I agree with Rihanna’s people who said her injuries were not as bad as the media and blogs had been reporting.
For instance, someone exaggerated wildly when he said her eyes were swollen shut. Her eyes are not even swollen!
She simply closed her eyes — probably at the request of the officer taking the picture.
She has a few light contusions and bruising on her face. There is dried blood on her lip — probably from a laceration inside her mouth.
I’m not defending CB by any means, but Rihanna’s features appear to be distorted because the officer was standing so close to her face. Also, the exposure was way off. The cheapest consumer digital camera could have taken a better picture than that.
It would seem to me that the LAPD should be able to afford better equipment to present its evidence more accurately.