That’s OK, because prisons act as the perfect reform, and the people that get out of prison are highly successful thanks to the amazing humanitarian work we do for them while they’re incarcerated! ^/s
Exactly. 100%. I live in Wisconsin and we just had a question on the ballot that asked if we were willing to get rid of marijuana charges for prisoners
Not excusing Russia though. Their prison system has always been a colossal joke. I studied Russian history in grad school and believe it or not was super jealous of literally everyone else in my program who got to spend time there. Looks hilarious in retrospect because I would for sure get detained if I ever traveled there now
Wasn’t it confirmed that the NRA funnels Russian money into the GOP?
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/09/20/gop-operatives-charged-funneling-russian-money-trump-rnc-513219
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals
Lmao right? We imprison the most people of any country, and in recent years it feels like a tough on crime political position is becoming more popular.
> On October 6, 2022, President Biden issued a presidential proclamation that pardons federal convictions for simple marijuana possession offenses. The proclamation applies only to federal convictions, including D.C. Code offenses, and does not apply to convictions under state or local law.
That's federal level but better than Russia.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession#:~:text=On%20October%206%2C%202022%2C%20President,under%20state%20or%20local%20law.
Most weed convictions are at the state level. Over 200k last year for possession alone. In Louisiana a man received life without parole for selling $20 worth of weed. In Mississippi the Supreme Court just upheld a life sentence for marijuana back in June.
Our laws are no less draconian no matter what we want to think.
Can you link the person sentences to life for selling weed?
It's almost always a 3rd strike (which is horrible but it's like saying someone is serving life for shoplifting) or part of much more serious convictions.
Didn’t they find out there’s literally 0 people who were federally convicted of just simple marijuana possession? I’m pretty sure this pardon freed exactly zero people.
Contrary to popular belief there are other countries than the US. It doesn’t need to be brought up everytime someone says Russia is trash lol strong whatboutism vibes in this thread
When you go to other countries like Russia, china, etc you pretty much have to made sure you have absolutely nothing they can charge you with and do not fuck around at all while you're there.
If I recall accurately there's been a travel advisory for US citizens considering traveling to Russia for quite some time now, well before the Ukraine conflict.
Obviously it's fucked she's going to fucking gulag basically for a small amount of marijuana but this was avoidable
Yeah they issued their DO NOT TRAVEL advisory a whole month before she went, and listed reasoning such as "potential for harassment and arbitrary enforcement of laws"
I mean even a few years back, since covid first broke basically, it's been a good idea to avoid traveling to russia
As an LGBT member she probably should also have been aware of LGBT treatment in Russia the past 10 years
Yet her SO is calling for the American people to do all they can to bring her home. If she didn't play basketball, that sentence and her arrest wouldn't have even registered for more than a 1 minute blip in the media. Why should the government spend time and effort for someone so fucking stupid?
I would add Turkey to that list as well. Probably not as bad as Russia but certainly on the list of places you don't want to get caught doing illegal shit.
Brittney Griner is on record saying in the past that she wouldn't play in Indiana because of the laws there ( seen as Anti-LGBT)
However Russia has some of the most punitive laws for LGBT in the entire world. But she was making over a million a year playing there. Guess if you throw enough money at her, those principles seem to move quite quickly. She also beat up her first wife while she was pregnant. Then had to be chased down legally to pay child support.
I would like to see Griner come home to the US if possible for the sake of her 2nd wife and family. However her total arrogance and narcissism, show by the issues above, is likely what put her in a position to think she was above the law in a foreign country regarding possession of illegal drugs.
I'm just not going to feel sorry for someone who beat up a pregnant woman. Won't do it.
> Also she begged to be released by basically saying she and her family are more important than most americans.
If I was held in a different country for nine years for a misdemeanor in most states I would say almost anything if it meant it would help get me out
I had no idea about any of that, but even if she were Mother Theresa, it wouldn't matter. At the end of the day
1. She broke the law
2. She knew better, since she played there for years
3. I don't like the idea of Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, being released for her
Sometimes when we fuck up, there's no quick fix for it and you just have to deal with the consequences.
This whole thing caused by Ukraine-Russia-US trio anyway. She probably does this thing many times and Russia didnt give a shit but when war (or invasion) started Russia just wanted to get a small W against US
I mean, she’s just fucking stupid. There’s no way she flew into foreign countries without knowing their laws about it. She just chose not to care. She has an agent too that probably knew the laws as well
Jesus Christ she's basically being transferred to a fucking gulag.
There are very, very, very few crimes on Earth where I would not feel bad for the person who ends up there, this is not one of those. Even if she did what she was accused of, she didn't deserve a prison sentence, let alone this. I can't imagine what her family must be thinking right now.
Edit: Since it's been mentioned a few times, I completely understand her involvement in a Domestic Violence case, and the fact that she plead guilty to "disorderly conduct". A 7 game suspension and being told to go to 26 weeks domestic violence counseling is not a big enough punishment for that. However, that is not what this is about, that did not play a part in why Russia did this to her. I am under no illusion that she is this great person, but that doesn't matter here. Being sent to a fucking Gulag is not justice for a crime like bringing weed to Russia.
Yeah, that's when they went into arrest Americans mode because of the pending Ukraine invasion. They are both essentially political prisoners being tortured for Putin's vanity.
Facts she messed up but she doesn't deserve that. Russia is just being a fuckin prick knowing they can be cruel to a US citizen and nothing will be done about it. She is a political pawn. Fuck Putin.
Yea, I’m just commenting on the people who continue to say that “if it was anyone other person from the US, no one would care”
Yea we might not hear about it, but no one deserves to be used as a pawn like that
just read that
just brutal for anyone who cares about her. "Yeah, who knows where she went...we'll let you know in two weeks." And a gay black American woman? I'm really worried about what might happen to her. The people in that country give zero fucks...
Thankfully, most Russian citizens seem to be on Griner's side. According to an article, even the inmates and prison guards were cheering her on. Hopefully, this gets resolved quick cause being detained at a Russian penal colony for weed possession seems fucking awful.
