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[mme_hardy]

Jason Whitlock of ESPN responds to the video documentation of abuse that had been completely documented in print. Some highlights:

I thought the full video would explain why: Why police originally charged Ray and Janay with simple assault. Why the prosecutor allowed Ray to enter a diversion program. Why Janay apologized for her role. Why Janay chose to marry Ray. Why the Ravens enthusiastically supported Rice and used their facilities in helping him rehabilitate his image. Why Goodell suspended Rice for only two games.

I wrongly and naively thought that she was the aggressor in the attack, that Rice reflexively shoved her to fend her off and she slipped, fell and hit her head.

I did not think sexism could manifest itself this brazenly in 2014. Clearly, I was wrong. Clearly, as it relates to domestic violence and sexism, America has made far less progress than I thought.

That is not a complaint. I'm a sports columnist who specializes in social commentary. I want these topics explored. As an American citizen and a sports fan, I'm concerned about our culture and sports' positive and negative impact on our culture.

...

Speechless.   This satirizes itself.

Comments

[lexin]

I read about this in the Guardian earlier today. It's bizarre - the video shows him assaulting her and he got away with it. It's a level of unreal that has the moon made of green cheese.

[mme_hardy]

Welcome to the sports-industrial complex, where local heroes can get away with anything. Remember that when the two casino employees came on the scene, the first thing they said was "No cops".

[julian]

Which was sweeping and extremely common in Hollywood & sports too, back when; it's not *as* common, but still fairly frequent. This is just peculiar in the "um, no, there is obvious proof right here" sense.