It's highly unusual for a public official to be sworn in without the public,
but that's what Mike Nifong did: he took his oath of office at 8:00 a.m.,
before the public, and the media, was allowed into the building housing
his office.
This follows his putting a sign on his door saying "No Media!" when
he dropped rape charges against the lacrosse players.
It's an unfortunate fact that this is the same guy who has taunted opposing
attorneys, who has said he'd be scared to face himself in the courtroom, and who
berates people in the most base way possible in the corridors of the people's
building.
When things are under his control, he swaggers and calls people names; he had
no problem getting his perp walks on TV either. But when things are going
against him, he wants everyone to shut up and leave him alone. If you want
to define the word cowardice, that pretty much covers the parameters.
Nifong now argues he wants to be part of the healing process: "Durham
has some healing to do. I need to be part of this healing process .... I don't
feel that I am part of the problem. I feel that I have assisted in revealing the
problem."
The N.C. State bar disagrees, as do his fellow
prosecutors.
Give the man credit: he certainly has chutzpah.
In one other interesting link, Duke student Shadee
Malaklou now concedes there was no rape. This is quite a bit different
from her earlier
position. However, she says"...the truth is, as students and
passersby, we owe the lacrosse team nothing."
Well, an apology might be nice.