Woman caught on tape beating her daughter (Not for the squeamish)

The BBQ Pit
21

Zette, with respect, this is incredibly naive. I speak as a man who’s worked in all facets of the media, business and editorial, broadcast and print.

And Lego is correct. This story gets play only because of the tape. No tape=no story. In the biz we call that sort of thing a ‘strong hook’. It’s only a one day story, but it’s one of the good ones that people like to see.

Similar to the collapse of the trade towers in that tape like that is one of the things that makes that ‘monkey reflex’ kick in and get people to watch.

It’s twisted, but it’s the business of news.

Mom beats kid with no tape - statistic.
Mom beats kid on tape - sensationalistic story.

It saddens me but I’ve long since divested myself of the illusion that my industry is noble.

22

::shrug:: Whatever. The point is, they were trying to find her and her child. I’m not going to debate the ethics of using the video. Start a Great Debate about it.

23

How COULD they report the beating on the evening news if they didn’t have a videotape?

If the family has been obstructing justice, there’s a good chance the child will be placed in foster care (assuming there is a home available), at least until all court proceedings have been finished. Unfortunately there’s also a good chance that after the court proceedings have been finished the child will be returned to the family. Happens all the time. Sickens me.

24

I fully agree…

25

In an ideal world, the medias would either:
-report, even without a footage, that some distateful event happened if it was considered important enough. The fact a footage is needed meant that some minor events are given an undeserved attention while others, more important, are ignored. That’s why radios and papers tend to be more balanced than TV, though they tend to talk/write about what people have seen on TV.
-Ignore this particular occurence and run something about the issue of beaten childs in general. Interview people, explain the issue, give advices, etc…

I don’t think that the “schock value” of some footages is without importance. I’m convinced that sometimes we have to see something with our own eyes to fully realize the situation. But these footage aren’t broadcasted because they’re useful, but because people like watching things which offend them. That’s a show, not journalism (or at least not my conception of journalism).
Also, this strongly affect the relative importance most people give to various issues.

26

I happened to be flipping channels tonight and caught the video on one of those “Inside Edition” type shows… I felt sick to my stomach and I still do, hours later. I didn’t catch anything before it so I had no idea if the child was safe, or what. I was kinda too afraid to look it up in the news because I didn’t want to have to read all the nasty details again in order to find out what happened. How disappointing to learn the child is NOT safe.

When the mother is caught can someone post it on here? I really, really don’t want to keep an eye on this case (on news sites) because they will mention the details of the abuse and I don’t want to remember that video.

Sadistic bitch. I can’t believe she would do that to a child. The fact that it happens every day to children worldwide makes it all the worse–every time I hear about child abuse I’m reminded that it’s happening the world over. No child should ever have to suffer at all, least of all at the hands of their ‘protectors’. Child abuse is one area where I fully believe “an eye for an eye”.

27

I hear from an online friend in Indiana that she’s going to turn herself in tomorrow.

F_X

28

She’s going to turn herself in tomorrow according to tonights news here in Houston. She’s hired a Houston attorney to accompany her. They showed the police a photo of the child with today’s newspaper as “proof” :confused: that the child is not bruised or injured.

29

Legomancer: right on.

Is this woman scum? Yes.
Is this news, worthy of a national TV APB? Not a chance.

I think this is just yet another in the long line of sensational children stories the media has done lately (kidnappings, etc.).

30

I think the truth is somewhere between the cynical “just another sensational children’s story” and the kind of actually helpful “Megan Alert” APB used in California. Was it necessary to go national? Well, maybe not. But after Toogood left the scene she could have driven that child anywhere. The more people that saw that vehicle and license number, the more quickly the bitch would be caught. When her relatives informed her that she’d been on camera she knew the jig was up. That’s no doubt why she arranged to turn herself in.
AbbySthrnAccent mentioned Toogood hired a Houston attorney. Did she do that from Indiana, or had she driven to, or at least toward Houston? If she did, you can add interstate flight to avoid prosecution. That makes it federal, whether she turns herself in or not. However it goes down, I hope this bitch doesn’t see the light of day for a long, long time. I wish the foster care system were better. The little girl deserves someone to love her, and it’s by no means assured that that will happen in a foster home.

31

Oh, I love this.

