I know it comforts you to go on and on referring to his being convicted of a misdemeanor. Another way of putting it: a 225 pound (give or take) NFL running back beat a 40 pound child until he was bloody. But that doesn't fit your narrative.
I don't have a narrative, rochrist. It isn't like I'm a card carrying member of the Child Beaters Association of America, and I'm here to do damage control for Adrian Peterson.
The law disagrees. He wasn't charged with child abuse.
Pictures can be misleading when given with a caption. I never saw video footage of Adrian Peterson whipping his kid, so I don't know how bad it was. A photograph of scratches certainly doesn't
necessarily tell me that it was horrendous, even if a blog title that goes along with it does. Again, if those were pictures from him falling off his bicycle, nobody would think the injuries were that severe, but because they came with the story of a switch, we leap to the judgement that it was a sadistic beating.
Would you at least admit that children get worse bumps and bruises while playing sometimes than what is shown in that picture, story-caption aside? I came off my bike once when I was 9 and shredded the whole side of my thigh. To be honest, it didn't even hurt that much, but it looked 20 times as bad as those pictures.
Maybe AP's actions that night were that horrendous. Maybe they weren't. A photograph in a certain light certainly doesn't tell us for sure either way, no more than footballs at 12.3 PSI tell us if Tom Brady snuck into a room in secret to deflate footballs.
All it truly does is let us make assumptions, guided by media narratives. It's entirely possible that, had someone actually videotaped this domestic episode with a cellphone, it might not have been nearly as vicious as people are imagining it, which seems to be sadistically unique to the world of physical discipline.
A court of law didn't see the evidence to charge him with child abuse, and unlike the Ray Rice case, there is no evidence that a massive conspiracy was taking place to get him off lightly for what he did based on his celebrity status. Coincidently, the court of law wasn't looking for ratings or headlines, either. They were simply looking for the truth. While TMZ and ESPN were looking for website hits, the court and DA were no doubt interviewing family members, and getting to the bottom of what kind of parent Adrian is.
I got a few ass whippings with a wooden spoon when I was a kid. Nothing too severe. Just a flurry of righteous Mom anger on the backside.
I don't ever remember having scratch marks, because a wooden spoon isn't a switch, but it's entirely possible I had a bruise on my ass or thigh at one point from it as a child.
I suppose if TMZ took a picture of it at the right time, in the right lighting, they could of made my Mother out to be ISIS, and she certainly wasn't.
I completely understand and sympathize with wanting to protect children from child abusers.
However, the court didn't find child abuse, and instead found reckless assault, which seems to me to be a forgivable offense, especially on the first offense.
My position is basically the same that it originally was, and I understood we disagreed then, too.
I just don't think a leaked photograph with a caption is enough for me to pass supreme judgement. I knew plenty of people growing up that got `whippings` occasionally from their parents, and I know their parents weren't bad or sadistic people. 4 is young, I get it.
