Chris Brown was arrested early Sunday morning in Washington, D.C., on felony assault charges, but hey, we’ll probably forget about it in a few weeks or so.
According to The Washington Post, Brown had been scheduled to host a party Saturday night. On Sunday morning just before 4:30 a.m., Brown and his bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, were reportedly involved in a “physical altercation” with an unidentified man, who was later taken to a nearby hospital and released.
Brown and Hollosy will remain in custody until their scheduled court appearance today.
Despite the fact that Brown has been on probation since 2009 after pleading guilty to attacking his former girlfriend, Rihanna, he’s continued to produce music while floating in and out of the public eye — most recently over a parking-space dispute with R&B artist Frank Ocean in February in Los Angeles.
You’d think maybe he’d want to keep a low profile, given his reputation will probably never recover from the 2009 Rihanna incident. However, this recent assault charge is only one in a long line of highly publicized incidents involving the singer.
In August, Brown went on a rage-fueled Twitter rant and accused the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office of racism after he was ordered to perform 1,000 more community service hours, according to NBC News.
The increased community-service hours agreement was reached after Brown’s previously revoked probation from 2009 was reinstated following a hit-and-run accident in May.
After the new community-service agreement, Brown tweeted, “How about y’all take care of all the homeless kids and families on skid row. Promote helping people that are really f***ed up in your city!”
The Los Angeles prosecutors have said in court filings reported by The Associated Press that they could find no evidence that Brown ever completed the community-service hours he was originally ordered after his 2009 conviction.
And there it is.
For the past four years, despite a few hiccups, it’s been business as usual for Brown. It’s perfectly cyclical: Every once in a while he’ll do something stupid — such as throwing a tantrum after a “Good Morning America” appearance — the incident will be highly publicized, people will inevitably bring up the Rihanna incident and then everyone conveniently forgets about it. Meanwhile, nothing changes — he obviously hasn’t addressed his anger issues, and he isn’t completing his court-ordered community service hours.
Will this incident be any different?
Because Brown is on probation in California for his 2009 domestic violence conviction, any arrests could be viewed as a violation of his probation and result in jail time, according to CNN.
However, Brown is a cash cow for his label. The mixtapes and full-length albums have brought in revenue, and it goes unsaid that he’ll have the best legal representation money can buy.
It’s likely he’ll evade jail time — as well as being held accountable for his actions.
A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 10/28/2013 under the headline "Celebrity criminals: Pop culture forgives them too often"
