I Would Strangle this Coward with My Bare Hands

[E-lad]

Yeah, the next thing he'll be saying that his daughter didn't have to make him that mad!
They always blame it on the victim. They deserved it.
In one of his rulings from the bench he ruled that a child should never be believed over the story of the parent.

I noticed in the video that the daughter refused to turn over at the father's command and that infuriated him almost as much as her original crime. I don't know if she was deliberately provoking him or not. The instinct to maintain some control and dignity in a situation like that is strong. I would imagine the punishment would have been a lot shorter and milder if she had submitted. That is no excuse, the father was totally in the wrong.

What I find interesting and disturbing is the number of people who defend their parents for spanking/beating. First, this wasn't discipline. It was a grown man out of control. The foul language alone would have been abusive. Second of all, the concept that beating another person is acceptable behavior is crazy. It is illegal to assault another person. Whether or not that person is related to you should not be a mitigating factor. It seems that people who have been beaten as children are often supportive of the practice. Strange.

Well stated.
I am way out of my element on long term effects of childhood spankings, but I intuitively feel that a swat on the ass at a certain age probably does not do much harm. But these outright beatings and emotional abuse are different. People that say, "I was spanked as a kid and I'm OK," don't stop to think of how they may have turned out had they not been abused, and the difference between a couple swats with the wooden spoon and being beaten with a belt regularly over a long period of time.

I am told by my daughter that there is always a certain amount of abnormal behavior persistence in adults that were abused as a child (again- as opposed to an occasional, controlled spanking) even when they appear well adjusted. They usually suffer from one of the many forms of neurosis. One of the main ones is an inability to change one's life patterns (although they may fall within the norm), and the inability to develop a richer, more complex, more satisfying personality. So your observation about abuse victims supporting the practice seems to support the neurosis theory.

[zilch]

Yep, Froggie. Well put.

[CityonaHill]

Who the hell spanks their 16! year old child?! That wasn't even a spanking, it was a beating, and tag team at that.

That, more or less, is pretty much how my mom used to spank my sister and me. The most memorable instance is when my older sister (who got spanked/hit much more than I did because I decided it was better to keep my mouth shut) accidentally hurt me and I went crying to my mom for comfort. My mom went flying into the bedroom, put my sister in the corner and just started wailing on her as I stood there horrified and begged her to stop. My mom's response was "well see if I ever help you again", and I never told on my sister again after that. There were many times I wanted to call CPS on my mom but was too scared she would go to jail or something. That was pretty gutsy of the girl to video tape it, too bad she didn't turn it in at the time. It seems no matter what a parent does, the child usually cares more about the parent than his/herself and doesn't want to see something "bad" happen to them.

As a christian I had believed that measured and controlled spanking was acceptable. Two of my boys I rarely ever spanked, and didn't see the need to after about age 4/5; my other son was more defiant and about 6/7 when he stopped getting spanked. My daughter, I only ever have spanked when she insists on continuing to run out into the street or trying to throw herself out of my arms onto the concrete (which is usually just one swat, "mommy said no", followed by a hug and telling her I don't want her to get hurt). I never really liked spanking, but I guess because the bible said it was what needed to be done I had to do it and it would make me a good parent and my children obedient. Looking back I think it was the talks I would have with my kids after the spanking that was effective and perhaps the spanking isn't even necessary.

Since being in the army, I've noticed a lot of parents discipline their children drill sergeant style. Most of them have obedient children, but you can tell it's mostly out of fear and that those kids are often very critical of others. I don't want my children to obey me out of fear but out of love and respect. One friend makes it very clear that I don't discipline my children the right way and it drives me nuts.

ANYWAY (sorry for essay)....I can't imagine a punishment that would make that guy feel sorry or realize he was wrong. Public humiliation will have to do I guess, and hopefully jail time.

[E-lad]

I don't want my children to obey me out of fear but out of love and respect.

---Money quote right there.

[Whateverman]

I appreciated that essay, CoaH...

I'm not anti-spanking (and have taken heat for it in the past), but it's clear that corporal punishment is the parental equivalent of the nuclear weapon. Once you hit your child, there's no worse punishment... which means your authority now has a tangible limit. If that child is no longer scared of getting hit by you, your authority is effectively zero.

I tend to think it should be a punishment of last resort, rather than a default. Still, even when my 4 year old niece was at her worst, I have yet to conclude she deserved to be hit.

[zilch]

Thanks, city. I was spanked as a child, but only swatted not very hard on the butt with the open hand, once for sticking my tongue out at my mom. I think there are good arguments on both sides- for completely abstaining from spanking, and for using a spanking as a last resort to keep a kid from running into the street, as city said. What this guy did to his daughter here was way beyond the pale.

[FrodoSaves]

... It is illegal to assault another person. Whether or not that person is related to you should not be a mitigating factor. It seems that people who have been beaten as children are often supportive of the practice. Strange.

I wonder if this is born of the same ethos that leads fathers who went to abusive boarding schools to send their own sons to the same abusive boarding schools? It reminds me of a passage in Hitch-22, in which he basically said that it's a chain of repressed corporal punishment perpetuated by an unconscious need to exact vengeance on a cold father by proxy by meting it out on the next generation. Or in a lesser way, hazing freshmen because you had to go through it yourself. I guess it's a rite of passage – a red welt of courage - which gives the wearer a sense of entitlement to continue the practice, even after the logic is long since forgotten.

[E-lad]

I think your scenario does come into play, Frodo, but I also think that cultural Christian Americans justify the abuse by quoting the bible.

"........according to a recent investigation by the BBC, " America has the worst child abuse record in the industrialized world.""

And:

".......according to the most recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), five children die from abuse or neglect in the U.S. every day. And that number has been growing: as recently as 1998, data showed it was three per day.

The state with the most child abuse-related fatalities? Texas."

I am betting that Texas would be closely followed by the other "Bible Belt" States.

I'm hoping this video will open the eyes of many people and create a lot of discussion.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162- ... ontentBody

By the way, Comfort's "180" video has stalled out after 1.4 million views after intense promotion over two weeks.
The video of the judge beating his daughters now has 5.4 million views after three days with no initial promotion.

[AD6LR]

Update


http://www.kztv10.com/news/youngest-dau ... dge-adams/

[Whateverman]

Fuck him. Fuck him right in the arse.