TMZ Releases New Ray Rice Elevator Video

By Gary Johnson, Black Men In America.com

The newly 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.

According to a source, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who had not seen the horrific video showing Rice cold-cocking Janay Palmer before handing down a two-game suspension that was blasted for being too soft, is reviewing the new evidence that was released by TMZ.

Commissioner Goodell took so much heat for his wrist slap two-game suspension of Rice that on Aug. 29 he 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 20, 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.

Ray Rice is eligible to be re-instated into the league and play after two games.  Now that the league has seen this additional video, should Ray Rice be allowed to play?  Should the NFL suspend him for the entire season?  Or, should Ray Rice sit himself down and opt out of playing this season?  What do you think?

Two weeks ago I wrote a commentary (The Ray Rice Apology: Two Points of View) on the Ray Rice incident with the added perspective of domestic violence expert Mildred Muhammad.  Mildred sees domestic violence and abuse from a different set of lenses.

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.”