Violence against child abusers: right or wrong?

I usually mean what I say. If I cheer violence against known child abusers, it's no exception.

I hate people who beat children. By that, I don't mean actions that might be widely regarded as reasonable parental discipline (though I'm not a supporter of corporal punishment either). I'm talking about outright battery. A few years ago, I posted a strongly worded entry on this blog about a case in which a school administrator beat the living shit out of an 8-year-old boy, and prosecutors refused to bring charges. I demanded nothing less than complete ruin for child abusers.

I truly believe what I posted. But once in a while, I get a pang of regret over posting this. It's not because I didn't mean what I said - because I meant it. It's not because I'm afraid the sheriff is going to try to have me institutionalized just for saying it - because I will absolutely humiliate anyone who tries that. Rather, it's because that entry might scare away folks who might otherwise enjoy this blog. They might want me to try to "understand" child abusers. Why, where's the love?

I've been around long enough to know there are crybaby so-called "liberals" out there who give real progressives like me a bad name. I know that if they saw the entry I wrote, they'd mewl about it for the next few centuries and look for other excuses to criticize me. (I can imagine them crying, "How can you call yourself left-wing when you didn't endorse Mark Warner?")

I will defend what I said. And I'm not alone. People on other websites have also had some tough words about other abuse cases. One person said of an abusive principal, "I'm afraid I'd have to take my fist to him and go to jail for battery but it would be worth it."

The real question is: Is it morally right to endorse violence against known child abusers? I've added a poll on this blog that asks this question, and I plan to have this survey up until the end of April. Hopefully, it won't be freeped by the now-discredited FairTax cult like the old 'Pail Poll was.

The outcome of this poll will not change my mind. I'm not here to "understand" people who beat kids. If you knock a defenseless child around, you deserve what's coming.