Before the attempted frame-up of innocent lacrosse players in Durham, lacrosse had a good reputation. It may have been seen as an elite sport (or, more truly, a regionally delineated sport); but it was also seen as honest, fun, exciting, and one of the few “sports” remaining which still concerned itself with “sportsmanship”.
Then came the lies and the false accusations, and a university which was more concerned with the immediate PR fallout than with standing behind its falsely-accused students. And since it fit the convenient narrative which was being constructed, lacrosse was also lambasted.
In Durham, three lacrosse players (curiously, from the wealthiest families on the team) were accused of gang raping a stripper (who had a history of making false charges about gang-rape and other assaults). The entire lacrosse team was cleared of the charges by DNA testing two weeks before anyone was arrested.
But that was not the desired outcome.
The case divided immediately into “us” vs. “them”: rich vs. poor; male vs. female; black vs. white; student vs. townie; athlete vs. scholar. So many acti...
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