Adrian Peterson indicted for child abuse

Another system might be timeout or taking away video games.

From what I understand, the whoppings were not working like he needed them to.

 

Did I not say it was excessive and overboard? All the Dr. Phils in here are stifling.

 

The specific instance here indicates that this is a guy who is smacking his kid out of anger rather than for discipline. There is a distinct difference. When I was a kid, I was paddled...but never anything that would bruise or cause other injuries.

If somebody utilizes that form of punishment and causes physical injury, they are coming at it from an angry, abusive perspective. That individual needs to be dealt with through the legal system.

To me...it is all about the mindset which is evidenced by the physical injury.

 

Amazing to me...

When you see a child out there being disrespectful and constantly getting in trouble... It's the parents fault for not discipline the child..

When a parent spanks the child, then it's child abuse....

I don't approve of child abuse, but I have no problem with spanking a child.. Yes i'm old school... I grew up in a time when my father or grand father said jump, you didn't ask how high or how long.

Like the old saying goes, if you let a puppy play in the garden when he's young then don't expect to change him when he gets older.

T_Man

 

Based on the pictures, evidence and Peterson's own words, do you believe this is a case of spanking or worse? Should a spanking cause multiple open wounds over multiple parts of the body? This is not a case of a red mark on the butt that goes away an hour or so after a swat or two.

 

Bo, as I stated... I don't approve of child abuse... But i completely approve of spanking...

Now did I get bruised after some spanking yes I did... But I also learned valuable lessons like "I want do that again.."

There is a fine line and I don't believe you should spank your child if you don't have control of your emotions...

T_Man

 

Lol I love the logic used by some.... My parents were ****ty parents and whopped me until I bleed so I have the same right to do the same to my children. Yes times are changing. Deal with it

 

What did you actually learn? That what you did was wrong or that if your caught your parents will punish you physically?

 

Rusty Hardin saw the pictures and the text messages before he had his client testify to the grand jury. Sounds like Hardin is trying to put the right for parents to spank their kids on trial, and I'd say he has a good chance of winning.

Hardin's going to argue that the child is violent and unruly, that spanking has been the only thing that has been effective, and that the injuries were caused by the child resisting the spanking. He'll argue that the mother is coaching the child what to say in order to get leverage over custody and child support. The child will be portrayed as a little monster left spoiled and undisciplined by his mother who AP struggles to control.

In the end, the prosecution will have to show why the punishment was unreasonable for a child who fought with his father during such a beating, to the point of exacerbating the injuries and continuing to struggle after causing multiple lacerations to his front legs, yet never shed a tear or indicated that the switch was cutting him. Contrast that with a father who immediately contacted the mother and warned her about the marks, actively participated in the investigation, and spent three hours in front of the grand jury testifying.

Unless something came out in grand jury that we don't know about yet, this case looks like a loser to me for the State, particularly in Montgomery County. There are a lot of good prosecutors in this State, but sometimes the temptation of taking on a high profile defendant clouds even the best prosecutor's judgment.

 

Hardin's argument about the spanking working will be a losing one considering his client admitted that the spanking wasn't working.

I find it hard to believe that any jury would consider what Peterson did spanking. Unfortunately, all you need is one of the 12.

A FOUR year old "fought" with his father? Are you seriously putting blame on the FOUR year old child for "fighting" during the whipping that caused multiple open wounds over multiple parts of his body? Are you seriously trying to lessen Peterson's responsibility in part because he admitted to the mother that at least one of the wounds was more severe? Or, are you playing devil's advocate?

 

Spanking has been working for centuries though. The kid not crying does not mean the spanking is not working long term.

The kid was acting up, he did push another kid. That is not acceptable and something which does warrant discipline.

But yes Peterson did go too far.

 

Why do people keep trying to pretend this was a just a regular spanking? If you want to defend it, that's fine - but you shouldn't need to pretend it's something it's not. Spankings don't leave cuts and lacerations a week later.

 

I don't believe there are any posters who have been adamantly posting against spanking or other forms of non-corporal punishment. Posters (at least me) are speaking out about the multiple open wounds over multiple parts of the body. That is not spanking and that is not directed at you since you agree Peterson went too far.

As to your point about the child not crying...Peterson, himself, admitted that the current level of 'spanking' was not working because the child did not shed a tear and he would have to try something else. It is up to our imagination as to what that something else would be.

 

I love seeing athletes who can barely speak English, have kids all over the country, use drugs, blow money like its nothing, have High criminal complaint rates, etc. point out that whoopings like this work like it worked when their parents did them.

 

Didn't he also text his wife about that something else being to use timeout more effectively?

Lol he could change his whopping room into a timeout room.

 

I think it's damning that even AP himself said that the punishment accidentally went too far. If those texts get admitted as evidence, it's over...plea bargain...probably probation. Intent matters. For the pro-corporal punishment crowd (which I'm in), he just needs better accuracy and non-skin breaking punishment tools.

It's great that some of y'all are wonderful non-violent parents with wonderful kids, but in the neighborhood that I grew up in, there were some terrible kids. I did some bad things, and the kids I hung around did some awful things. Sometimes the only thing they feared was a whoopin from their daddy. I'm sure full-time proper parenting would create better responses, but some people can't do that, and considering AP has a bunch of kids all over the country, I wouldn't expect full-time proper parenting from him either.

 

Also, the pictures are about a week old.

 

A lot of y'all are making this out as it is givin a whoopin or the kids are out of control. I think it is clearly obvious that that isn't the case. As for Petersen I have no reason to doubt that he doesn't love his kids and fully believe he was doing the right thing but the key thing here is just how excessive it was.

Also while a lot of people got whooped by their parents there were probably a lot of things that people did not that long ago that we wouldn't do now. Just the other day I was talking to another Judo instructor about how my first Sensei would hit us with a shinai (bamboo sword) and it would just be taps. I also remember as a kid in karate being picked up and basically choke slammed by an instructor for talking during practice. Those things we can't do anymore and we would rightfully be charged with abuse and not be allowed to teach again, especially choke slamming a kid. I don't think that has made us weaker or less tough as martial artists as we handle things differently.

 

Good summary. AP went too far. You cannot expect a year old to behave in an appropriate manner at all times.