"Ya think, DiNozzo?"
Posted on 04/29/2010 5:34:25 PM PDT by naturalman1975
A teacher who bludgeoned a disruptive pupil with a dumbbell walked free yesterday when a 'common sense' jury acquitted him in minutes.
Peter Harvey was cleared of trying to kill a 14-year-old boy who told him to '**** off'.
His trial heard how he was targeted by teenagers who knew he had been off work with depression and stress.
The 'fundamentally decent' man snapped when the science class set out to upset him, with a girl - described as the pupils' ringleader - using a camcorder to film the incident so she could distribute it round the school.
Mr Harvey dragged the boy - a persistent troublemaker - into a cupboard and hit him about the head with a 3kg dumbbell shouting 'die, die, die'.
The attack fractured the teenager's skull.
But yesterday a jury swiftly acquitted him of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Judge Michael Stokes QC told the court 'common sense had prevailed'.
Mr Harvey, 50, had already admitted the lesser count of grievous bodily harm but the judge said he would not be sent to prison.
It was revealed that the judge had already said that the trial should never have been brought because of the teacher's 'previous good character' and his state of mind when he attacked the boy.
Astonishingly, the father-of-two had spent eight months on remand before the trial - despite his own mental state, his wife suffering severe depression and their daughter having Asperger's syndrome.
The judge told him at Nottingham Crown Court: 'You have already effectively served a sentence that is more than the appropriate sentence.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Crack my child’s skull and I would split his in two with an axe.
Liberals like you can never stay on topic.
Shame.
I'll repeat it here for you for convenience:
Why is judicial activism wrong, yet jury nullification is right?
(Feel free to ignore the previous statements, since they weren't questions to be answered.)
A court which entirely ignored the facts of a criminal case and the applicable law seems to be the topic of this thread, no?
Discipline is one thing, cracking the kids skull and giving him brain damage is another.
Believe me I have no problem with the kid getting a bit of comeupance, but beating him about the head with a 3 lb barbell while shouting DIE DIE DIE isn’t appropriate.
Because judges are often corrupt political hacks whereas juries are panels of peers. A judge must view a law as written and as intended by its writers, whereas a jury of peers can determine if a law is bad law or is simply inappropriate in a certain case.
Nope.
I am in tech support. I have a VERY thick skin. There is nothing you can say that provoke me into an attack.
I’m not saying that what the teacher did was right. But I have a lot more sympathy for the teacher than I do for the little pr!ck and the rest of the class, and I am glad that the horribly mangled “justice” system of the UK came down at least somewhat on the teacher’s side.
Maybe if they would bring back caning so that the teacher would have some way of enforcing discipline I’d be less sympathetic. But the current “PC” format of “education” leaves the inmates running the asylum.
"Ya think, DiNozzo?"
Its a 3kg barbell - closer to 7 pounds.
And I would agree with you, if I thought the teacher had anything else he could do to enforce discipline in his classroom. But I suspect that the teacher couldn’t suspend, expel, cane, or otherwise discipline or be rid of the little moron, and lacking other options, just clean lost his mind.
Personally, I blame the parents who let precious offspring grow into a little pr!ck.
You define the judge by what he "often" is, or may be. Is judicial activism therefore appropriate if the judge is not a "corrupt political hack"?
A judge must view a law as written and as intended by its writers, whereas a jury of peers can determine if a law is bad law or is simply inappropriate in a certain case.
According to whom? Where are the roles and limitations of a judge or a jury defined?
Allow me to be clear - I sympathize with the teacher. Having worked in public education for the past 15 years I know his plight. I would not be against the use of appropriate corporal punishment for dealing with these kids. However, cracking a kids skull with a dumbell is not appropriate. Plus, shouting, “Die, die, die” would lend one to the conclusion that the teacher was not attempting to employ discipline.
Plus he had been off for a period of time for 'mental' reasons and told another teacher he was afraid to go back to teaching because he 'might kill someone'.
No it is not. You are absolutely correct.
However, the teacher is being punished appropriately for the charge of “causing grievous bodily harm.”
Furthermore, he shouldn’t have teach any more, at least not in that environment. Retirement or transfer for him.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the inmates are running the asylum.
The real fault probably lies with the parents who tolerate this sort of behavior from their precious offspring.
And I still don’t have one bit of sympathy for the kid.
“I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.” — William F. Buckley Jr.
Similarly, I trust a jury of peers before I trust a judge or a lawyer or any legislative body.
I do not.
Another example of treating crime very lightly in the UK.
You too huh? LOL
Take care bud...
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