Thomas, Tom Loflin, Ed Falcone, Woody Vann, Bill Cotter and Robert Ekstrand). The students involved probably saved money by getting lawyers instead of paying all of the fines and working 50 meaningless hours packaging condoms at the Ronald McDonald house.

So what do you churlish nay-sayers have left? Since those Duke students aren't going to get taken down by the man, maybe you can volunteer to take their place. Surely some of you drank while you were underage; why don't you go turn yourself in and sign a confession for every red light or stop sign you have ever run? Don't be a hypocrite and shirk your responsibility to receive strict punishment for every slight misstep you've taken in college. Or maybe you only like it when justice is meted out on those "other" people, the ones that make you "ashamed to be a Duke student."