Two Duke Lacrosse Players Are Arrested.

Source: AP

Note to Duke University regents: lacrosse players that go around raping and kidnapping paid-for strippers are not above the law.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Two Duke University lacrosse players were arrested early Tuesday on charges of raping and kidnapping a stripper hired to dance at an off-campus party, and the district attorney said he hopes to charge a third person soon.

The indictments, unsealed Tuesday, did not indicate what possible evidence or arguments led the grand jury Monday to indict Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, both 20. District Attorney Mike Nifong would not discuss the evidence.

"It had been my hope to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that," Nifong said. "Investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty."

The notion that athletes are above the law in this country must come to an end.

In pro sports, pros acquire big money lawyers whose only job is to confuse the facts for the jury and spread just a hint of doubt.

In college sports, it's the leaders running the universities and the athletic directors who are just as bad as the accused themselves. Boosters funnel money into college programs to further the sports programs and get the "elite" players. Athletic directors hide obvious crimes like this one to protect the image of the university and also in hope that the crimes won't effect recruiting. Regents or presidents look the other way while all the deception--and much, much more--below them is going on.

I also know of several people on a personal level who are either currently attending big name colleges here in the U.S. or who recently graduated from them. Students are encouraged to keep quiet about crimes and let them be handled by university police only. Students who go public about a rape or assault, especially against a star collegiate athlete are harassed and accosted to the point that they just leave.

The climate of spin control and internal control in our colleges sends the wrong message to these jocks who think more with their little brain downstairs than with the big one upstairs. By failing to act, leadership sends the message that athletes are above the law, and universities will protect them at all costs.

I thought college was a place where a person went to better themselves and gain the tools to help society in some fashion...not create a monster.

Situations like this rape allegation, assaults, and other crimes will continue to plague the college experience until those with the power to bring about change do so.

Tags: [Duke University], [Duke lacrosse players are arrested finally], [college athletes committing crimes that get swept under the rug], [leadership is failing to act], [breeding a new version of bad sportsmanship]