Dennis Byrne hits on the prosecution of 88 protesters, in a column about Notre Dame’s abdication of responsibility for the attempted rape of a St. Mary’s woman:
While leaving to its own police force to investigate the sexual assault charges it quickly handed over to the local prosecutor the case of 88 people who were arrested by school police for peacefully demonstrating on campus the selection of anti-life president Barack Obama as an honored commencement speaker. The schools determination to punish the demonstrators can only be described as spiteful and obsessive.
The Notre Dame 88, which included a nun and an elderly priest, face penalties of up to a year in prison and fines of $5,000. The Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a pro-life law firm, is defending the protestors without charge. The university technically can claim that calling off the prosecution is out of their hands, but at the same time, it has not used its so-called prestige to seek Christian charity for the protestors.
“What in hell is going on?” Byrne asks. So do I.
Leave the assault to us, they say, following up on it not a whit. But those protesters must pay. Why not the other way around?
Blithe Spirit 