Ray Rice (Follow-up #3) Justice in Physical Assault Cases
The current NFL controversies over physical, sexual, and child abuse are useful in that they are causing all of us to focus on the issues involved. From all the focus, perhaps and hopefully, something sensible, just, and effective will evolve to bring the best results for all involved.
Let us remember that there are 1.3 million cases in the U.S. of physical assault on someone in a close personal relationship. There are 6 million reported cases of child abuse in the U.S., of which about 2 million are reported physical abuse. There are 238,000 sexual assaults in the U.S. every year. How many unreported cases in all three categories above is pure guess.
About 30% of physically abused children will later abuse their own children. Children who are physically abused are twice as likely to end up in jail as adults. More than half of adults being treated for drug abuse were physically abused in childhood.
The stats above indicate how extensive the problems are.
Given the widespread nature of these problems it is not clear why these problems should be addressed via the NFL. IF we somehow made professional football players squeaky clean in all of the above areas the dent in the national statistics would hardly be noticeable.
Any advance in prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation for the perpetrators of these crimes should be across the board and not giving the NFL still another exemption to operate outside the rest of our society. Just look at what we have already given a highly select group of millionaires who own the NFL teams already, at a cost to the public which is astronomically high. They are exempt via Congress from anti-trust laws; they are exempt from almost all corporate taxes; they are exempt from any open bidding on just which millionaires can purchase these financial plums (only those millionaires voted in by the existing owners can purchase a club), The Commissioner who runs the league is appointed by the owners and his primary responsibility is to maximize the profit for the owners and protect the ‘image’ of the NFL. The NFL is allowed to be a corporation with no bottom line, and consequently salaries of players and profits for owners have no limit. Cities are allowed to be blackmailed. Fans are forced to pay high ticket costs, and the public is bilked billions of dollars to pay for a huge good ole boys club outside the restraints placed on other corporations. Amidst all this, the Commissioner is allowed to play cop, judge and jury on legal matters involving players or owners.
It seems to protect the image of football, we are about to see the League set up a huge and separate legal system to protect the sport from players whose behaviors mirror the same behaviors prevalent in the rest of society. While that might be a nice ‘feel good’ present to fans of football and the public in general, it does nothing to help the millions of others being subjected to the same crimes. Thus, instead of helping reduce such crimes in our society, it will simply shunt such crimes away from football. Ray Rice will have to punch his wife in some other profession, Adrian Peterson will have to beat his son outside of football, and Des Bryant will be gone and free to commit assaults against his mother and others without a 24 hr security guard to protect the public from him. And of course who will pay for this huge expense to protect the image of professional football? Of course it will be the public. The League may lose a few quality players and leave them loose in society without the ability to do the one thing they are good at, and free to commit crimes they are inclined to commit, with the public once again picking up the cost of any prison time (@$30,000/yr) and/or welfare costs for them or their victims.
This is an insult and injustice to the millions of Americans victims of the same crimes. The NFL should stick to football and the legal system itself should be the focus of reform to help prevent, punish, and rehabilitate actual or potential perpetrators of these crimes in question.
It should always be remembered that all of us should be innocent until proven guilty, and that includes football players. Perhaps we all need be reminded that all children need proper health care, proper parenting, the same amount of money spent on them for education, and a safe environment in which to live. We already know there are millions of children in this country who are being raised in situations which are going to lead to criminal behavior in many cases as adults. But we collectively do nothing except ensure those of us more fortunate are gated off away from them, that we put more and more young people in jail with maximum sentences for selling drugs in a police war on drugs which we created (deliberately providing poor neighborhoods with a huge underground criminal, but highly profitable, drug industry), provide support for school via property taxes so the children of affluent neighborhoods get the best education, deny poor children access to proper health care, and ignore the conditions in which millions of kids are being raised.
These problems of violent behavior towards other will only be reduced in any meaningful numbers when we, through the government, invest in preventive measures which ensure all children are raised in a proper supportive environment. We, through the government, keep closer tab on automobile drivers than we do parents who raise kids. We need faster and fairer trials for those who commit physical or sexual abuse towards others including children. We need proper medical clinics throughout the entire country which specialize in treating addictions of any sorts and physical assaults of any sort. When you commit a physical assault against someone it should not matter whether you are a football player or not, the cases should be handled the same way, on an individual basis, by professionals trained to both administer proper punishment and provide medical treatment for the behavior. If Ray Rice, who as best as I can determine, has only punched one person his entire life (if he has a history of it, has never received any medical help for his physical abuse tendencies). If Ray Rice deserves to be banned from his professional job indefinitely, then so should every other person who throws a punch at someone. As Terrell Owens would say, “fair is fair”.
If Adrian Peterson should be suspended from his profession for ‘whupping’ his kid, then millions of other adults who were taught this was a proper way to discipline a child, should be suspended from their professions. He already had a problem here before and what medical help did he ever receive? It is right and important that we declare these kind of behaviors wrong, but these problems are endemic in our country, and need to be addressed nationwide, not once again give the NFL the special right to set up their own court system to punish football players who commit these crimes of assault. If speedy trials are needed for immediate action then let the court system produce these trials. What are we saying here? That if anyone accuses a football player of assaulting them, the player is suspended immediately? There are plenty situations where false accusations are made for various reasons. If, after a lengthy trial, a player is declared innocent, does he get back pay for the games he missed? With a salary cap where does the club get the money to pay both the replacement and the player who was suspended? And what if the false accusation is against a star player who is later declared innocent in a regular court system trial? Suppose the player missed game was a playoff game in which the player was suspended? Does the team get a rematch if they lost the game? The unique situations are endless here. Suppose a player throws a punch after being hit over the head with a frying pan? Suppose a player catches his wife having sex with someone else and punches them? He is then definitively suspended from his profession? Suppose a child has shown repeated tendencies to be physically abusive to others and never receives any medical help for his mental problem? We should throw the book at this child or someone, who exasperated, throws a punch at him? What purpose does it do for Ray Rice’s family or kid to be thrown on the unemployment line? What other skills besides football does he have? That is why we should have professional judges and juries to mete out the proper punishment AND treatment program for the perpetrators, AND medical centers to help the victims.
It doesn’t take much vision to see the real danger of where this is heading. A ‘position starter’ who commits a first offense or is simply accused of an offense, will be suspended immediately. A potential or actual ‘position starter’ with a history of physical assaults, will be given quality medical help. Any player further down the talent line will not be given a contract at all since the image risk is too great. A talented football player will be given millions of dollars a year, not just to play football, but to postpone any physical assault tendencies until after football. The millions of other people with physical assault tendencies will be given nothing—no medical attention, no monetary carrots, no early intervention. Most of the biggest stars have been given special attention since junior high school. We will now add medical help if they have tendencies to be physically abusive. There will be no justice until all the other 4 million people who commit crimes of physical assault are given the same kind of opportunities to overcome their problem in this area. There will be no justice until all persons who commit acts of physical violence are given the same consequences and help.
The NFL has already demonstrated clearly that it handles off the field behavior problems solely on the basis of protecting the image of football and current public opinion. The NFL is the last organization in the world which should be given any more exemptions for anything. There is nothing neutral or fair or ethical about the NFL. They should stick to football. And the whole ownership structure of the league should be changed by Congress which created such a predatory monster on the public, fans, cities, and most players. Enough is enough. We are all being abused by the NFL.
