So William Fitzpatrick is now attempting to play down the severity of the Bernie Fine scandal, while reasserting his own role in the dispensing of justice, huh? Onondaga Clown College, if you ask me.
Look, I think we all know the Fine household was totally FUBAR. Bernie Fine has some ugly skeletons in his closet, Laurie Fine is a raging lunatic, and Bobby Davis clearly got caught in the middle of it. How that should be defined is several layers of gray. We know Jim Boeheim, despite his loyalty being in the right place, should not have lashed out at the accusers so demonstratively, out of respect for other victims.
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But Fitzpatrick’s statements today simply reinforced what a disaster this entire situation became. Let’s just take the opening sentence from the AP story today.
“A county district attorney who at first sharply criticized police and Syracuse University for their handling of sex-abuse allegations against an assistant basketball coach said Wednesday that he cannot bring charges.”
Fitzpatrick was guilty of the same thing Boeheim was. Speaking too soon, and with ill-advised conviction, before knowing the facts. If The Per’fesser apologized, shouldn’t Fitzy as well? Out of the gate, Will I. Am blasted the university for a lackluster investigation and shamed the police for their incompetence. Just a few weeks later. he came to the same conclusion. No charges. Hit a bunch of dead ends.
“Fitzpatrick said people should stop calling for the resignation of Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Boeheim.”
“He said, ‘Hasn’t Bernie Fine caused enough pain in this community?'”
Classic. Well, we don’t really have any evidence that Fine did cause pain within the community. Remember? That’s what you just told us three minutes ago. “Hey lay off Boeheim and Cantor! I know I ripped them both a few weeks ago, but I looked into it. Nothing there! This is all that demon Bernie Fine’s fault. Then again, I can’t find any evidence on that either, so I couldn’t really say.”¬†
Fitzy is playing Rodney King, if Rodney had helped inflame the L.A. riots by setting 150 fires across SoCal and stabbing 15 people. “Can’t we all just get along? I mean, I know I ripped the community apart, but let the healing begin!”¬†
“It is not my place to pronounce Bernie Fine guilty of anything.”
Oh, right. Even though last month you were shouting from the mountaintop how you wouldn’t sleep until you brought justice to CNY. Remember that time you declared war against the local police because you were positive Fine was guilty of something? I thought that went well.
“On almost every single criteria, Bobby Davis came out as a credible person. Mike Lang also comes across as a credible person.”
These guys are credible! Credible, I tell ya! I mean, I can’t levy any charges. And the third accuser seems like a total fraud. And the first time around Lang denied any abuse, so he’s totally changed his story. But I’m thinking these guys are spot on! I mean, we dug up Fine’s backyard and couldn’t find anything. And the only evidence we have is what ESPN and the Post-Standard had eight years ago. But I would let these guys date my daughter!
Whatever Fitzy. I’m not convinced there’s still not a few twists and turns in this story. And Fine needed to be removed from the program for at very least hiding a bizarre (and ugly) personal life. And Boeheim needed to act with more decorum. But Fitz, you hit the same brick wall everyone else did, even though you insisted you were gonna solve the case like the Scooby Doo team. You got your name in lights, headlines across the nation, and your 15 minutes of fame. Now please go back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Posted: D.A.
