This story line is familiar and tiresome: Athletes are charged with a crime. They happen to be black. People cry "racism." The racism charge — effortlessly made but only mightily deflected — smothers intelligent debate.

Here we go again.

On Friday, a crowd of people cheered four University of Colorado football players as they left a Boulder courthouse. They held signs saying "Stop the institutional racism." The Rev. Gill Ford, regional director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was there, encouraging the well-intentioned sheep.

Last year, the four CU football players escorted high-school recruits on a late-night bacchanal. They are accused of giving the boys booze and pot, and of exposing the boys to drunk-driving and group sex. After that party, there were allegations of theft and rape.

Citing the difficulty of prosecuting the rape case with the available evidence, District Attorney Mary Keenan did not press sexual-assault charges against anyone involved. But she has charged the four players with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a class-4 felony.

Local pundits have noted that white sorority women who provided alcohol to minors last year were not charged with a felony. The commentators' suggestion is clear: Doesn't this incongruity seem racist?

No, actually, it doesn't. Consider the elements of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. (Look it up at CRS 18-6-701). The law says it's a felony to induce, aid or encourage a child to violate any federal or state law.

So if boys smoke dope, drink booze and commit theft in association with older men, it's a potential felony. Simple as that. It's more grievous than just sharing a beer with a kid.

As for the sorority case, Keenan's office didn't prosecute it. The city attorney did. Keenan says if the case had been brought to her for prosecution, she would have considered contributing-to-delinquency charges.

Race plays no part in her office's decisions, Keenan emphasizes. As she and her colleagues review such cases, "We don't know their race, and we don't care." Further, "We're not trying to punish anyone inordinately, but we do want to say that if you contribute to behavior that leads to a serious outcome, this (sort of prosecution) is going to be our approach."

Such charges are not uncommon. The Boulder County District Attorney's office has prosecuted about 400 contributing-to-delinquency cases in the last decade.

Boulder Police Commander Joe Pelle has a 16-year-old son, "and I would hope that if he were taken to a college on a recruiting trip, he wouldn't be exposed to this stuff, that there would be some kind of oversight." Pelle says the charges are appropriate, and he says the debate has been sullied by "emotions and politics and personal concerns."

Racism has cast a long, obscene shadow over this nation, and racial minorities are still disproportionately imprisoned. Those irrefutable truths don't change the facts of this case. In this case, the allegation of "racism" is a diversion and maybe even a ploy. In this case, the cry of "racism" is both offensive and inane.

< xh>Reach Clint Talbott at (303) 473-1367 or talbottc@thedailycamera.com.

May 9, 2002

E-mail this story to a friend | Printer-friendly version