Why do we honour a violent thug? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: newstatesman.com
December 5, 2005 Author: Johann Hari


George Best should not have died in hospital. He should have died in prison. The "football legend" first beat his wife Alex Best on her 25th birthday, when he punched her to the floor and kicked her six times in the chest and face. She ran to the police, but was persuaded by Best's friends not to press charges. Like many battered wives, she said: "I know he loves me. He has an illness. He's an alcoholic. He can't control it." This was just the kick-off for a long campaign of domestic violence - the equivalent of Man United playing Grimsby Town.

The beatings continued, with Alex periodically running away and being lulled back. He gave her a broken lip and swollen face on Christmas Day 2003. "So what if she's in hospital? It's the best place for her," he snapped at the press the next day. When she fled to her family, he would spew abuse at her via reporters.

"She was just a waitress on a plane when I met her. She had nothing, she was nothing, before me," he told one. In a bizarre act of projection, he started to accuse her of having a secret drink problem. He even blamed her for his alcoholic impotence, saying he "couldn't perform his duties" with her after she "tormented him".

When Paul Gascoigne admitted to having assaulted his wife, Sheryl, "Bestie" leapt to his defence. Best's self-pitying bleating showed he had no understanding that a terrified woman would not respond to his sexual advances. "Alex didn't want me in bed, that was the worst thing," he told an interviewer. "Night after night, I would go to bed, she would always be three hours behind me . . . We had a cleaner, for goodness sake, but she'd be cleaning into the small hours. She couldn't bear me to touch her," he said, mystified.

So why does Britain honour the memory of a violent, vicious thug? Would we do the same for, say, a paedophile? Just a few days after it was revealed that 30 per cent of Brits believe rape victims are partly or wholly responsible for being attacked, it seems kicking your wife is still a second-rate crime, easily trumped by a talent for kicking a ball.

All through his life, other people normalised Best's beatings. His cleaner said Alex "humiliated him" and that Best "bought her a necklace but got nothing in return". One columnist said Alex had "not done badly" out of him, and claimed Best and Gazza's only flaw was that "they are suckers for romance".

Even as he is lowered into the ground, the fawning obituarists - who declare "his drinking never harmed anybody but himself" and praise his "greatness" - are making domestic violence seem a trifling flaw in an otherwise great man.

[biko]

since football is like the main religion, a famous player like george best kicking his wife to the ground is just a minore detail not worth mentioning!

you might however get arrested and questioned for bad mouthing a legend.

[San_dheer]

Biko, you are one crazy idiot. How can you say beating up his wife is a minor detail?

Danyeeer, did you honour him? Cause, I didn't. And I'm not a Man United supporter so I was not subjected to the 1 min silence.

[biko]

try to read it again slowly this time; take your time walaal and see if you get what i mean.

[Xyaad]

Not to mention Gazza whos also idolised and a self confessed wife beater.

Its just a part of british culture blame the booze!

[Demolisher]

there are women in somalia who will divorce their husband if he does not beat the sh*t out of them at least once in a month. to them, he is not man enough him. george best would fit best with these somalis.

off topic, some female activities are nuts....

[San_dheer]

Demolisher, you are a lunatic and should be locked up. Where did you hear such nonsense?

muktaar get lost, disgusting prik.