First up, Roger Goodell is a lying sack of shit:
A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée to an NFL executive five months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn’t see the violent images until this week.
The official played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: “You’re right. It’s terrible.”
The law enforcement official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can’t confirm anyone watched the video. He said he was unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited because he wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice’s punishment.
Not only did they see the video, but they were given a helping hand in seeing the video ahead of when they should have by a friendly LEO sympathetic to the NFL, and they still blew it. That man has got to go. He should be fired. Last week.
And remember how we were told that Rice punched her because she hit him and started in on him. Well, that’s bullshit, too:
Ray Rice spat in the face of Janay Palmer the night he punched her in a hotel elevator, one current and one former security staffer at the Revel hotel told “Outside the Lines.”
Three current or former security staffers, who spoke with “Outside the Lines” this week on the condition of anonymity, described additional details of the ugly scene captured on video. Two of the men were on duty the night of the assault, while a third had full access to the security video, which he said he has watched dozens of times. TMZSports.com released a video this week that showed Rice punching Palmer in the face, appearing to knock her unconscious. Revel security workers watched the incident from the operations room through a security camera of the elevator.
One former staffer said Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back, spat in his then-fiancée’s face twice, “once outside the elevator and once inside,” prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch. According to the men, as Rice punched Palmer, the elevator the couple rode was rapidly approaching the hotel lobby just two floors above the casino floor. A security staffer, dispatched from his lobby post, saw Rice starting to drag his fiancée, who appeared to still be unconscious, out of the elevator.
We’ve learned a lot from the Ray Rice assault video, but a survivor of abuse tells Jason Whitlock that it’s time to put it away. Story
“Get him away from her! Get him away from her!” the first responder was told by another security officer over a radio, one former security staffer told “Outside the Lines.” The staffer had full access to the security footage.
I wish we could just blast these two into outer space.
*** Update ***
And this is just special:
The same prosecutor who let professional football star Ray Rice avoid a trial after beating his wife unconscious are pushing forward with the prosecution of Shaneen Allen, a single mother who carried a gun into New Jersey without realizing her Pennsylvania permit didn’t apply there.
Allen, a mother of two from Philadelphia, was driving in New Jersey last fall when she was pulled over by a police officer. She informed the officer she had a handgun in her purse and a Pennsylvania license-to-carry permit, at which point the officer arrested her and charged her with a felony for unlawful possession of a weapon, because New Jersey does not recognize out-of-state gun permits.
Allen tried to avoid a trial and jail time by applying to a pre-trial intervention program in New Jersey for first-time offenders. Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back who knocked his then-fiancee unconscious during an altercation in Atlantic City in February, was accepted into the program in May.
But Atlantic County prosecutor Jim McClain, the same prosecutor who allowed Rice to avoid prosecution, denied Allen’s application to the program on Wednesday.
Look- I don’t think people should be allowed to concealed carry under any circumstances, and I know the usual caveats about the law being an ass, but this is just total bullshit. There was no criminal intent, and what she has gone through is probably enough to make sure this will not happen again. And given the kid gloves treatment Rice received after beating his wife, does anyone think he would be doing hard time for making a similar mistake as Allen’s?
lamh36
just FYI, as a SAINTS fan, we are loving that Goodell is on the hot seat!
“Goodell found videos to “prove” bounty gait against the Saints, but couldn’t find the video of Ray Rice in that elevator….”
pic.twitter.com/LVNQwCCpVO
JPL
John, In the previous thread, we are talking about missing Stuck. Thanks again for finding out and letting us know what happened. You are my favorite stalker and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
PsiFighter37
Unless people start boycotting the NFL, I’m not convinced that the owners will give two shits about kicking their guy out after he’s made them plenty rich over the past several years.
That said – the only thing people are talking about this week is Ray Rice. No one gives a damn about football (heck, I think the Jets won last weekend – that’s how little I’ve been paying attention to the actual game during this whole controversy) – all eyes/ears/attention are on this story.
Roger Moore
Are you surprised? It’s not like this is the first time he’s been a lying sack of shit in public. Don’t you remember when the league locked out the officials? When they locked out the players? When they claimed to care about concussions? Do you think he was being honest then? Roger Goodell’s job is to lie to the public and the NFL’s employees. He’s only getting in trouble now because the lies are too blatant to ignore.
lamh36
@PsiFighter37:
Pogonip
It looked to me like the player maneuvered Mrs. Player into attacking so she could run right into that punch. I’ve run into punches just like that in class and been flattened, though not knocked out–but then, I trained with gentlemen.
David Koch
drkrick
@PsiFighter37:
Goodell hasn’t made them rich. Businesses and governments are standing in line to give them money, they need no help with that. The commissioner’s job is to be presentable in a suit and maintain the appearance of a smoothly running circus with no peeks into what happens in the employee quarters out back. The last few weeks of the Rice affair have been a huge failure to perform that fairly straightforward job. It would be no surprise if he doesn’t survive this, or at least doesn’t serve out his most recent contract extension.
Suffern ACE
I don’t know if I’m all that thrilled about the helpful LEO. I know the first suspension was too light, but something about this revision of the penalty at will and whimsy of Goddell seems wrong, too.
drkrick
@Suffern ACE: Goodell has insisted on having the power to set penalties in a more or less arbitrary fashion. The risk was always that if he screwed up a case, he’d have no one to point to but himself. James Harrison’s comment above is very apt.
burnspbesq
And that’s irrelevant?
