It is kind of interesting to note that the Rice video’s release produced another classic Internet lynch mob with the self-appointed defenders of women howling for more punishment, while the victim they are championing pleads for all of it to stop. She and her husband obviously have a lot to lose were he to be permanently banned from football.
For a rational and intelligent approach to this very unfortunate incident, read John Hinderaker:
The person in this story for whom I have the most sympathy is Janay Rice, Ray Rice’s fiancé at the time of the elevator incident, now his wife. Janay has been with Rice for a long time. They dated in high school and have a child. She has expressed regret for her role in the events that led to her husband’s downfall. Some think that is outrageous. Not me: she and her now-husband (likely both drunk) were screaming obscenities at one another as they entered the elevator; Janay took a poke at Ray and spat at him before he slugged her. Does that excuse his knocking her out? Of course not. But it is easy to see why she regrets her role in the incident, too. On Instagram, Janay Rice wrote:
I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend. But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself. No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific.
THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you!
Some think that Janay Rice is psychologically defective because she has stood up for Ray. Others think she is a gold-digger who will dump him now that he is more or less unemployable. They could be right. I don’t know, I’ve never met the woman. But why not believe her? Is she embarrassed by the videos that have come to light? No doubt. Imagine the worst 30 seconds of your life being published on TMZ. But she has been with Rice since they were teenagers. She knows him a hell of a lot better than you and I do. She got knocked out, and married him anyway. I don’t know; there is a lot of posturing going on here, but my inclination is to be on her side.
Read the whole thing.
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Meanwhile, another of those racist Republicans and conservatives, Ian Tuttle, writing at National Review, notes just how thoroughly this kind of media feeding frenzy violates due process.
[T]he release of the video reopened the case not in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion, where millions of amateur observers have psychoanalyzed, speculated, and nitpicked every grainy second of footage.
There is much to be said about the problem of domestic violence, about the rights and responsibilities of victims of abuse, about the way cases of abuse ought to be handled by the legal system. But Ray and Janay Rice made a point of not offering their case as evidence for any argument in these debates. Against their will, the affair they deemed settled, finished, past, has been commandeered for political points, usurped as evidence, transmuted into a morality tale.
TMZ has no doubt garnered millions of website clicks in the last three days. But the release of the video has not served to correct an error or to right a wrong. It has served only to inflame our voyeuristic inclinations and give us de facto permission to readjudicate a settled matter of law.
We do not suffer the consequences of armchair lawyering. Ray and Janay Rice do. However damnable their decisions, in America private citizens still have the right to live private lives.
When I was out running errands yesterday, I heard Rush Limbaugh also sympathizing with the Rices.
GoneWithTheWind
In this incident Janay was the abuser. Of course everyone is quick to say that Ray was because he “knocked her out”. Without going into a long story I have boxed and practiced kung fu and I can put some facts around that punch. First of all anyone can knock someone out if they hit them in the right place. Janay’s mistake from a fighter persepective is she went into her swing at Ray in an unguarded pose. Thus he hit her on the chin and KO. Secondly anyone who has taken up any martial arts will tell you that you don’t turn it on and off. If someone comes at you you will react then think. You can’t train yourself out of it. Don’t go swinging at someone who has trained in martial arts even if you are a woman. DUH!
But back to the point most everyone and 100% of women will agree that any violence, any punch, any physical aggression by one of the two people in the relationship is by definition domestic violence. Most don’t want to admit that it is domestic violence if the woman commits it but in fact and legally it is. She assaulted Ray and we saw him push her away when she went in for the big punch and the second time he clocked her. What should he have done? Or more specifically if a woman chooses to defend herself is she wrong? Some have said a man should never hit a woman. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Please be warned if you come in swinging at me I will hit you or kick you or throw you to the ground or… Yes I would hit a woman. About the only difference for me would be that I would fully expect that in most cases once I knocked her to the ground the fight would be over whereas with a man you expect him to continue fighting until he is beaten/broken. So I’m thinking that the 100% of the women who so strongly oppose domestic violence are blind on this. Point of fact is that studies have shown 57% of domestic violence is started by the female partner.
My last point is why should the NFL be blamed in anyway? Why does anyone think it is appropriate for an employer to punish anyone guilty or innocent for a “crime” that the legal system has already ajudicated? That is the job of the media and TMZ. That’s what they do. Shouldn’t they stick to trying to lynch the Ferguson cop and leave the NFL alone?
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