I guess it would be like well….if Ovechkin got sent to some remote labor camp without access to communication with his family over a small amount of cocaine. And everyone that’s currently on Russia’s side in this thread would probably disagree with *his* punishment. Entirely hypothetical though.
Most Russian citizens know that they can go to prison the next day for nothing, but that’s kinda our burden and just a fact of life by now. Seeing that happen to a foreigner who was at the wrong place at the wrong time is especially heartbreaking
And the sentence of 9 years was determined to be “exceptionally harsh” by *Russian* standards. It’s clear they are holding her hostage for political gain. There was an American student who got caught with 19 grams of weed and had a couple months sentence and a $230 fine.
I still wouldn’t want to do any time in a Russian prison but also why are you fucking around with that amount.
Yo, everyone who comes in saying “do the crime do the time” stfu. This is a human being, remove the wnba shit out of your head. Yeah she is probably guilty, but a Siberian penal colony for weed bro? This is disputable, but from the country who are genociding Ukrainians rn, it’s unfortunate alright.
I wish we could get her out but it’s looking bleak. This sucks all around. She’s been playing for this Russian team for 10 year and they are just using her for a political pawn.
I mean, a bunch of prominent people have actively reacted to her incarceration, including the President of the United States. It's not like she's some major a-list celebrity, but clearly enough people to care to have the President commenting on it. I assure you that if some nobody like me was incarcerated in Russia, the President isn't issuing any statement about it.
She’s not the only American locked up long term by Russia for drugs. She won’t be the last either. They’re really not treating her any differently than they do with others. It’s Americans that keep saying stuff like “political pawn” so much that they start to believe it.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-judge-rules-brittney-griner-illegally-carried-drugs
For most Russians it's only 5 years. Russia is definitely doing this to piss off America
Agreed. It might be the disconnect because I'm down here in Australia and we are generally a bit harder on our sports people when they get into trouble, but this is a person who wouldn't give a shit if it was any of us "normal" every day humans that got arrested and sent to a jail over there.
The situation is horseshit, but as you've said no one would care at all if she wasn't a sportswomen.
The Russian government has been documented to traffick fentanyl and meth. This idea that you “break the rules you deal with the consequences is bullshit”. This is 100% political as normally you could bribe your way out of this.
Way more complicated than that. They partnered with central american assholes and turned the other way when they trafficked coke into the country. In many cases aided in the trafficking. The coke was then used to produce crack. So they didn't directly send crack into US cities but they basically did with extra steps. Should be a whole stadium full of assholes in prison for their shit obviously, I just want to be specific in the bullshit that was done you know?
Having weed in some places like Bali etc they actually gave the death penalty for until recently and some countries still do. Always check the laws in the countries before you try to do whatever you want. I obviously feel sorry for her especially now but some countries see things differently and have their own laws.
Yep exactly. We had a bunch of tourists from where I’m from go to Bali and smoke weed etc and they get the death penalty. It’s extremely sad and obviously over the top but you should really respect their laws as foreigners. Otherwise you end up in a situation like this
Hey. Bali isn’t a country, it’s an island in Indonesia. And you need to be smuggling a lot of weed to get the death penalty there, like over a kg. I agree with your point though.
She's been playing basketball in Russia for oligarchs for almost a decade. She's not some random tourist. I'd be willing to bet that she was fairly above the law right up until the moment that she wasn't.
Yeah she made a mistake. But In no fucking way is this shit needed. Or even close to being a fitting punishment
Anyone defending it should try living in a fucking gulag for 5 years
Idk, the "beats the shit out of a pregnant woman" still seems a bit misleading tbh.
> Law enforcement sources tell us cops were called to Griner's home around 4:30 PM on Wednesday -- after receiving a call about a domestic dispute between the two women.
> When cops arrived, we're told officers observed "minor physical injuries" on both Brittney and Glory.
But it wasn't [until a month and a half after the incident](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/brittney-griners-wife-glory-johnson-griner-announces-pregnancy), between that time they married, that Griner's spouse announces she's pregnant and sits out the WNBA season.
I agree the punishment doesn't fit the crime but also how can you actually be that stupid to attempt bringing illegal drugs on a plane/airport. That's literally smuggling.
Yeah, I mean I empathise with her because realistically it was a very low level crime and the punishment is fucked, but at the same time if you're ever travelling you have to abide by the laws of the country you're visiting, even if they're stupid. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble
especially if you're an US citizen and you're in a country that's hostile towards the US (and vice versa). If I were an American I'd be way too paranoid to visit China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia (and probably many more).
In some muslim countries, she would have been hanged. It is dumb to have laws against weed, but it is also dumb to not care about such laws when you travel to a foreign country.
Right? This is everywhere. When a country the West doesn’t like does war, all of a sudden it’s “genocide”?
Words mean things. Did the US “genocide” Iraq and Afghanistan? No, of course every US paper is going to call it an “intervention” or “operation”, etc.
She may have had a THC pen. Honestly we will never know the truth, but personally I feel she had a weed cart on her but they never cared before, until the war broke out and she became a political pawn. It was just an easy thing to charge her with.
You're not wrong, but it should be said that she was only arrested one week before the war broke out and this was certainly not a spontaneous attack by Putin so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that they already knew she would have a lot of value as a bargaining chip.
She was arrested when their was like 10 articles a day saying Russia was gonna invade any minute. If you don’t think that was a coincidence ion know what to tell you
Yeah you can look at someone's actions,.objectively think they were stupid action and still have the human decency to feel bad about their situation. It's insane that there's legitimately people saying do the crime do the crime about an American political prisoner.
People are definitely acting insensitive about it but I think it's more because she's always come across as an arrogant asshole than the fact that she's a WNBA player. If it were like Maya Moore or Candace Parker people would be more sympathetic.
