TMZ Releases New Ray Rice Elevator Video

September 8, 2014

Update:  NFL Suspends Ray Rice Indefinitely

By Gary Johnson, Black Men In America.com

The newly released video shows Ravens RB Ray Rice and his now wife Janay Palmer, getting into an elevator inside the Revel Casino on Feb. 15, and within seconds after the door closing, Palmer approaches Rice, who delivers a punch that knocks Palmer off her feet.  Palmer’s head smashes against the elevator hand rail … knocking her out cold.  Rice doesn’t appear to be phased and drags her unconscious body into the hallway, where they are met by a security guard.

After viewing the latest video, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday suspended Rice indefinitely.  Goodell reportedly had not seen the “knock out” video showing Rice cold-cocking Janay Palmer before handing down a two-game suspension that was blasted for being too soft.

On August 29th, the NFL Commissioner instituted a new domestic abuse policy, where a first-time offender would get a six-game suspension and a second offense could lead to a lifetime ban.

On May 20th, Rice was accepted into a pretrial intervention program to avoid aggravated assault charges.  Once Rice completes the one year program, the third-degree assault charge will be dropped.  I know the rules of double jeopardy say that you cannot punish a player twice for the same offense, but something has got to be done about this incident with the release of this new information in the form of this video.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this newly released video is worth tens of thousands of words.  This video is hard for me to watch.

Did the NFL do the right thing by suspending Ray Rice indefinitely?  What do you think?

Two weeks ago I collaborated with domestic violence expert Mildred Muhammad (The Ray Rice Apology: Two Points of View) on the Ray Rice incident.  Mildred sees domestic violence and abuse from a different set of lenses.  Mildred contended from the beginning that Ray Rice had a total disregard for her well-being.

Here is an excerpt of Mildred’s reaction from her Facebook page today:  “The force of the punch caused her to hit her head on the rail and she is out cold…He was not kind, careful or concerned with her! He did not display remorse, he didn’t care if she was coming out of her forced coma! He dragged her out of the elevator and was more concerned with his cellphone than with her…smh!  He treated her like she was worth nothing.  He is only concerned with his career.  Now, I hope he does not blame her for his actions, as most people have already began and continue to blame her (victim blaming).  He could have turned to the side.  He could have held her.  He could have done a lot of things.  However, he CHOSE to knock her out.  And these are the consequences of HIS actions!  Unacceptable behavior.  Agree with me or not…he was absolutely wrong.”

Mildred D. Muhammad is the ex-wife of John Allen Muhammad – the convicted and executed DC sniper who terrorized the Washington DC metropolitan area in late 2002. 

To read her perspective, click here to read our commentary.

Gary A. Johnson is the Founder & Publisher of Black Men In America.com a popular online magazine on the Internet and the Black Men In America.com Blog. Gary is also the author of the book “25 Things That Really Matter In Life.”