Does 1,000 Spankings or Beatings Justify Killing Abusers?

by Deb Cupples |   I don't have an answer to this question.  But I am so sad -- and so outraged -- after reading about the 8-year-old boy in Arizona who killed his father and his father's friend after the boy had suffered ongoing physical abuse.  Apparently, the little boy had kept a record and reached a breaking point.  USA Today tells us:

"An 8-year-old St. Johns, Ariz., boy charged with double-homicide may have kept a written record of spankings by his parents, vowing that the 1,000th would be his limit, according to a police records released Friday."

Susan Mernit  at Huffington Post  did some math for us:

"If you are 8 years old and you have received 1,000 spankings since you were old enough to start counting them, what does that mean?...

"If you'd been recording them since you were five, that would mean you'd been spanked almost once a day for the past 3 years, with 95 days off from getting your butt hit. If you'd started keeping track of the spankings when you were seven, which means you were being hit more than 3 times a day for the past year.

"Think about it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, spanking. Every day for three years. Or, breakfast, spanking, dinner, spanking, before bed, spanking--spankings happening more frequently to this child per day than many people spent walking their dog.

"Can you imagine living your life knowing that every day, at some point--perhaps more than once--a beating was going to happen? And that your father, responsible for mentoring you and your upbringing, was going to be the one to lay it on? Flat of the hand, paddle, belt, kitchen implement--did it matter after a while what your Dad hit you with?

"Or was it just the consistent searing drip of the days, held together by having your pants pulled down and your butt beaten--not only by your Dad, but by his friend, a man who rented a room in their house.

"How bad could any child be--any person--that someone could justify beating him, day after day?

"If this isn't child abuse, I don't know what is.

"...When this case comes to trial, I have no doubt we are going to find out this child was a scapegoat for a sexual sadist or some other kind of pedophile sicko who found excuses to inflict pain on his son under the guise of discipline. And if that is true, this evil dad raised a son who killed out of self-defense." (HuffPo)

Apparently, the child didn't even live with his father full time, due to a divoirce and custody arrangement.

When talking to the police, according to a report, the boy's grandmother shouted, "'I knew this would happen. They were too hard on (the boy).'" 

Perhaps that's an understatement. Thanks to Talkleft for posting about this story.