Slap
Will Smith posts an apology video for slapping Chris Rock
Will Smith has again apologized to Chris Rock for slapping him during the Oscar telecast in a new video, saying that his behavior was “unacceptable” and that he had reached out to the comedian to discuss the incident but was told Rock wasn’t ready.
“There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” Smith said in the video posted online Friday. “I am deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself.”
Smith, seated in a white polo shirt and white ball cap, spoke directly to a camera, answering pre-selected questions about his behavior at the March 27 Academy Awards, when he slapped presenter Rock after the comedian made a comment about the hairstyle of Jada Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife.
Smith also apologized to Rock’s family and especially his mother, Rosalie, who was horrified to see her son hurt and told US Weekly that, “When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me.” Smith also apologized to Tony Rock, Chris’ younger brother.
“I didn’t realize how many people got hurt in that moment,” Smith said.
Smith also apologized to his family “for the heat that I brought on all of us” and his fellow Oscar nominees to have “stolen and tarnished your moment.” He said his wife did nothing to encourage his slap. “Jada had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I made a choice on my own.”
Read: Will Smith resigns from film academy over Chris Rock slap
Following the altercation, the motion picture academy banned Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years. Smith apologized to Rock in a statement after the Oscars, saying he was “out of line and I was wrong.”
“I’m sorry really isn’t sufficient,” Smith said in the video.
Will slap you and throw out of the district, Pabna woman MP threatens a woman officer
A woman parliamentarian in Pabna has allegedly threatened to slap the district’s women affairs officer and throw her out of the area as an International Women’s Day invitation reached her late.
Officer Kaniz Irin Jahan brought the allegation against Awami League MP Nadira Yasmin Jolly at Tuesday’s IWD function at DC conference hall.
The incident, Kaniz said, took place on Monday when the reserved seat MP used the abusive words over phone.
READ: DU student accuses a BCL activist of slapping him
A audio clip of the phone conversation also went viral on social media on Tuesday.
According to official, “MP Nadira was made the chief guest at the women's day programme. Due to some official work, the invitation card was sent her late. Around 11 am on Monday, the MP called me over phone and asked me about the delay. At one stage of the conversation, she verbally abused me. She threatened to slap me and threatened to drive me out of the district.”
A dejected Kaniz said the MP had no right to slap me. “Not even my parents ever slapped me,” she said adding “I came here to perform my duties not to be slapped by someone. I am now sick and informed the matter to the higher authorities.”
READ: Sylhet Mother and Child Hospital slapped with Tk6 lakh fine
“Irin made a complaint verbally and the higher authorities concerned will take a further decision,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner Mokhlesur Rahman.
Contacted, MP Nadira, said “The female officer did not feel to invite me at the programme and she humiliated and neglected the representative of the women community.”
Slap to Macron puts focus on ultra-right groups
Bubbling beneath France’s political landscape is an assortment of ultra-right groups, a subculture that shot to the nation’s attention when a young man slapped President Emmanuel Macron and blurted out a centuries-old royalist cry.
Ultra-rightist groups are considered increasingly dangerous despite their small following and are on the radar of authorities. Numerous arrests have been made and several groups banned. Challenges to the French identity are often at the center of their ideologies.
During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Macron stressed the incident a day earlier was “an isolated act by a violent individual” that wouldn’t stop his direct contact with the population.
“No violence can be considered banal in the country,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.
Read:French leader Macron is slapped during visit to small town
The town of Tain-l’Hermitage, where the assault occurred, was the president’s most recent stop on a tour designed to “feel the pulse of the country” that’s been laid low by the coronavirus and trying to get back on its feet.
Damien Tarel, 28, the man who slapped the president, and a second man, identified only as Arthur C., also 28, were quickly arrested. Neither had police records, the local prosecutor said.
Tarel told investigators he struck out without thinking, the prosecutor’s office said. He is to appear in court Thursday on a charge of violence against a person invested with public authority.
While Tarel’s motives remained unclear, it was his Medieval-era cry “Montjoie! Saint Denis!” as he slapped Macron’s cheek, that pointed to the aggressor’s potential interest in the tiny royalist fringe movement. Social media posts showed he followed royalist TV channels and a smattering of extreme-right figures.
At the home of Arthur C, police found weapons, old books on the art of war, a copy of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kampf,” and two flags, one symbolizing Communists and another of the Russian revolution, the prosecutor’s office said. He is to be summoned to court next year for illegal possession of arms.
Tarel told investigators he was close to the Yellow Vest movement for social and economic justice, but also held right- or ultra-right political convictions without being a member of a party or group, according to a statement by the prosecutor’s office.
Read: Virus-stricken Macron at presidential retreat with fever
“Testimony of witnesses and (Tarel’s) companion do not add clarity to what motivated” the suspect to slap Macron, the prosecutor’s office said.
In 2018, the royalist call-to-arms dating to Medieval times was cried out by someone who threw a cream pie at the far-left lawmaker, Eric Coquerel. The extreme-right pro-monarchist group Action Francaise took responsibility. Action Francaise did not claim a role in Tuesday’s slapping incident, but hours later tweeted, “Vive la tarte a Tain,” a play on words combining the slang for “slap” (tarte), the French apple desert, tarte tatin, and Tain-l’Hermitage, where the incident occurred.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen was among political chiefs to quickly condemn the assault. Le Pen, a candidate in 2022 presidential elections, has spent years working to rid her National Rally party of extremist elements who gravitated around her father’s National Front party, which she renamed.
Obscure to most of France, ultra-right movements are a priority on the radar of investigators.
A probe into an alleged plot uncovered in 2018 against Macron by a mini-group whose members were scattered around France is still in progress. The group, known as Les Barjols, was ordered disbanded.
Mediapart, an online investigative outlet, reported last month that investigators are on alert for the eventual return of ultra-right terrorists. It cited a confidential report from the prosecutor’s office detailing the professionalism and ability to obtain weapons by some groups. It said 17 deaths can be attributed to the ultra-right between 2016-2019, and quoted investigators as counting about 1,000 militants and 2,000 followers of the ultra-right.
Read:Macron's 'republican values' ultimatum to French Muslims
In March, France banned Generation Identity, citing its ideology “inciting hate, violence or discrimination of individuals ... based on origins, race or religion.” The organization was known for spectacular actions to get out its anti-migrant message in what it claimed was a mission to preserve French and European civilization.
Tarel’s social media profile showed an interest in medieval combat and martial arts, confirmed by a friend in an interview on BFMTV. The friend, identified only as Loic, said he was “stunned” by the slap. In October 2018, Tarel put out a call on a social media platform for funds for an association of Medieval martial arts in the town where he and Arthur C. were born and live, Saint-Vallier, with a population of under 4,000.
Four hours before Tuesday’s assault, a TV news show, Le Quotidien, broadcast a brief clip of Tarel, Arthur C. and another man waiting to see Macron. Neither Tarel nor Arthur C. spoke, but the third person said: “There are things that should be said, but unfortunately cannot be said.”
Among the issues, he said, was “the decline of France.”