So, what are your thoughts on the "Mom of the year," in Baltimore?

Just saying, that kind of punishment didn’t prevent her offspring from trying to pillage the village.

“Pillage the village!” LOLL!

She is an enemy of the revolution and of freedom.
In any case, the rioters need to be more focused and organised.
The French did not succeed with their revolution by random rioting.
They rounded up the aristocracy and executed them.

And I am serious.

I like what she did.

I think the rioting is totally justified and I wish people were better at it. Really, it is time to start throwing bullets at the cops. Or they would simply refuse to go to work or move until the tax base dried up so much the local government couldn’t afford police.

The police have gotten out of hand. I’m with Loli on this one.

And the mom is totally justified and correct. She kept her kid safe. But once the kid is 18 he should be lobbing bricks at the cops who think his skin makes him a lesser-human.

i don’t think the protesters gave a rat’s ass about the kid who died. They just took the opportunity to to their looting.

Whoa… Warning PDF. Sad thing is not much has changed.

@Dutchess_III: “i don’t think the protesters gave a rat’s ass about the kid who died. They just took the opportunity to to their looting.”

What leads you to this conclusion? Are you doubting the anger, frustration, and helplessness the black community feels?

As a white middle-class guy, I would find it quite challenging to play mind reader and decide what is motivating people. I can listen to what they are saying is their motivation, however. And that motivation sounds legitimate to me. I don’t think we can expect that level of anger and frustration to always be expressed in calm, reasonable ways.

If you were to put yourself in their shoes for a moment – I mean, really imagine what it must be like – do you not feel rage brewing? What do you propose people do with that rage? Now, think for a moment what it would be like to have that rage and then to know that white suburban people are questioning the existence of that rage and the conditions that caused it. And then imagine white America shaking their heads and coming up with “What they really should do instead of riot is…..”. Wouldn’t you wonder why they were issuing critiques and mind-reading rather than trying to figure out what they could do to help solve the problem?

No, I’m not doubting the anger and frustration they must feel. However, not everyone reacts to those types of emotion by rioting and looting. It just sets the stage for the opportunity to do it, even though the family of the guy who died asked them not to riot. How does looting a local business a valid kind of protest? It’s just stealing.

Oh, and as for the “Mom of the year,” if that is her parenting MO, if she is that violent with him as a matter of course, I am not surprised that the kid thought it would be OK to get in the middle of it and start throwing rocks.

The Crips ,Bloods and the Black Guerilla Family street Gangs are at the root of the violence and looting in Baltimore.. The Mom freaked out on her kid and given the circumstances I cant say that I blame her.

I stay out of parenting issues. I take care of mine and others take care of theirs.

I hear this soundtrack… “mama told me not to come”

Her parenting further justifies his rioting.

No, I’m not doubting the anger and frustration they must feel. However, not everyone reacts to those types of emotion by rioting and looting. It just sets the stage for the opportunity to do it, even though the family of the guy who died asked them not to riot. How does looting a local business a valid kind of protest? It’s just stealing.

You still can’t put yourself in their shoes. It is pretty much impossible until you feel like it is open season on you solely based on your skin color.

I never claimed to put myself in their shoes. You can’t either.

Over 10,000 people marched down town Baltimore PEACEFULLY. It was a few dozen thugs who did all the looting, and that’s all the media paid attention to.

I was in a riot once. I promise you that 90% of the people who participated did so because it was FUN and they had an excuse to behave badly.

Mofo

Remember this question? @Savoirfaire brings up such a good point, that violence basically runs this country. I, personally don’t think that violence is the go-to answer, but I do not experience firsthand a lot of the injustice that does on.

I am proud of her. Her reaction fit the situation. I am sure she doesn’t act like that when he eats a cookie she baked for the PTA. She said in interview that when they got home, he found lots of comments on FB from friends who urged him not to be angry with her, which he is not. She said once they were home, talked, watched news coverage, and shared with friends, he could completely see she was protecting him, and keeping him from doing wrong. I am her fan.

Two thumbs up and a belly rub. She might not have had to go down there if she would have been dropping the hammer sooner in the lad’s life.

Sometimes violence is the only answer. I greatly admire the legacy of Martin Luther King and agree that non-violence should be used when possible, but civil disobedience only works when the oppression is codified into law. You can then oppose an unfair law by systematically violating it.

What do you do when there is no codification of the oppression, when the police systematically harass people and violate their rights? The greatest recent development is inexpensive cell phone recorders. It brings into the light what is ordinarily hidden. Maybe the answer is to supply everyone with a recorder and have them record police brutality.

