It’s footage that is hard to forget:
A shaking woman walks down a city street dressed only in a towel.
A man, who is filming her as she walks, yells obscenities at her in Spanish, calling her a whore, a tart and a bitch. Occasionally she tries to respond, to explain, but he cuts her off “Take off your towel. You’re going to pay the price like a whore… Since you’re a whore, pose like a whore. Damn whore.”
Even without seeing the footage, it’s clear this is the most degrading kind of torture. From a man who professes to love the woman he is humiliating.
The man, who we now know is Jason Melo, 22, posted the video online for the world to see. The backlash was immediate. Melo was condemned for his cruelty.
Less than a week after the original video appeared online, Melo posted another video to his Instagram account apologising to “women”.
“Jason Melo here. I want to ask all women for forgiveness. I want them to know, that really, I didn’t want this to – I didn’t think this would – get to this point,” he says.
“Maybe, I made a mistake, to do what I did, from the beginning to take her out naked. I really regret this. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t do it. Because in my mind, so much has happened to me.
“I came from a woman, I have a daughter, and I have two sisters. But look what you pushed me to do. I am sorry for everything. This the last video I will make, I don’t want any interviews, I don’t want anything,” he says.
He wipes away a tear as he listens to a song about how no man is perfect.
Just two weeks later he appears to have forgotten his contrition.
When he appeared in the Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday, he denied the charges of assault and endangering a child – and indicated that he thought his girlfriend “deserved” her “punishment”. He asked for a trial date because, his lawyer said, “he’s not guilty”.
Outside court, Melo told a reporter from the New York Post, “she shouldn’t have done what she did”.
Later, he posted another video to Instagram in which he said that he was being congratulated by detectives for doing what he had done.
In the bizarre clip, he accuses his girlfriend of lying about being beaten, claiming he never hit her or strangled her.
He repeats his claim that she was talking to other men.
He gives another apology, but this time it’s to his “people”: “My people I apologize, I see what she said and I want you to know she is lying.”
Melo’s Instagram now has over 50 thousand followers (we have chosen not to link to it in this post). Above the images his account includes what appears to be his motto: “How Good It Feel Knowing That I Will Be Rich And Successful Forever.”
Melo might be feeling pretty good that he’s rich and successful forever.
But he will also forever be the man who says he is proud of humiliating the mother of his newborn child.
Top Comments
"I really regret this... because so much has happened to ME". "Look what you pushed me to do". "She shouldn't have done what she did". "She deserved her punishment". "I didn't strangle her".
This guy has shown no contrition. What he's really saying is: I'm the victim here. You DROVE me to it, so it's your fault anyway.
He fundamentally doesn't understand that domestic violence encompasses a wide range of power abuses, and his whole mentality (justifying his power abuse/ feeling entitled to administer 'punishments'/ blaming his abuse on her/ minimizing his perverted torture by saying 'he didn't strangle her' etc.) is text book.
I hope the woman is surrounded by so much love and support and compassion.
The guys a total piece of s@*t but you know that if this was a woman shaming and humiliating a man in public for cheating on her you'd all love it.
No, I most certainly would not.
Who said she cheated on him? Jason Melo? And you believe him? Interesting.......you do know he also beat her up don't you?? She had her newborn baby in her arms as he hit her. Then he made her walk around naked in the freezing cold - can't doubt her story on that front as he filmed it, yet go ahead and show your lovely true colours and believe all of Mr Melo's lies. Do you think if a woman did all these things to a man she would be cheered on? You need help.
MM, was reading an article in a US online mag (not a feminist mag) that said in the US 90% of all DV murders were committed by men last year - that is even more than here. Of all the murders committed by females MOST were in self defence! This was government data published for the public. There is on average 4 Dv related deaths a day in the US. So sad. Yet people believe hideous beasts like Jason Melo.
The difference is, she was SPEAKING to another man, not doing anything sexual at all...
You also show how little respect you have for women in your assumptions... This statement, and what he did all originate from the same thing, it's all just levels of how...