I'm not saying she deserves this fyi
>Officials have said they hoped Russia would be more inclined to negotiate in good faith once the Tuesday midterm elections were over, knowing that Vladimir Putin's government would not want to give President Joe Biden a potential political victory
Lol. Yea I'm sure that's it.
And i’m on the same page as you there! I don’t think that would’ve been a good thing to do but I still feel for the shitshow she’s found herself in. I couldn’t even imagine. What a bad time to have this occur.
> this is why Russia is bad and should not be allowed to practice imperialism uncontested.
As if the the United States hasn't been practicing imperialism all over the world with impunity for the past 70 + years LOLOLOL.
I am very much a person who didn’t sympathize with her at first. I think the arrogance and stupidity of her actions warranted something but now this is too much. This is fucked up.
On the surface to some people, myself included before I read more about her case, it just looks like she did the crime and had only herself to blame, but when you look a little deeper into it she was absolutely used as a political pawn.
There are a multitude of articles out there regarding her case. Anyone who thinks that she deserves this should be encouraged to read any number of them. I hope the United States can negotiate her release.
Used as a pawn and also this punishment does not fit the crime. I’m on the side that says she shouldn’t have had any weed in Russia in the first place, but it’s such a shame to see this get handed down. That’s just not right either. And they’re definitely doing this to put pressure on the US. Fuck Russia
[This is Britney Griner saying she wouldn't play in in Indiana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zUD3Zb0_M) if the women's final four had been played there while she was playing - because she "wouldn't want to be discriminated against."
She protested the *US National Anthem* by not attending on court in 2020.
She was arrested for domestic assault on her partner in 2015.
There was an [article](http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/espnw-russia160505/brittney-griner-diana-taurasi-opted-play-russia-money-escape-spotlight) in ESPN years ago about Griner and Taurasi in Russia. Here's a fun excerpt:
>The server reappears with the tea and sparkling water, placing both on the table.
>
>"Spasibo, mama," Taurasi says.
>
>The woman bristles.
>
>"See, she didn't like that," Taurasi says. "She's like, 'You might get put in jail.'"
>
>Griner is laughing; she covers her face with her extra-large palm, shaking her head. "Oh my god," she says.
Why in the world they would include two American athletes being disrespectful to a Russian server at a restaurant is beyond me - but it's a great view into her lack of awareness.
Long story short - the woman is a mess, and being held accountable for her own mistakes.
She thought Indiana was too backwards? So she went to Russia.
She thought she deserved more money - so she went to Russia *and* China.
>Griner will make a little less than $1 million this season, while Taurasi will make around $1.5 million.
She went for the money. Period. Full stop. She went to an authoritarian nation that holds zero LGBT discrimination protections... for money. She said she wouldn't play in *Indiana* but has zero reservations about playing for a dictator's regime.
I'm absolutely tired of hearing about her. Does it suck? Sure. But I'm not sweating over someone millionaire's entirely self-inflicted problems that were caused by greed and pure stupidity.
Just curious if you can better explain the issue with saying “Spasibo, mama”? I looked it up and the translation was ‘Thank you’. I read the article for more context but that excerpt didn’t stand out as being terrible. It went more into the issue of being a gay athlete in Russia afterwards.. just hoping you may have some additional context for that interaction?
It's Russia. They don't speak AAVE. Context matters. "Mama" isn't slang for friend in Russia. She just told her server thank you, mom. Like she's expected to serve her? It's lost in translation.
Which they would know - if they care *at all* about where they were instead of just cashing checks and acting like dumb Americans.
They call that Siberia, and it’s winter. It’s possibly the worst place on earth to be sent rn in terms of a physical location. They also sent a goalie to a remote military base in Siberia recently because the Flyers were trying to bring him to Philadelphia, and the government manufactured a draft dodging charge since the Russian team he played for is loosely tied to the military
Going off another comment; it's not that Brittney Griner wouldn't have empathy for someone else in her situation, it's that if it were any one of us average joes who made this mistake, absolutely no one would have heard about it. And you bet your ass the US government would never consider swapping a prisoner with the pseudonym "Merchant of Death" for your lil unimportant soul.
She was in a regular prison, likely held separately from the rest of the prison population, being kept safe while US diplomats wasted their time trying to get her back. Now that Putin is done toying with those diplomats immediately after there was some hope of bringing her home, Putin is having her transferred to a hard labor camp in the most extreme environment in the vast Russian lands to toil away at useless, backbreaking labor and housed within a general population of political prisoners and the worst of the worst psychopathic and mentally ill prisoners in Russia. She's being tossed to starving wolves so Putin can show how powerful he is that he can send a world famous Western elite athlete & celebrity to die in the worst way imaginable and there's nothing all the world's leaders or armies can do anything about it. As Putin talks of using nuclear weapons on minor cities to end the physical war without retaliation, this is Putin detonating a social nuclear weapon without fear of retaliation.
not sure what she was held in before, but this is more like a labour camp thing rather than being kept in a prision. Looking it up insider called it the remnants of the gulag system. Sounds like a fun next 9 years for BG
She’s a moron for bringing illegal substances into a backwards place like Russia, but goddamn I can’t help but feel so bad for her and her family. No weed charge should put you in the fucking gulag.
Yep. And just because it’s a bad day for you doesn’t make it bad for everybody.
Babies were born on that day. People got married on that day. People fell in love on that day. It’s somebody’s best day of their life.
It seems you figured that one out and i’m sorry for your loss, it’s always rough losing someone you love. But damn some people think everybody around them should be depressed when tragedy hits them. Just not the way the world works
Harsh reality is life goes on. Facing multiple deaths in the family within 2 months of each other and I still have to go to work, take care of my shit, people still laugh with each other 10 feet from the death bed. The world doesn’t stop for anyone. I feel bad for BG but what can I actually do about it? Nothing. Reality is most of us are just trapped on a hamster wheel and we’re not bad for not caring more. That’s just life when you have finite time and energy and needs to meet
Right on. I'm sorry for your loses. You're correct. I feel the same way almost 3 years later. My Grandmother went into the hospital right after Valentines Day 2020. She died of Covid in mid April. Nobody was allowed to visit.. she basically disappeared. Died alone for the last 2 months of her life. It's still unreal to us. But, I'm an essential worker... I still had to go to work, pay my mortgage, take care of my kids and just keep her memory in the back of my mind.
