In my previous post I talked about a recent video showing a Texas Judge whipping his daughter with a belt. The judge has come out with an official statement to the press. You can read the full statement here (it's three pages in length).
Essentially he argues that his daughter is trying to damage his reputation because he refused to keep paying for her BMW.
To quote:
If the public must know, just prior to the You Tube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23 year old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support,if she was going to simply “drop out”, and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part time at a video game store. Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it. The post was then uploaded.
William Adams regrets the interruption and inconvenience his daughter’s post has caused to the Aransas County, Texas community. Judge Adams is confident that when the dust settles.....it will be concluded that Hillary Adam’s actions in 2011 were misguided and misleading.
It's just mind boggling that this is how he would respond to the situation. However, from a legal point of view, it's not. He's laying the ground work to show that this was a one off incident and that outside of that he was a good dad giving his child everything she needed.
Watch his daughter on Anderson Cooper to see the other side of the story ...
From just the facts above, what it seems likely happened was that yes, he abused his daughter. Yes, the daughter was dependent on him financially (giving her reason to stay quiet about the abuse). Yes, when he cut her off (removing the only reason she had to remain quiet) she had nothing to lose and finally struck back at him for his behavior in the past.
If that's the case, it doesn't change the simple fact, he whipped a 16 year old kid. Abuse is abuse, no matter how you cut it.
Any 'irrational' behavior on her part - for instance, why remain in contact with her father after such behavior - is easily chalked up to the fact that abuse victims often times continue taking the abuse for years. They sometimes never confront the abuser in an entire lifetime. That's actually normal - doing what she did, standing up to the abuser, is actually out of the norm (especially an abuser in such a position of power such as he has being a judge).
From a PR perspective, this guy just did the worst thing possible, he attacked the victim. Even if the catalyst to her releasing this video was him cutting off financial support, it doesn't change the fact that she was victimized.
If you've committed an atrocious act and want to lose public support as quickly as possible, attack the victim. Hey, it's working for the banks right (please note my sense of sarcasm here).
In this situation clearly the PR is being handle by a lawyer who is using their public statement to essentially lay out their defense strategy.
Regardless though, he botched this on the PR front. When you've done what he did, the only option available to you is to take accountability for your actions and hope people forgive you. But without taking responsibility, much less blaming the victim themselves, you have zero chance of gaining any kind of public leniency.
Essentially he argues that his daughter is trying to damage his reputation because he refused to keep paying for her BMW.
To quote:
If the public must know, just prior to the You Tube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23 year old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support,if she was going to simply “drop out”, and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part time at a video game store. Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it. The post was then uploaded.
William Adams regrets the interruption and inconvenience his daughter’s post has caused to the Aransas County, Texas community. Judge Adams is confident that when the dust settles.....it will be concluded that Hillary Adam’s actions in 2011 were misguided and misleading.
It's just mind boggling that this is how he would respond to the situation. However, from a legal point of view, it's not. He's laying the ground work to show that this was a one off incident and that outside of that he was a good dad giving his child everything she needed.
Watch his daughter on Anderson Cooper to see the other side of the story ...
From just the facts above, what it seems likely happened was that yes, he abused his daughter. Yes, the daughter was dependent on him financially (giving her reason to stay quiet about the abuse). Yes, when he cut her off (removing the only reason she had to remain quiet) she had nothing to lose and finally struck back at him for his behavior in the past.
If that's the case, it doesn't change the simple fact, he whipped a 16 year old kid. Abuse is abuse, no matter how you cut it.
Any 'irrational' behavior on her part - for instance, why remain in contact with her father after such behavior - is easily chalked up to the fact that abuse victims often times continue taking the abuse for years. They sometimes never confront the abuser in an entire lifetime. That's actually normal - doing what she did, standing up to the abuser, is actually out of the norm (especially an abuser in such a position of power such as he has being a judge).
From a PR perspective, this guy just did the worst thing possible, he attacked the victim. Even if the catalyst to her releasing this video was him cutting off financial support, it doesn't change the fact that she was victimized.
If you've committed an atrocious act and want to lose public support as quickly as possible, attack the victim. Hey, it's working for the banks right (please note my sense of sarcasm here).
In this situation clearly the PR is being handle by a lawyer who is using their public statement to essentially lay out their defense strategy.
Regardless though, he botched this on the PR front. When you've done what he did, the only option available to you is to take accountability for your actions and hope people forgive you. But without taking responsibility, much less blaming the victim themselves, you have zero chance of gaining any kind of public leniency.
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