David Koch
James Harrison, Aug, 2011
kc
Where were these anonymous “law enforcement officials” and hotel staffers before now? Fuck them.
jack
@kc:
The law enforcement official did act months ago. He/she waited until the NFL made a obvious lie he/she could refute and then came forward. NFL security is loaded with Former FBI, City and State Cops etc. That is why it was not believable at all that they could not get the tape. They know tons of contacts in law enforcement who willing give them this type of information in hopes of future employment, free tickets, etc.
KS in MA
@Roger Moore:
That’s what they pay him for–being a lying sack of shit. I imagine that’s why Condoleeza Rice wants the job, and why she’d be good at it.
(Note that this is not an endorsement of her candidacy. No, no, no.)
RSR
no fan of guns, and don’t really mind NJ’s laws on them, but the disparity between letting the two offenders into the intervention program is striking. And obvious. Money talks, and so on.
gian
@RSR:
The disparity matters. I’m pretty sure that you don’t get a lesson with your concealed carry permit that it’s valid wherever you go
CONGRATULATIONS!
DO. NOT. CARE.
You get caught with a concealed weapon in CA without a specific permit for the county you get caught in, and you are going to jail, and should thank whatever deity you believe in that you haven’t been shot. If that’s the case. Our cops get really twitchy around guns.
And you know what? I like it that way. I voted for it to be that way. And I will continue to do so. You want to haul a gun around like a mouth-breathing insecure moron, or hardcore violent criminal? Don’t do it in California. It’s a crime here.
The citizens of New Jersey obviously feel the same way. It’s their right.
John Cole +0
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Yes. They also give the DA authority to allow for a diversionary program. He could do that, and it would be lawful and keep the spirit and intent of the law.
If I ever hear you bitch about mandatory minimums I will laugh in your face.
Uncle Cosmo
@John Cole +0: Here’s a link to the NJ Courts’ PTI information page. Midway down the page there are a number of qualifications for acceptance into the program.
I would ask whether McClain cited any particular reason for rejecting her application, specifically anything that would directly disqualify. She’s not a NJ resident, but neither is Ray Rice. She has no prior convictions. If they offered her a plea bargain (sic) for 3.5 years in the slammer, it’s obviously not going to be treated as a “minor violation.”
I think we need to know more, but unless McClain can cite a PBJ or a previous diversion or conditional discharge on her record, which are disqualifying, he doesn’t seem to have a procedural leg to stand on.
If “money talked” in re Rice, it was IMHO the $$$ to hire a hotshot defense attorney whose presence persuaded McClain the case would be no slam-dunk. He probably thinks he can run roughshod over Allen’s counsel. It would be sweet justice to stuff a defense fund for Allen full enough to hire her own hotshot to twist McClain into knots.
Radio One
I think the NFL will probably force Roger Goodell to retire this month and then replace him with Condi Rice as commissioner, because the NFL is stupid.
Shakezula
In other words, Rice followed a common pattern of abusive behavior.
The assailant will then claim the victim “started it” even though he assaulted (e.g. spat on) or threatened the victim before she took a swing at him.
lonesomerobot
If you are a consumer of the NFL, you can certainly have your say.
1. Go to http://www.nfl.com/contact-us
2. Click on ‘Other’
3. For the Subject, choose ‘Filing a Complaint’
4. Speak your piece, but please be civil
It takes one minute (unless you write a novel), and the thing is, you’ve probably already thought the same words you’d like to say to the NFL a few hundred times already. Goodell needs to go.
TomG
Wow, what’s with the sheer hatred of gun owners up above? Yeah, blather on about how this mother of two (Allen) should know ALL the states’ concealed-carry laws before crossing state lines. But she owned up to it and didn’t hurt anyone. Cut her some slack, okay? Geez.
(I am NOT a gun-owner.)
Don
If Shaneen Allen wanted to get special programs and allowances she should have had the foresight to be rich and famous as all fuck. Nothing gets you your preferred justice like being able to plead crazy bank.
ellennellee
WHY IS THIS HULK OF A JOCK GETTING SO MUCH ATTENTION FOR BEATING THIS WOMAN (don’t get me wrong, gawdawful, hang him high, i say), AND NOT SO MUCH AS A PEEP ABOUT FEDERAL JUDGE MARK FULLER WHO DID WORSE AND IS ALSO GETTING OFF ESSENTIALLY SCOT FREE??
ok, actually, finally something is being made of this irony in wapo, but fuller’s case is getting no press whatsoever, and one would think (wouldn’t one??) that we would hold our federal judges to a higher standard?
the leniency for the men beating women is one (insanely wrong and disgusting and utterly indefensible) thing, but the leniency for the judge and not the athlete is quite another.
or, might fuller have been made to suffer more had his case been more broadly publicized? i’m looking’ at you, MSM. and if this is true, eeyoo ick; what is driving that sick injustice? dare i play the race card here? even the money card? not fuller’s or rice’s money, but media money; taking athletes and celebrities down is almost a sport in itself.
or even the partisan card?
i’m frankly flabbergasted no one is making a bigger stink about these ironies, or even talking about fuller. except bradblog and the wapo.
ps. for anyone unfamiliar with fuller, he’s the judge who – among a gazillion other shady things – put AL gov siegelman behind bars for 6.5 years for NOTHING. and oh yeah, siegelman’s a democrat. and oh yeah, karl rove was in that one up to his eyeballs.