Austin Watson arrested for domestic violence

[PunkRockLocke]

Culturally we need a better method of handing alleged crimes, the court of public opinion is clown world stuff where what happened, whats just and what measures should be taken are lost in the noise.

Very well said.

It's pretty ridiculous seeing all these opinions, stated as fact. Everyone online turns into a morality crusader AND an attorney all at once - while not even making their comments under their identity.

These discussions shouldn't take place until a person accused of something illegal is either convicted or cleared.

 

[rt]

Let's see if the NHL suspends Watson indefinitely here like they did with Slava Voynov.

I don't believe there was an injury in this case, thankfully. The Voynov details were pretty horrific. As troubling as this one is, it's benign by comparison (in terms of worst case scenario).

 

[rt]

Very well said.

It's pretty ridiculous seeing all these opinions, stated as fact. Everyone online turns into a morality crusader AND an attorney all at once - while not even making their comments under their identity.

These discussions shouldn't take place until a person accused of something illegal is either convicted or cleared.

Why does that matter? It seems pretty inconsequential to me.

 

[dechire]

The number of people in here saying that shoving your partner is somehow acceptable... what the f*** is wrong with you

 

[Amorgus]

Everything you said was pure conjecture that (surprise) exonerates Watson. The only facts we know is that Watson was pushing his girlfriend, that she was covering her face and backing away from him and that his girlfriend had red marks on her chest. There are a million maybes we could speculate on but that's pretty pointless because none of us were there - but I guess it's easier to dream up scenarios where someone backing away and covering their face is an aggressor in an assault.

Everything in this whole thread is goddamned conjecture! I honestly don't care who's guilty and I never even heard of this guy. I don't like seeing snap judgments and lynch mobs in either direction because that's what's ruining the entire goddamned world right now. If he's lying out his ass and they can prove it then hang 'em high. If they can't prove it either way, then drop it. Simple as that. Is that fair enough for you?

 

[LeafsLegendAkiBerg]

I was trying to find a polite way to say the media is very broken. Sports media is a crude bully civil rights angle to it, I'm of the opinion that the Devante Smith Pelly thing was blown out of proportion, metoo/times up is a witch hunt, the celebrating of taking Russia's flag away in the Olympics wasn't really about steroid abuse.

So let's not pretend that the politically charge undertones don't run both ways. Sort of the point I was making, both sides tend to discuss everything but the what happen, whats best and how should this be handled.

I know exactly what you were saying and I never suggested that the other side wasn't also political. I just think it's odd that no one is flooding other topics about crimes with "innocent until proven guilty," "the court of public opinion" and all the other deflections/defenses that I see in these kind of threads. I don't really care if you think civil rights is bullying or that targeting guys like Spacey and Weinstein is a witch hunt, all that tells me is that you're someone who isn't worth talking to.

 

[saintunspecified]

I was trying to find a polite way to say the media is very broken. Sports media is a crude bully civil rights angle to it, I'm of the opinion that the Devante Smith Pelly thing was blown out of proportion, metoo/times up is a witch hunt, the celebrating of taking Russia's flag away in the Olympics wasn't really about steroid abuse.

So let's not pretend that the politically charge undertones don't run both ways. Sort of the point I was making, both sides tend to discuss everything but the what happen, whats best and how should this be handled.

this is what you call fragility.

 

[BonMorrison]

Don't worry everyone, once all the facts come in, I'm sure the totally fair, non-bias court systems will handle it accordingly.

 

[Whileee]

Yes. It's always better to not throw innocent people in jail.

Texas judge cleared of assault charge, says video proves he didn't shove girlfriend out moving car

Imagine if he didn't have a camera.

So rare that it was newsworthy. How many times have the true reports of women who have been assaulted gone unheeded? Too many, and for too long.

 

[EdJovanovski]

The thing is, people usually don't make up allegations like this. So it's always bizarre to me when people rush to defend the player. You see it in sex assault cases where something like 10% or less of them are false allegations but people are always like oh the victim might be lying, etc.

And making statements like that is why women are always very leery of even coming out when they get hit/assaulted. Because they know there will be a subset of people who will rush to call them liars. And it's totally ****ed up and lets a lot of guys get away with crimes because women are afraid to report them not knowing if it will matter.

