A particularly depressing aspect of this and the Ray Rice situations is that at least 90% of people's responses are emotional, thought-free reactions that inevitably come down on one extreme or the other, when the truth is somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, that requires patience and thinking, which very few want to do.
What AP did to that boy is awful and tragic. It is also consistent with his upbringing and his faith (to be clear, those don't excuse it, but they provide context for understanding how it happened). The fact that he believes he is acting in the best long-term interest of his son is important, no matter how ill-informed that belief may be. That's different from him being pissed off about losing a game and taking it out on his kid. The NFL will do whatever is in its best financial interest, and if we're lucky that will align with what's best for AP Junior. Maybe a two to four-week suspension for AP while he goes to counseling to learn how to be a strong father without resorting to violence, especially at that level. States may disagree on whether corporal punishment is allowed, but there is still a line and this is clearly beyond it.
This is a great post. A couple of other thoughts I have:
- I'm actually glad to see that AP seems to care about his kids. I'm a little perplexed that he didn't seem to be be involved in the life of the child who died a year or two ago but he seems to care about his other kids. Hopefully he learns from this and finds the proper line for disciplining his children. I'd rather have that than the more common behavior in the AA community where the father is MIA.
- I've seen people in this thread comparing this to the Vick or Ray Rice cases. This is very different than both of those cases.
This was a father trying to do what he felt was right and in the best interests of his child. Clearly he was wrong in his application of that principle but to compare this to either of those other cases is ridiculous IMO.
This is a HUGE assumption on your part and at this point we do not know this at all. Based on the severity of those photos, he might have started out that way and then lost his temper. Or he might have used the "discipline" thing as an excuse to sadistically abuse his son, as so many child abusers do. We don't know anything, and it's rather ludicrous of you, IMO, to just throw this assumption out there as if it were the truth.
Tim,
Like you I'm going by the evidence that is out there. AP's discussions with the police are out there and I have read them. There isn't any evidence suggesting anything else. Why is it ok for you to continuously give the government the benefit of the doubt regardless of evidence that suggests they're lieing, but I can't take AP at his word? Do you have any evidence that what he did wasn't just a disciplinary action that was taken too far?
Just a bit too far? Cuts to the kids scrotum, among other areas, and you're justifying this because it kinda got a little outta hand, a little overzealous, whoops my bad?
I am just so disgusted and discouraged by some of the minority views in this country.
I haven't justified anything. I'm sorry I don't look at things as black and white and form my opinions within 5 minutes of hearing about a story like you and Tim. There are nuances and context to many incidents and I like to explore the entire story. AP doesn't have a history of violence that I'm aware of. If this was Michael Vick in this story my thoughts might be significantly different. To me this seems out of character so I'm giving the man some leeway at the moment. Thus far, this seems to me like someone who was brought up a certain way and is just doing things the way he was taught and believes worked for him. AP became a successful, rich man despite apparently having been beaten as a kid. So he believes that works. I'm not saying he's right, or justifying his actions in any way. But assuming that's his thought process I understand it. For him. Based upon his upbringing.
It's comments like yours and Tims that make it almost impossible to have hard, intelligent discussions about charged topics such as this. And that's unfortunate. And sad.
This is quite possibly the biggest load of bull#### you've ever written and that's truly saying something. What incredible
chutzpah on your part to write that I form my opinions within 5 minutes, but that you look for nuances and context. Apparently you can't even remember what you wrote and what I wrote in this discussion, so let's review. You wrote:
This was a father trying to do what he thought was right and in the best interests of his child.
I wrote:
At this point we do not know this at all...we do not know anything.
So who is the one forming their opinion in the first 5 minutes, and who is the one looking for nuance and context?
And you're full of #### anyway. It probably took you 2 seconds to form your opinion. You formed it, because IMO you're just like all the other ridiculous etoughguys in this thread who think that the lack of corporal punishment is a sign of a weak society. Sure, if it turns out to be clearly abuse (as it certainly looks like right now) you'll backtrack and claim you never wrote that, just as you're already trying to do now. But anyone who reads you knows better.