On the Failures Regarding Ray Rice

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BY CHARLIE THAU

Let’s start with the obvious—Ray Rice failed. The act of brutality against his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City casino elevator was unconscionable and barbaric. Rice failed as a partner, a man, and as a father on the deepest possible level. All of this is obvious to anybody with even a modicum of sensitivity to the issue of domestic violence in this country. What makes this situation so shocking is how incomplete and defective our response as a country has been, and how far this debacle extends into society.

The Baltimore Ravens failed. If video had surfaced of a third-string offensive lineman dragging his fiancée out of an elevator, that player would have been cut immediately. Ray Rice was a star—the integral piece to his team’s offense for years—and a serious investment for the Ravens, who owed him approximately $25 million over the next two years. Rice was a player who could therefore evade punishment. The Ravens, like any NFL team, had the authority to suspend him indefinitely while Commissioner Goodell and the legal system were investigating the situation. They didn’t, though, and then somehow thought it was a good idea to have a press conference with Rice and his then-wife together as a feel-good reconciliation. To make matters worse, the team tweeted out a statement from Mrs. Rice, apologizing for her “role in the incident.” At best, the Ravens displayed a total lack of sensitivity. At worst they condoned Rice’s actions for the good of their team.

The NFL failed. Two games? Two games, while star wide-receiver Josh Gordon gets suspended one year for getting caught smoking weed multiple times. And how did they not have the video? TMZ took a break from Justin Bieber stories to find and pay for this tape, while the most powerful sports league on the planet couldn’t get its hands on it. There’s no way. New reports have surfaced that the NFL had the video back in April, contrary to what Roger Goodell claimed in an interview with CBS. It’s incredible how the most powerful figures can be brought down by seemingly small incidents, like a petty burglary, or a video in an elevator. This story is dripping with Nixonian parallels, and just like Tricky Dick, Roger Goodell may lose everything.

The media failed. How dare TMZ release that video without Mrs. Rice’s consent, and make her relive that moment in her life. TMZ officially lowered the bar to a place where I hope no media outlet will ever go again. Reporters have also been complacent, allowing the NFL to feed them information rather than actually investigating what happened and who knew what, and when in the NFL offices. Further, the commentary on the situation has even been offensive at times, most notably when Stephen A. Smith pleaded with us to ponder the woman’s role in provoking domestic violence.

The judicial system failed—epically. The NFL should have never had to become the nation’s moral arbiter on this issue. Janay Rice declined to testify, which she had a right to do, but this was a criminal charge. That means the State was charging Ray Rice, rather than his wife. The courts had clear evidence of him knocking her unconscious and did nothing, only mandating marriage counseling for the newlyweds. If this were an everyday African-American who did what Rice did, he would be in jail for a long time. Rice, however, is wealthy, prominent, and could pay for the finest legal help. Such unequal treatment is such a blatantly clear example of the disparities in our judicial system, and the fact that there isn’t more outrage about this aspect of the story is shocking.

Lastly, we all failed. We should never have needed to see the video. Seriously, what do people think happened in that elevator? Putting two and two together on this shouldn’t have been hard. There’s also a clear double standard here. Before the video surfaced we were outraged, but actually seeing the act has brought it to a different level. While I understand the visceral reaction, that shouldn’t make this instance different than the thousands of domestic violence cases across the country. We don’t even have to look that far for an example. Take the Carolina Panthers’ Greg Hardy, a Pro Bowl defensive end, who allegedly threw his girlfriend on a couch filled with assault weapons, choked her, and subsequently threatened to kill her this past spring. Where is the collective outrage for that? There’s no place in society for domestic violence. Period. We have a responsibility, though, to respond in the proper way. It is imperative to make sure that when we look back on a situation like this, the abuser is the only one in the wrong.

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