repoman
Contributor
Stephen A Smith has mostly stepped in about the recent beating that Ray Rice inflicted on his then Fiance, Janay Palmer. Then he foolishly seemed to double down on twitter.
The most boiled down video comment about this is from BroTheDude:
I would add that a man who can be provoked by a woman still needs the correct measures of punishment and rehabilitation on a case by case basis.
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There MAY be small level of truth and applicability (once he more carefully parses his thoughts) to general life of what he said. But tactically, there is so little reward and so much risk about the angle he took that everybody else wisely treats it like a third rail.
First of all I want to separate what happens in this exact Ray Rice case from the wide realm of possibilities in life in general for how violence actually happens (or is falsely stated to happen) by men against the women they are in relationships with. It very well may be that Ray Rice is a total asshole who gets offended as easily as Joe Pesci in GoodFellas, who knows.
Stephen A. Smith's job is to talk ad nauseum about the topic of the day and to come up with his own insights. In his level of foresight and circumspection about how his comments will be taken he is totally overmatched by Skip Bayless.
As far as provocation is concerned, a woman intensely verbally attacking (low-blow stuff) a man or slapping and spitting at him should at MOST be responded with walking away and as mild a push out of the way as possible if his path is impeded by her. That or a bear hug restraint if you are in a close quarters and the kicking and scratching won't stop without it - like in the Jay-Z/Solange situation (though he took the blows and we laud him for it).
The most boiled down video comment about this is from BroTheDude:
Can a woman provoke a man into hitting her? Yes. Is that an acceptable excuse for hitting a woman? No.
I would add that a man who can be provoked by a woman still needs the correct measures of punishment and rehabilitation on a case by case basis.
----------------------------
There MAY be small level of truth and applicability (once he more carefully parses his thoughts) to general life of what he said. But tactically, there is so little reward and so much risk about the angle he took that everybody else wisely treats it like a third rail.
First of all I want to separate what happens in this exact Ray Rice case from the wide realm of possibilities in life in general for how violence actually happens (or is falsely stated to happen) by men against the women they are in relationships with. It very well may be that Ray Rice is a total asshole who gets offended as easily as Joe Pesci in GoodFellas, who knows.
Stephen A. Smith's job is to talk ad nauseum about the topic of the day and to come up with his own insights. In his level of foresight and circumspection about how his comments will be taken he is totally overmatched by Skip Bayless.
As far as provocation is concerned, a woman intensely verbally attacking (low-blow stuff) a man or slapping and spitting at him should at MOST be responded with walking away and as mild a push out of the way as possible if his path is impeded by her. That or a bear hug restraint if you are in a close quarters and the kicking and scratching won't stop without it - like in the Jay-Z/Solange situation (though he took the blows and we laud him for it).