Three people have been arrested in Michigan after a video they posted on Facebook went viral. The video? A six minute long clip of a mother and two men smacking a child in across the face and whipping him with a belt over 50 times.
The trio have been charged with third degree child abuse, conspiracy to commit child abuse in the third degree and third degree child abuse committed in the presence of another child.
While the beating was taking place, the child’s mother tells viewers of the video to feel free to call Child Protective Services. She then forces the child to say repeatedly, “it’s not cool to be a gangster.” The three adults were apparently teaching the child a lesson about putting “false information” on Facebook.
Prosecutor Davis Leyton says, “the law says that you can administer ‘reasonable’ physical force upon a child for disciplinary purposes. I think this was ‘unreasonable.’ The adults in this case clearly went beyond what is a reasonable level of ‘parental discipline,’” he continued. “What the video in this case reveals is a group of adults whose actions were a criminal assault against a child and that behavior cannot be condoned nor allowed under the law.”