Brown Gets Charged.

chris_brown

With two felony counts. The report in the court documents is gruesome:

According to a search warrant written by police Det. Deshon Andrews, the assault began when Rihanna picked up Brown’s phone as the couple drove away from a pre-Grammy party in Beverly Hills. The singer saw a long text message on Brown’s phone detailing a sexual encounter between him and another woman, the warrant said.

The pair began arguing, and Brown pulled the rented Lamborghini to the side of the road and tried to make Rihanna get out of the car, according to the warrant. When her seat belt got in the way, he began punching her in the face.

“The assault caused Robyn F.’s mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the car,” the police detective wrote in the warrant filed Feb. 20.
During the alleged assault, the detective wrote, Brown told Rihanna, “I’m going to beat the [expletive] out of you when we get home. You wait and see.”

After Rihanna feigned a call to her personal assistant — pretending to ask the woman to have police waiting at her home — Brown became enraged, telling her, “Now I am going to kill you,” according to the warrant.

The assault escalated with Brown biting Rihanna on the ear and putting her in a headlock until she lost consciousness, according to the warrant. When she attempted to free herself by “gouging his eyes out,” the detective wrote, he bit her finger. Her screams for help were heard by a neighbor, the warrant says.

I suspect we’re in for round 3 of blame-the-victim: Rihanna, as a public figure, is now responsible for how other women deal with domestic violence situations, and is not deserving of our sympathy as she has reportedly gotten back together with Brown. Or, in the words of this completely ludicrous and insulting post at Jack and Jill Politics: “Rihanna is showing a bad example to her young fans on the treatment a young lady deserves from her partner. This is weakness not strength and courage on display. It says that violence against women is forgivable — when it is not.”

Give me an effing break. Rihanna is a young woman, just like any number of young women in difficult situations. To judge her, or to suggest (as another commenter does in that JJP post) that she doesn’t deserve any sympathy if she doesn’t immediately kick her abuser to the curb is so myopic and infuriating. It’s like the people who blame women for not reporting a rape. Every woman deserves to deal with her trauma in the best way she can. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: she isn’t an object-lesson for the rest of us. Rihanna allegedly getting back together with Brown doesn’t make domestic violence appear to be okay or ‘forgivable’. It just shows how damaging and insidious it is.

Shani

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  • the black scientist

    wow. that was a little hard to read. there is no case in which blaming a victim of abuse is okay, regardless of how they deal with it. and since when did it fall on the shoulders of any one to show women how to act in an abusive situation?

  • NinaG

    I just read that post on JJP and was appalled. It’s really sickening that people think like that. Nowhere did Jill say anything about Chris Brown needing to set an example for how young men should treat their partners. After reading that police report, I seriously hope that he gets prison time.

  • just a girl

    I am sad, but not surprised by Rihanna’s actions. I understand how difficult it is to process that someone who you thought loved you could hurt you. It makes you feel like an unlovable bad person, and every woman in this position has to make her own personal journey. I mean how many years did it take Tina Turner to turn the page or Peppa from SaltNPeppa.

    The biggest difference between what is going on with Rihanna and every other woman going through this is that every other woman has the “luxury” of going through this journey in a private manor. On the one hand, having it in such a public forum brings to light what happens every hour of every day to many, many women, and if that leads to discussion that takes the focus from the generalities of two people who most don’t know and places it on the specifics of how domestic violence intercepts with our individual lives and how we can make better choices, that is wonderful. One the other hand, if people are looking for an instant wonderful outcome then that is sad, because this is real life and not an After School Special where all crises are solved in 29 minutes.

  • LisaAngelaPamelaRenee

    “Rihanna allegedly getting back together with Brown doesn’t make domestic violence appear to be okay or ‘forgivable’. It just shows how damaging and insidious it is.”

    That’s right. I can’t tell you how many battered women I’ve worked with who, although they WANT to leave, cannot for whatever reason. It is not up to us to decide when RF should leave the situation. It is up to her. The fact that she’s a celebrity is not carte blanche to run through her life and judge her decisions, especially one so personal as this one. Domestic Violence is about power and control and it wouldn’t be a stretch to believe that CB has exercised that power and control over RF.

    Let’s not forget that the overwhelming majority of women who are killed/seriously injured by their abusers end up that way as they attempt to leave. Which is not to say they should stay, but that they are the best judges of when it is best to go and all that those who claim to love RF can do is to let her know that their support is there when she’s ready.

    What infuriates me most about this whole situation is that no one gets so upset when women get battered every day. Neighbors in known DV situations get ignored because “it’s not our business”. Why now is everyone on their high horse about CB and RF? They are not any more or less deserving of concern in this very common and sad situation.

  • aisha

    While it’s regrettable that they may have gotten back together, it only shows how serious this problem is. I get so sick of people trying to figure what SHE did to make him go off. She’s just like all of us dealing with a complex problem that’s not so cut and dry. Fame and money don’t make this situation of emotional, mental and physical abuse easier to deal with. How bout Chris Brown stop putting his hands on women? Let’s start there.

  • The growing lack of empathy for Rihanna (in some arenas) now that she has continued her relationship with Chris Brown highlights how little people understand about domestic violence.
    And although I’ve learned myself more about how exactly the power dynamics and control work in the relationship and how many (I want to say a majority) of battered people return to their batterers, my first reaction when I heard of the Chris/Rhianna reconciliation was of disgust and frustration.

    Now I’m just waiting for the explanations that her going back was clearly proof that “we didn’t know the whole story” (i.e. she did something to deserve it) and of course, “light skinned girls bruise easily” (i.e. the beating wasn’t as bad as people made it seem to be, so of course she went back).

  • you nailed it. a friend of mine pointed out that the phrasing of the threat — ‘wait until we get home’ — implies that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. It usually takes a long time for battered women to leave their abusers, and jilltubman seems to think that Rihanna is making her judgment with some kind of distance from the situation, like jill is.

    i’m also suspicious of the logic that Rihanna leaving Chris Brown would suddenly empower women who are in abusive relationships. i’m not sure it makes much sense.

  • Feral Historian

    First of all, people have got to stop blaming the victim here (and in every other similar case). The solution isn’t for women to stop men from beating them, the solution is for men to stop beating women. It’s really not that hard – just stop! Women have done a wonderful job of helping the victims with counseling centers, relocation services, shelters, etc., but the cycle’s never going to be broken until men stop using violence again women and stop letting other men get away with it.

    Secondly, Rihanna is a very talented young woman. But she is just that – a YOUNG woman. I really don’t think that at age 21 I was anyone who people should have been using as a role model, and I doubt very many (if any) of you were either. People in their late teens and early 20s are not generally known for their maturity and sound judgment.

    Finally, the fact that Chris Brown and Rihanna are celebrities should not automatically make them role models. (I know how often things that “should not” happen still do, but I had to say it any way.) Looking back to the music I was listening to and the musicians I watched when I was a teenager, if I had said I was taking Axl Rose as a role model my parents would have smacked me silly (as soon as they found out who Axl Rose was).