Defending Green
Let me be the first (and possibly only) person to stand up for Ahman Green right now.The piling-on was in full-force on the radio this week:
-OMG, he was ARRESTED for DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
-OMG, it's his THIRD DOMESTIC VIOLENCE incident
-OMG, his wife says he THREATENED her
-OMG, he was RESISTING arrest
-OMG, he only submitted when threatened with a TASER
Let's get some facts straight here.
He did not touch his wife, much less harm her. He was cited for disorderly conduct, but could easily have been let go without being cited. Since when is it a violation to yell at your wife in your own home? He is not being charged with domestic violence because there was no violence.
He has never struck any of his wives, at least not as far as the law is concerned. In fact, the only person that has ever been charged with domestic violence was his ex-wife. Not him. The only evidence we have of him harming his wife was when he was trying to push open a door that his wife was trying to keep closed. He won, and the door popped her in the face.
He did not threaten his wife. Despite reports to the contrary, he is not alledged to have threatened his current wife. She said in the police report (available here) that she "felt threatened" by his tone and actions. Big difference.
His resistance to being arrested is understandable. He didn't touch his wife, he's been in a huge fight with her all night (and it seems they had been fighting for some time), she calls the cops on him (despite the fact that he did nothing but kick her out), and they arrest him. From his perspective, he didn't do anything wrong. I'm sure he was pissed. I would be too. He never fought with the police, he was just being uncooperative, which is about how I (and millions of other men) would react in that situation.
He was not threatened with a taser. Well, not really. The cop took out the taser and held it behind his back, pointed at the ground. It was obviously meant to show Green that they were taking him in whether he liked it or not. At that point, he stopped uncooperating. I would call that a gentle reminder, not a threat.
The whole point here is that I do withhold some judgement because we have only heard his wife's side of the story. His wife knew very well that dialing 911 was a nuclear weapon she had in her arsenal. Three simple numbers and his career is in jeapardy, not to mention his freedom. She just presses those three numbers and no matter what she has done or said to him, he loses. GameSetMatch.
Now, I'm not saying Ahman is a sweet, great guy. It seems that he's not very nice, has an anger problem, and definitely has issues with his significant others. He doesn't seem to be a good dad because he told his wife to take their son when she left. His son witnessed Ahman screaming and swearing at his wife.
This is all NOT good. In fact, it's very bad. But it isn't criminal behavior.
I mean, it's ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that she's the original bad guy here and that he is getting the shaft. I don't know.
But I do know that our society places certain crimes in a more serious category for a reason. We don't want to tolerate things like racism, hate crimes, wife beating, and child abuse, among other things. These crimes will rightfully place a special black mark on the perpetrator for life.
That's why it's important that we don't loosen the definition of those crimes to include bad but not criminal behavior. For example, yelling at your wife for possibly justifiable or unjustifiable reasons.
If we're calling what he did "domestic violence", then the term has lost it's meaning.
If it turns out that he was the bad guy and that he did this type of thing all the time, ...then I take this all back. I think it IS abusive if this behavior is commonplace, but it still isn't "violence".
But I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.
<< Home