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    ihave2catsEnid Shaw
    9/16/14 11:02pm

    that's a pretty average-looking welt situation if you spank your kids with a switch.

    i was spanked with a wooden spoon that had a hole in it. it was similarly brutal. i don't think my parents were evil, they just had an old-fashioned idea about discipline, like many still do.

    i would never spank my child, though.

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      Icecold Davisihave2cats
      9/16/14 11:05pm

      You'll just manufacture excuses for OTHER people to abuse their children. You, sir, are an American hero.

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      Cherith Cutestoryihave2cats
      9/16/14 11:07pm

      It was a week later that those photos were taken.

      And were just to his legs not the injuries to his genitals or his ass (thank God).

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    deepbreathsighEnid Shaw
    9/17/14 12:08am

    If an adult hits another adult for any reason, isn't that legally assault? We can't hit/hurt people just because they don't behave the way we want them to. I can't whack my my boss upside the head for not giving me an overdue raise. I can't hit that lady on the train who won't stop leaning her whole body on the pole I need to hang on to. I can't pull down some switches from a tree and lash the tourists who walk 5 abreast. I can't slap a guy who yells shit about my bottom out loud on the streets. Why? Because that's assault, and we recognize that it it not conducive to the social order to go around socking it to people who piss us off in the heat of the moment.

    And it's a continuum. Isn't everyone angry at ISIS and gearing up to "punish" them because they're hurting and killing people whose governments aren't behaving the way ISIS wants them to behave? Isn't that what Rice did, hit his then-fiance because he didn't like her behavior? And see, if she'd allowed it, he would've been charged with assault. And it's about ego and control, all of it.

    So why is it OK to hit a child, who most definitely can't defend themselves, and most times is just being a child? What is that kid learning except to stuff the rage down? And don't tell me you came out "fine". If we tell our kids not to hit people, then what are we modeling by hitting them when they don't do what we want them to? The irony being that Peterson whupped that child for hitting another kid. Because a 4 year old totally gets that "cause and effect" thing. Right.

    Aren't we as a species supposed to be trying to develop ourselves beyond "might makes right" and other similar fucked-up ego trips?

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      coltaculardeepbreathsigh
      9/17/14 1:06am

      It's so much more damaging to be hurt by someone who is supposed to love us, as well. If you punched that lady leaning on the pole, she is old enough to place that within a general context of violence and a stranger's warped consciousness. But a physically punished child is taught that violence is something we do to people we love, and that fear and rage and pain are acceptable emotional states within intimate relationships. And thus the cycle continues.

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    The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabyStepsEnid Shaw
    9/16/14 11:38pm

    I am not anti-spanking but this seems (and I have not looked at the pictures) a bit more than needed. Spanking hard enough to draw blood and involving genitals is going too far.

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      thehoopoe3The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabySteps
      9/16/14 11:47pm

      it bears repeating that we don't whip criminals anymore, but apparently we do whip 4 year olds.

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      matt.maraThe Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabySteps
      9/17/14 12:49am

      I haves seen the pictures—specifically those of the child's legs—and I can say this: Peterson needs to be in jail post haste. What he did will not only physically scar the child for decades to come, but will also cause psychological issues as well.

      I don't think there is anything wrong with spanking a child, but there's a line. That line is, I think, somewhere between a little temporary redness and open, bleeding wounds. And that line is far closer to the former than the latter.

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    ancientamericanEnid Shaw
    9/16/14 10:50pm

    I don't know how we got to the point where "disciplining" a dog or cat by beating it about the legs and genitals with a stick until it bleeds is assured of more public outrage and consequences than doing the same to a 4-year old child. The latter seems to engender more excuse-making than anything. It's not a good place to be as a society.

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      coltacularancientamerican
      9/16/14 11:00pm

      People would FREAK out if they showed injuries like those on a dog. Seriously, the man would receive death threats for years.

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    Cherith CutestoryEnid Shaw
    9/16/14 11:17pm

    In doing so, it would be an indirect indictment of millions of well-meaning moms and dads everywhere, past and present that accidentally cross the fuzzy line."

    So what? These are almost always the same people who talk about how no one wants to be accountable anymore. And then turn around and say we should give child abusers a break because it might make lots of other people feel bad. They won't be prosecuted, of course. But you wouldn't want them to feel bad.

    These are the same people who claim that not spanking leads to wussification but can't bear to hear one bad word spoken about their parenting.

    Even if Adrian Peterson didn't mean to cross a line, he did cross a line. And when you cross a line you face punishment and are called a criminal. Just like, in his mind, his son had to take his punishment so does Adrian Peterson.

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      Manuél FerrariCherith Cutestory
      9/17/14 1:13am

      Yeah being "well-meaning" is fucking bullshit. If that logic worked then it would be OK for a man to hit his spouse because "I meant well, I just needed to get her in line because she was drunk". And all sorts of other violence could be justified by being "for a good cause".

      What AP did was not lightly spank a child. It was straight up child abuse.

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    GoddessOfWarEnid Shaw
    9/16/14 11:08pm

    The arguments in support of Adrian Peterson infuriate me. Maybe it's because I KNOW I was abused as a child and I've called my mother out for it. Of course she disagrees, but I think some of that is because she's genuinely ashamed that she resorted to such barbaric behavior.

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      Insert Clever NameEnid Shaw
      9/17/14 12:45am

      I think Engel makes a solid point. Do we really want to live in a country where someone has his parenting ability questioned just because he got mad and hit a child with a stick?

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        Shut Up!Insert Clever Name
        9/17/14 8:07pm

        It's terrible that people aren't even thinking about the rights of the children. Doesn't every child have the right to be beaten with a stick?

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        Insert Clever NameShut Up!
        9/17/14 8:11pm

        It's just so culturally insensitive, isn't it? I'm of southern extraction, and "Go pick me a switch" is just what we grew up with. It sent the message that my parents loved me enough to set me straight. Also, that they wanted to beat me with a stick.

        Quite frankly—and I don't say this to be extreme—everyone who questions child-beating is a bigot.

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      Geph_knows_bestEnid Shaw
      9/17/14 10:17am

      "What Peterson did could qualify as murder," Engel writes. "But that does not make him an murderer." And calling him as a murderer, he adds, is "irrational and incorrect. In doing so, it would be an indirect indictment of millions of well-meaning men and women everywhere, past and present that accidentally cross the fuzzy line."

      Replace the words with whatever you want, what an insane notion he has going. Must be nice to live in his box.

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        ShameekFrom212Geph_knows_best
        9/17/14 10:24pm

        Is someone who tells lies a liar?

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        Geph_knows_bestShameekFrom212
        9/18/14 9:52am

        It would stand to reason, yes? Someone who drives race cars is a racer, someone who bikes is a cyclist. It's a direct cause and effect.

        He's being charged with CHILD ABUSE. If you murder or rape someone, you are charged with murder or rape, it doesn't matter if there wasn't a 'pattern of abuse' or murder, or rape.

        The child was bleeding and had lacerations to his back, legs, buttocks and scrotum, including defensive wounds on his hands. What could a four year old do to deserve that? Those are facts. We can't say, "Well, we don't know everything, we don't know the circumstances, etc etc." If anyone say that, they are using the exact same tired excuses as Goodell, we have seen the results, who the fuck cares what the circumstances were?

        Dont take this as an afront to you, I'm just saying this generally.

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