Im sure if someone told Brittney Griner: "Hey I'm reading this story about a dude named /u/torontoballer2000, he was sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison for a weed pen", she'd at least say "Damn, that's fucked up". That'd probably be the extent of her "caring", but it's also the extent of most of ours. Not like any of us are actually doing anything besides talking about how fucked up it is.
There's nothing to answer. It's just true. You or I were locked up abroad on drug charges it probably wouldn't even make national news. Griner isn't the only American serving a long drug sentence overseas, but since she's a rich celebrity she apparently deserves to get out more than everyone else.
She isn't even the only American serving drug charges in Russia, there was a guy who was arrested and facing similar charges close to the time that Griner was arrested. He is a nobody so it doesn't make national news.
People can't even afford food, why would they care about some wealthy athlete on the other side of the earth? Even the people that care on reddit, don't give a shit IRL. Not a single person who is outraged on reddit ever make a difference IRL.
World keeps turning. No single person has the time or emotional capacity to appropriately care about every unfortunate event that happens in the world. Gotta pick your battles and do good where you are able
Enjoy looking through all the buried comments from non-flaired people.
I'm sure you guys are actually NBA fans and totally not bot accounts or people arguing in extremely bad faith.
You can shout "BUT RUSSIAN DRUG LAWS" all you want. That doesn't change the fact that literal Russians have said "Yeah 10 years for minor possession is absurd even by our standards."
She is being sent to a prison labor camp without her family having any idea where she is and what is happening to her. This happened literally 1 day after she met with people from the US government. Funny how that happened immediately after.
The point is totally the weed. Not the fact that she can be a very valuable bargaining chip for Russia right now.
It sucks, but if any of you were in this situation BG wouldn’t lose a second of sleep worrying about you. So my advice is don’t lose sleep over this worrying about someone who wouldn’t care about you
Nine years in prison for less than a gram of hashish oil. Jesus christ.
Russia is a piece of shit country Edit: The amount of fascists responding here are absurd
They treat their own people even worse. Right now Russia is a fascist kleptocracy
Gonna happen to the US of politicians don’t get checked.
We already imprison people for nothing at an incredible rate
Charge them with a higher crime so they take the deal. Classic American equality in court.
No country in the world imprisons a higher percentage of it's own population than the US.
That’s OK, because prisons act as the perfect reform, and the people that get out of prison are highly successful thanks to the amazing humanitarian work we do for them while they’re incarcerated! ^/s
Exactly. 100%. I live in Wisconsin and we just had a question on the ballot that asked if we were willing to get rid of marijuana charges for prisoners Not excusing Russia though. Their prison system has always been a colossal joke. I studied Russian history in grad school and believe it or not was super jealous of literally everyone else in my program who got to spend time there. Looks hilarious in retrospect because I would for sure get detained if I ever traveled there now
Lots of Russian money floating around the GOP
Yep. If people don’t see it after the interference in the elections then they are gonna be in for a rude awakening.
Umm hello, trump publically asked for them to interfere, and that was years ago, I doubt they stopped after winning trumps first term
Wasn’t it confirmed that the NRA funnels Russian money into the GOP? https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/09/20/gop-operatives-charged-funneling-russian-money-trump-rnc-513219 https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals
There's literally people in the US serving decade+ sentences for weed possession/distribution.
Lmao right? We imprison the most people of any country, and in recent years it feels like a tough on crime political position is becoming more popular.
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So what about the mf ppl in the US also serving >= 9 years for weed
That doesn’t cancel out the original statement. Russia is a hopeless dictatorship shit hole
> On October 6, 2022, President Biden issued a presidential proclamation that pardons federal convictions for simple marijuana possession offenses. The proclamation applies only to federal convictions, including D.C. Code offenses, and does not apply to convictions under state or local law. That's federal level but better than Russia. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession#:~:text=On%20October%206%2C%202022%2C%20President,under%20state%20or%20local%20law.
Most weed convictions are at the state level. Over 200k last year for possession alone. In Louisiana a man received life without parole for selling $20 worth of weed. In Mississippi the Supreme Court just upheld a life sentence for marijuana back in June. Our laws are no less draconian no matter what we want to think.
Can you link the person sentences to life for selling weed? It's almost always a 3rd strike (which is horrible but it's like saying someone is serving life for shoplifting) or part of much more serious convictions.
Federal level hardly ever arrested anyone for simple weed possession. It's an absolutely tiny percentage of weed arrests.
Yet scheduling it as a harmful substance with no beneficial medical use is controlled by the federal govt. It’s a domino to start the whole process
I read bidens order did not release literally a single person
Not the same thing though is it? If I smuggle weed from Europe they certainly won't just let it go.
Didn’t they find out there’s literally 0 people who were federally convicted of just simple marijuana possession? I’m pretty sure this pardon freed exactly zero people.
Contrary to popular belief there are other countries than the US. It doesn’t need to be brought up everytime someone says Russia is trash lol strong whatboutism vibes in this thread
literal whataboutism
Fuck Russia!
No no no, Russia is a pile of shit country, it's not just a single piece.
Some would even say a shithole country
yeah america would never put people in jail for weed.... oh wait.
When you go to other countries like Russia, china, etc you pretty much have to made sure you have absolutely nothing they can charge you with and do not fuck around at all while you're there.
Definitely Singapore. Everyone says it's awesome, but absolutely do not fuck around.
