Sep 03 2009
Chris Brown Speaks Out on Rihanna
Embedded video from CNN Video
Chris Brown told Larry King he doesn’t remember getting violent with her and is still shocked the incident happened. The interview with Larry will air on Wednesday. Chris said:
"When I look at it now, it’s just like, wow, like, I can’t, I can’t believe that, that actually happened."
Though a judge has ordered Brown to stay 100 yards away from her for the next five years Brown, 20, tells King that he is still in love with Rihanna, 21. He said it’s been "difficult" not being able to see her. (Asked about her dating other men," Brown said, "I definitely would be affected by it, but, at the end of the day, I mean, we’re not together, so, if she’s happy, I’m cool." He added, "We’ll always be friends."
Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault on June 22 in a deal that helped him avoid up to five years in jail. On August 25, he was formally sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community labor service.
Brown told King that "everything comes with consequences. They want me to pick up trash remove graffiti. I’m a hard worker. It’s something I’m willing to do."
Along with his mother Joyce Hawkins, Brown told King how he grew up in an abusive home. Hawkins said her husband beat her, and Brown said he knew it:
"I used to be scared to go to bed."
But he said he is not blaming his past for the attack on Rihanna.
"Nobody taught us how to love one another. Nobody taught us a book on how to, how to control our emotions or our anger," he said. "I wish I could have changed that night."
"I just need to prove to people I can be a role model," Brown later said. "That’s not who I am as a person, and that’s not who I promise I want to be."
"I made a mistake," he continued, "and I, and it was just something I have to live up and own."
The greatest tragedy of all is that Rihanna is not being held responsible for her actions that night. Rihanna did a lot of things to provoke Chris that night, including hitting him first. As long as women are allowed to be violent with men with no consequences, men will continue to be victimized and abused by women, and then a court system that denies men the right to defend themselves, and instead holds the man responsible for the woman’s violence, and his response to it.
Rihanna has a problem with violence, and controlling her emotions. Rihanna should have received the same sentence as Brown. America has a long way to go before women and men are equal.
In my opinion, both Brown and Rihanna are equally to blame for what happened that night, and they should have faced the same legal consequences. They were both violent with each other, except Brown’s wounds are less physical, and more emotional, and emotional pain is far worse than physical pain, but that’s another topic altogether.