Meanwhile in the UK Fathers 4 Violence are back and the world's biggest Playboy store is opening. This guy may have been punished appropriately but the rest are being effectively told to carry on as usual.

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The judge handed down a 36 year sentence because, he said, this was an unusual case.

Yet it was noted, in the documentary, that domestic abuse occurs every 15 seconds.

The only unusual things I note are the skin colors of the abuser and abused and the presence of a video tape.

In case there is any confusion about my point of view, let me be clear. The abuser is a dispicable human being who deserves severe punishment. It is sad and sickening to watch this.

However, I cannot see that justice is down when the those who are racially (or financially, or intellectually, or non-famously) disadvantaged.

Think about what punishment would typically be given a white rich and famous man in exactly the same sort of case.

If he deserves 36 years, fine. But, lets give 36 years to everyone who has done the same thing. But, first lets build a lot more prisions.

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I posted a comment that I was a survivor of child abuse, and have been an advocate for people in domestic violence situations, and that nonetheless something seemed odd about this footage. Namely, it looked like a planned two camera shoot, not a child holding a video camera. My comment, and the prior ones, were removed, and the video was reposted by Alternet. What kind of deceptive crap are you pulling?

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If we really want to do something about these men who abuse, and let's face it, there's a ton of them, we have to understand that abuse like this happens all the time. Just because it was on video doesn't mean that the next woman who finally decides enough is enough hasn't gone through the same thing as this woman did.

Every man who abuses a woman should get 25 to life. End of story. And like another commenter said, we better build a lot of prisons.

I think this also highlighted the verbal and emotional abuse as being the equivalent to physical, which it is and should be treated as such in a court of law. Abuse takes many forms and one is not lesser than another.

I think we need to build communities just for women and let women live their lives in peace. Battered women's shelters are a first step. A whole community that's women-only and self sufficient is the next step.

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Radical solutions are required and that means looking beyond the jail/police/drug/foster care solutions that have so demonstrably failed. We need new community organizations (linked to schools or churches or social justice groups or feminist advocacy groups or other possibilities) which seek to help troubled families holistically, looking at the multi-generational picture, not just looking for one person to put away. CPS is hopeless in most locales, but it's not their fault entirely, it's also because we want someone else to clean up the messes behind the closed doors in our communities, we don't want to own our own shared problems. Abuse is a problem that has links and tendrils spreading throughout our economic, ideological and social systems, it's not only about the one person who is violent. That's not an excuse, it's a reality. Progressives are supposedly about reform and positive change, not law and order knee-jerk answers. Where is that creative and intelligent spirit here?

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I can see a lot of pissed off women here calling for this clown to be locked up for a looong time.

But seriously, this isn't isolated to men. You can find articles about girls abusing other girls, men abusing men, and so on.

Its really a Human issue, not a gender issue. No human should treat another human that way. You can break it down and point blame on a specific gender, but we are all guilty.

Also, your talking about a culture which ignores the fact that its government is committing genocide around the globe. We seldom investigate the root cause. Instead of shrugging this off as a male problem, we should find out what causes Humans to behave like this. Then we can try to fix it, which would take generations, but its a start.

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why remove comments???? please repost all comments!!!!

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What would Christ do with that cross this guy wears around his neck? I can guess. Too many "Christians" treating their family like possessions.

Oh, there's a possession in that household alright, but the father has it in reverse. He's the one possessed.

Of course he disagrees.

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