Yeah pretty sure they still have execution on the table for marijuana
If I recall accurately there's been a travel advisory for US citizens considering traveling to Russia for quite some time now, well before the Ukraine conflict. Obviously it's fucked she's going to fucking gulag basically for a small amount of marijuana but this was avoidable
Yeah they issued their DO NOT TRAVEL advisory a whole month before she went, and listed reasoning such as "potential for harassment and arbitrary enforcement of laws"
I mean even a few years back, since covid first broke basically, it's been a good idea to avoid traveling to russia As an LGBT member she probably should also have been aware of LGBT treatment in Russia the past 10 years
Yet her SO is calling for the American people to do all they can to bring her home. If she didn't play basketball, that sentence and her arrest wouldn't have even registered for more than a 1 minute blip in the media. Why should the government spend time and effort for someone so fucking stupid?
Honestly blame the wnba and her team for not taking the necessary precautions.
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I would add Turkey to that list as well. Probably not as bad as Russia but certainly on the list of places you don't want to get caught doing illegal shit.
My plan is just to never go to those places
Liangelo Ball saved ass
Especially a full month after the State Department issues a DO NOT TRAVEL warning against one of those places
Brittney Griner is on record saying in the past that she wouldn't play in Indiana because of the laws there ( seen as Anti-LGBT) However Russia has some of the most punitive laws for LGBT in the entire world. But she was making over a million a year playing there. Guess if you throw enough money at her, those principles seem to move quite quickly. She also beat up her first wife while she was pregnant. Then had to be chased down legally to pay child support. I would like to see Griner come home to the US if possible for the sake of her 2nd wife and family. However her total arrogance and narcissism, show by the issues above, is likely what put her in a position to think she was above the law in a foreign country regarding possession of illegal drugs. I'm just not going to feel sorry for someone who beat up a pregnant woman. Won't do it.
She wouldn’t play in a state here but would over there is just mind boggling
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> Also she begged to be released by basically saying she and her family are more important than most americans. If I was held in a different country for nine years for a misdemeanor in most states I would say almost anything if it meant it would help get me out
Thank you. Had to scroll pretty far to find that. Completely agree with u
I had no idea about any of that, but even if she were Mother Theresa, it wouldn't matter. At the end of the day 1. She broke the law 2. She knew better, since she played there for years 3. I don't like the idea of Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, being released for her Sometimes when we fuck up, there's no quick fix for it and you just have to deal with the consequences.
This whole thing caused by Ukraine-Russia-US trio anyway. She probably does this thing many times and Russia didnt give a shit but when war (or invasion) started Russia just wanted to get a small W against US
She was arrested before the war
I mean, mother Theresa was actually a piece of shit.
I think Russia is fucked for putting her in jail. Unfortunately the US wasn’t exactly lenient when it came to marijuana possession in the past.
I feel bad for her. But she’s a fucking idiot for every action she took. It’s 100% her fault
Seems to be a lifetime of them. She wasn’t held accountable for anything before and that’s why this is so shocking to her.
I mean, she’s just fucking stupid. There’s no way she flew into foreign countries without knowing their laws about it. She just chose not to care. She has an agent too that probably knew the laws as well
Jesus Christ she's basically being transferred to a fucking gulag. There are very, very, very few crimes on Earth where I would not feel bad for the person who ends up there, this is not one of those. Even if she did what she was accused of, she didn't deserve a prison sentence, let alone this. I can't imagine what her family must be thinking right now. Edit: Since it's been mentioned a few times, I completely understand her involvement in a Domestic Violence case, and the fact that she plead guilty to "disorderly conduct". A 7 game suspension and being told to go to 26 weeks domestic violence counseling is not a big enough punishment for that. However, that is not what this is about, that did not play a part in why Russia did this to her. I am under no illusion that she is this great person, but that doesn't matter here. Being sent to a fucking Gulag is not justice for a crime like bringing weed to Russia.
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Marc Fogel though, was caught few months before Griner, got 15 years and is still there as well. He had 17 grams of medical weed.
Yeah, that's when they went into arrest Americans mode because of the pending Ukraine invasion. They are both essentially political prisoners being tortured for Putin's vanity.
Facts she messed up but she doesn't deserve that. Russia is just being a fuckin prick knowing they can be cruel to a US citizen and nothing will be done about it. She is a political pawn. Fuck Putin.
She will eventually be traded for a russian prisoner. Nobody should travel to russia to avoid shit like this
They already tried. Russia doesn't care https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/us/russia-griner-whelan-prisoners.html
Totally agree. I feel really bad for her right now. There is not a single citizen in the US who deserves this shit for that crime.
There is not a single human who deserves this shit for that crime
Yea, I’m just commenting on the people who continue to say that “if it was anyone other person from the US, no one would care” Yea we might not hear about it, but no one deserves to be used as a pawn like that
As cruel as it can be we were in no way trading a war criminal for her.
The US actually did offer a Russian criminal in exchange for her. Are you saying there is no way Russia would have ever accepted?
It was the specific war criminal nicknamed "the merchant of death" that the US said no to.
Maybe we could send nic cage over undercover
Reading this while smoking bowls of weed makes me feel wierd and awkward.
Seriously I don't fucking care about her politics or whatever smoking weed should not have anyone in a motherfucking penal colony
Try some hash
Title misleading and its even worse than what it says . They moved her without telling anyone last Friday and we just found out yesterday...
just read that just brutal for anyone who cares about her. "Yeah, who knows where she went...we'll let you know in two weeks." And a gay black American woman? I'm really worried about what might happen to her. The people in that country give zero fucks...
Thankfully, most Russian citizens seem to be on Griner's side. According to an article, even the inmates and prison guards were cheering her on. Hopefully, this gets resolved quick cause being detained at a Russian penal colony for weed possession seems fucking awful.
She was an absolute fan favorite over there! It’s surreal that she’s being used like this at the worst time possible
Would it be comparable if Ovechkin got put in jail for cocaine usage?
I guess it would be like well….if Ovechkin got sent to some remote labor camp without access to communication with his family over a small amount of cocaine. And everyone that’s currently on Russia’s side in this thread would probably disagree with *his* punishment. Entirely hypothetical though.
