Ghost of Tawana Brawley Past...

Wassup, Y'all!

Damn. That's all a brother can say in the wake of the news that all charges have been dropped in the Duke lacrosse rape case. The fact that charges have been dropped is no surprise given the recent revelations and sketchy evidence and now that the accuser - Crystal Gail Mangum - has been revealed to be the new Tawana Brawley, the fallout from her actions will last at least as long as Tawana's did (and that ruckus kicked off 20 years ago!) and make it that much harder for real victims to press and win similar cases. Damn...

As I've said before, messin' with strippers will eventually lead to heartbreak (hey Pacman! I hear you won't be playin' until 2008 if then, homey). In the case of the Treacherous Three (David Evans - strip party host, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann - strip party audience members) I have this piece of advice - in the future, pick your strippers wisely or better yet, drop some money and go to a club with lights, bouncers and surveillance cameras for an iron clad alibi. Of course, eschewing strippers from now on will probably be your best course of action...

Talk about conflicted, y'all. It's not like stuff like this doesn't go on that never sees the light of day, but in this case, it appears the wrong crew got blasted. The blogs and comments are runnin' red hot with 'I told you so's' and 'where the hell are Rev. Al and Jesse now?'. That last question is completely appropriate as I expect them to come out with some statement on the matter. Not to would make them look foolish and less credible than they already are. That mea culpa will be bitter medicine, I know, but it's the right thing to do. Especially with Rev. Al being in the middle of the Imus dust up (which is a big time legimate issue to highlight) and a ringleader of the Tawana Brawley mess.

Given that, northsiders do need to stop assuming that Rev. Al and Jesse speak for the southside nation - they don't. We've been speaking for ourselves for the longest so, again, here's my statement on the matter: Damn.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone