Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by Canadianduder

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And I "LOL" at your attitude without having learned any facts about the case.

You have formed an opinion based on nothing, that is foolish.

If the abuse was that bad, then he had recourse to escape it. His own Grandparents for example, the Police, his teachers, his friends. But no, it would seem his initial reaction was to shoot his dad and his dad's friend. A violent reaction, in a violent society.

It remains to be seen just how bad the "abuse" was. A clip round the ear for not doing homework or a smacked arse for being a disobedient little turd is not abuse.

Personally, I would rather wait and see what evidence, if any, comes out about what exactly transpired before forming any cast-iron opinions.

EDIT: Baby P is a single bad example out of thousands of good examples. We could all find a bad apple if we look for one, but it is hardly proof of anything. is it? A couple of Social Workers and a doctor cocked up and a baby died.

Every day, hundreds of kids are well cared for by Social Services and the like, but they don't get a mention do they?

[edit on 30/11/08 by stumason]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by RogerT

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And there you go categorizing me without even knowing anything about what kind of parent I am. You have NO CLUE, but since I believe in spanking someone I automatically resort to violence. I'm a horrible person because I have the GALL to resort to raising them the way I was raised, and raised VERY WELL thank you.

Spanking a child is the LAST thing that I do, and afterwards I sit them down and explain to them why what they did was wrong, and why they got spanked. I can count the number of times I spanked either of my step daughters or my ex-wife has had to spank my daughter on the fingers of one hand. That's for ALL THREE CHILDREN. And they are polite, and respectful little girls.

The book describes the worsening abuse that Pelzer suffered at the hand of his mother and her alcoholism. Most speculate that she had some other addiction or a chemical imbalance but none is known. Among the many incidents discussed is that his mother attempted to burn Dave on a stove when he was 8 years old. It was at this point his mother began to make him go without food for extended periods of time. The abuse gets worse and David is forced to sleep in the basement and perform hard labor which involved chores. He got an average of half a meal a day on a good day. When David was 10, she also stabbed him in the stomach—accidentally, as Pelzer notes in the book—and did not take him to the hospital (though she did take care of the wound herself). By this point he was no longer considered part of the family and lived in the basement, denied basic contact, play, and food. His mother stated that she did not want Dave to interact with "her family".

Over time the depth of the abuse worsened. Dave claimed he was forced to sit in the "prisoner of war" position (head bent backwards facing sky, sitting on hands). His mother stopped using his name and began referring to him first as "The Boy" and finally "It". The punishments are reported to have evolved into "sick games" in which she made her son suffer.

Incidents cited in the book include forcing ammonia down his throat,sitting in a sealed bathroom while inhaling the fumes from a bucket of ammonia mixed with bleach (Gas Chamber), inducing vomiting followed by forced ingestion, smashing his face against a mirror while forcing him to say "I'm a bad boy", lying in the bathtub naked with freezing water for hours, rubbing his face in his baby brother's soiled diaper trying to make him eat his youngest brother's feces, as well as starvation and general malnutrition, and "accidentally" stabbing him with a knife when he didn't meet the time limit to do the dishes. His mother also put his hand on a gas stove which caused his hand to burn to crisp. She also said, "Now sit on the stove so I can watch you burn and die."

In each of the sequels, the author reveals more forms of torture he did not describe in this book (e.g., his mother hitting his neck with a broom handle, causing his neck to swell so that he was unable to breathe).

Initially the abuse did not happen when his father was around. But when David entered first grade for the second time, the abuse began to occur even in his father's presence. At first he tried to stop the abuse but as time went on felt unable to intervene. David generally only got food when his father was home, for example. In the face of this abuse, his father gradually distanced himself from the house, and finally moved out when David turned 12 years old. About two months later, on March 5th, 1973 David was rescued by teachers at his school.