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I cannot believe that behavior that would (and recently HAS) put a parent in jail was ever legal if done by a state employee to an incarcerated child, that is, a child that cannot legally resist or run away to avoid it. I really don't care whether the "counselors" caused the death. This was child abuse if ever I saw it. I can maybe excuse brutality toward an adult in prison under certain circumstances, but there is no way anyone can ever convince me that institutionalized and proceduralized brutality against a child is either moral or legal.
We call them children because they have not matured. Juvenile justice is separate from adult justice because we don't want to reinforce criminal behavior in children by exposing them to hardened adult criminals who would carelessly brutalize and dominate them.
So we expose them to brutal, domineering, uncaring "counselors" instead? God, that is pathetic.
It is insane to believe that legalizing assault and battery on a child is in any way going to have a positive effect on that child. If those "counselors" believed they were helping those kids, then I have to conclude that the counselors are nothing but savages, whose actions were orchestrated and condoned by a sadistic control freak called DJJ.
I understand that the verdict was correct under the law, this makes the point that the law was insufficient or the charges were not the correct ones, not that those defendants did nothing wrong.
I do hope that everyone responsible for this tragedy and all those who supported the bootcamp idea can sleep at night, knowing that there was NO love shown to Martin Anderson in the last hours of consciousness of his too short life, not even tough love.
Just think, the last words he heard were in the nature of demands for more from his broken body. No one told him it was OK to rest now.
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It is absolutely inconceivable to me that these people were so convinced that Anderson was malingering that they failed to recognize clear warning signals of medical distress and continued their abuse well past any point where it was warranted under any rational standard.
I regard this as yet another example of the culture of "Protect and Serve" becoming the culture of "Endanger and Dominate." This belief that officials can do no wrong is myopic and counter-productive. Some day it will be everyone's children that are routinely subjected to institutionalized abuse every day for the purpose of ensuring the continuation of the power of the government over the people.
Folks, our Constitution clearly says that we, the people, are the source of the power that our government wields on our behalf. When that power is misused and abused by the government, we, the people, are ultimately responsible. Every police brutality case, every needless death of an innocent is the direct result of our failure to exercise our personal responsibility to monitor and control our government.
Martin Anderson was a troubled child, no doubt. His parents are not going to win any awards, either. But, if being human and making mistakes is a death penalty crime, then we should all be in a boot camp, being treated abusively as he was, just waiting for the moment that we are pushed past our level of tolerance, to be further abused until death releases us from the torture.
In short, Martin Anderson was murdered by we, the people, by our malingering at the polls and our absorption with meaningless diversions. We are guilty of letting sadists and monsters beguile us with fairy tales of "success" where there exists only failure and guilt. Ours.
The sweet siren song that is indifference can easily be couched in the religious belief that evil manifests a physical existence here on earth. If you hear that call, tread carefully, for it could be your life that is next in jeopardy.
Corrosion of Conformity song 'White Noise':
- When They Cracked The Whip, Nothing Was Said
- When The Flames Burned, Nothing Was Said
- When They Notched The Barrels, Nothing Was Said
- When The Bays Opened, Nothing Was Said
- When The Dogs Were Set Loose, Nothing Was Said
- When The Colors Run Red, Nothing Was Said
- When Innocents Cried In The Face Of The Guilty
- No One Said Anything
This was likely influenced by Pastor Martin Niemöller, who wrote:
| Original | Translation |
|---|---|
| Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist. Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat. Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich nicht protestiert; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter. Als sie die Juden holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Jude. Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte. | When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. |
The above quotes are from wikipedia: First they came...
conhed
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