Features
Chris Brown Inspires Teen Violence PSA
The online PSA by DoSomething.org includes a young man beating up a young woman in a car while a narrator reads from the actual LAPD affidavit Rihanna submitted describing the attack. The clip notes it is based on “actual detective notes … but it happens every day.”
The video reports that one in three teens is abused in a relationship. Dosomething.org is giving away bracelets, one blue and two black per person, to raise awareness about the issue.
Earlier this month Brown, 19, was charged with two felonies – assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and making criminal threats – with the R&B singer’s arraignment scheduled for April 6.
Hopefully teens watch the PSA – and take it to heart, because a recent survey on dating violence has results that are downright disturbing. The Boston Public Health Commission surveyed 200 Boston youths age 12 to 19 and found that almost half of the participants said Rihanna was to blame for the attack.
The survey found 51 percent of the teens thought Brown was responsible for the incident, 46 percent though Rihanna was responsible for the incident and 52 percent believed that both singers were to blame for the incident.
Other results included that 52 percent believe the media was treating Brown unfairly and that a significant number of participants said Rihanna was destroying Brown’s career. A press release for the Boston Public Health Commission also noted that 44 percent of participants said fighting was a normal part of a relationship and that “females were no less likely than males to come to Rihanna’s defense.”
While it’s clear our nation’s youth need to be educated about domestic abuse and what’s not OK in a relationship, what isn’t so certain are various reports about what’s happening in Brown’s career.
Hip hop blog www.wooha.com previously reported that Sony Screen Gems, the studio releasing Brown’s new movie “Bone Deep,” is cutting the artist out of marketing materials such as the movie poster, trailer and TV ads.
T.I. told RapRadar.com Brown was not being cut from the promotion of the movie, which has now been titled “Takers.”
“Nah man, that can’t be further from the truth,” T.I. told RapRadar.com. “There’s no validity to that statement. I’m [an executive producer] on the movie and I ain’t put forth no sort of order or request, man.”
And what about the duet Brown and Rihanna were supposedly recording together after reconciling as a couple? After E! News, the Los Angeles Times and CNN.com wrote that the couple was working on the song, E! News reported March 13 that a publicist for producer Polow de Don said, “The reports are inaccurate, the duet was recording long before the incident.”
And one more piece of Brown/Rihanna news – Star magazine is reporting the couple has sex tapes which Rihanna is worried about Brown leaking to the public. Hmmm. Thanks trashy tabloid for that juicy piece of information! What’s next, Rihanna is pregnant with octuplets? If for some reason there really are sex tapes, I think gossip blog Gawker summed it up with its headline – “The Rihanna Sex Tape No One Wants To See.”
If Brown is convicted of the felony charges, his sentence could range from probation to four years and eight months in state prison. He is currently free on $50,000 bail.
Check out the Dosomething.org Web site here.
Read the survey results by the Boston Public Health Commission here.
Read the RapRadar.com article here.
Read the E! Online article here.
Read the Star piece here.