Rape Allegations Leave Durham Divided
HARRIS: It is a community divided in Durham, North Carolina.</s>CHANCELLOR JAMES AMMONS, NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY: For the last few weeks, Durham has been shaken by allegations arising from the incident of March 13. While feelings of pain, anger and confusion are understandable, in times like these, let us remember that justice is served in the courtroom, not in the media nor at the hands of individuals.</s>HARRIS: Duke University under scrutiny. An African-American student from another university hired to dance at a party told police she was beaten and raped by three white members of the university's lacrosse team. DNA evidence didn't produce a match to any of the 46 members tested but the DA says the investigation will go on. The president of Duke University made a statement referring to, quote, "a culture of bad behavior involving the men's lacrosse team," but what is the community saying about this? I spoke with William Turner, an associate professor at Duke University's divinity school and the pastor of Mount Level (ph) Baptist church and talked about the peoples' initial reaction to the allegations and how the university can move on past this controversy.</s>REV. WILLIAM C. TURNER, ASSOC. PROF., DUKE SCH. OF DIVINITY: First and foremost there are a lot of people in Durham who believe the woman. Now that's first. They believe that a woman has been victimized. They don't believe she made up the story. As it has to do with the details and the facts as the court sees them, that's another question, but the first response from the community is compassion for a woman who has pressed charges or who's made allegations, I might say. That's first. Secondly, I don't think there's that much question about the sub culture of our college campuses. It's fairly well known how students behave. They come to college and take the four years as a time to sew wild oats, to study hard, to play hard. And for years and years, most of that socializing was contained on campus. As long as it's contained on campus, then the campus has its way of cleaning it up, of disciplining people who need to be disciplined, suspended, bringing people before the judicial board and that's all a private matter within the campus.</s>HARRIS: Right.</s>TURNER: Once it spills out into the community, then it becomes a public matter and it has to be handled publicly and I think that's where we are in this case and in some other cases involving students who live in houses that are contiguous to the campus.</s>HARRIS: Let me -- let me just ask you another quick question here.</s>TURNER: OK.</s>HARRIS: To pick up on that point. Pampered, privileged athletes getting away with just about everything. Does that sound like Duke to you?</s>TURNER: That is the culture of privileged upper class young people whose parents are able to buy them in and out of whatever they get into. That is the culture of college athletics that has emerged or morphed, should I say, into big business for universities. Athletes get special treatment, that's no secret. In terms of the specific allegations, as I said, time will prove what can be tested in court. But the behavior --</s>HARRIS: Yes, go ahead, the behavior.</s>TURNER: But the behavior is within the range of activity that people have to know about.</s>HARRIS: Got you. You know, so often black folks and white folks end up at each other's throats and at the end of the day you ask them, what is it that you're arguing and fussing about, what are you fighting about and no one -- both sides can see it totally different. From your point of view, what are the racial dynamics that are going on here in Durham and perhaps even between these universities. I don't know, I can't characterize it. Maybe you can tell us better.</s>TURNER: All right. Between the universities I would take exception to the description of being at each other's throats. That's not the tone or the temperature between the universities and I might ad there's a third one. There's a third one that will soon be brought into conversations. When it comes to people who are on the street, when it comes to people who know the alleged victim, there is the cry for justice. People believe that when allegations of this sort are made, somebody ought to be held accountable and that the wheels of justice, of criminal justice should move swiftly and not slowly to apprehend and to protect the rest of the citizenry. That's the way it happens out in the streets when the victims -- or not the victim, but when the alleged perpetrators are African-American, Hispanic, lower class, poorer class and so the cry on the streets is treat these alleged perpetrators just like all others are being treated.</s>HARRIS: Dr. Turner, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.</s>NGUYEN: In other news today, some of our top stories to tell you about, a month-long search for two missing Wisconsin boys has ended in a Milwaukee pond. Two bodies were found there. Family members say it's 12-year-old Quadrevion Henning and 11-year-old Purvis Parker, but no official word has been given just yet. Autopsy results could come later today. In Oklahoma, a nationwide Amber alert ends in tragedy. Police say they have found the body of a missing girl in a neighbor's apartment. Prosecutors say they will file murder charges against the 26-year-old neighbor.</s>HARRIS: We want to get you to our e-mail question of the day. What are you doing this summer this, spring and summer, shoot, year round...</s>NGUYEN: Exactly.</s>HARRIS: ... to protect your kids, particularly in light of all of the bad news regarding children in the news, particularly this morning. Here's the question. What safety precaution do you take to protect your children? There's our address, weekends@CNN.com. And this from Chuck and Nicole, who write, "accepting that we cannot watch our kids every moment of every day, we believe that the best chance we have of keeping them safe is to arm them with some self-preservation tools to help them develop a gut-check, a radar that tells them when something is wrong."</s>NGUYEN: DC from Atlanta writes, "Our children live in evil and perilous times. Parents today have to understand that we cannot parent the way our parents and their parents did. We can no longer simply send our kids out play to be home before the streetlights comes on."</s>HARRIS: That's what we used to do back in the day. And this from Martha who writes, "We bought my son a cell phone when he was about 10 and not because he has an active social life. My son's position can now be triangulated with</s>GPS." NGUYEN: That's smart.</s>HARRIS: That is smart. That's a good plan.</s>NGUYEN: Might as well use technology to your advantage.</s>HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you all for the e-mailed responses to our question this morning. We'll have another question for you tomorrow. Still ahead, tasting good and shelling the money.</s>NGUYEN: Crawfish are crawling back to New Orleans with some great economic benefits. That story is next.