Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Black ESPN Writer Howard Bryant was ‘Racially Profiled,’ for Publicly Smacking Around His Estranged Wife; White Wife Veronique is Standing by Her Man

 
The happy couple in court
By Nicholas Stix

Well, it was Bryant’s attorney, Buz Eisenberg, not me, who made the whole thing racial. So, let’s grant him his wish.

Bryant’s attorney, Buz Eisenberg, blamed the arrest on race. Bryant is black and his wife is Caucasian. “If Howard Bryant was Caucasian and was on the streets having exactly the same conversation with his wife — nobody would have even noticed,” he said.

[“Wife denies ESPN scribe assaulted her,” by Jessica Heslam, Boston Herald, March 1, 2011, updated circa 7:41 a.m.]
Stupid is as stupid does, Buz. I’m referring to both you and your client. According to the witnesses, Howard and Veronique Bryant weren’t having “a conversation”; he had grabbed her by the throat, and shoved her up against their SUV, in which their six-year-old son was sitting in the back.

And, forgive me for asking, Buz, but what were two devoted parents doing walking around on the street, while leaving their kid in a vehicle? And outside a pizzeria, the holy of holies, for crying out loud!

So, racial demagogue Buz Eisenberg is trying to turn his alleged wife-beater client into a victim of racism? Maybe you can get over with that sort of thing at cocktail parties with rich swells, or among black racists, Buz, but the general white public isn’t stupid enough to buy that particular bill of goods. In case you haven’t already, you need to tell your client that the next time he feels the need to smack around his wife, he should wait until they’re behind closed doors.

In all of our years of wedded bliss, I can’t recall The Boss ever taking a swing at me, trying to run me through with a carving knife, or seeking to bend my brain with a tire iron … in public. That’s what family time is for.

The wife of ESPN sports scribe Howard Bryant is standing by her man, saying she’s “never been a victim of abuse” — even after state police busted him for what witnesses described as a violent attack on her outside a small town pizza shop.

“I’m not a victim of abuse — never been. Not now. Not ever,” Veronique Bryant told the Herald during a phone interview yesterday — her husband of nine years at her side.

Bryant, 42, a former Herald sports columnist living in Ashfield, pleaded not guilty to domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest in Greenfield District Court. He was released on personal recognizance.

Bryant told the Herald he didn’t harm his wife. “I did put my hands on her. I did not physically assault her,” Bryant said. “We had a spat like married couples do.”

Witnesses told authorities a different tale, according to state police spokesman David Procopio.

They told police a man — later identified as Bryant — grabbed his wife’s neck, pushed her into a parked vehicle and pinned her against it around noon Saturday outside a pizza shop in the western Massachusetts town of Buckland.

The couple then retreated to their sport-utility vehicle — where their 6-year-old son sat in the backseat. State police said Bryant resisted arrest, elbowing and struggling with a trooper who was trying to cuff him, according to Procopio. Three other officers were forced to intervene and slammed Bryant chest-first onto a vehicle hood, state police said.

Veronique Bryant, also 42, said the cops overreacted. “They immediately started to use force on Howard,” she told the Herald. “They didn’t even ask what was going on. We were sitting in the car together and there was not a fight going on at that moment.”

“The witnesses overreacted,” she added.
Nice try, Mrs. Bryant. The witnesses didn’t overreact, they reacted. I guess some of them didn’t want to live with what might happen down the road, had they not “overreacted.”

This is the second time in the past year-and-a-half, in which police in the Boston-area made a lawful, proper arrest of a black man, and the black man went out of control, and tried to make himself out to be a victim of racism. The other case, of course, was that of race-hoaxer Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. And in both cases, the arrestee tried to intimidate whites out of calling the police on blacks engaged in criminal or apparently criminal behavior, in the future.

To out-of-control black men and your lawyers: I know I’m talking to a wall, but I’m going to say it, anyway. Every time you mooks scream “racial profiling!” at the top of your lungs, honest people hear: “Guilty!”

(Thanks to the reader who sent me this story.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

are you a racist? you do know that racial profiling, racial injustice, etc. does exist right? you dont know who those "witnesses" are anyway. witness testimony is one of the most unreliable things anyway.

what if those witnesses were active kkk members? does that change your prospective? people fight harder to defend their prejudices than they fight to end this country's racial problems.

my main point is that we dont know what happened. charge him or dont, but he said he didnt do anything and she said he didnt do anything... thats it. if the police have better evidence than charge him and convict him. extra police brutality or unfairness does happen, especially when it concerns a suspected black abuser and a white female victim.

i wonder if the cops would have acted the same way had they known bryant worked for espn and the story would get this much pub.

