The Bigger Picture

Cleveland prosecutors have stonewalled TMZ Sports for days, refusing to answer a pretty simple question — what's the logic behind not prosecuting Kareem Hunt for brutalizing a woman?

The video of the incident is the kind of smoking gun prosecutors rarely get ... showing the former Kansas City Chiefs running back shoving and kicking a woman. We’ve made multiple calls to the Cleveland City Prosecutor's Office, asking for an explanation for passing on the case. We got nothing.

A law enforcement source in Cleveland told TMZ Sports the decision not to prosecute was rooted in the fact the victim refused to testify. Fact is, prosecutors commonly file charges in cases where the victim won't testify, if there's additional evidence to prove the charges. Like this one ... where there's video and other eyewitnesses besides the victim.

Think about it ... if prosecutors turn a blind eye just because a victim doesn’t testify, not a single murder case would ever be filed. That’s the absurd logical extension of such a legal standard.

The Hunt case is way more compelling to prosecute than most cases involving men who assault women, because most boil down to “he said/she said.” Here, there’s video ... video of Hunt kicking a defenseless woman. Yet charges were never filed.

The bigger picture ... there’s a much larger issue way beyond Hunt.

Cleveland's City Prosecutor's Office is sending a dangerous signal to the community: that men who assault women can brutalize without consequences, even when the evidence is overwhelming.