That statistic is for cases that actually go the distance in court and are proven false. It doesn’t include cases that are dropped or just don’t have enough evidence to be proven false (which the majority of false accusations would fall under). Or allegations made socially (telling other people, posting on social media instead of going to police). The percentage is obviously much higher than that, regardless of what that percentage is we must preserve the presumption of innocence which is literally the backbone behind western civilization

 

[LeafsLegendAkiBerg]

Everything in this whole thread is goddamned conjecture! I honestly don't care who's guilty and I never even heard of this guy. I don't like seeing snap judgments and lynch mobs in either direction because that's what's ruining the entire goddamned world right now. If he's lying out his ass and they can prove it then hang 'em high. If they can't prove it either way, then drop it. Simple as that. Is that fair enough for you?

If he's lying about what? The officer spoke to a witness who observed the crime he charged Watson with. Watson admitted to the crime he was charged with. The officer observed an injury on his girlfriend which is in the report. Watson said that his girlfriend was too drunk to attend a wedding, which doesn't even need to be disputed because it's not a justification for an assault. All the wild speculation you came up with was oddly missing from the police report. His girlfriend may have a drinking problem. This might be a fairly minor altercation and not an example of a pattern of abuse. Who knows, but I find it highly unlikely that the witness and officer conspired against him when the reality is that he was likely touching someone who didn't want to be touched.

 

[saintunspecified]

Everything in this whole thread is goddamned conjecture! I honestly don't care who's guilty and I never even heard of this guy. I don't like seeing snap judgments and lynch mobs in either direction because that's what's ruining the entire goddamned world right now. If he's lying out his ass and they can prove it then hang 'em high. If they can't prove it either way, then drop it. Simple as that. Is that fair enough for you?

oh god. another person who blames the behavior of the people who are actually ruining the world on the sometimes imperfect behavior of people who want social change. i've had it with you people.

 

[BigFatCat999]

I've taken too many law courses and it's like ugh. Question becomes, did he violate a morals clause?

 

[Pancakes]

That statistic is for cases that actually go the distance in court and are proven false. It doesn’t include cases that are dropped or just don’t have enough evidence to be proven false (which the majority of false accusations would fall under). Or allegations made socially (telling other people, posting on social media instead of going to police). The percentage is obviously much higher than that, regardless of what that percentage is we must preserve the presumption of innocence which is literally the backbone behind western civilization

There's a difference though between innocent until proven guilty and rushing to defend someone without having any idea of whether or not they're innocent or guilty.

See what I'm getting at here? People rush to defend these athletes a lot because they don't want the allegations to be true.

Your first instinct when you see a story like this should not be to defend the person who allegedly did the crime.

 

[LeafsLegendAkiBerg]

That statistic is for cases that actually go the distance in court and are proven false. It doesn’t include cases that are dropped or just don’t have enough evidence to be proven false (which the majority of false accusations would fall under). Or allegations made socially (telling other people, posting on social media instead of going to police). The percentage is obviously much higher than that, regardless of what that percentage is we must preserve the presumption of innocence which is literally the backbone behind western civilization

Domestic/sexual violence is very hard to prove in general. I'm not sure how you could take that information and conclude that the "percentage is obviously much higher than that." There's some seriously warped logic going on here. Even if the majority of false allegations would fall under the legal category of unfounded it doesn't logically follow that all unfounded allegations are false. Your second point is complete nonsense. Just because someone doesn't go to the police doesn't mean that their allegations are false. There are reasons people avoid the police that are perfectly legitimate and it doesn't follow that crimes don't happen to them because they didn't report a crime.

 

[kyle n00bas]

Has the #FACTS brigade barged in yet?

Sorry if you're OFFENDED by logic but it's really a 50/50 coin flip as to whether the woman is a normal person reporting something that actually happened to her or secretly part of a misandrist conspiracy, and even if there's a 4K video of the incident, for all we know she probably did something before the camera started rolling to deserve it anyway #TriggerWarning #XtremeLogic #RationalSkeptic #NotAllMen

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Personally, unless he gets convicted, what is even the point of reporting this? I find the whole reporting of crimes before a conviction stupid.

 

[EdJovanovski]

There's a difference though between innocent until proven guilty and rushing to defend someone without having any idea of whether or not they're innocent or guilty.

See what I'm getting at here? People rush to defend these athletes a lot because they don't want the allegations to be true.