Nicholas Stix said...

"are you a racist?"

That's a joke, right? You can't really be that stupid, can you? You're just doing a parody.

"you do know that racial profiling, racial injustice, etc. does exist right?"

Yes, I know that white folks are racially profiled, and suffer racial injustice every day.

"you dont know who those 'witnesses' are anyway."

Neither do you.

"witness testimony is one of the most unreliable things anyway."

Except when it's racist blacks lying to protect a black assailant, right?

"what if those witnesses were active kkk members?"

More levity. What might the odds be of them being "active kkk members"? Do you know how many active KKK chapters there are in or near Ashfield, Mass. Try, none.

"she said he didnt do anything... thats it."

You're lying, and you know it.

"extra police brutality or unfairness does happen, especially when it concerns a suspected black abuser and a white female victim."

Bull. If that were so, Nicole Brown Simpson would still be alive.

I couldn't blame someone for assuming that I made up this mook. How, after all, could a sentient being be this stupid? Then again, there are sentient beings this stupid with distinguished professorships at Harvard.

jeigheff said...

I really doubt the witnesses were KKK members. But could they have been New Black Panthers or members of La Raza?

I'm no psychologist, but the workings of physical abuse make people do very strange things, especially if they're in the public eye. I imagine that it's somehow less shameful for Bryant's wife to go along with her husband in saying that the police and witnesses are racists, etc. than to admit that her husband's public assault on her was a manifestation of a bigger problem. She doesn't want to or thinks she can't leave an abusive relationship.

Anonymous said...

jesus! this is why women cant advance further in this country! you are automatically assuming she is a battered woman "who can't leave" instead of taking her at her word until she is found to be lying.

there are actual women in our society who are capable of taking care of themselves and standing up for right and wrong, this is not the 60s. its not less shameful to cover up physical abuse... thats absurd!! if she said that shes been abused for years and now has the strength to leave, people would eat that alive and applaud her.

neither you or i know what happened so why pretend to. with just one news report you have broken down this woman's entire mental state, lol. false allegations of abuse can make people do strange things too.

whats funny is how people dont condemn women who hit their husbands for mundane things or slap them when caught cheating, etc. tiger woods' wife is seen as harmless, yet if he chased her with a golf club he's an animal. we are backwards in this country something, and these thoughts are from a woman who's seen false allegations and who's also lived long enough to know everything you read isn't true.

jeigheff said...

Please don't take the Lord's name in vain. When you meet eventually meet Him, you will regret having done so, especially after having been cautioned about the matter in this life.

I know both women and men who have been involved in abusive relationships, including myself for a relatively short time (I was involved with a woman who I never should have met.) For my own experience and my limited first-hand observations of others, I know that people stick around with a bad mate longer than they should for a variety of reasons: fear, pride, foolishness, etc. It doesn't matter if this is the 60s or not. Human nature isn't any different, and there are plenty of weak people out there, God bless 'em.

For instance, a former friend of mine once almost killed his wife during an argument. He told me that as he had a gun aimed at his wife's head, he was thinking about how he'd have to get rid of her body. Somehow things cooled down that day and my friend ended not killing his wife after all.

A month or two after that, my friend's wife wanted to renew their wedding vows. Amazing, huh?

When I see people do irrational things (like smack their wives around in public and then accuse the police and witnesses of racism), I can't help but imagine why they do them. In fact, if you look closely at my post, you will see the words, "I imagine."

If the police caught me banging my wife against our car and hauled me off to jail, I would be incredibly ashamed. I wouldn't be able to look anyone I know in the eye, including my wife. The last thing I'd want to do is make a public spectacle of myself and keep the incident in other people's minds. But that's just me.

Kevin Batton said...

"Bryant’s attorney, Buz Eisenberg, blamed the arrest on race. Bryant is black and his wife is Caucasian. “If Howard Bryant was Caucasian and was on the streets having exactly the same conversation with his wife — nobody would have even noticed,” he said."

No one would have noticed because white men don't generally go around beating the hell out of their wives. The crime most likely would never have happened for anyone to notice had she been married a white man. Guess we are supposed to chalk it up to one more "Black thing we just don't understand", more "funky facts of life".

James Kabala said...

Worth knowing:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6599191&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Anonymous said...

I have been married for 46 years and not once has my husband EVER put his hands on me Mr. Bryant. Nor I on him or our children. You might think this is normal behavior but it isn't, nor should it be considered okay. You tried to choke her and some nice citizens tried to save her. Your wife is a fool. She even looks pitiful..and old. By the way, you shouldn't be leaving your son in the car alone.