Posted on 09/10/2014 6:53:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
The incident in which Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice savagely beat his fiancee in an elevator has garnered much attention, largely because the savagery was captured on video.
The video evoked a visceral response in almost everyone, present company included. To brutally attack someone you supposedly love with enough force to threaten her life is very abnormal behavior. If the perpetrator is simply punished and the behavior not addressed, it is likely to manifest again, perhaps with even more serious consequences. Of course punishment for this heinous act is warranted. But where would any of us be if, after we committed some terrible act, everyone just piled on and no one sought to help us?
Having been the transgressor as a teenager and almost stabbing someone, and subsequently by the grace of God learning how to look at things differently and resolve conflict without violence, I came to understand rage, consequences, penalties and redemption. Perhaps we should all take a step back from our pedestals of righteousness and let rational thought processes have a place in our lives.
The point is, let's not get into useless discussions of whether Rice's punishment is not severe enough or too severe, because that is probably pointless. Instead, let's get help for these people and engage in useful dialogue about the horrors of domestic violence. Then, hopefully, we can use this as a teachable moment.
Undoubtedly, those on the left will say Rice's abominable actions are being defended by Ben Carson, who thinks domestic violence is not so bad. This is nothing more than the usual superficial, desperate attempts to diminish someone they are worried about and for whom they have no good arguments.
I would happily engage in a public debate with any of my left-wing critics on the issue of domestic violence, punishment and rehabilitation. We might even be able to reach some common ground and make progress if we stop using every opportunity to stoke the fires of hypersensitivity and division in our society. To even suggest that an intelligent person would defend the actions of Rice or blame his fiancee for the crime is beyond ludicrous. However, if there were not an appetite for such idiocy, it wouldn't exist.
There are some who will say that Rice was defending himself from his fiancee, who was attacking him. He is so much bigger and stronger than she is that he easily could have restrained her without striking her. There is no excuse for pummeling anyone, much less a smaller, weaker individual.
Many have been quick to jump to the conclusion that his fiancee, who is now his wife, was only in the relationship for the money, and there is no possibility that love enters the equation. This may or may not be the case, but it is a private matter for the Rice family to resolve on their own. Hopefully, that resolution will involve much-needed counseling to uncover the root causes of their problems. If they can go on to lead successful and happy lives even without the NFL, they will have achieved a good outcome.
But he was just defending himself from the great big ol’ women. After all, she could have hurt him and ended his football career.
If he would've come out immediately after the incident and offered to quit football while he sought professional help, maybe.
But since he let it play out the way it did, no.
?
This is an unnecessary commentary that will only be used by the Left and haters in the media to drag him down.
Let Rice sign with the Redskins. Then the media can have two names to refuse to mention.
Since there’s a difference between transgressions caught on video and those that are not (the latter becoming a scarce commodity), there needs to be two different schedules of punishment. After all, to many of the near brain dead in our celebrity culture, if it’s not recorded, it didn’t happen.
Maybe Rice should announce a run for public office as a Dem so the liberals in the sports media (about 98% of the total) would turn their current scorn into adoring support. Maybe float the idea that his wife is a Republican who had just uttered some political heresy and deserved a thwacking - then the sports media would immediately get on board.
The FBI compiles all sorts of data by race. Why not urge them to set up a task force to keep a scorecard on NFL wife beating. Maybe merge it with a new fantasy football stat category.
Does anyone remember the last time a white player got in trouble for this?
I believe that this was not an isolated act. To do it in a public place indicates that he beat her before and more than two punches, when they were alone.
She married him knowing all this.
I think there is a culture in the black world where the beating of women is tacitly accepted by both parties to it.
If Ray were a truck driver who did this and his boss was told, with the video, he would not have been fired. He would have been counselled, and warned but not fired.
This thing is a media-fed frenzy targeting the all-powerful NFL and their lack of sensitivity.
This hit a personal nerve with him .... he was present as a child when his mom was beaten up on more than one occasion.
Ray Rice will or will not get help of the type he needs - probably not. His wife is caught up in the cycle of violence and it’s a real quicksand trap to get out of. She should not have kids with Ray and should get out ... but she won’t. She says she married him for “love”, others say “money” ... doesn’t matter - she’s his wife. From my experience with domestic violence, she will most likely get hit again, at least once and probably more. If she ever does try to get out, I just hope she’s not another Nicole Simpson.
