Sounds like he went way beyond appropriate discipline. OTOH, the timing of the allegations is...curious.
Perhaps he was trying to teach the kid that violence is good. Heard the kids a little shit anyway! Kidding! This is so disgusting. Hopefully AP can take some parenting courses and therapy for both him and his son, and the violence can stop.
Absolutely disgusted by the actions of Peterson and Rice. What's just as sad are the people trying to justify it. There is discipline and abuse. What Peterson did was abuse, bottom line. And, for some reason, I keep reading responses like "I was beat as a child, but I turned out alright." This thought process baffles me. Just because it was done to you as a child doesn't give you or anyone else the right to do it as an adult. It's a vicious fucking cycle. I really hope Peterson serves jail time for what he did.
While he certainly went overboard, and admitted he did, spanking your kids in Texas is not a crime. If anything this sounds like more of a horrible mistake than a crime. Should he be punished.....yes. Should he be called a piece of shit....no. I was spanked as a child with both a belt and a hand. Dad with a belt and mom with a hand so she could "pass along some common sense through her hand" I spank my children "if they do something really bad." A friend of mine thinks it's abuse and punishes his children by sending them to their rooms with some books and makes them do a report on whatever it is before they can leave their room. His kids get really poor grades in reading because they hate doing it....so which one of us is "abusing" our children more? Comparing Peterson and Rice is completely silly. IT'S LEGAL to spank your kid in Texas. What he did was hit him too had, and admitted it right away. IT'S NOT LEGAL to hit a woman
If that gentle remedy were all there is at stake, I'd agree. But what's happening is a million-dollar trial to put him (and ultimately half of America) into prison for years. Despite my having asked the question, no one here has said how many years they'd sentence him to. They just want to say that it's terrible and delegate the torture to the monsters in charge.
50 years, with a potential for getting out a year early if he exhibits good behavior. How's that? Don't make me double it!
One of you hits your children and one of you makes them read books and you're actually asking who abuses their kids more?
School of hard knocks versus school of education. Texas made its choice long ago. Now, if all Texas children wrapped their bottoms with "Don't tread on me" flags, spankings would be illegal. Because Texans aren't allowed to tread on anyone except minorities, women or homosexuals.
If I were judge, this being a first offense I wouldn't include jail time as that won't help improve the situation. I would require parenting classes, I would require therapy for AP and AP provide it for his son. I would Also require shit tons of community service, like 1200 hours over a few years. If AP repeated this offense, I would want years of jail time and no more unsupervised visits with his child. In other words, first time is used to correct the problem and fix their relationship in a nonviolent way, but after a second time the point becomes to remove the man from the life of the child.
I agree with booking, releasing. I think parenting classes and no jail time is sufficient. If a repeat offense then drop the hammer.
It seems like Texas is more "spanking" friendly so I'm fine with this case proceeding through the legal system and let them come up with a punishment that fights the crime. From what I've read there are some things that are of great concern about this. First, the kid is only 4 years old. Next, AP put leafs in the kid's mouth and proceeded to whip him not only on his bottom but his arms, legs, testicles until the kid bled. That's not a punishment, that is torture. And yes, you should treat a 4yr old as good if not better than a grown woman. You would never whip a woman with a switch until she bleeds.