Your first instinct when you see a story like this should not be to defend the person who allegedly did the crime.

Yea and there are also the people who are quick to burn them at the stake, but I think people should be able to sympathize with the alleged victim without attacking the alleged perpetrator

 

[Pancakes]

Yea and there are also the people who are quick to burn them at the stake, but I think people should be able to sympathize with the alleged victim without attacking the alleged perpetrator

That's fine to do. Like saying I hope the allegations aren't true and I'll wait and see how it plays out is fine, but saying something like oh she's probably lying is not ok.

But too often in these situations people are too quick to jump to conclusions. And too often that conclusion is that the alleged victim is not actually a victim, and adopting that attitude without having the facts is what leads to crimes like this going under reported, and it leads to victims being afraid to speak up. Because it's very hard to report abuse as it is, and doubly so when you know there's going to be a few people who are quick to condemn you as a liar.

 

[Classicnamesup]

Personally, unless he gets convicted, what is even the point of reporting this? I find the whole reporting of crimes before a conviction stupid.

I'm pretty interested in this news. And my interest is clicks for the media so that's why.

I was also very interested in Hoffman, Voynov, ROR, Kane, etc. Just enjoy me some off ice drama.

No going to pass much judgment here until we get some more info.

 

[ViktorBaeArvidsson]

Well great...

 

[Amorgus]

There's a difference though between innocent until proven guilty and rushing to defend someone without having any idea of whether or not they're innocent or guilty.

See what I'm getting at here? People rush to defend these athletes a lot because they don't want the allegations to be true.

Your first instinct when you see a story like this should not be to defend the person who allegedly did the crime.

I admit that even though I didn't knowingly intend to do so for personal gain, only to make sure all sides were accounted for , I screwed up and focused on the statement from the player over the other details because I've seen mean drunks of both sexes and being trapped in a car with one could be like sitting next to a Tasmanian Devil. Trust me folks I'm not some red pill jackass even though I probably look like one from this thread. That's the magic of internet posting.

I apologize to getting bent out of shape with @LeafsLegendAkiBerg. He's right that the guy's statement of cause isn't proper evidence compared to what the officer reported.

 

[Drake744]

I'm not saying that being drunk makes it ok, or that it's OK in any case. What i'm kinda trying to say that there's usually more than one side to these things.

I think his girlfriend was the only drunk one here because no other passengers in the car are mentioned and with the assumption that he was driving the vehicle, there's been no story of him being arrested for, or even suspected of, DUI. Not saying he's not at fault, but she could've done something over the line while being so drunk they apparently couldn't go to a wedding that they were supposed to.

 

[LeafsLegendAkiBerg]

I admit that even though I didn't knowingly intend to do so for personal gain, only to make sure all sides were accounted for , I screwed up and focused on the statement from the player over the other details because I've seen mean drunks of both sexes and being trapped in a car with one could be like sitting next to a Tasmanian Devil. Trust me folks I'm not some red pill jackass even though I probably look like one from this thread. That's the magic of internet posting.

I apologize to getting bent out of shape with @LeafsLegendAkiBerg. He's right that the guy's statement of cause isn't proper evidence compared to what the officer reported.

Don't worry about it. These topics are complicated and difficult to discuss and I appreciate the effort to distance yourself from red pill jackasses . I've dealt with abusive alcoholics in my life and I know how shitty that can be, but if someone is in a defensive position and a person is putting their hands on them, they are wrong in that moment in my opinion... and of course, I know nothing about Watson or his girlfriend's relationship to alcohol.

 

[Amorgus]

Don't worry about it. These topics are complicated and difficult to discuss and I appreciate the effort to distance yourself from red pill jackasses . I've dealt with abusive alcoholics in my life and I know how ****ty that can be, but if someone is in a defensive position and a person is putting their hands on them, they are wrong in that moment in my opinion... and of course, I know nothing about Watson or his girlfriend's relationship to alcohol.

Glad we're able to reconcile here. I was trying to be "objective" and humorous at the same time in the worst possible thread!

For real though my friend's future wife got so violent one night her husband had to restrain her with a SKIP maneuver and she was screaming he was beating her. I know if I was trapped in a car with her I'd be hospitalized, so that popped in my head for this situation. She's obviously a worst-case scenario though. Freaking country girls...