Sex Attacker's Attacker Is Not Charged

Had I walked in on someone abusing my child, my instinct would be to act exactly as this father did.

Re using more than reasonable force, what parent is going to think reasonably or rationally under those circumstances?

Aka it is not just a father reacting to an appalling situation.
It is a law enforcement officer endorsing an individual going a step too far. As the father knew the attacker it would have been easy to make charges and let the law take its course.

penst, so if you had walked in saw your child being^ABUSE D you would have stepped back , dialled the police and just waited !

UNBELIEVABLE

"Let the law take it's course"

Unfortunately the law doesn't always take the right course.

A point to consider generally.
There is 'the law' and there is 'justice'.
They are not always the same thing.
I'd still tackle the abuser and then take what was coming to me.

Yes, but as I and others have said previously, the question the OP was asking was whether it was fair that the father wasn't charged.

The way I read the OP is that she just asked for thoughts.

Perhaps read it wrongl

Possibly Holly will come forward to clarify

Res ipse loquitur - in this case the photograph of the abuser, after he had been beaten by the father. A serious assault has been carried out.

Surely it is for a court, and not a law enforcement officer, to decide whether the father was justified in inflicting those injuries?

Agree with Nonu, Aka and rosequartze.

Oops sorry, spelling, rosequartz.

Of course it was a serious assault, but I would think his title suggests that this 'law enforcement officer' was actually the Chief of Police for his town or area and therefore in a senior position with the authority to make this decision.

Allegedly he was beaten unconscious. Media photos show pictures of the man who assaulted the child with bloodied lips, bruises around his swollen eyes, and scratches on his neck. There doesn't appear to be any serious or lasting damage done - apart from that done to the poor child.

I would imagine the Chief of Police didn't make an arrest in this case therefore, no reason for it to go to court.

I give up...

I'm not sure how you can make a clinical assessment from one photograph, Aka.

Agus Imagine if a teenager had been beaten up like that on a London street, and the perpetrator had been caught red-handed. Would it be appropriate for a police office, however senior, to decide for whatever reason that there was no case to answer?

I don't think so. It therefore follows that if you think in the Florida case it was ok for the officer to take such a decision, what you are saying is that anyone who finds a child being abused can mete out violent summary punishment with no fear of their actions being questioned.

Nonu I have never said I would not respond with absolute fury and want to hurt someone who was hurting someone else. No need for your dramatic capitals.

My 'thoughts' which the OP invited us to post are that I think it is wrong that the father is not facing a caution or similar for using undue force. I think it wrong because it disregards the law of the land and can encourage vigilante actions. I believe in law and order.

I think it would probably have been fair for the father to be arrested for assault. Then released without charge due to extenuating circumstances.

If anyone had similarly assaulted my daughters when they were children I would have made absolutely sure that they were never able to do it again.

Hardly 'beaten to a pulp' the emotive description in some papers though JaneA ... just questioning the veracity of some of the reports. Of course the media would not exaggerate the situation just for profit, would they?

My point being the decision not to prosecute must surely have taken the true extent of the injuries into consideration.

Actually yes, I am saying that anyone who walks in on their child being sexually assaulted can mete out summary justice.

Strange though I'm usually quite a peaceable person and I've never physically hurt anyone in my life.

Aka I think that the quotes attributed to the senior police officer suggests that he supported the actions the father took.

I argue that as a representative of the establishment/law enforcement he should have been discouraging using undue force and not made any comment about supporting the father.

No one is criticising or questioning the actions of the father. The question the OP raises (and in this instance, Nonu, I mean the Opening Post rather than the Opening Poster) is whether he should have been charged. Whether he just beat him to a pulp or cut his balls off is really irrelevant...

Well whatever the arguments I just have a gut feeling that justice was served.

With you there Aka.

Sexual assault is a horrible crime and relatives of this child are bound to be angry but heaven protect us from condoning any lynch mob mentality.
I would not want to see British Police being allowed to make judgements like that unchallenged. The officer to whom the assault was reported should not be allowed to make that decision.
No officer of any state should be beyond the law.

Is it any wonder that this gun toting country has so many murders and mass shootings by "oddballs" for what is often just a perceived slight?

It appears that the only way that many people in the USA can cope with a disagreement etc is to exact revenge for any little slight. Is this the "wild west" mentality still ?

I often wonder what century the USA is living in.
This very rich country call themselves the land of the free. Their poor and sick cannot get adequate medical insurance.

The American prison system is vicious in the extreme, compared with other countries that claim to be "civilised western democracies."

www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/incarceration-america_b_3528901.html

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/24/michael-douglas-emmys-son-prison-system

I think it's understandable that the man lost all control and assaulted the person who was abusing his child.

What I find completely unacceptable is a police officer in effect praising him for his actions and possibly encouraging people to take the law into their own hands.