Thursday, January 17, 2008

Forcing boy to be a Packers fan

A reader sends this story of emotional abuse:
Matthew Kowald was arrested Monday on tentative felony charges of causing mental harm to a child and false imprisonment, but was issued only a disorderly conduct citation for the incident.

Kowald reportedly forced a Packers sweatshirt on the boy, who told his father he refused to root for the Packers and was told by Kowald that anyone who said that would be grounded. ...

"He wanted the juvenile to be a Packers fan, and I would suggest he went about it the wrong way," Smith said.
The boy is 7 years old. The cop must have been a Seattle fan. The story goes on:
Kowald was arrested after the boy's mother, Kowald's wife, told authorities about the incident. ... Kowald's wife also filed a restraining order on Wednesday, Smith said, adding that other domestic issues have surfaced, though he wouldn't elaborate.
No surprise there. There was no harm to the boy, but the real motivation for the complaint was those "other domestic issues". Maybe the wife should just get counseling for her domestic issues, and not waste police and court time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You kinda left out the part about the boy being tied up with tape for an hour or so, The defense of the father that it was all in the name of fun is the standard defense of sadistic bullies. If the mother turned him in instead of intervening it must have stopped being "fun" at some point, at least for everybody but the bully.

George said...

The mother could have been concerned for the boy, or she could have been acting because of those other domestic issues.