HOUSTON - Houston police will be reviewing singer Chris Brown's public apology for beating his ex-girlfriend, R&B superstar Rihanna.
But this review is about learning, not legal action.
The videotaped apology, released Monday, is to be included in a program intended to sensitize patrol cops to the dynamics of domestic violence.
"The next time I do training with police officers, which will be in a few weeks, I'm going to also show that video and ask people what they think," said Jennifer Varela, a clinical social worker with the District Attorney's office.
Varela plans to pair the confessional video with another clip in which Chris Brown remembers growing up with domestic violence.
"I had a stepfather that used to abuse my mom when I was 7 or 8," Brown recalls in that three-year-old interview, "and I always said when I turn 15, 16, and get big, I'm gonna kill him."
The two clips together encapsulate the "cycle of domestic violence," according to Varela and Jane Waters, chief of the DA's Family Criminal Law section.
In Waters' eyes, the public was quick to condemn the victim when news broke in February that Rihanna had been battered by her singer boyfriend.
"There was a theory about it was really a car accident that caused the injuries, she gave him some sort of disease and they were blaming her without even knowing what had happened."
Waters says, the public apology should lay to rest that kind of chatter.
"I have told Rihanna countless times and I am telling you today that I am truly, truly sorry," Brown says in the two-minute clip.
Last month, Brown pled guilty to felony assault. His sentence: five-years' probation plus community service.
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