Not really unnecessary. Dr. Carson comes out of an environment with this type of unthinking violence and has unfortunate personal experience with it. He’s also been in Baltimore for most of his career, so it’s also, to him, a local story.
Dr Carson is better qualified to opine than 99.9% of those commenting. Oh, yeah, he could sit back, cover his political butt, and say nothing.
Ultimately, I fear, no one will do anything about Rice’s underlying problems that Dr Carson addresses and there will be more violence in his household. Hopefully, I and others who have similar fears are wrong.
Rice is a immature individual who excels at physical violence. We elevate such people with wealthy and fame in the NFL. In some cases they have been given medication to mute their own pain so they can perform on Sunday's for our entertainment.
All of this politically correct hysteria over the video is being driven by the media for their own benefit. I suspect what we saw on video happens hundreds of times each day across this country. It's a police matter. It's a family matter.
It seems that crime and punishment is now prosecuted by the media and decided by the viewing mobs based on biased information. Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, just to name a few.
I was doing my grocery shopping at the local Wal-Mart this morning. As I entered, I heard the greeter talking to another employee. The greeter, who has been there for years, is a black middle-aged man, disabled, always friendly; the employee was a younger woman, also black. As I walked past, I could hear them talking to each other about Ray Rice. The younger woman was saying that if Rice weren’t black, he wouldn’t be in the trouble he is in; the man nodded, seemingly in agreement. These two are evidently not part of the underclass. If there is one issue I would never have attached to the Ray Rice situation, however, it would be the issue of race. I don’t know what to say: perhaps there will never be a time when the racial divide can be ended.
I would happily engage in a public debate with any of my left-wing critics on the issue of domestic violence, punishment and rehabilitation.
When he's already on the defensive as he obviously is here, he knows full well it's coming. That's why I question the utility for someone who seemingly has political ambitions. As I write this, Leftist haters in the media are already taking him out of context and writing headlines designed to diminish his political viability.
I’ll grant him this. It was courageous to step into this mine field and try to engage the left on this issue, but in the age of the sound bite, no one will read more than a headline that is designed to paint Dr. Carson as a defender of wife beaters and probably one himself.
God bless him for trying....
God bless him for trying....
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Yup .... and to your prior previous post to me, he’d be vilified no matter what he said. Carson is a highly educated, successful black man who ‘made good’ out of the environment of the Dem Plantation that has been used to keep blacks down, subservient to & dependent on the government/Dems and voting ‘Rat. He’s also an eloquent speaker and fearless in taking on the Left, all reasons why they are terrified of him and determined to destroy him politically ..... and personally, if they can manage it.
2nd husband made threats against my safety. Numerous & Nasty.
I finally turned to him & told him he better get me with the very first blow.
Why? he asked. I said because he couldn’t stay awake forever and I would beat him to death with a cast iron frying pan the first chance I got.
He looked long & hard at me. Didn’t say a word.
Didn’t get any more verbal threats.
Divorced him after only 15 months of ‘marriage’. Never regretted the divorce, only regretted the marriage in the first place.
Undoubtedly, those on the left will say Rice’s abominable actions are being defended by Ben Carson, who thinks domestic violence is not so bad. This is nothing more than the usual superficial, desperate attempts to diminish someone they are worried about and for whom they have no good arguments.
Hey, if he would have been a Muslim it would have been OK!
Not my words. Those actually appears in Dr. Carson's article.
A parole officer called into Rush yesterday and he said if this had gone through normal channels and Rice had gone to court he would have at most gotten a year in jail. I think that video is horrific and the guy needs to be punished but I don’t know if his life needs to be over.
Redemption should be an option. The guy should be suspended for awhile and forced into anger management etc. His wife seems to be OK with him so why should I be upset? Blacks are different from whites they have a separate sub culture and we are not going to change them.
If a guy had done that to me I would have put out a contract on him and burned his house to the ground but that’s just me.
As I understand it Rice’s contract was with the Ravens. Why have we not seen or heard anything from them on this? Rice didn’t work for the NFL directly.
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