BEATEN GIRL, 17, SLAYS HER DAD

NY Post ^ | 3-8-04 | LARRY CELONA, ROOSEVELT JOSEPH and WILLIAM NEUMAN

[Pharmboy]

March 8, 2004 -- A 17-year-old Brooklyn girl stabbed her abusive, drunken dad to death as he beat her with a baseball bat in the family kitchen, police said yesterday. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office declined to charge high-school student Natasha Farmer in the death, ruling that she acted in self-defense when she plunged a kitchen knife into the chest of her 48-year-old father, William Farmer.

[Pharmboy]

I went to grade school on 23rd St. in Coney Island. The neighborhood's changed.

Glad she is free of him.

[Guillermo]

She should be given a medal.

23 domestic violence calls?

[Vigilantcitizen]

Sorry the girl had to go through this at the hands of an idiot.

He got what he deserved.

[No Blue States]

What a coward to beat your own daughter, and with a bat!

He wont be missed, and she should be commended.

Why didnt the mother do the same, to protect her kids? Maybe she was afraid.

This is a brave 17 year old.

[HamiltonJay]

Amen to that, this girl has so much to go through now. I feel for her, at least now the physical and emotional abuse will be at an end... but she has a very long row to hoe to recover from this. I pray she has the strength and support to make it through.

[montag813]

Police said the deadly violence broke out around 3 p.m. Saturday in the family's 11th-floor apartment in the Carey Gardens housing project on West 23rd Street in Coney Island

Housing Project 'Nuff said.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The only thing I am sorry about is that someone else didn't take care of this before now. Prhaps this girl has a decent chance to attract the right kind of man, now, instead of one like her father.

[mollynme]

But don't the statistics say that she will end up choosing someone just like her father?

[mombonn]

Farmer had a seasonal job operating rides on the Coney Island boardwalk,

Makes me want to visit an amusement park real soon.

[RKV]

Sounds like NY needs more bat-control and knife-control laws, in addition to their gun-control laws.

[Pharmboy]

Sounds like she had EXCELLENT control of that knife...

[Blood of Tyrants]

They do. But since she had the strength to resist his beatings and put a stop to it, perhaps she will defy the statistics.

[Walkin Man]

She has a right to self-defense and now the world has one less drunken, wife and child beater to worry about.

Whats the downside?

[KangarooJacqui]

As a victim, myself, of both parental and spousal violence, I applaud this girl (woman) wholeheartedly.

Guts, spirit, survival instinct.... all this she showed, and more.

When the officials won't help you, ya gotta help yourself...

(Why am I suddenly reminded of the Aerosmith song "Jamie's got a gun"???)

[Houmatt]

I agree.

This is not a case where a woman tied her husband to their bed, stabbed him 193 times, and then claimed it was self-defense. This girl's actions actually have some merit to them.

May she be forever free.

[Pharmboy]

Whats the downside?

The only downside may be that this young woman will now have a tough time (as another poster mentioned above). Hope she gets over this and has good support.

[kjam22]

May she be forever free.

I hope so... but I doubt it. Not many people can kill a parent and then live a peaceful, happy, productive life. Even if the parent deserved it. I suspect she'll spend a years in and out of counseling.

[TommyDale]

Good for her!

[17th Miss Regt]

Yes, but was this a high-capacity semi-automatic assault knife? Could it accept high capacity blades? If so, (gun-grabber) Eliot Spitzer will prosecute her!

[2Jedismom]

Well she seemed all right by dawn's early light
though she looked a little worried and weak.
She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again
but daddy'd left the proof on her cheek.
And i was only eight years old that summer
and i always seemed to be in the way
so i took myself down to the fair in town
on Independence Day.

Well,word gets around in a small,small town
they said he was a dangerous man
but mama was proud and she stood her ground
but she knew she was on the losin' end.
Some folks whispered and some folks talked
but everybody looked the other way
and when time ran out there was no one about
on Independence Day.

(CHORUS)
Let freedom ring,let the white dove sing
let the whole world know that today
is a day of reckoning.
Let the weak be strong,let the right be wrong
roll the stone away,let the guilty pay
it's Independence Day.

Well,she lit up the sky that fourth of july
by the time that the firemen come
they just put out the flames
and took down some names
and send me to the county home.
Now i ain't sayin' it's right or it's wrong
but maybe it's the only way.
Talk about your revolution
it's Independence Day.

(REPEAT CHORUS)

Roll the stone away
it's Independence Day.