Do you think the Texas judge who was caught beating his daughter on video should be criminally charged?

. If this man had acted in this manner, towards an adult in public place in front of independent witnessed, and been caught on CCTV, ….. . ….. I have no doubt that he would have been arrested, charged and found guilty. . In my opinion children (who are rarely in a position to be able to defend themselves) deserve and need even greater protection than adults do in public, especially when they are confined behind closed doors away from the gaze of independent witnesses. . So ….. Y E S ! ….., I think this man should be criminally charged before a morally upright Judge and Jury. . He may not necessarily be guilty - but he sure as hell looks guilty to me. . If he has been beating a largely defenceless young girl - even if it was his own daughter and she had done something wrong - because he “lost his temper” (as if THAT was some sort of excuse), ….. . ….. I think natural justice would be served if he was charged, tried, found guilty and given a short, sharp prison sentence - where he could be similarly subjected to attentions of physically powerful thugs who are on a similarly short-fused temper. . A man who can dish out that sort of unreasonable punishment to his daughter has probably been similarly unreasonable with defendants in his courtroom - and it would do him some good to experience the injustice of unfair and excessive chastisement. .

– Best wishes - Roy Bean JP .

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uh duh he deserves lots of punshment!!

Without the “duh”, please - that’s very rude.

A lot of parents beat their kids with a belt as hard or harder than the judge did. I personally don’t believe in corporal punishment and I am sickened and appalled by the video but I don’t believe it falls far enough outside the norm to be criminal. If after the incident bruises, broken skin, or welts were documented a stronger case could be made against the judge.

If he was beating her, beating her then yes! If it was just a slap, I wouldn’t be bothered by it, but it wasnt so he shouldnt be allowed to be a judge anymore, instead, he should have to go stand before one.

oh YES. he beat the hell outta her. every child is gonna act up but violence is not a way to solve it. violence never solves anything. i occasionally smack my daughters butt but not even hard just enough to show her im serious. but most of the time i put her in time out. she hates that. Every parent loses their tempor with their child every now and then but u cannot beat them. if i was that 16 year old i would have kicked him in his nuts and took the belt and started wackin him with it. haha. thats over doin it

Your assumption that if the judge experienced being beaten with a belt that he would have more empathy is incorrect. Chances are his parents beat him with a belt and his parents were probably beaten with a belt when they were young as well. Without intervention child abuse usually runs in families.

I agree with filletofspam. I have heard that as well. my dad was beatin as a child. thank God he didnt carry that along. I never got spanked just grounded. But that is a well known fact that is runs in the family… its what you were taught and raised to act like. just like violent families tend to have violent disobidient children.

I think that a person who so totally fails on education and on personal relation to his own child should not be in a position to judge what other people do to each other.

As this video is 7 years old - it says the daughter was 16 when the video was made and she is 23 now - the crime is probably elapsed. But if she says that there were more recent incidents, then this tape might be a valid proof.

@Fillet. I wasn’t particularly looking at it from the point of view of engendering empathy - more a sort of “… eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth …” sort of natural “justice”. Executing a killer is a similar sort of natural justice ( not that ‘Majikthise’ believes in Corporal Punishment!) ….. and that is why I included a Roy Bean signature line - he was the first architypal “hanging judge” (by reputation) that I could bring to mind. .

– Best wishes - Majikthise. .

Punishments in childhood are necessary for lifelong discipline. But whacking with a belt. This looks like a street brawl.

When I watched the video I tried to be understanding (parents often can’t punish their children any more) but I kept watching and I feel like he went too far. Not to mention the reason he beat her was because she downloaded a computer game, if that’s all it takes for him to go nuts like that I hope she is ok now that she humiliated him. I feel like he could killed her one day if she did something else teenage-like as she gets older. This is obviously not the first time it has happened, and I feel like this wasn’t the worst that she’s had it either.

Also, when the mother says that’s enough and the father goes off and gets ANOTHER belt and continues to hit her. Two belts? That beating went on for a long time and was a bit excessive to be a punishment over a computer game. I fear for her life in the future if this continues.

However all this happened 7 years ago and after 5 no charges can really be applied so nothing legal will happen although he might get removed from the bench. So I guess the girl made it through alive and mostly because her mother divorced him and moved them away is what I understand, updates are coming through and I just read that it was 7 years ago, but had it been today, my answer still stands.

Down south it isn’t that unusual that discipline involves corporal punishment and it is a generational thing. Up north if you so much as spank or slap a child in a store for misbehaving…you could find yourself facing some officers, as it’s far less accepted as a means to discipline children. But I think down south it’s more tolerated as, down home discipline of “spare the rod, spoil the child”. I think the younger generations down there are seeing that beating a child isn’t the way but it’s just a slower process because of the wide acceptance that exists.

How about someone who works within the foster care system, has a masters degree and still thinks that abuse is disgusting and sickening? As for “valid proof”, what exactly does that mean? If it happened 10 years ago, it isn’t real?

Yes, of course. He beat her so hard. Omg. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

legally if it happened over 5 years ago he can’t be punished, it happened 7 years ago. That is what Rottensheepofevil is trying to say is that the tape alone isn’t enough and the man will not be facing criminal charges.

I dunno about that. I think abuse is everywhere. Its slowly becoming more of an issue and he happened to get caught. Its still a big deal in texas. No one likes that. Reguardless of the north or south kids and people get abused. I think we americans north and south r on the same page about that abd if it had happened recently he would face prison sentence/harsh punishment. Since it came out 7 years later nothin will happen but is still frowned upon badly

Abuse is everywhere I agree with that . But I have a number of different relations born and raised down south. And they know what it’s like to have been beat. Everything from hickory switches to holding onto a post while you get yor whippin. For that reason they don’t do it to their own kids and they do very much frown on it. But they still have parents who think they as parents themselves are spoiling the child by sparing the rod. They will still give them a smack on the butt or on the hands but it’s nowhere near as brutal. My point is, the judge seven years ago likely would have gotten a scolding if even that…but since so many years have gone by nothing of any signifigance will happen to him.

Why not??

I think that thats the law anywhere. 7 years statue of limitations. I been livin in texas a long time anad know a lot of people. I really havnt come accross anything like ur sayin. thats brutel

I was thinking of “natural justice” as non-contrived consequences for his actions. Looking the term up it actually seems to mean something different than how either of us thought of it. “Loosing one’s temper” is a legal defense.. Not sure if it is a valid defence in UK but in the US a “temporary insanity” defense can refer to a mental state of diminished capacity caused by rage. Also, there used to be “unwritten laws” in the US that juries would not convict a man who found his wife copulating with another man and killed his wife and/or her lover. Both of these are less common in the US than they used to be. After John Hinkley was found not guilty of attempting to assassinate Ronald Reagan by reason of insanity the laws were changed making any sort of insanity defense more difficult. Also, jury nullification is rare now that most Americans are too spineless to consider going against the judge’s instructions even when a guilty verdict would go against everything they believe.