Baltimore Ravens Fire Ray Rice After Video Of Horrific Domestic Assault Surfaces


WARNING: Graphic, disturbing content and several trigger warnings.

There are absolutely no winners in this story. None whatsoever. The Baltimore Ravens have today announced the firing of running back Ray Rice, over a horrific domestic assault on his then-fiancé Janay Palmer – a story that first broke way back in February, and is only now seeing serious consequences.

The incident took place on February 15th, after footage emerged of Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer out of an elevator at Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It took until March 27th for a grand jury to indict Rice on charges of aggravated assault, with a possible five year jail sentence now hanging over his head.
The NFL‘s response to this incident? They suspended Rice for the opening two games of the 2014 season.
Two games.
Two.
Let’s bring that into comparison here. The following players were suspended by the NFL for testing positive to marijuana: Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns – second positive test, suspended for 1 year. Daryl Washington of the Arizona Cardinals – second positive test, suspended for 1 year. Von Miller of the Denver Broncos – first positive test, suspended for four games, despite marijuana being legal in Colorado. Walter Thurmond of the Seattle Seahawks – suspended for four games, marijuana also legal in the state of Washington. Brandon Bower of the New England Patriots – suspended for 1 year plus four games. Will Hill of the New York Giants – suspended for four games in 2013, and 6 in 2014.
Ray Rice – who beat the woman he then went on to marry so badly she was unconscious – was suspended by the NFL for two games. Only two.
That all changed today, but only after TMZ released additional footage of the incident which shows the actual assault. Be warned, it’s very difficult to watch.

As you can plainly see, Rice strikes Palmer in the face once, and then does it again – the second time with force so great it knocks her down, with her head hitting the railing before she falls to the ground unconscious.
In light of the video surfacing – not because of the incident itself, mind you, but because people now saw what actually happened – the Ravens organisation announced the immediate termination of Rice’s contract with the following tweet.

But not before deleting the following tweet posted in May that had managed to stay up for three months, and contains some of the most outrageous victim-blaming you’re ever likely to see.

Fortunately, the outrage at the NFL, the Ravens, the police, and Ray Rice’s handling of this incident has not been isolated.
Seth Rogen, of all people, took some time out to hit a few nails squarely on their heads.

The NFL, and its chairman Roger Goodell, have taken some additional action in light of the events today, making the bold authoritative message sending absolutely weak as piss announcement that they’d upgraded Rice’s suspension from “two games” to “indefinite.”

But perhaps the best, and most powerful statement on this whole, sorry saga, comes in the form of this glorious 5 minute evisceration of everyone who had anything to do with the public and internal handling of the incident, from ESPN presenter Keith Olbermann.

*THUNDEROUS FUCKING APPLAUSE*
The bottom line here is that domestic assault and violence against women are reprehensible and should not be tolerated under any circumstances in any situation, much less professional sports. The fact that it was in this case, even for a brief period, and that active strides were taken to protect a man’s job and his wealth despite a fuck up of monumental proportions is despicable.
Shame on everyone involved. And shame on Ray Rice in particular.
Photo: Ronald Martinez via Getty Images.

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