Or, conversely @Hypocrisy_Central, if she hadn’t been using violence to raise him all of his life he might not have gone down there in the first place.

@Dutchess_III Or, conversely @Hypocrisy_Central, if she hadn’t been using violence to raise him all of his life he might not have gone down there in the first place.
Where does it say she used violence to raise him?

Ah, come on @Dutchess_III. The vast majority of children do something really stupid at some point in their young life. You have even said that your daughter has. Do you believe that every child’s mistake is a reflection on how they were brought up? This guy’s mom took action for the right reasons.

Here is another example of mothers reacting in a similar way under different circumstances. It is one that you might be able to relate to better because of personal experiences.

I think that is how she raised him because it all came too easy for her. It just looked like something they’d played out before. I could be wrong.

And of course teenagers do stupid shit, and my kids did stupid shit. I never whaled away on them, out of control or cussed them. Swats, yes. Punched? No. Never.

I guess those kids who are seriously off the hook and never got so much as a swat on the buttocks did not get enough ice cream and cake while having a brief timeout for setting the neighbor’s cat on fire.

Logical fallacy : False dichotomy.

@Dutchess_III @Hypocrisy_Central Looking back at what I said earlier (“Her parenting further justifies his rioting”), I see it’s vague. I meant to convey what @Dutchess_III is saying, about how the mom’s violence towards her son could have been a commonly occurring thing in his childhood. We are shaped through our life experiences.

I see this as the same as dropping a kid from a sixth story window. Most people would say that is insane, but any mother caught in a burning building with no way out would act according to her own heart and not give a damn what others think. Hopefully there would be someone below to rescue in some way.
This woman was on her way home from the doctor. She spotted her so just as he was approaching the scene with a rock in hand.
By the way, both he and her daughter seem like well adjusted kids. I think she did what she needed to. He son now gets it, and so do his friends. She said she regretted the use of foul language, and was certain her pastor would be very upset wih her. In a separate interview, her pastor applauded verbally her actions, and commented other mothers should be out there getting their own kids home.
I am still in favor of her behavior, for the circumstance.

Just saw a video of what the kid thought about it. He was, of course, totally humiliated. Don’t know if that’s good or bad. Humiliation tends to create anger.
If he resisted me, I’d probably resort to pushing and shoving. Grab him by the ear and drag him home.

^ Just saw a video of what the kid thought about it. He was, of course, totally humiliated.
He had a rock and a hoodie; the cops might have thought him a threat and shot him. A store owner protecting his property might have thought the rock was aimed at his window and shot him. Some guy in a car passing might have felt his car was in danger of the rock, reached under the seat and got his gat, and popped a few caps in him. AA lot of other things worse than being humiliated could have happened. If he was so concerned about that, he should have kept his mask off, and his narrow butt at home doing something useful.

Didn’t say he didn’t deserve it. Just said that it is probably the least effective tool.

Just saw this article. Interesting. It suggests she didn’t pull him out of the riot because he was doing the WRONG THING she pulled him out because she didn’t want him to get killed. Which is a damn good reason for going in of course. But hear me out…....

We’ve discussed that internal / external control issue, how kids start learning by external control. When young, they don’t do something because they’ll get in trouble. By the time they’re 16 they should have a good mix of both external and internal control which tells them not to do something because it’s morally wrong. Most of the people in prison never developed that internal control.

The article suggest that she came at it from a purely external control angle.

@Dutchess_III . . . Most of the people in prison never developed that internal control.

I beg to differ for a number of reasons, but that is a different thread.

The problem in Baltimore isn’t a bunch of folks who haven’t developed inner control. It’s a bunch of folks who have, for whatever reason, chosen to override their inner control.

Please Note: “For whatever reason” means a reason that is good, bad, or neutral.

The mother’s attittude is that you can’t win against the man, so you just have to put up with all the crap that he throws on you and learn to say yes sir and yes mam and maybe do a little song and dance because white folk like that kind of stuff.

A few years ago there were riots over here in the UK. One mum was applauded for turning her son in to the police when she saw footage of his involvement.

I’ve called the cops on my kids before.

I don’t agree with what she did, and I think her being called “Mom of the Year” is highly inappropriate. It also says a lot about America.

I give her credit for going down there and getting her kid out of there. I don’t like anyone hitting anyone, but getting him out was the most important thing. I saw them on TV today and the kid said that know he knows how much his mom cares about him. She tracked him down to keep him safe.

Her roughing him up was not punishment, it was her way of getting him to be obedient. Long term be damned, she didn’t want him arrested or hurt.

@JLeslie Well said.