Can Iron Mike live?
Reports Carlton Jordan:
If Mike Tyson had been cast on any TV series other than NBC’ Law & Order: SVU, it wouldn’t have sparked such a firestorm. But the hiring of a convicted rapist on a drama that has received numerous awards for its sensitive portrayal of sex crimes has raised flags and inspired one outraged rape survivor to start a petition urging NBC to rethink its decision. So far, the petition has been signed by more than 13,000 protesters, includin NCIS tar Pauley Perrette.
“I’m sorry that she has a difference of opinion, but she’s entitled to it,” Tyson says of the Change.org etition’s author, Marcie Kaveney. “I’m sorry that she’s not happy. [But] I didn’t rape nobody or do anything like that, and this lady wasn’t there to know if I did or not. I don’t trip on that stuff. I’m not trying to get rich and famous; I’m just trying to feed my family. Why should they care? Since I’m clean and sober five years, I haven’t broken any laws or did any crimes. I’m just trying to live my life.”
The former boxing champ plays death row inmate Reggie Rhodes, whose crimes were provoked by devastating childhood abuse, in the Feb. 6 episode. “He’s a really damaged young man and a broken person,” says Tyson, who served three years of a six-year prison sentence after being convicted in 1992 of raping Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old Miss Black America beauty pageant contestant. “He was taken advantage of any way a man could be taken advantage of. He murdered one of his abusers and now he’s on death row working on trying to get an appeal.”
“When people say, ‘He shouldn’t do this,’ that upsets me because it hurts people close to me,” says Tyson, who has been working hard to foster relationships with his seven surviving children. “I’m happy with myself. I’m not on drugs. I’m not drinking. I’m not making a big fool of myself again. I’m trying really hard, you know?”
And now…
This is EbenGregory.com…telling you the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Mike paid his debt to society let the man get his paper..
Racist. They don’t want too many black people on Law & Order, so they bring up some shit from 15 years ago. Had to say something.