By now you’ve more than likely seen or at the very least heard about Ray Rice, Janay (Palmer) Rice and the infamous video that has the now former Baltimore Ravens running back out of work.
For those of you that haven’t seen it, you’ll have to find it yourself because I have no interest in sharing a pretty disgusting video of a woman get cold-cocked by a professional football player. (Notice I didn’t use the word man there.)
February 15, 2014 Rice and his at the time fiancée got onto an Atlantic City Hotel elevator. In surveillance video that has been released you get to see that they are in some sort exchange, then once in the elevator she moves towards him and he clocks her with a left knocking her off her feet. On the way to the elevator floor she smashed her head off a hand railing and laid motionless on the floor.
Motionless until the doors opened and it appeared Rice tried to prop her up then dragged her out of the elevator and left her on the floor. That part of the video wasn’t new. The NFL, Rice and the Ravens dealt with the video then…but according to news reports, only the later half of the video had ever been seen before.
OK…so what in the world does all this have to do with law enforcement and social media? Great question. I’m getting to that.
In March when the Ravens and Rice held a press conference, Ms. Palmer then, now Mrs. Rice even took on the burden of being an abused woman, “I do deeply regret the role that I played in the incident that night…”.
Photo credit: autismwonderland.com in support of October Domestic Violence Awareness month
SAY WHAT??? Her role??…What role did she play to have her fiancée, a 200 pound professional football player, lambasted her with a left hook?
Enter the law enforcement and social media point the of this post…
Police and law enforcement should be jumping all over this story. Right now there is a hashtag on Twitter that was actually trending yesterday, #WhyIStayed, which is a crowd sourced account of the reasons why people stay in abusive relationships.
Photo Credit: @TIME
I started watching the hashtag yesterday and have continued to do so up until writing this post…there have only been a few police officers and agencies who have said anything at all about and what they have said has been less than thrilling.
Big deal…oh, you’re reading about this terrible problem and doing your slacktivism by talking about. For crap sakes, do something worthwhile!
- Share resources that people in abusive relationships can go to.
- Talk about the statistics detailing the number of times people who are abused feel the sting of abuse before they have the courage to say something
- Talk about the repetitive nature that abusers have
- Tell a freaking story about someone who was abused and got out
- Tell a story about someone who was abused that didn’t get out
- Share some pictures of what abuse marks look like
Photo credit: reachofmaconcounty.org
This is a golden opportunity to be creating content, sharing content and letting people who are speaking up, speaking out and especially those who are suffering in silence to know the facts, the resources that are available and what they can do.
Sure, there are lots of stories about people and organizations trying to jack a hashtag for their own benefit and that might be scaring you. Well let me tell you, this is EXACTLY the time you SHOULD be trying to JACK a hashtag because it’s won’t be about you, it will be about helping your community.
Law enforcement should be all over this story in every way they can. There is lots of talk about domestic violence and how bad it is, but when there is a golden opportunity to champion it and possibly get tonnes of earned media attention…crickets.
Victims groups, the media and victims themselves have been talking about it…what more do you need to talk about it? If you’re waiting for an invitation, here it is…I invite you to jack this story for the benefit of every single person who has been abused, in an abusive relationship now and for the prevention of domestic abuse in the future.
Need some resources to source? Here you go…
National Domestic Violence Hotline Web Site (USA)
1-800-799-7233
Feminist Majority Foundation (USA)
Very good advice, Tim. Missed the opportunity yesterday but will jumping into the conversation today with info from @torontopolice. Better late than never, I hope.
Thanks for the comment Meaghan and the commitment to furthering a very important message. Yes, better late than never especially with a subject as important as this. One that can be shared often in so many ways.
Tim, thanks for the article on this important and timely topic. Do you have any examples of Tweets, blog posts, status updates, etc. That you feel would be more effective than others?
I just tweeted, “The National Domestic Violence Hotline. 24/7 support available. http://www.thehotline.org/ or call 1-800-799-7233″
But that feels a little to plain and broadly sent rather than specific and targeted.
Thanks.