Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice delivers a one time knock out punch to his fiancé Janay, now his wife in an elevator. The punch is bad enough but what Rice did after is what really made me sick to my stomach.
No where does he show any remorse, any concern for what he has just done. The normal person would be horrified. This is the woman who is going to be your wife in just one short month. Rice drags the unconscious Janay out of the elevator and at one point kind of kicks, yes kicks her legs out of the way. Something you might do with a sack of old shoes or a bag of garbage, not the person who you are going to pledge to love, honour and protect.But after watching the incredible media feeding frenzy on this incident I am left with the question.
What's the real story here ? Is it Man Attacks Woman In An Elevator or is it NFL Player Attacks Woman In An Elevator.
The media feeding frenzy is pathetic. First they preface their remarks by telling us how bad the video is. How the images on the video may be up setting to us. One major television network even had a women's panel on to discuss the incident. They began with the usual warning of the graphic images on the video and how we may find it upsetting. Then they proceeded to it play for us four or five times even twice slowing it to slow motion so we wouldn't miss a thing. Why do they do this? Ratings.
Their ratings. NBC knows if they don't show the video and ABC does they will lose viewers who will go over to the network that is showing the video. Then they put on their saddest concerned faces and tell us how sorry they are that they have do show it to us and then show it all day long and have every analyst from every walk of life come in and break it down for us. Why - because it's all about ratings and if they keep viewers glued to their television for the entire day then they have scored a win for the advertisers. Meanwhile some of the advertisers who endorse Ray Rice have been quick to cancel their endorsement contracts but that is another story in itself.
Meanwhile back to the original question. Is this man attacks Woman in an elevator of NFL player attacks woman in an elevator. Of course it is the latter. If Ray Rice didn't play for an NFL team no one would even care about the story. I even heard one commentator refer to Rice as a football superstar. Although he's a pretty good player he has yet to attain superstar status and with this on his resume, perhaps he will never play again.
So what is a just penalty for his actions? The NFL embarrassed themselves by giving him just two games after the courts basically set him free. When the video surfaced, again to protect their own image the NFL quickly changed the suspension to indefinite and told the world (incidentally no one believes the NFL on this one ) that the video was not available to them and they hadn't seen it. If an obscure television network could get a hold of it, why could not the NFL, the most powerful sports league in the world. Then the Baltimore Ravens, Rice's team. joined the pile on, outright releasing Rice from the team.
Back to my original question? How much punishment is enough and what's fair? Should Rice get a harsher treatment because he is a public figure? I am not condoning what he did in anyway, shape or form, but if he was a white collar or blue collar worker, would he lose his job? Incidentally his wife, the victim in all of this has just asked that the media leave them alone and let them repair their marriage and their lives. Should not that request be honoured? Should we not be listening to the woman who has suffered more than anyone else in this entire incident?
I am left with the thought that if you take away Ray Rice's career, if you never allow him to play another down of football, have you not just re-victimized the victim? She has asked the world and the feeding frenzied media to forgive her husband and give him a second chance. She has. Can we not do the same?