Kareem Jackson's Dominican Republic Trip & Richard Justice's Ignorance

In case you’ve been under a rock lately, the "big" Houston Texans news story is that second-year cornerback Kareem Jackson tweeted that he was witnessing a Dominican Republic cockfight. As an aside, the D.R. isn’t the only country in the world that has legal cockfights, but I digress. I realize that the esteemed Mr. McCown has commented on it, but something has sparked me to do the same.

Over the past few hours, the story has elicited reactions from those who understand the situation (cockfights are legal, a part of the cultural fabric of many Latin America countries and Jackson didn't raise the chickens, kill the chickens, or bet on the chickens) and those who like to react in a knee-jerk manner. Speaking of jerks reacting, let’s get Richard Justice’s uninformed opinion, but you’ll need Jackson’s now-deleted Tweets to understand the context.

"My first time ever seeing chicken fight till the death it was crazy...

 

Look at all these people that be at these chicken fights, you would think it’s a college football game.''

The floor is all yours Richie...after the jump.

"He didn't really say that, did he? If you're going to tell me cockfighting is legal in the Dominican Republic, save your breath. That's hardly the point. Making it legal doesn't make it right. And it doesn't make it entertaining. But it does make Kareem Jackson look plenty dumb.

Kareem isn't all the way down the Mike Vick road yet. As far as we know, he's not buying and killing chickens himself. He's just enjoying the sight of chickens slicing each other up.

 

Seriously, how sick do you have to be to think of animals killing other animals as entertainment?"

Yup, Richard…those tweets paint the picture of a man who seems mighty entertained by a cockfight. There’s no harm in completely inferring that from those Tweets and judging another country through your own Westernized sense of the world. Forget that Jackson’s a young man in his early 20s who seems to be experiencing cultures far from his own.

I’m not condoning the act of cockfighting, but the fact that Justice can present a complete misinterpreting to his audience really ticks me off. It’s a gross misuse of media power, shows that Justice feels his audience is dumb enough to pull one over on, and reeks of sensationalism to attract hits – typically the sign of a has-been or never-been journalist. Justice is free to express his opinion, but he shouldn't be free to put words in Jackson's mouth or paint him out to be something he isn't. 

There’s your daily sign that Richard Justice doesn’t deserve the job he has. Check out Battle Red Blog for reactions from Houston fans or Jerome Solomon’s rational take on Jackson’s vacation.