{"id":468,"date":"2017-07-20T09:11:17","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/?p=468"},"modified":"2021-04-19T16:01:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:01:05","slug":"actors-apology-a-new-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/actors-apology-a-new-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor’s Apology: “A New Low”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor Shia LaBeouf issued an apology this week<\/a> for his disrespectful behavior towards police officers who arrested him last weekend. He was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, last Saturday, and charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. The police body-camera video of his behavior during the arrest was released and posted on CNN, showing him hurling epithets at the officers and resisting their attempts to subdue him. I broke down the tweeted apology\u00a0to add some comments:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply ashamed of my behavior and make no excuses for it.\u201d This is a good start. We hold our breath to see whether the offender will indeed refrain from making excuses as the apology unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if these statements are too frequent, or not shared enough\u2026\u201d I have no idea what he\u2019s talking about here; this would\u2019ve been better omitted.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 but I am certain my actions warrant a very sincere apology to the arresting officers, and I am grateful for their restraint. The severity of my behavior is not lost on me.\u201d An essential element of a sincere apology is to be specific about the offensive behavior. It\u2019s not clear here that the offender knows specifically<\/em> what he did, but at least he knows it was bad. Acknowledging the other party\u2019s restraint in the face of the offender\u2019s offense is admirable. It would\u2019ve been even better had he acknowledged the impact on those officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst. It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom.\u201d Acknowledging the severity of the behavior, and the impact on others generally, is good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps towards securing my sobriety.\u201d Victims want to hear how the offender plans to avoid the offensive\u00a0behavior in the future; if he\u2019s really sorry, he\u2019ll be specific about behaving differently from now on, is their thinking. While mentioning addiction can sometimes sound like an excuse, here it sounds more like an admission\u00a0of the problem. But, given Mr. LaBeouf\u2019s history<\/a> on this issue, it may lack the credibility necessary for an effective apology.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 and I hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes.\u201d The last element of a good apology, according to Peacemaker Ministries\u2019 \u201c7 A\u2019s of Confession\u201d, <\/a>is to ask for forgiveness.<\/p>\n

This apology has some nice turns of phrase (\u201cthe severity of my behavior is not lost on me\u201d; \u201ca low I hope is a bottom\u201d) and does not try to minimize the misconduct.<\/p>\n

So, scoring according to the \u201c7 A\u2019s of Confession,\u201d giving 2 points maximum for each element for a possible total\u00a0of 14 points:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Address everyone involved \u2013 2 pts<\/li>\n
  2. Avoid \u201cif,\u201d \u201cbut,\u201d \u201cmaybe\u201d \u2013 2 pts<\/li>\n
  3. Admit specifically \u2013 1 pt<\/li>\n
  4. Acknowledge the hurt \u2013 1 pt<\/li>\n
  5. Alter behavior \u2013 1 pt<\/li>\n
  6. Accept consequences \u2013 1 pt<\/li>\n
  7. Ask for forgiveness \u2013 2 pts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Total: 10 out of 14. Pretty good apology!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Actor Shia LaBeouf issued an apology this week for his disrespectful behavior towards police officers who arrested him last weekend. He was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, last Saturday, and charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. The police body-camera video of his behavior during the arrest was released and posted on CNN, showing him hurling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}