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Oh no. NOT OJ again !!!!

Courtesy of usatoday.com...

Posted 8/7/2003 6:33 PM Updated 8/8/2003 12:29 AM

Whites, blacks see Bryant case differently

By Patrick O'Driscoll and Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY

DENVER — Public opinion is almost evenly divided about whether the sexual assault charge against basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is true, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll released Thursday.
But the survey also shows that black and white respondents differ significantly about the case, mirroring past racial splits over the legal troubles of former football star O.J. Simpson and boxer Mike Tyson. (Related item: Full poll results)

This week's poll of 1,003 adults found 41% think the felony charge against the Los Angeles Lakers guard is "definitely" or "probably" true, while 38% say it is false. They were questioned by telephone Monday through Wednesday. The poll has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

But more than two-thirds of blacks in that sample and in an identical poll July 25-27 said they think the charge is false. About one-fourth believed it is true. Whites in the two polls were about evenly split.

Forty percent of whites also said they were "very" or "somewhat" sympathetic toward Bryant. Nearly two-thirds of blacks were sympathetic.

The 24-year-old NBA All-Star was charged with felony sexual assault in Colorado last month for a June 30 incident involving a 19-year-old female employee of a luxury mountain retreat near Vail. Bryant publicly admitted he committed adultery, but he insists that the encounter was consensual, not forced.

Bryant had his first court appearance Wednesday in Eagle, Colo., which lasted seven minutes. The judge set Oct. 9 for a preliminary hearing to hear evidence and determine whether the case should go to trial. Bryant is free on $25,000 bond.

Overall, about half of the respondents to this week's poll said they don't sympathize with Bryant, while two-fifths say they do.

The different responses by race reflect the divide in the mid-1990s over murder charges against Simpson and Tyson's rape conviction.

In March 1995, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken early in Simpson's trial found two-thirds of whites believed the charges against him were true. But only about one-fourth of blacks believed the charges were true. More than half of blacks, 55%, said they thought the charges were false. Just one-fifth of whites answered the same.

Asked whether they felt sorry for Simpson, 64% of blacks said they were sympathetic. Just 34% of whites said that. One-fifth of blacks were unsympathetic, vs. more than half of whites.

The same poll, taken shortly before Tyson's release from prison, found that far more blacks (71%) believed the rape charge was false. One-third of whites thought that.

The new polls found more blacks than whites are following the Bryant case, which has dominated cable TV, talk radio and the Internet. Nearly three-fourths of blacks questioned, 73%, said they are watching developments closely, while 58% of whites say the same.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... usat_x.htm

I can say first hand that after a long US history of whites framing and railroading blacks in justice system, and after many white victims or perpetrators blaming black men for crimes they didn't commit, black people have a natural distrust of anything that points to a black man as being guilty without concrete evidence. Most whites, by my observation, do not understand this, which is why we got such racially divided views on things like the OJ Simpson case. Can you blame blacks after we get people like Mark Fhurman, or Susan Smith?

In these types of cases, black people tend to charge women with personal responsibility just like men. They are also more likely to ask, "Why in the hell did you allow yourself to be in that position?" "Why didn't you grab something and whack him over the head with something and kick the shit out of him?" "If he's still singing baritone you must have wanted it, freak!" Even white women will ask these questions because they do not want to identify with this type of victim. They want to believe that the accuser did something wrong, or encouraged the behavior. This is why all women actually make questionable jurors in rape cases.

It is a very good thing that Kobe Bryant is famous and that the media is as it is, prying into every nook and cranny of people's lives. What is unfortunate is that the accuser is (usually) granted a degree of anonyminity. If Bryant is found not guilty or innocent, there will always be a cloud of suspicion over his head simply because people are always ready to believe the victim, if in fact she was a victim.

Then, there are those who say that some white women get freaky with black men and then turn around and cry rape because they can't admit they wanted sex with a black man. Indeed, there are white men around who say white women who have sex with black men somehow makes them less valuble. Many whites still frown on race mixing, and i'm not talking about just yer typical white southerners.

And, I say, if Kobe Bryant is indeed guilty of what he is charged with, he should be treated as fair as the law will alllow, just as if he were not famous.

Taking it away from the race issue, non-famous guys like you and me would not get such a fair shake. We don't have the benifit of money, media, and status.

My only question would be - why does anyone care about all this? Does this really deserve all this media attention?

Unlike OJ (where there was actual evidence), as of yet this would seem to be a "he said she said" case. Who's telling the truth? Don't know, don't care.

lukpac wrote:My only question would be - why does anyone care about all this? Does this really deserve all this media attention?

Unlike OJ (where there was actual evidence), as of yet this would seem to be a "he said she said" case. Who's telling the truth? Don't know, don't care.

We are "told" we have to care, by our Media..and NOT because of the obvious social issues, swirling around these topics, but because they tell us, that it's, allegedly "News".

Cable News has trivialized, whatever social issues exist in our society, with their incessant drumbeat, pounding, pounding, pounding, into our collective social conscious, that we have to....."care". If not about this, but about Iraq, about...The Economy. Whatever is grist for their mill, we have to....."care" about. Reduced to "soundbites" and "flag" symbols with running words at the bottom of our Tv screen, all of what we SUPPOSED to REALLY care about, doesn't mean ANYTHING, anymore.

lukpac wrote:My only question would be - why does anyone care about all this? Does this really deserve all this media attention?

Unlike OJ (where there was actual evidence), as of yet this would seem to be a "he said she said" case. Who's telling the truth? Don't know, don't care.

Good point.

This stuff happens every day, everywhere, and they don't get the attention this case is getting. Why? Because it involves a famous person. This isn't even like Mike Tyson, who has anger control issues.

What kind of surprises me is that the feminist groups have not tried to capitalize on this issue yet.