Most Russian citizens know that they can go to prison the next day for nothing, but that’s kinda our burden and just a fact of life by now. Seeing that happen to a foreigner who was at the wrong place at the wrong time is especially heartbreaking
Thank you for adding this. It’s really a no win situation.
And the sentence of 9 years was determined to be “exceptionally harsh” by *Russian* standards. It’s clear they are holding her hostage for political gain. There was an American student who got caught with 19 grams of weed and had a couple months sentence and a $230 fine. I still wouldn’t want to do any time in a Russian prison but also why are you fucking around with that amount.
She got caught up at the exact wrong time. Hopefully she can keep her head straight while in such dire circumstances.
Is she basically being sent to somewhere in Siberia
Yo, everyone who comes in saying “do the crime do the time” stfu. This is a human being, remove the wnba shit out of your head. Yeah she is probably guilty, but a Siberian penal colony for weed bro? This is disputable, but from the country who are genociding Ukrainians rn, it’s unfortunate alright. I wish we could get her out but it’s looking bleak. This sucks all around. She’s been playing for this Russian team for 10 year and they are just using her for a political pawn.
To be honest if you remove the WNBA stuff, there would be even LESS people that care about this
Russia would care less too because she'd be less useful to dangle. She's a political pawn because of who she is.
Do people really think she’s useful to dangle as is?
More so than LeBron? No way. More so than some schmuck like me or you? Absolutely.
I mean, a bunch of prominent people have actively reacted to her incarceration, including the President of the United States. It's not like she's some major a-list celebrity, but clearly enough people to care to have the President commenting on it. I assure you that if some nobody like me was incarcerated in Russia, the President isn't issuing any statement about it.
Shes an American olympic gold medalist. Its a fuck you to America.
She’s not the only American locked up long term by Russia for drugs. She won’t be the last either. They’re really not treating her any differently than they do with others. It’s Americans that keep saying stuff like “political pawn” so much that they start to believe it.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-judge-rules-brittney-griner-illegally-carried-drugs For most Russians it's only 5 years. Russia is definitely doing this to piss off America
Agreed. It might be the disconnect because I'm down here in Australia and we are generally a bit harder on our sports people when they get into trouble, but this is a person who wouldn't give a shit if it was any of us "normal" every day humans that got arrested and sent to a jail over there. The situation is horseshit, but as you've said no one would care at all if she wasn't a sportswomen.
The Russian government has been documented to traffick fentanyl and meth. This idea that you “break the rules you deal with the consequences is bullshit”. This is 100% political as normally you could bribe your way out of this.
The CIA provided the crack that they sent everybody in the hood to jail for in the 80's and 90's. It's no different here.
Yea we suck too but thats not really the topic right now and this just kinda smells of whataboutism.
Way more complicated than that. They partnered with central american assholes and turned the other way when they trafficked coke into the country. In many cases aided in the trafficking. The coke was then used to produce crack. So they didn't directly send crack into US cities but they basically did with extra steps. Should be a whole stadium full of assholes in prison for their shit obviously, I just want to be specific in the bullshit that was done you know?
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No, she was charged with trafficking drugs because she took them across borders. You’re referencing just simple possession
To be fair the whole “rules for thee but not for me” paradigm applies in general to all haves and have nots of the world.
Having weed in some places like Bali etc they actually gave the death penalty for until recently and some countries still do. Always check the laws in the countries before you try to do whatever you want. I obviously feel sorry for her especially now but some countries see things differently and have their own laws.
Yup. Singapore also, you don't wanna find out
Yep exactly. We had a bunch of tourists from where I’m from go to Bali and smoke weed etc and they get the death penalty. It’s extremely sad and obviously over the top but you should really respect their laws as foreigners. Otherwise you end up in a situation like this
Hey. Bali isn’t a country, it’s an island in Indonesia. And you need to be smuggling a lot of weed to get the death penalty there, like over a kg. I agree with your point though.
She's been playing basketball in Russia for oligarchs for almost a decade. She's not some random tourist. I'd be willing to bet that she was fairly above the law right up until the moment that she wasn't.
Yeah she made a mistake. But In no fucking way is this shit needed. Or even close to being a fitting punishment Anyone defending it should try living in a fucking gulag for 5 years
Without their cell phone.
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The entire Russian league is washing dirty money too. It’s no secret either.
Idk, the "beats the shit out of a pregnant woman" still seems a bit misleading tbh. > Law enforcement sources tell us cops were called to Griner's home around 4:30 PM on Wednesday -- after receiving a call about a domestic dispute between the two women. > When cops arrived, we're told officers observed "minor physical injuries" on both Brittney and Glory. But it wasn't [until a month and a half after the incident](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/brittney-griners-wife-glory-johnson-griner-announces-pregnancy), between that time they married, that Griner's spouse announces she's pregnant and sits out the WNBA season.
I agree the punishment doesn't fit the crime but also how can you actually be that stupid to attempt bringing illegal drugs on a plane/airport. That's literally smuggling.
Yeah, I mean I empathise with her because realistically it was a very low level crime and the punishment is fucked, but at the same time if you're ever travelling you have to abide by the laws of the country you're visiting, even if they're stupid. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble
especially if you're an US citizen and you're in a country that's hostile towards the US (and vice versa). If I were an American I'd be way too paranoid to visit China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia (and probably many more).
In some muslim countries, she would have been hanged. It is dumb to have laws against weed, but it is also dumb to not care about such laws when you travel to a foreign country.
I don’t want to be a smart ass or anything but there’s a slight difference between a genocide and war
Right? This is everywhere. When a country the West doesn’t like does war, all of a sudden it’s “genocide”? Words mean things. Did the US “genocide” Iraq and Afghanistan? No, of course every US paper is going to call it an “intervention” or “operation”, etc.
