A domestic violence victim says the NFL should have acted sooner

A victim of domestic violence criticized the National Football League, NFL, for indefinitely suspending Ravens player Ray Rice months after he admitted he knocked his wife conscious.

TMZ released a video Monday of Rice punching his then-fiance, Janay Palmer, in a hotel elevator. She hit a railing as she fell to the floor. It’s the final piece of a series of videos that have come out about the incident with Rice and Palmer.

Initially, video was leaked of Rice and Palmer entering the elevator. Then, Rice is seen dragging an unconscious Palmer out of the elevator. He was suspended for two games. He also apologized for his actions that night.

“What happened that night was something that never should have happened. And like I said, I have to pay for that for the rest of my life because my daughter is very intelligent and she is going to want to know what happened. She is going to press Google and how fast this message is going to go worldwide, that’s how fast my daughter is going to be able to pick up the phone and Google her father’s name. The first thing that is going to come up is not how many touchdowns I scored, it’s going to come up about what happened,” said Rice previously.

The Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely within hours of the video coming out Monday.

Tara Loo said this should have happened sooner.

“You hear about different offenses that NFL players have and they are benched for a much longer period of time and I think it down plays domestic violence,” said Loo.

Loo is a survivor of domestic violence. She almost died at the hands of her then-boyfriend. She told him she wanted to end things. That night, he strangled her to unconsciousness three times. He dragged her outside and left her in the cold. He thought she was dead.

“I can understand how scary it is and how difficult it is to leave,” said Loo. “I came from a loving family, I knew that it was wrong.”

Her ex-boyfriend is currently serving a 16-year sentence for the violence he inflicted on Loo.

Loo said Rice deserves a harsher punishment.

I Don’t think its enough consequences honestly.