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Posted on 06/17/2007 7:28:37 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
A Sellersburg man was arrested and charged with battery for allegedly spanking his son with a leather belt.
Sellersburg Police Department Deputy Chief Donnie Ross said the 7-year-old child’s mother called police Sunday night when he wouldn’t stop crying after suffering a spanking from his father, 46-year-old Ernest E. Haycraft of the 1900 block of Lincoln Drive. Haycraft told police the boy was being punished for purposely breaking one of his toys and that he only struck him “three or four times,” Ross said.
Officers, however, arrested Haycraft after seeing a raised, red welt on the boy’s buttocks.
“(The officers) saw that it was bad enough abuse, and that he needed to be arrested,” Ross said of the incident.
Haycraft has never before been arrested by the Sellersburg Police Department, and Ross thought it to be “a singular incident that hasn’t happened in the past.”
The investigation has been turned over to Child Protective Services of Clark County. A phone call placed to that office Tuesday afternoon was not returned, but a spokeswoman did confirm that a caseworker was investigating the incident. Ross said officers took pictures of the boy’s injuries and submitted them to CPS.
Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Shelley Marble — who specializes in crimes against children — said these types of cases do come across her desk from time to time.
“I probably get about one or two of these (types of cases) a month,” she said from her office Tuesday afternoon.
The problem, she said, is that what police officers find to be probable cause for an arrest often isn’t enough for
prosecutors to get a conviction.
“If a mom whips a kid with a belt, and the kid says it happened and the mom says it happened but there are no marks, then that’s enough for (police) to substantiate inappropriate discipline, but not enough for us to file charges,” she said.
“These types of cases depend on a lot of different variables,” she continued. “You do have parents that are disciplining their child and then you have beating — there is a difference. You have to look at each case individually.”
Marble said she had not yet been informed of the charges preliminary filed against Haycraft and that she likely wouldn’t be until CPS completed its investigation.
Ross said Sellersburg police have, in the past, made similar arrests “where parents have, in our opinion, overreacted to misbehavior and gone above and beyond what we would consider normal discipline.”
“They don’t happen often, but they do happen,” he said.
What the hell are these people smoking?! My old man's belt was the guardian of Western civilization around our house in his day, and he taught me there are things you just Do Not Do.
But no, let's wait, and go soft, and let the cops pick these kids up on misdemeanor charges 15 years later. I'm sure criminal records will be better for them than a good belt-assisted butt-warming or two when they're still young enough for the lesson to take.
spare the rod and spoil the child.
(now some would say that that is a nazi-like point of view and that the municipality is morally superior to a cowardly father who “beats” his children and probably abuses his wife.)
Wow, my father would still be in prison if they arrested you for spanking with a belt when I was growing up. My father had this “skinny” alligator belt and man did it hurt! Of course there were also the “switches” which we were required to go pick before our punishment was rendered. I had 4 brothers and there was no need to trim the hedges in our backyard because they were always picked clean!
The sound of my father’s “U.S. Government issue blue webbed” belt coming out of those BDU belt loops was enough to make my face go pale.
and more likely than not, I got exactly what was coming to me
mrs
Everybody is a criminal these days.
Dad's wasn't gov. issue, but that sound is as vivid in my mind as anything I can remember.
Happy Father's Day To All!
As long as the “marks” are on his butt and the skin is not broken.....there is no abuse, IMHO.
Absolutely insane.
However, if I had a case of “deliberately breaking a toy” from a 7-year-old (which I’m sure I have!), I’d refuse to replace the toy and select several others to give to the poor. Longer-term impact than a spanking, AND gets some clutter out of the house.
On a totally different point, I wonder if this child’s parents are married?
Belts, fly swats, hair brushes, you name it. I turned out fine.
Looking at kids now days, there needs to be a whole lot more spankings doled out.
“Everybody is a criminal these days”
Unless you are illegally crossing the border into the U.S. or if your name is thug-turned “victim of injustice” and commencement speaker Mumia Abu-Jamal.
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I will give the benefit of the doubt to the father on this day. But I bet the intentional breaking of the toy was likely the last straw in a string of appalling behavior. As a kid, I got the belt for one of two reasons. Either one act was so horrifically heinous and obviously I knew better than (like throwing eggs at passing cars or lawn darts on the roof of the house). Or there was a series of misdeeds that required an attitude adjustment. One way or another, three wacks of a belt on ass usually get a kids attention. Welts or not, the kid will be just fine. This is no abuse.
Obviously the father should have reasoned with the seven year old and negotiated an appropriate punishment that falls into the nanny state rules of ‘It takes a Village’ handbook as to not damage his developing socialist mentality
My mom used a wooden spoon as my little bad ass, then she hung in on the wall in the kitchen. when I misbehaved, she needed only to point to it. I got the message.
Sheesh! My 9th grade Algebra teacher had a frat paddle with big holes drilled in it. It left red welts with flesh pink polkadots! I caught that thing with my butt several times!
I am a Hair Brush Guy, myself. My father used one of those LONG wooden ones that had a shoe horn on the end. Well, I guess it was really a shoe brush.
I turned out fine and made him proud of me.
The kid in the story will not do so.
Parents should be in agreement on discipline whatever the type, and talk privately about differences IMO. If the father was angry or out of control why didn’t she stop him?
What are these Liberals going to do when they’re facing the “punishment” of Islamic terrorists? Using a belt will seem tame to the honor killings, beheadings, torture, etc. With the Liberal philosophy of make nice and try to understand everyone, our enemies will be here sooner rather than later. I’m sure some are here already with our “open borders.”
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