Mrs Barista wrote: To summarise:
You've called for condemnation of Kelly, quite a lot, on here over the last 24 hours and cited bigoted comments as a worse thing than Class A drugs. Fair enough. It seems odd therefore that you were far less discomforted by Hull KR signing Justin Carney due to his sacking for, er, bigoted comments. And also a bit shoulder shruggy about acknowledged instances casual misogyny. My beef I guess is that you're trying to disguise the same basic tribal hypocrisy we are all guilty of with a veneer of moral impartiality, which doesn't wash. Back to the Class A drugs thing for a moment as an aside; I assume you meant use of, rather than dealing in, as something to take relatively lightly?
I was surprised at the initial reaction. I thought there’d be a wider range, based on previous experience. While, as has been pointed out a few times, this isn’t the worst thing ever, it still belongs somewhere on the spectrum of bad things.
Carney served an 8 match ban for racially abusing an opponent, which seems broadly proportionate for such a serious offence. Salford released him a couple of weeks later and he served out the rest of the ban with Rovers. He behaved badly, was punished and then resumed his career.
From what we’ve seen, it looks to me that Kelly has behaved badly, should probably be punished and can then get on with things. Like anybody, he deserves a chance to explain himself to his employer. In any case, the circumstances are different to Carney’s situation and any punishment should reflect that. As far as i’m aware, sexist abuse is not covered by the same legislation as racist abuse, so there’s an arguable case for it being viewed less seriously, and also it didn’t happen in a game so the responsibility falls to the club rather than the RFL. Without significant mitigation, to me a proportionate response would be something like a fine, a warning, an apology and, possibly, get him to attend a relevant course - alcohol awareness, anger management or similar. I disagree with those who believe that a quiet word from Radford would, by itself, be sufficient or send the right signal and those who think that it’s not even really worthy of attention. That some are offering joking validation is somewhat dismaying. I know ribaldry is part of our tradition, and there’s undoubtedly a comedic element to his behaviour - but in a laugh at rather than laugh with way.
Anyway, I shall say no more about it here. I even promise.
On the drug dealer thing, obviously with everything that comes with it in current circumstances it is both very serious and different to use, especially given the involvement of organised crime groups. However, if the trade was regulated, rather than illegal, like that for some other potentially harmful things, such as alcohol, tobacco, and (more relevantly to the US) firearms, i’d regard the trade as somewhere in amongst those. One for the Sin Bin, innit? I don’t think UK gun laws should be relaxed, btw.
Mrs Barista wrote:And also a bit shoulder shruggy about acknowledged instances casual misogyny.
I’m sorry if that is how you feel. Thank you though for assuaging my guilt, and sparing me any further self-flaggelation. It’s a weight off.
Have a nice evening.