Boy (with autism)'s death at church ruled a homicide

[KamaAina]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug03/164682.asp

The death of an 8-year-old autistic boy during a weekend prayer service has been ruled a homicide by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office....

According to the medical examiner, Terrance Cottrell Jr. suffocated to death by "mechanical asphyxia due to external chest compression."...

Ray Hemphill, the church pastor's brother, is being held on suspicion of physical abuse of a child, a felony. Milwaukee Police Capt. Nan Hegerty said Monday that she does not expect anyone else to be arrested in the case.

Two women - including Cottrell's mother, Patricia Cooper - held the boy down while Hemphill tried to remove the evil spirts (sic) from him, said Hemphill's brother, David Hemphill, the pastor of the church.

Okay, who's going to hold me down and attempt to remove the evil spirits from me?! Huh? I'm waiting! That's what I thought...

"Suspicion of physical abuse of a child"?! What about "manslaughter"? Or does that only apply to children without disabilities?

One hopes this is not representative of the religious attitude toward disability, but recently, at an event sponsored by our own agency, a preacher said, to an audience composed largely of youth with disabilities, "...and soon you will be in Heaven and your bodies will be whole." :puke: Make it stop, please...

[Jacobin]

1. Maybe they should have thrown him in a lake

If he sank and drowned, he was cured. If he floated, he was still "possessed" and would need to be eradicated by god-fearing christians.

These soothsayers are nutsoids.

[Rowdyboy]

2. My God, that's horrible! Is your agency a branch of

state government? Someone should lose a job over that

[KamaAina]

5. We're an independent nonprofit, and this happened in Milwaukee

five time zones east of the islands. I saw it on Google News and just about smashed my monitor. :argh:

Wisconsin has (or had, pre-Tommy Thompson :dunce: ) a reputation for excellent social services. Then again, since the poor young man is dead, there's no longer a reason for Family Services to get involved, unless the mom who helped hold him down has other kids living with her!

[monobrau]

3. Only one arrest?

"she does not expect anyone else to be arrested in the case"
WTF? This little boy was murdered by multiple people. If a gang beat someone to death, would only one person be charged? This is outrageous, and is a disgusting example of how animals hiding behind a facade of religon can literally get away with murder.

[Must_B_Free]

4. THe innocent child was the one removed

The evil spirits are the ones that killed him, then lied about it.

Thank about that.

[MissMarple]

6. They asked God to deliver him...and he did. Prayers answered.

It's sad that anyone with a bible can exert such power over people just by saying they "know" what God wants, intends,...whatever. It's so sad that that people sacrifice their children to bad theology.

[roguevalley]

7. sometimes they make initial charges

in a case until its investigated further and then more follow.
I hope so in this case, the nutwads.

[David Zephyr]

8. This Is A Child Abuse "Ring" If There Ever Was One.

It is murder. Pre-meditated murder.

[liberalmuse]

9. This just goes to show you...

if you're going to rape or kill a child, make sure you do it in a church. You'll just get a slap on the wrist, in most cases.

[zbdent]

10. They'll probably ask for a change of venue

say, Alabama?

[phrenzy]

11. Again

Another example of the idiocy and the logical conclusion of superstition (aka organized religion)

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Tough call, faithhealing and exorcism...

goes along with those cases of Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists refusing treatments for their kids or spouses. Or those camps for incorrigible kids using updated medieval and Puritan "cleansing" techniques. Catholics, at least, have to go through layers of approval before an exorcism can be performed, and much medicine is consulted. An actual exorcism is extremely rare. Most other Christian denominations have little or no provision for exorcisms and the like. Casting out devils sounds so cool, but no one really thinks it works. The general attitude is that God would rather we trust a shot of penicillin than the laying on of hands in a faith healing. We don't put much faith in anyone's witch doctors.

Where to draw the line is an interesting question. This one is obvious, but Christian fundies and other religions have their interesting "counseling" techniques, too. Tougher to tell whether they caue damage.

Lotta complications with religious freedom-- if Indians eating peyote is bad, this sho 'nuf should be. In many places, it is.

[Ohio Dem]

13. It's a wonder the national liberal media isn't

running this 24-7. "Religious nuts kill autistic child. Film at eleven."

Shouldn't our godless, liberal media just fall all over themselves covering this?

[Catherine Vincent]

14. This is sad, that poor child.

I can only imagine what he was thinking while they were holding him down praying over him as he gasped for air.

This is religion gone amok. And I'm sure those holy rollers will believe they did nothing wrong, just trying to cast away evil spirits.

Some people are fanatics with religion.

[DS1]

15. Good, throw all those lunatics in jail

or make them drag a 2 ton 'ten commandments' rock around for the rest of their lives, do it BIBLE SYTLE baby!

:argh: at fundies

[Pastiche423]

16. Your own agency condones

a preacher that said, "...and soon you will be in Heaven and your bodies will be whole"?????????

WFT is wrong w/their bodies now?

How fucking cruel! What is he a preacher of?

[KamaAina]

18. Great green greasy grapes, no, we do not condone that!

What happened was that a volunteer was left in charge of the program for that event. She brought in the offending preacher from her own, fundie/Pentecostal church, and then the fit hit the shan.

It won't happen again. The weird thing about it was, she always seemed so nice...

[AnnabelLee]

17. I live about an hour from Milwaukee

I was over at my neighbbor's house today. She has an eight-year-old granddaughter named Sammy (Samantha) who is autistic. Sammy loves elephants, & strawberries, & her favorite TV show (the only one she will watch) is SpongeBob.

My neighbor was crying, & she kept saying, "He must have been so frightened". Those sick people at that sick church have hurt more people than they will ever know.:mad: