Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the internet

[Babbylonian]

This is a very good point. How often do you hear people tell stories about how they were beaten with a belt when they were a kid? Many probably much worse then this. My wife said that her grandpa used to make her go out and get a switch and then hit her with it. Hell, I know I had my ass spanked pretty good as a kid.

Now I am not saying that this is acceptable or anything, I am just saying that it happens all the time and agreeing that if you just heard about it, you would not give it a second thought.

Well, I certainly won't be lumped into that. As soon as a parent uses a weapon, I think s/he should be prosecuted and the kid(s) taken away, at least until corrective action can be taken (counseling, jail time, whatever).

Also, it was a 16-year-old daughter. I wonder if they'd have felt so comfortable beating up on a healthy 16-year-old son. I love my parents but if they'd reached for a belt to use on me at that age, neither of them would have gotten more than one warning to put the thing down*.

In any case, the behavior I saw in that video was evil. It wouldn't be fit punishment for any behavior, never mind violating copyright law.

*Which I say, of course, in the full knowledge that had I been raised by child abusers (I remember exactly one spanking - bare hand on clothed butt when I was 5) I wouldn't have been the same person then or now and so have no idea how I would really deal with the situation.

 

[BenBurch]

I have a two-pronged approach:

1. Let the law decide questions of law. If a suit is brought, let it be tried in court. If the defendant is acquitted, then let the acquittal stand. If a conviction results, then let the convict be sentenced in accordance with the law.

2. Let the community be the community. If the man is seen as behaving shamefully, let him be shamed whenever he ventures out in public. If the community sees fit to shun him, let him be shunned. Wherever his fellow citizens are within the law to cast him out--of their businesses, of their social organizations, of their lives--let them do so if they so desire.

10-4

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Did he commit a crime though?

Some would consider it child abuse, yes.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I can't help noticing the irony when the guy says how he had said the computer was nothing but trouble then that very computer is the source of this being seen in public.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Video went viral and even made headlines in Oz.

Judge who handles child abuse cases under the spotlight after video of him beating his daughter goes viral

Police investigate Texas judge over video beating

Video of Texas Judge Beating Daughter Provokes Online Outcry

Hillary Adams, daughter of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, talks outside her mother's home in Portland, Texas Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Adams says she feels some regret about posting online video of her father lashing her with a belt several years ago but that she hopes it forces him to get help.

What I think is good about such scrutiny is how people might feel about their behavior when it is aired in public. If this is such reasonable parenting, then every parent who uses cruelty to parent should air their own videos proudly.

 

[Ryokan]

 

[Dave Rogers]

So what's the verdict on what should be done about such actions by a sitting judge?

There's a case on this side of the pond that's tangentially related; a deputy high court judge has just been dismissed after being convicted of an assault on his wife. It seems to me a reasonable response in the circumstances.

Dave

 

[welshdean]

What a prick!

How could a loving father bring himself to hit a screaming child?

I'd love to meet him. I'd really love to meet him.

 

[bluesjnr]

What a prick!

How could a loving father bring himself to hit a screaming child?

I'd love to meet him. I'd really love to meet him.

Why? So you could help underpin his belief that physical punishment is the "go to" solution for treating misdemeanour's by opening up a can o' whopass on him.

 

[maxpower1227]

I posted this in the "Let's Reconsider Flogging" thread as an illustration of how bad of an idea it was, but nobody seemed to take note of it. It is pretty disturbing, though.

 

[brodski]

Why? So you could help underpin his belief that physical punishment is the "go to" solution for treating misdemeanour's by opening up a can o' whopass on him.

Exactly. He was punishing his daughter for breaking the law, and transgressing his moral boundaries. He did this in a totally unjustified and barbaric manner, but thousands of internet hard-cases don't see to see the irony that their violent revenge fantasies are just more of the same.

 

[sophia8]

I am equally disturbed by this:

The video footage of Judge William Adams physically abusing his daughter has brought under scrutiny child protection cases he has worked on in the past.

Witnesses who attended a courtroom trial of Judge Adams on October 11 last year claimed that the judge agreed with a lawyer who had argued that 'a child's statements amounted to no evidence' and they are 'fantasizers'.

The case involved the custody of a six-year-old child who is said to have suffered 'horrific abuse'.

According to the blog, A Child's Voice, despite the child's statements being confirmed by independent third party witnesses and the young person being interviewed by a child psychologist, Judge Adams concluded that children's testimony should be ignored.

 

[brodski]

Flay, rub with salt, slow smoke is kindness to it by me.

I'm curious, Fuelair, you are very vocal about your favoured extra-judicial punishments for criminals, many if not most of which involve premeditated disproportionate violence against the perpetrator.
That being the case, by what criteria do you judge that this punishment was wrong?
For myself, I find it easy to judge this beating as wrong because it's barbaric, violent and disproportionate- but barbaric violent and disproportionate seems to be your recommended solution in many cases- this one included.

