A quick way to get a criminal record

[Wongo]

Here is a quick and easy way to get a criminal record.

1. Take your kid to the playground.
2. Your kid gets bullied by a boy.
3. You stop the boy by grabbing his arm.
4. The mother sees you and asks you to let go of him.
5. You are so angry and you are not thinking straight so you do not let go immediately.
6. The mother calls the police and you are charged with assault.

That is what happened to a friend of my wife. The incident took place 6 months ago. This week she pleaded guilty and was convicted.

The husband wanted to appeal but she wanted to give up. Having given birth to their second child recently and spending $$$$ in legal battle. It is just too much for her carry on.


It is a lesson for all of us. Never ever touch someone’s kids. No matter what.


Life can be rough sometimes.

[RufflyRustic]

A big lesson. A very hard one to keep in mind when someone's attacking your child.

Hard too, not to spank a step-child that desperately needs some boundaries reinforced. Very, very hard.... I keep reminding myself of how I felt when I was spanked at that age and that I have no legal right to spank this child........ as well as the legal problems and BS it would cause with the child's mother.... sigh...........


Yes Wongo, life can be very rough sometimes...

Wendy

[ozwinner]

So she should have bashed the little scrot, she still would have been charged, it would make it all seem worth while though.

Al

[ptc]

Oh for the old day's !

[dazzler]

She had her chance to plead not guilty and put the facts before the court.

This costs nothing. Walk in, "Not guilty your worship", matter put over for hearing, hop in the box and tell your side of the story and the magistrate decides.

Your wifes friend took the easy way out.

Then again, the mother of the brat asked to let go and she didnt let go.

Mmmmmmmm, probably more to the story than she let on.

[jmk89]

Similar issue happened to my wife recently - 3 yo girl at playgroup, insisted on snatching whatever toy our son was playing with at the time. After the third time, our son pushed her awayand she falls on her bottom and runs off as if he had thumped her. SWMBO shouted at the girl not to take toys. The only thing that saved him and SWMBO from the girl's mother (who wanted to say that our son was bullying her daughter and SWMBO wasn't disciplining him and had assaulted the girl) was that the scene was witnessed by the local clergyman who pops in to look at the group (held in his church's hall). Just lucky, this time.

I am afraid this all depends on witnesses - the police are now too gutless to tell complainants that they should grow up.

[dazzler]

I am afraid this all depends on witnesses - the police are now too gutless to tell complainants that they should grow up.

Sorry mate but thats garbage.

The police role, as it always has been, is to assess the matter on the facts and if a prima facie case exists they can then;

1) refer the matter to the dpp for court

or

2) if all parties agree they can mediate and find a common solution (ie an apology)

or

3) formally caution the offender (if they freely admit guilt).

If you take this example, the offender has restrained the child which is fine if her child was in immediate physical danger however once the other mother attended then that immediacy is gone and she must release the child, which she failed to do.

If I had turned up to this I would have gone for option 2, then 3 and as a last resort option 1. The option of telling the complainant to grow up, though simple on face value, would be a dereliction of duty and could result in dismissal.

Here is an example of how strictly regulated police are.
A while ago responded to a parking complaint at a private address. (How exciting )

Mr complainant had broken up with his boyfriend who had parked his car in the driveway of the house rented by the complainant. Boyfriend left in a huff and had not returned for 2 days to move the car and complainant couldnt get his car out.

As the car was on his land i was powerless to have it removed or issue a parking notice and told him it wasnt a police matter and left.

Complaint was made of dereliction of duty as the complainant was of the belief that as the front of the property was "open to and in use" by the public and that there was tacit consent for anyone to walk past the car to the front door that it was in fact an offence and that I had been "derelict in my duty" by not prosecuting the offender to the full extent of the law.

This resulted in more than four hours of down time, some in my own time on days off, to attend interviews and write reports. In the end i won but what a pain in the butt.

Now transpose that to a complaint where a child has been assaulted (and on the facts presented that would be a given) and you tell the mother to "grow up", one could imagine how many hours of typing and interviews that would result in.

The community has created the environment that police now operate in, so far from being gutless they simply adhere to the rules or are punished.

And if this happened in NSW then the NSW Crimes Act allows for application for "no conviction to be recorded" under section 556A if the offender is a first offender and the matter is of a minor nature.

[soundman]

Moving a long way from town and becomming a hermit is looking good.

You will probaly also find that the mother of the kid doing the bullying, probaly thaught that was all fine & beaut.......probaly drives a 4WD too.

I'll go away now before I satrt ranting



cheers

[Grunt]

Another vote for becoming a hermit.

[rrich]

I don't know mates. Every time the police slapped me around I deserved it and more. Complain? No! It would have been worse. Tell my parents? I may be ugly but not stupid.

[Shedhand]

Its all BS. let the kids fight their own battles like we did. Builds character. We're breeding generations of soft c**ks.
Have a read of this. My comments were published (mike gard) and is all i need to say really.

[Sturdee]

[*]The mother sees you and asks you to let go of him.[*]You are so angry and you are not thinking straight so you do not let go immediately.

Wongo, sorry to hear about your wife's friend, it must have been a very stressfull episode for everyone involved.

However, if your friend was so angry and not thinking straight and not let go when asked by the other kid's mother she may a problem with anger management, and may need help.

Of course if she had pleaded not guilty and defended herself I'm sure the case would have either been dismissed (a question as to degree of reasonable force to restrain the child versus assault) or at the most a simple good behaviour bond being imposed.

Pleading guilty guaranteed a conviction and the criminal record.


Peter.

[jow104]

I recall when I was around five years of age telling my parents that I got punched by so and so. Fortunately I received some very good guidance, I was told to hit him back very hard the next time, never had any trouble in my life since.

[soundman]

Yeh that's all very fine untill they're much bigger and better at thumping people than you are and / or they have 8 brothers.

At the school I whent to there were several families with a child in every grade.... one family had a child in every grade AND two sets of twins, so there was always a much bigger brother or sister to deal with.

combine this with the fact that these big families also stuck together.

the easiest thing to do was be somewhere else.

cheers

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I recall when I was around five years of age telling my parents that I got punched by so and so. Fortunately I received some very good guidance, I was told to hit him back very hard the next time, never had any trouble in my life since.

I was told the same thing. However the next time, when I hit back, it rapidly escalated into my first encounter with "team sports..." with me as the football.

I think I went to the same school as Soundman.