Good riddance to Ray Rice, whose domestic violence cannot be ignored

I don’t believe, as some have claimed, that watching that new elevator video where Ray Rice assaults his soon-to-be wife revictimizes her.

The release of the video is not a privacy violation; there should be no expectation of privacy in a public elevator. This was not a sex crime. She was not a minor.

Janay Palmer Rice is married to one of the country’s most celebrated running backs. The assault, at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City just before 3 a.m. on Feb. 15, occurred in a public place. It was already the subject of a torrent of public debate after TMZ obtained a video showing what happened in the moments after Rice delivered his knockout punch. We saw Rice dragging his unconscious fiancee from the elevator into a hallway. Happy Valentine’s Day, darling.

Today, the world got the chance to see what actually happened in that elevator. If you can stand it, you should watch it. It’s important to know what we are talking about when we talk about domestic violence.

We are talking about a professional athlete in peak physical shape hitting a woman so hard that she cracks her head against the elevator hand rail before collapsing into a heap on the floor, where she remains unconscious for nearly a minute.

The video is so disturbing that the Ravens announced via Twitter that they have dropped Rice. The NFL, which claimed not to have seen the video before now, announced that Rice would be suspended indefinitely from the league.

These actions are long overdue. But the facts of the case have not changed. So why did the Ravens and the NFL have to see the actual video in order to take the action they should have taken months ago? And how is it possible that neither the team nor the league, as each has claimed, did not have access to the video until TMZ splashed it all over the Internet on Monday?

From the very beginning, this case has been an outrageous example of celebrity privilege, sports world double standards and the minimization of domestic violence.

On the morning of the assault, Rice and Palmer were both detained by police, and both were charged with “simple assault-domestic violence.” That is absolutely crazy, and a perfect example of how law enforcement so often fails domestic violence victims. (You might have thought that the assumption of mutual violence when one party is a professional athlete and the other party has been knocked unconscious went out after O.J. Simpson killed his ex-wife. Simpson often charmed the police when they were called to his Brentwood home by his terrified and abused then-wife, Nicole.)

Rice’s attorney, the Baltimore Sun reported, first described the incident as a “very minor physical altercation.”

Later, after police reviewed the casino’s video recording, Rice was charged with aggravated assault, a felony that carries a three- to five-year prison term. Prosecutors agreed to drop the charge if Rice completes a yearlong counseling program. That may be standard operating procedure in first-time domestic violence cases where there is no criminal record, but it shouldn’t be here. That was a vicious, potentially deadly, punch.

I feel for Janay Rice. I really do. She is in a terrible position, and it’s clear from her actions that she has struggled to help her husband keep his career and good reputation. After all, his livelihood is her livelihood.

Like many women in violent relationships, she bears a terrible burden. She has been victimized by the person she loves most, then victimized by the criminal justice system that charged her with assault, then victimized by the Ravens, who depended on her to help them rehabilitate their fallen star. This impulse is what seems to have led to the couple’s appearance at what many described as a “disastrous” press conference last May.

The Rices sat at a table, an arm’s length apart, facing reporters and barely looking at each other. Ray Rice apologized to his team owners, to his coach, to his fans, to kids, to “everyone who was affected by this situation that me and my wife were in.”

He did not apologize to his wife. He did not use the words “violence” or “assault” or say he was ashamed by what he’d done. He described the assault as “the situation.”

He demonstrated, for all the world to see, the cluelessness of the entitled celebrity spouse abuser: “When all of you seen this thing that happened with me and my wife, everybody questioned what happened. And one thing I can say is that sometimes in life, you will fail, you know, but I won’t call myself a failure. Failure is not getting knocked down, it’s not getting back up.”

Then it was Janay Rice’s turn. It is always heartbreaking to hear a victim blame herself for violent actions of her loved one. “I do deeply regret the role that I played in the incident that night,” she began. “I love Ray,” she said, “and I know he will gain your respect back in due time.”

The Ravens quickly got in on the minimization, tweeting “Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.” Critics rightfully pounced on the team for its appalling insensitivity.

Then NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell showed his ignorance and stupidity by barely slapping Rice’s wrist with a two-week suspension. The howling began immediately: How could the league suspend a minor player for a year without pay for violating the league’s policy against marijuana, but only give Rice a two-game suspension? It defied common sense, but spoke volumes about the league’s attitude towards its celebrities, and women.

The public backlash caused Goodell to re-examine the league’s tolerance for domestic violence and come up with a stringent new policy. Better late than never.

And now, finally, with the release of the actual assault tape, the NFL can no longer pretend that what happened in that elevator is compatible with its deluded view of itself as an organization where violence is confined to the field, its star players are held to a higher standard and women are respected as equal partners.

I’m truly sorry if Janay Rice feels humiliated by the violent images that are now out there for everyone to see. But she has no reason to. She’s done nothing wrong. If anyone feels humiliated, it should be Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens and the National Football League. They are the ones who have acted disgracefully.