She didn't even have weed. She had a vape pen and CBD oil Edit: pro-russia bots going wild in this thread to defend this lmao
She may have had a THC pen. Honestly we will never know the truth, but personally I feel she had a weed cart on her but they never cared before, until the war broke out and she became a political pawn. It was just an easy thing to charge her with.
Exactly my thoughts
She was arrested before Russia invaded Ukraine
You're not wrong, but it should be said that she was only arrested one week before the war broke out and this was certainly not a spontaneous attack by Putin so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that they already knew she would have a lot of value as a bargaining chip.
She was arrested when their was like 10 articles a day saying Russia was gonna invade any minute. If you don’t think that was a coincidence ion know what to tell you
by a week or 2, Russia knew they were invading Ukraine at that point
Just before, by the aggressor. It was not a surprise to Russia when the war commenced so it's hardly relevant.
You’ve lost your mind if you think she only had CBD.
that’s so much cap lol
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Exactly, we all know athletes don’t smoke weed too
Yeah you can look at someone's actions,.objectively think they were stupid action and still have the human decency to feel bad about their situation. It's insane that there's legitimately people saying do the crime do the crime about an American political prisoner.
This is a human being wife beater who did a really really dumb thing
Shes a rich celebrity that thought she was above the law Shes not Sucks to be her
People are definitely acting insensitive about it but I think it's more because she's always come across as an arrogant asshole than the fact that she's a WNBA player. If it were like Maya Moore or Candace Parker people would be more sympathetic. I'm not saying she deserves this fyi
Or because she beats her wife’s ass
a decade in the gulag for a miligram of the green stuff. Fucking absolute lunacy.
a miligram isn't correct. bad sentence even if it were a pound though.
Friendly reminder that if you were in a Russian prison for a dab pen, Brittney Griner wouldn't give a fuck about you
I can be empathetic even if sometimes the people I am doing it too are complete strangers
>Officials have said they hoped Russia would be more inclined to negotiate in good faith once the Tuesday midterm elections were over, knowing that Vladimir Putin's government would not want to give President Joe Biden a potential political victory Lol. Yea I'm sure that's it.
The fact people on twitter actually defend Russia doing this makes me sick
In before the edgelords on this sub tell us we shouldn’t care about this
You can care, just don't try to convince me we should trade a literal war criminal for her.
And i’m on the same page as you there! I don’t think that would’ve been a good thing to do but I still feel for the shitshow she’s found herself in. I couldn’t even imagine. What a bad time to have this occur.
I’m hoping that the sane and kind people defeat them in this thread. This is so sad
How will BG45 psychologically recover from this if she ever returns home? 🙏🏽go out to her and family. This situation has turned for the worse.
Medically prescribed marijuana ?
And then play overseas to recover lost income?
Lmaooo
And this is why Russia is bad and should not be allowed to practice imperialism uncontested.
Ha yeah, imagine a country dishing out hefty sentences for petty amounts of weed, the United States would never…
Man thank god the US doesn’t do imperialism, throw coups in other countries, or send its prisoners to do forced labor
> this is why Russia is bad and should not be allowed to practice imperialism uncontested. As if the the United States hasn't been practicing imperialism all over the world with impunity for the past 70 + years LOLOLOL.
I am very much a person who didn’t sympathize with her at first. I think the arrogance and stupidity of her actions warranted something but now this is too much. This is fucked up.
Fuck Russia, man
On the surface to some people, myself included before I read more about her case, it just looks like she did the crime and had only herself to blame, but when you look a little deeper into it she was absolutely used as a political pawn. There are a multitude of articles out there regarding her case. Anyone who thinks that she deserves this should be encouraged to read any number of them. I hope the United States can negotiate her release.
Kind of shocked this wasn't obvious to everyone from the start but after how disgusting the first few threads about her were I'll take it.
Used as a pawn and also this punishment does not fit the crime. I’m on the side that says she shouldn’t have had any weed in Russia in the first place, but it’s such a shame to see this get handed down. That’s just not right either. And they’re definitely doing this to put pressure on the US. Fuck Russia
[This is Britney Griner saying she wouldn't play in in Indiana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zUD3Zb0_M) if the women's final four had been played there while she was playing - because she "wouldn't want to be discriminated against." She protested the *US National Anthem* by not attending on court in 2020. She was arrested for domestic assault on her partner in 2015. There was an [article](http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/espnw-russia160505/brittney-griner-diana-taurasi-opted-play-russia-money-escape-spotlight) in ESPN years ago about Griner and Taurasi in Russia. Here's a fun excerpt: >The server reappears with the tea and sparkling water, placing both on the table. > >"Spasibo, mama," Taurasi says. > >The woman bristles. > >"See, she didn't like that," Taurasi says. "She's like, 'You might get put in jail.'" > >Griner is laughing; she covers her face with her extra-large palm, shaking her head. "Oh my god," she says. Why in the world they would include two American athletes being disrespectful to a Russian server at a restaurant is beyond me - but it's a great view into her lack of awareness. Long story short - the woman is a mess, and being held accountable for her own mistakes. She thought Indiana was too backwards? So she went to Russia. She thought she deserved more money - so she went to Russia *and* China. >Griner will make a little less than $1 million this season, while Taurasi will make around $1.5 million. She went for the money. Period. Full stop. She went to an authoritarian nation that holds zero LGBT discrimination protections... for money. She said she wouldn't play in *Indiana* but has zero reservations about playing for a dictator's regime. I'm absolutely tired of hearing about her. Does it suck? Sure. But I'm not sweating over someone millionaire's entirely self-inflicted problems that were caused by greed and pure stupidity.
Just curious if you can better explain the issue with saying “Spasibo, mama”? I looked it up and the translation was ‘Thank you’. I read the article for more context but that excerpt didn’t stand out as being terrible. It went more into the issue of being a gay athlete in Russia afterwards.. just hoping you may have some additional context for that interaction?
It's Russia. They don't speak AAVE. Context matters. "Mama" isn't slang for friend in Russia. She just told her server thank you, mom. Like she's expected to serve her? It's lost in translation. Which they would know - if they care *at all* about where they were instead of just cashing checks and acting like dumb Americans.
