Perspective on Brittney Griner
While I feel badly for Brittney Griner being sentenced to prison in Russia for nine years, can we at least acknowledge she is there not just for supposed diplomatic reasons. She actually broke their laws. With her drug possession, she broke federal laws here too in transport of drugs abroad. Had she been arrested in this country, she’d have broken our laws. But her Demi-celebrity status probably made her think she could get away with it. She undoubtedly could in this country, but not in Russia. While I feel badly for her, the attention to her case has as much with the media trying to normalize the WNBA as something legitimate. The whole of the mainstream sports press is trying to advance the WNBA and force it down our throats. Griner is a part of that story. Plenty of other Americans get arrested for having drugs in countries they should not and the press does not care. The coverage of Griener is overblown. She broke the law in a foreign country that has harsh penalties and now faces the consequences. Our sympathy for her should not distract from that fact. Take a listen.
And it is unreasonable to put us and many other countries at risk by “trading” the “Merchant of Death” for her return. Reap what you sow.
You nailed it, Erick. Griner's fanboys and fangirls seem to assume that we'll move heaven and earth to get her released. We shouldn't, especially if it means cutting loose a true monster of a man in Viktor Bout. Rule #1 for overseas travel, from someone who did it 4 times in 20 years' military service: Other nations are generally nowhere near as gentle in their law enforcement than is the U.S., and punishments are usually much more severe, and the prisons much worse, than their American counterparts. Maybe this will wake some people up, but probably not, as most Americans think everywhere else is Just Like Here.