Trigger warning: This article mentions sexual assault and violence against women.
What were people thinking?
Over the weekend, Chris Brown played two concerts in Dublin’s 3Arena – sorry, two sold-out concerts.
This means there were 26,000 people in Ireland who went out of their way to buy tickets to see this man.
While watching the TikToks and Instagram posts from the concert, there was only one thought that entered my mind – do these people just not know or is it that they simply don’t care?
I shouldn’t have to remind people of this but it seems I have to do it anyway. In 2009, Rihanna was assaulted by Brown.
The night before the Grammys, Rihanna discovered Brown had been unfaithful during their relationship. The two were in a Lamborghini and began fighting over his cheating. That’s when Brown decided to hit his then-girlfriend.
In his own words, Brown said: “Like I remember she tried to kick me, just like her beating sh*t, but then I really hit her. With a closed fist, like I punched her, and it busted her lip, and when I saw it I was in shock, I was ‘fu*k, why did I hit her like that? So from there she’s…spitting blood in my face, it raised me even more. It’s a real fight in the car, and we driving in the street.”
If you are old enough to remember this incident, you’ll never be able to wipe the image of the damage done to Rihanna’s face from your mind. It was plastered on every newspaper and magazine, as well as doing the rounds online, which was relatively new at this point.
After not only hitting Rihanna but also biting her, Brown was sentenced to five years probation, one year of domestic violence counselling and six months of community service.
This is not the only incident that Brown has been involved in when it comes to domestic violence – or violence in general.
In 2011, he stormed off the set of a Robin Roberts interview and smashed a window after he was asked about the Rihanna incident.
In 2012, he stole a woman’s phone after she took a picture of him and the following year he shoved a woman to the ground of a night club, leaving her with torn ligaments in her knee.
Brown then had a third-degree assault report filed against him by a woman who claimed she was forcibly ejected from his bus after she refused to give up her mobile phone in 2015.
He then avoided charges in 2016 after a woman accused him of punching her in the face and taking her phone in a Las Vegas night club and later that year a female tour manager claimed he threatened to physically attack her.
In 2017, his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran was granted a five-year restraining order against him after she shared threatening texts and voicemail messages from the singer.
The following year he was arrested in LA following a standoff at his home when a woman accused Brown of threatening her with a gun.
In 2019, Brown was taken into custody in Paris when he and two others were accused of aggravated rape. In the same year, he said that the lead singer of CHVRCHES was “the type of people I wish walked in front of a speeding bus”.
Last year, Brown was handed a 20 million dollar lawsuit accusing him of drugging and raping a woman on a yacht in Florida. According to Page Six, the lawsuit claims the assault happened while Brown and the woman were at a party in December 2020.
To say that Chris Brown is controversial is an understatement. Brown has made it known he is a dangerous person, not to mention a convicted abuser.
There is simply no excuse for paying money to see this man live. He is getting the attention that should have stopped the second he put his hands on Rihanna.
I say all this as someone who was once a massive fan. The second that news broke in 2009, 11-year-old me immediately took down the posters I had of him and got rid of my albums. Even at 11 years of age, I knew the seriousness of supporting someone like that. The people at the concerts this weekend were much older – and should have been much wiser.
Anyway, I’m going to watch Rihanna’s Superbowl performance again rather than give him any more attention.
Related links:
- Chris Brown is being sued $20m for alleged sexual assault
- Chris Brown accused of hitting a woman in his home
- We need to stop using mental health as an excuse for Kanye’s actions
