champs99and04 said:
Even if you're somebody who believes in physically disciplining children (I don't), how young is too young? If I read correctly, the child in question was four-years-old. Four! And now he's scarred for who knows how long for doing something I'm guessing a lot of other four-year-olds do. In addition to that, the images reveal abuse. And if what Gurleyman says is true (which I have no reason not to believe, since I think I read it elsewhere, as well), that's even worse. I'm not sure how this can be justified as anything less than criminal behavior.
From the Minneapolis paper (although I heard it originally on SportsCenter):
Sources told the Star Tribune that the boy lives with his mother in Minnesota but was on a visit to Texas several months ago when Peterson chose to discipline him with the switch — a tree branch stripped of its leaves and twigs. When the boy returned to Minnesota, a source confirmed, he was taken to a doctor’s appointment in the Twin Cities. Seeing the child’s injuries, the doctor contacted Minnesota authorities, who alerted Houston police. The case eventually was referred to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction over the area where Peterson maintains a home, and then to a grand jury.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/274946031.html
Supposedly, the issue was that he pushed one of Peterson's other children (from one of the other mothers) in a squabble over a video game. The sort of thing that happens among every group of siblings everywhere - if not over a video game, they'll push and shove over something. It's what siblings do.
He whipped the kid 20 or so times, too. After 2 or 3 bloody welts, you'd figure the kid would learn whatever lesson is is that you're trying to teach. The rest are just a violent POS acting out due to his own issues - probably in revenge for the beatings he took as a kid. I laughed when the attorney called it an "inadvertent injury" as if there was only one - and that somehow it was a mistake.