HARLAN RICHARDS

September 18, 2014

Child Abuse No Big Deal In Wisconsin

I was reading the Wisconsin State Journal earlier today and saw an article that shocked me. There is currently a big controversy over an NFL player who was suspended for hitting his child with a switch (a stick is more likely). I think any physical punishment to a child is unjustified under any circumstances. It is needless abuse that harms the child and does not benefit anyone. In my opinion, it is nothing but a bully beating up someone who is littler just because he or she can.

But getting back to what I read. In Janesville, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Madison, Brandon Quinn, age 23, was given one year in the county jail after he beat a 7 year-old boy and 9 year-old girl bloody with a hammer, spoon and spatula. He hit the boy in the genitals causing him to bleed and also choked the children. The children belonged to Brandon's girlfriend and the article quoted her as expressing outrage that he got off so lightly. The article also stated that a second charge of child abuse was dropped. Had it not been dropped, he would have been facing 25 years in prison.

Anybody that would do that to two small children is a monster that need to be locked up for decades. It is cases like this that give the public the idea that our country is soft on crime and leads to an outcry to keep violent criminals locked up. Then, in response to public outrage, those who are already in prison are kept longer. We become scapegoats for the public's wrath.

I look at what I have spent 30 years in prison for doing: defending myself against a man who outweighed me by 85 pounds who attacked me without provocation and I listen to all the things people say about me and why I need to stay in prison. It's ridiculous. I could never hurt a child and if I witnessed someone hurting a child I'd intervene to protect the child. Nor would I stand by and allow a woman to be raped or an elderly or disabled person to be abused or robbed.

But because I defended myself against another man and took his life, I'm the one being held in prison while the sadistic bullies who seriously harm children while abusing them get off with a year in county jail.

I guess that's what we call justice in Scott's Walker's Wisconsin.