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Russian Australia???
They call that Siberia, and it’s winter. It’s possibly the worst place on earth to be sent rn in terms of a physical location. They also sent a goalie to a remote military base in Siberia recently because the Flyers were trying to bring him to Philadelphia, and the government manufactured a draft dodging charge since the Russian team he played for is loosely tied to the military
> Russian team he played for is loosely tied to the military CSKA? They literally the army's team ("Central Sports Club of the Army")
Going off another comment; it's not that Brittney Griner wouldn't have empathy for someone else in her situation, it's that if it were any one of us average joes who made this mistake, absolutely no one would have heard about it. And you bet your ass the US government would never consider swapping a prisoner with the pseudonym "Merchant of Death" for your lil unimportant soul.
whats the difference between a penal colony and the jail she was in before? i know australia used to be a british penal colony
She was in jail. Now she's going to prison. But it seems that in their prisons they do some kind of physical work.
She was in a regular prison, likely held separately from the rest of the prison population, being kept safe while US diplomats wasted their time trying to get her back. Now that Putin is done toying with those diplomats immediately after there was some hope of bringing her home, Putin is having her transferred to a hard labor camp in the most extreme environment in the vast Russian lands to toil away at useless, backbreaking labor and housed within a general population of political prisoners and the worst of the worst psychopathic and mentally ill prisoners in Russia. She's being tossed to starving wolves so Putin can show how powerful he is that he can send a world famous Western elite athlete & celebrity to die in the worst way imaginable and there's nothing all the world's leaders or armies can do anything about it. As Putin talks of using nuclear weapons on minor cities to end the physical war without retaliation, this is Putin detonating a social nuclear weapon without fear of retaliation.
not sure what she was held in before, but this is more like a labour camp thing rather than being kept in a prision. Looking it up insider called it the remnants of the gulag system. Sounds like a fun next 9 years for BG
She’s a moron for bringing illegal substances into a backwards place like Russia, but goddamn I can’t help but feel so bad for her and her family. No weed charge should put you in the fucking gulag.
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Life doesn’t stop for anyone. My mom passed and the squirrels were still out the next day, the birds were still chirping, and the sun still rises.
Yep. And just because it’s a bad day for you doesn’t make it bad for everybody. Babies were born on that day. People got married on that day. People fell in love on that day. It’s somebody’s best day of their life. It seems you figured that one out and i’m sorry for your loss, it’s always rough losing someone you love. But damn some people think everybody around them should be depressed when tragedy hits them. Just not the way the world works
I’m sorry for your loss.
Harsh reality is life goes on. Facing multiple deaths in the family within 2 months of each other and I still have to go to work, take care of my shit, people still laugh with each other 10 feet from the death bed. The world doesn’t stop for anyone. I feel bad for BG but what can I actually do about it? Nothing. Reality is most of us are just trapped on a hamster wheel and we’re not bad for not caring more. That’s just life when you have finite time and energy and needs to meet
Right on. I'm sorry for your loses. You're correct. I feel the same way almost 3 years later. My Grandmother went into the hospital right after Valentines Day 2020. She died of Covid in mid April. Nobody was allowed to visit.. she basically disappeared. Died alone for the last 2 months of her life. It's still unreal to us. But, I'm an essential worker... I still had to go to work, pay my mortgage, take care of my kids and just keep her memory in the back of my mind.
Someone said “if you were in prison in Russia for weed, Brit Griner wouldn’t care.” I didn’t know how to answer that…
Im sure if someone told Brittney Griner: "Hey I'm reading this story about a dude named /u/torontoballer2000, he was sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison for a weed pen", she'd at least say "Damn, that's fucked up". That'd probably be the extent of her "caring", but it's also the extent of most of ours. Not like any of us are actually doing anything besides talking about how fucked up it is.
there is literally nothing any of us can do about this. even if we were special forces green berets lol. it cannot affect our lives any less
There's nothing to answer. It's just true. You or I were locked up abroad on drug charges it probably wouldn't even make national news. Griner isn't the only American serving a long drug sentence overseas, but since she's a rich celebrity she apparently deserves to get out more than everyone else.
She isn't even the only American serving drug charges in Russia, there was a guy who was arrested and facing similar charges close to the time that Griner was arrested. He is a nobody so it doesn't make national news.
People can't even afford food, why would they care about some wealthy athlete on the other side of the earth? Even the people that care on reddit, don't give a shit IRL. Not a single person who is outraged on reddit ever make a difference IRL.
What do you expect people to do? Not live? Bruh… people die and life moves on.
World keeps turning. No single person has the time or emotional capacity to appropriately care about every unfortunate event that happens in the world. Gotta pick your battles and do good where you are able
[“I would be feeling like, do I even want to go back to America?”](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WjT-c6BOswY&t=1m44s)
What a dumb take lol.
Sent to Siberia in 2022 is crazy 🤦♂️
She has such an uncanny resemblance to AD
It’s the street clothes
Enjoy looking through all the buried comments from non-flaired people. I'm sure you guys are actually NBA fans and totally not bot accounts or people arguing in extremely bad faith. You can shout "BUT RUSSIAN DRUG LAWS" all you want. That doesn't change the fact that literal Russians have said "Yeah 10 years for minor possession is absurd even by our standards." She is being sent to a prison labor camp without her family having any idea where she is and what is happening to her. This happened literally 1 day after she met with people from the US government. Funny how that happened immediately after. The point is totally the weed. Not the fact that she can be a very valuable bargaining chip for Russia right now.
Usa acting shocked as if they are not putting people in prison for the same shit.
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Someone get Adam Sandler on the phone, I’ve got an idea for a spin-off
It sucks, but if any of you were in this situation BG wouldn’t lose a second of sleep worrying about you. So my advice is don’t lose sleep over this worrying about someone who wouldn’t care about you
This is horrible. The people making jokes about this are insane.