From Tooscummy’s attorney:

Not what we think it is? Is it something other than a defenseless child being beaten? A bad moment? Yeah, for the little girl! No shit she shouldn’t have done it.

32

My point wasn’t that this issue shouldn’t be news. My point was that it isn’t news until they have a chilling video to run with it. I would love if CNN would focus more on social issues. I can’t believe that a 24-hour news channel can find so little to report that they tell you what’s on TV on other channels or report about the Sopranos or stuff. I would love if they gave more segments to omnipresent problems that nobody ever talks about, to raise some consciousness.

What bugs me is not only that they don’t do this, but that when they do get their hands on some video of something, they then act as though they’re being all public servant-y about it. “We’re breaking this important news of a child being terrorized.” I realize that that particular kid doesn’t care WHY people are suddenly interested in helping her, but I can damn sure bet some other abused kid is wishing someone around them had a video camera first.

Once upon a time the media was about informing people and raising consciousness, so I’m told. I think CNN’s current performance is shameful. I hope this all turns out good for the child, but even if it does, the issue won’t go away at that point, just the coverage.

33

While I agree that the news media is almost always guilty of sensationalism and will invariably latch on to any kind of horrific video for their own purposes, I humbly submit that in a perfect world, ALL abuse like this would be worthy of a national APB.

And we’d have adequate options for the kids of these abusers, too.

(Sigh)

34

Poeple like this “toogood” bitch should be shot in the head with a ball of thier own shit.
How could you do that? I mean, I get plenty angry sometimes, but I don’t take the anger out on 4 year olds!!!

35

I was amazed at her attorney.He made it sound like, hey it happens, this one was just caught on tape. Shes a good sister and wife, etc.
Good p.r. mister!:rolleyes: No One is going to agree with ya, hey shes not so bad!:rolleyes:

36

When I saw him last night on the news, he was saying she was in fact brushing something off the headrest of the car seat, and we just couldn’t see that from our perspective.

Very, very, very, VERY vigorously brushing, I guess. :rolleyes:

37

I just saw the video for the first time, and I’ve got to remind everyone to keep somewhat of an open mind.

A couple of things disturb me about all this - first, you can’t exactly see what she’s hitting, and you can’t hear what was being said.

Second, the daughter did appear to spring up into her chair in a ‘jaunty’ way after the ‘beating’. She wasn’t shrinking away from mom, and from what I could tell she didn’t look particularly injured. She wasn’t holding her head or arms, or rubbing herself, or anything.

Another thing that bothered me is that the woman didn’t seem particularly angry immediately before the ‘beating’, nor was the kid pulling, straining, or otherwise appearing to be in distress.

For all we know, there is a headrest in the car that keeps moving out of position, and the woman said, “Honey, put your head down for a minute” and then proceeded to beat the headrest back into position. Or the daughter got the car and screamed, “There’s a BEE in here!”, and mom reached in and thrashed away at it.

The most disturbing thing about this is the fact that cameras in public places are recording us, and apparently whoever collects the tapes feels free to release them to the media without any form of due process if they see something ‘suspicious’. And as we saw with Richard Jewell and Perhaps Paul Hatfield, the media can often do more damage to a person’s life than the law does.

If it turns out that this woman did beat her child, then hell, lock her up. I have a five-year-old, and the thought of hitting her sickens me. Children should not be beaten.

But sometimes video can be misleading, while at the same time making it appear that evidence is incontrovertible. Shadows and bad angles can make us see things that aren’t really there.

So let’s all calm down and see what they find when they inspect the child and the police do their job.

Conviction by low-resolution video is a lousy substitute for due process.

38

Just heard on the news that the woman’s going to turn herself in “any minute now” but no word on if she’s going to have her daughter with her. In other words: she’s going to hide the child from the government in an attempt to keep her own tush out of the slammer.

39

“‘Martha is great, she has no bruises, no abrasions, no marks, she’s fine, she’s been checked out,’ the attorney said, basing his information on a phone call from the mother.”

Am I the only one who’s just a touch skeptical?

40

I guess there was a warrant for the woman’s arrest re: another charge: shoplifting at a store in March this year.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/Midwest/09/20/video.child.beating/index.html

My guess is that the woman and her sister could not get a refund from an item they brought in without a receipt, so they were pissed. The alleged kid beater was under stress and took it out on her kid. No excuse, to me.