{"id":130,"date":"2016-10-21T14:53:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.council.nyc\/press\/?p=130"},"modified":"2016-10-21T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:53:09","slug":"new-york-city-council-speaker-melissa-mark-viverito-to-new-york-giants-time-to-take-a-stand-against-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/2016\/10\/21\/130\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to New York Giants: Time To Take a Stand Against Domestic Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Letter to Giants, Speaker Urges Team to Join #NotAFan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

New York<\/strong> \u2013New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, in a letter to the New York Giants slammed, the team for their \u201cbizarrely light punishment\u201d of Josh Brown and urged the team to participate in #NotAFan –\u00a0 a campaign with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) \u00a0to address domestic violence in professional sports. Brown disclosed his history of abuse to the Giants ownership. The campaign features sports figures from the New York teams: The Yankees (Joe Girardi), Mets (Jeurys Familia), Knicks (John Starks), Liberty (Kiah Stokes), Rangers (Rod Gilbert), and Cosmos (Lucky Mkosana and Giovanni Savarese) in a series of video<\/a> PSAs and photography portraits. The Giants declined to participate in the campaign.<\/p>\n

As the letter says: <\/strong>\u201cIn September, I publicly expressed my disappointment over the National Football League\u2019s (NFL) decision to suspend your kicker, Josh Brown, for only one game, in response to a previous arrest for domestic violence.\u00a0 This bizarrely light punishment undercut the NFL\u2019s own recommended six-game suspension for domestic violence\u2026. Although the Knicks, Liberty, Mets, Yankees, Cosmos, and Rangers all participated in #NotAFan, the Giants (and Jets) declined, making the NFL a notable exception to an otherwise outstanding campaign. Law enforcement is now investigating Brown for extended emotional and physical violence against his ex-wife, Molly Brown, who has provided disturbing proof of his conduct.\u00a0 Police documents released reveal that he admitted to abusing his wife.\u00a0 In an email, Brown also\u00a0acknowledged that he \u201cobjectified women and never really worried about the pain and hurt I caused them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The full text of the letter is below<\/em><\/p>\n

To the New York Giants:<\/p>\n

In September, I publicly expressed my disappointment over the National Football League\u2019s (NFL) decision to suspend your kicker, Josh Brown, for only one game, in response to a previous arrest for domestic violence.\u00a0 This bizarrely light punishment undercut the NFL\u2019s own recommended six-game suspension for domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, my office reached out to your team to participate in the #NotAFan campaign for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, in partnership with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.<\/p>\n

When an athlete is involved in a domestic violence incident, sports\u00a0fans\u00a0are often caught in the middle and forced to reconcile their allegiance to\u00a0a\u00a0team and their feelings about\u00a0domestic violence with little direction.\u00a0 This can cause conflict, confusion, and misunderstanding.\u00a0 #NotAFan\u00a0provides sports\u00a0fans\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0medium where they can openly support their team while maintaining and communicating that domestic violence is unacceptable, rather than picking\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Knicks, Liberty, Mets, Yankees, Cosmos, and Rangers all participated in #NotAFan, the Giants (and Jets) declined, making the NFL a notable exception to an otherwise outstanding campaign.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement is now investigating Brown for extended emotional and physical violence against his ex-wife, Molly Brown, who has provided disturbing proof of his conduct.\u00a0 Police documents released reveal that he admitted to abusing his wife.\u00a0 In an email, Brown also\u00a0acknowledged that he \u201cobjectified women and never really worried about the pain and hurt I caused them.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am writing to invite you to meet with me and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence to discuss what the Giants and the NFL can do to address this ongoing and disturbing issue, and to show leadership by joining the #NotAFan campaign.<\/p>\n

It is unacceptable to continue to defend Brown.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Melissa Mark-Viverito<\/p>\n

Speaker, New York City Council<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Letter to Giants, Speaker Urges Team to Join #NotAFan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

New York<\/strong> \u2013New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, in a letter to the New York Giants slammed, the team for their \u201cbizarrely light punishment\u201d of Josh Brown and urged the team to participate in #NotAFan –\u00a0 a campaign with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) \u00a0to address domestic violence in professional sports.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}