 

[Molinaro]

The panel discussion here on CNN.com includes a judge who says no law was broken. The supreme court has said that corporal punishment in schools is illegal but no such ruling has ever been made for at home in the US.

 

[Halfcentaur]

I'm curious, Fuelair, you are very vocal about your favoured extra-judicial punishments for criminals, many if not most of which involve premeditated disproportionate violence against the perpetrator.
That being the case, by what criteria do you judge that this punishment was wrong?
For myself, I find it easy to judge this beating as wrong because it's barbaric, violent and disproportionate- but barbaric violent and disproportionate seems to be your recommended solution in many cases- this one included.

It's just bizarre when people accuse you of somehow condoning murder or violence because you speak out against murdering or doing violence against murderers and violent offenders. In reality, they're the people condoning the actions, but they're just excusing murder and violence as if there is a time and place for it, as if justified murder and violence isn't murder and violence. As if there is good murder, and good violence.

I myself get the urge to harm and inflict suffering on people I find villainous, but I recognize it for exactly the primitive urge my reasoning is appalled by in the first place, and I do not indulge in the cycle.

 

[ZirconBlue]

This is a very good point. How often do you hear people tell stories about how they were beaten with a belt when they were a kid? Many probably much worse then this. My wife said that her grandpa used to make her go out and get a switch and then hit her with it. Hell, I know I had my ass spanked pretty good as a kid.

Now I am not saying that this is acceptable or anything, I am just saying that it happens all the time and agreeing that if you just heard about it, you would not give it a second thought.

Really? When I hear such stories I think about how horrible it was that these kids were abused. You really don't "give it a second thought"?

In reality, they're the people condoning the actions, but they're just excusing murder and violence as if there is a time and place for it, as if justified murder and violence isn't murder and violence. As if there is good murder, and good violence.

Do you deny that there are times when violence or killing are justified?

 

[Babbylonian]

The panel discussion here on CNN.com includes a judge who says no law was broken. The supreme court has said that corporal punishment in schools is illegal but no such ruling has ever been made for at home in the US.

That's not correct, and if a judge said that (that school corporal punishment is illegal in the US) s/he may need a legal refresher course, or at least an Internet connection. There are still states where corporal punishment is legal in public schools and for private schools it's still legal in most states (though likely requiring parental consent prior to the punishment).

As for home corporal punishment, while it's legal in the US, there are still lines that can be drawn and I'm sure many jurisdictions would consider what was done in this video to be abuse.

 

[Philosaur]

I'm trying to figure out how much of this is just moral one-upsmanship. Seems to me that's a favorite game around here.

Are you guys really equating an adult man beating his teenage daughter with one adult enacting violent vigilante justice on another (obviously guilty) adult?

Exactly. He was punishing his daughter for breaking the law, and transgressing his moral boundaries. He did this in a totally unjustified and barbaric manner, but thousands of internet hard-cases don't see to see the irony that their violent revenge fantasies are just more of the same.

BS. The violent revenge fantasies (at least the ones I've read here) are certainly justified--even though they aren't legal. You honestly can't understand why someone would be have violent revenge fantasies at the thought of a grown man beating a child? Or is the expression of such just unseemly?

Why? So you could help underpin his belief that physical punishment is the "go to" solution for treating misdemeanour's by opening up a can o' whopass on him.

I don't give a **** about his beliefs. His judgment is clearly shot to hell already. What I care about is breaking both his arms so he can't hit kids. If it somehow persuaded him to never practice law again, so much the better.

I'm curious, Fuelair, you are very vocal about your favoured extra-judicial punishments for criminals, many if not most of which involve premeditated disproportionate violence against the perpetrator.

Disproportionate is an adult man beating a child.

Disproportionate is beating a child with a belt for 5 minutes for illegal downloads.

A man beating the crap out of a known child abuser: PROPORTIONATE and DESERVED.

That being the case, by what criteria do you judge that this punishment was wrong?

How can you *not* see it as wrong? Your request for justification is either insincere or ridiculous.

For myself, I find it easy to judge this beating as wrong because it's barbaric, violent and disproportionate- but barbaric violent and disproportionate seems to be your recommended solution in many cases- this one included.

Your idea of what is disproportionate seems to be skewed.

 

[Ryokan]

A man beating the crap out of a known child abuser: PROPORTIONATE and DESERVED.

It's also ILLEGAL. Why do you think that is?

 

[Philosaur]

It's also ILLEGAL. Why do you think that is?

I'm not claiming anyone is legally justified in taking vigilante justice. I'm saying we are justified in having violent revenge fantasies.

Others here seem to be trying to shame us into their moral position, with crap arguments that pretend there is no difference between child abuse and vigilante justice against a proven abuser.