Nnaumbua Farrell

2016-03-05 02:10:46 -0500

NEVER

Your characterization that people bring children into the world for the purpose of beating them is wrong. Also, your premise that all violence is wrong is a false as is your characterization of corporal punishment as violence.There are legitimate forms of violence that we engage in for the safety of ourselves and others. A person responding to a home invasion may strike a burglar in self-defence. Police do not carry pepper spray as a form of seasoning. A baton and a pistol are not there to tickle people. They are there to respond violently in order to protect people. Members of the armed forces repel an invasion or put down an insurrection with violence. Violence per se is not wrong. It is sometimes warranted.With respect to the difference between violence and corporal punishment, violence is physical force intended to hurt, damage or kill. Corporal punishment is physical punishment intended to improve. It is physical chastening. While both violence and corporal punishment describe the application of physical force to another, they have different purposes (and naturally different levels of severity).Children need to be disciplined because they lack understanding. They don’t know everything that adults know. This includes the dangers of engaging in certain types of behaviour outside of the home. How children respond to authority is an example. Outside of the home, if a person responds to the lawful order of a police officer disrespectfully or defiantly, the consequences could be severe physically and otherwise. The lesson is to be respectful and obey. It is better to learn this lesson in the home with a comparatively mild spanking then to learn this at a traffic stop. Is corporal punishment always necessary? No but sometimes it is. Needless to say, it ought to be done in love and must be of appropriate severity.On the flip side, some argue against corporal punishment on the grounds that it is technically a crime (assault) and wouldn’t be acceptable if done to an adult. This argument against corporal punishment goes something like this:1) Parents should never do to a child that which is unacceptable to do to an adult.2) It is unacceptable to commit a crime against an adult.3) Parents should never commit a crime against a child.4) Spanking is assault.5) Assault is a crime.6) Parents should never spank a child.Is it true that parents shoulddo to a child that which is unacceptable to do to an adult? The following is from an article entitled “Alternatives to Spanking” from parents.com:“1. Call time outs. In a time-out, a child is safely isolated from her family or peers for short periods of time — generally a minute for each year of age. This gives her time to cool off.Example: If your child gets angry with another child, put your child in her playpen or send her to her room. After the time-out, you and your child can discuss solutions to the problem that just occurred”Ah… you see barbarians (conservatives)? THAT’S how you discipline a child. No crime has been committed. Let the Liberal’s say amen… But hold on a minute. Are you sure that no crime has been committed?Since you put your child into a playpen, you clearly applied force to her and if you did so without her consent, you’d be committed an assault under 265. (1) (a) of the Criminal Code:“265. (1) A person commits an assault when(a) without the consent of another person, heapplies force intentionally to that other person,directly or indirectly;”By carrying the child to her playpen to be confined against her will is kidnapping under 279. (1)(a):279. (1) Every person commits an offencewho kidnaps a person with intent(a) to cause the person to be confined or imprisonedagainst the person’s will;Actually keeping her in the playpen is forcible confinement under 279. (2):“279. 2) Every one who, without lawful authority,confines, imprisons or forcibly seizes anotherperson is guilty of(a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonmentfor a term not exceeding tenyears; or(b) an offence punishable on summary convictionand liable to imprisonment for a termnot exceeding eighteen months.”If you warn your child before hand that a time out is imminent, you may be committing extortion under 346. (1):“346. (1) Every one commits extortion who,without reasonable justification or excuse andwith intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations,menaces or violence induces or attemptsto induce any person, whether or not heis the person threatened, accused or menaced orto whom violence is shown, to do anything orcause anything to be done.”Yikes! Assault, kidnap, forcible confinement, extortion. And Liberals call conservatives barbarians! It isn’t hard to see that accepting the truth of premises 1) and 3) would make not only alternatives to spanking illegal, it would be hard to do anything else. Changing a diaper of a child who doesn’t want it to be changed is technically an assault. Clearly, the premise that parents should never do to a child that which is unacceptable to do to an adult cannot be used in an argument against corporal punishment unless you believe that alternatives to spanking should be illegal also.