Accountability

Accountability... It sort of seems like a rare quality these days. You grow up seeing people rise to a position of authority and as kids we were taught to respect these people blindly. We're not given reasons to respect them, the reasoning was often more just a "because". Whether it was a teacher, parent or coach, we were all just supposed to respect them. Forget the fact that one may be addicted to pills, one may be having an affair and the other is a degenerate gambler.

As I got older I began questioning things a little more; analyzing life in a deeper manner. I had a professor in college once tell me that the key to obtaining knowledge is as easy making the decision to never stop asking questions. And in what seemed like a simple exercise, became something more. I naturally question everything now, even the most inane things interest me. Sometimes I think the overbearing amount of questions I pose to myself and others has turned me into a cynic, but I'm also grateful to not be blinded by this horrendous web of deceit we call the media. It's a little scary to consider the fact that not everyone is as objective when consuming the garbage in the media and these same people can vote.

Accountability and integrity used to go hand in hand. Those qualities were a common gauge for judging a person's character. Nowadays though, accountability is more about what is provable and not. A man could get charged with murder who is clearly guilty, but in exchange for information or simply a signed confession that saves the tax payers money, these people can plead down to lesser charges. I understand the practicality of this kind of example, but what kind of precedent does that set for our society?

Murder is an extreme example to use and I'm not interested in debating your rights as an American, I simply wanted to convey that the lack of accountability today is a symptom of a greater flaw in our society. What that flaw is, I couldn't pin down at this moment, but I promise you at the top of Shit's Peak it is somehow tied to money.

I rant because of what I saw on the news this morning. In February, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on camera dragging his unconscious fiance out of an elevator in Atlantic City. It was clear some Tom Foolery had occurred and the incident was "investigated". This matter was investigated both by the police and the NFL... I say investigated with a serious tone of sarcasm.

A high profile athlete was caught on camera in what seemed to be the aftermath of an assault. The footage that the media showed the public initially was an angle outside of the elevator. Rice emerged from the elevator dragging his then fiance like a roll of carpet. It seemed pretty clear that Rice had somehow been the reason she was knocked out but nobody saw him actually do it.

In hindsight I'm disappointed in myself for not recognizing the bullshit league response at the time.

When Solange Knowles tried putting an ass whoopin on Jay Z, the elevator footage was readily available for the public. I'm guessing that a hotel in Atlantic City that an NFL super star would frequent would have camera's in the elevator as well. So when the investigation was happening, how is it that they wouldn't request to see any relevant footage? Whether they did or didn't, it's a huge problem.

If this footage was previously unavailable as all the mouthpieces are claiming right now, wouldn't this hotel get hit with obstruction of justice? What does "unavailable" mean? Was the server down? Was the head of security on vacation in Mexico? Besides, what would they gain by withholding that tape? Bottom line is that the people in front of the microphones during this fiasco don't get to the positions they are in by being stupid. There is no way in hell that this footage was not seen.

The motive? Ha. #Money

Ray Rice is not only a key piece to a team that won the Super Bowl two seasons ago, but he is a powerful commodity of the NFL. Ray Rice had a respectable reputation in a city that needs a strong black role model, revealing the truth would only hurt the public...

Now, I'm speculating obviously, but regardless of the reasons for the cover up, it was wrong. The NFL handed down a two game suspension to Rice while fellow NFL player Josh Gordon was being suspended an entire season because he tested positive for marijuana; A drug that is both not a performance enhancing drug and is actually completely legal in two of the twenty-two states the league operates in. I'm pretty sure hitting anyone is illegal in all 50 states in the union.

I'm happy to report that the public did throw a pretty big fit about the suspension comparisons. The problem is that the league found a way to bury the story enough to where it was less of an actual issue and more of another topic to fill their own networks with discussion material. And now here we are.

While the team terminated Ray Rice's contract, I'm here to name a few more people who still need to be held accountable if we're to consider this situation 'dealt with appropriately'. Because there are two possible scenarios here and they apply to just about everyone involved. There is no better summarization than a line from the movie Casino. Tangiers boss Sam Rothstein had just fired the nephew of the Las Vegas Gaming Commissioner after allowing a string of jackpots to go off on a few slot machines within a few minutes, "Either he's in on it or he's incompetent, either way he's gone."

At the top of my list is the police chief in charge of the criminal investigation. You are either dirty or you suck at your job. Second on that list is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. This piece of shit interviewed Ray Rice's fiance regarding that evening with RAY IN THE ROOM.

"Go ahead ma'am, please speak open and honestly about how that man right next to you may or may not have hit you on that evening in Atlantic City." Wink Wink

What a piece of shit.

That's not even worth expanding on. Any man that would ask a woman to finger their fiance as a person who has physically harmed her while in their presence is a complete scumbag. That isn't an error in judgement, that's an error in character.

Finally, I'd like to have Ozzie Newsome and any other Ravens personel fired for covering it up as well. I saw an interview with Coach John Harbaugh and I know he's not stupid, but his eyes told me that he never actually saw the video... I guarantee he knew what happened but not actually seeing the tape is a matter of plausible deniability, but Jesus, where is the line drawn?

The reason why accountability is my topic of discussion is that all parties involved were accountable to exactly what they had to be. Too many people saw Ray Rice that night to sweep it completely under the rug. But since Joe Shmo who can email the story to TMZ does not have access to elevator surveillance, it wasn't something they had to be accountable to. Not surprisingly the video leaked and now everyone involved is playing the accountability card.

As the story went, it was always implied that Ray Rice somehow knocked his fiance unconscious and it wasn't until the video went viral that they deemed it necessary to cut him. Seeing the video was more powerful than just hearing the story, but between two months ago when the suspension was handed down and now, the story is essentially the same, it's just now they have visual evidence of it. To suggest otherwise is just disrespectful. There would be NO reason to suspend Ray Rice unless it was understood that he hit her. You don't get a two game suspension for an accident.

So while all of the people involved are now trying to play the accountability card, what will happen next? Will they be held accountable or will we allow them to sweep this under the rug? The one thing all of these people have in common is power. Police Chief, League Commissioner or team General Manager, all have a lot to lose... The problem is, they have even more to gain by hiding these types of issues. And until our society remembers to value accountability and integrity to the point where we will not allow these shit heads to dictate what is a just punishment, we will continue to experience these heinous symptoms of a larger problem in society.