Cut My Cable & I'll Cut You

Dispute erupts when wife cancels ESPN, cable TV
By CHASE WRIGHT/Hour Staff Writer

Police arrested a Norwalk man on Saturday who allegedly threatened his wife at knife-point for canceling ESPN a few weeks before the Super Bowl, a department spokesperson said.

Jerome Smalls, 43, was charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree threatening.

Officers responded to Smalls' home on West Main Street on a call of an armed subject shortly before midnight on Saturday, Norwalk police Sgt. Lisa Cotto said.

At the residence, police interviewed a woman who alleged her husband threatened her with a kitchen knife after he learned that she had recently canceled the family's cable package, Cotto said.

Smalls was most upset for having lost his favorite sports channels, specifically the 24-hour sports network ESPN, she said.

Officers found a flat blade kitchen knife on the bedroom floor, Cotto said.

Smalls admitted to grabbing his wife and screaming at her while their three children were sleeping, but denied ever threatening the woman with a knife, she said.

The wife told police that she canceled her husband's favorite programs because the family could no longer afford it, Cotto said. The husband told officers that he was upset because he believed the luxury of cable was well within the household budget, she said.

I'm a bit confused at what cutting cable and ESPN has to do with the Super Bowl (which is on CBS) but I don't want to give any creedence to this woman's claim that cancelling the cable was reasonable. I'm completely behind Jerome Smalls decision to pull a knife on his wife here.

TV provides a rewarding escape from the harsh realities of the real world. The economy is in the shitter but TV has to be the last thing to go. The kids don't need food. Don't they eat enough at school? In this case Jerome had to send a simple message - cut the cable and I'll cut you. Oddly enough the last time the words "cable," "ESPN," and "domestic dispute" were in the same sentence Oakland's Tom Cable was in the crosshairs.