Investigation into Texas family court judge's home life *trigger warning*

First, let's walk through what he does say one paragraph at a time. His first paragraph is devoted to explaining the video. And by explaining, I mean shifting the emphasis from William to Hillary. William was disciplining his 16-year old child. Hillary, "by her own televised and internet reported admissions", was engaging in criminal activity. And the video was posted for reasons other than what Hillary said, let's not forget that. But the fact that the "discipline" in question was 20 vicious strikes with a belt, forcing her to lay prone on her stomach to take said strikes, threatening to hit her in the face with said belt, and asking why she should belong to her family when she has the temerity to download a video game in a peer-to-peer file sharing arrangement? That's better left unmentioned.

The second paragraph notes that it is so regrettable that Hillary reported that she has cerebral palsy. Now I would argue that it's very relevant: if you have cerebral palsy, you have difficulty with movement and coordination, two traits that are incredibly useful if you, say, want to defend yourself against a battery. In other words, I don't have the slightest problem with Hillary noting that she's disabled, because all she's really saying is "Even if I had not been scared out of my wits and were mentally capable of fighting back, my body wouldn't have allowed me to do it." William Adams, however, never notes exactly why Hillary shouldn't have noted it, but the letter seems to imply that she's grasping for unearned sympathy. Remember this point, because it's going to come up again in the grand finale.

Paragraph three raises the question of why did Hillary keep the tape for all this time. Further, it notes that many people, anonymous of course, find her explanation troubling and incomplete. Left unspoken, of course, is the question why in the hell the things depicted on the tape ought to have happened at all, or why she would feel the need for videotaped evidence of it.

Paragraph four raises the exact same question as three, but provides more evidence that Hillary actually liked William. After all, after their divorce, Hillary insisted on living with William instead of Hallie, waited for five years after leaving to first mention the abuse, and (we are reminded) waited seven years to post the video. I think this is actually one of the major paragraphs, so I'll discuss what is left unsaid in greater detail later.

Paragraph five is the kicker: what actually happened is that Hillary has dropped out of college two classes shy of graduating. And William, full of tough love that he is, is simply unwilling to continue supporting her if she's going to be nothing but a college dropout who works part time at a video game store. In fact, we know that she's a wastrel because she . . . well, it's actually his Mercedes, but she has the temerity to drive it!

I could go on about the paragraphs where he details exactly how sorry he is that other people have to be involved in this terrible business, but I'll stop here. One doesn't have to look very hard to see what he is doing or what his strategy is. It's about sympathy: she's claiming the right to the sympathy of others. Because file sharing doesn't justify the "discipline" he inflicted on her. Because she couldn't have fought back even if she wanted to. Because maybe she still loved her father despite all that he's done, and she felt terrible ambiguity about whether she should use something that would utterly destroy his career. Because she, like many abuse victims, felt terrible shame about admitting her abuse to anyone. Because, by her own admission she still depends on him for support, support that is also by his own admission conditioned on his support, his approval, his control. In the world of abuse, this is known as emotional blackmail. Above all else, because no child deserves what happened to Hillary in that video. And William Adams cannot stand the fact that anyone other than William Adams is on the receiving end of sympathy.

We know that it's about sympathy and the fact that William Adams isn't getting it while Hillary is precisely because of what isn't said. At no point has he apologized; that's something he's done at some point in the past, over and done with, thank you very much. At no point has he demonstrated that he needs to change; why change, after all, when you're just disciplining your child. At no point has he recognized that the film shows a 16-year old disabled girl in absolute terror and agony, unable to do more than cower as she's beaten.

I actually want you to stop for a moment and think about that. A parent's natural reaction is to protect their child from pain and terror. I only have a sibling and not a child, but if I heard my brother cry out like Hillary is crying out in that film, my instinctual reaction is to grab the heaviest metal object I can find and beat whoever caused my brother to make that noise to death. That is not meant figuratively; I mean I would pulp the skull of anyone who inflicted that much injury on someone I love. I don't even have to think about what I would do in that kind of situation. But not only does William Adams not do that, not actually stop to realize that he's the one making her feel that way, he keeps right on doing it. And he makes no apologies for it. Because in William Adams' mind, William Adams hasn't done anything wrong.

If that doesn't convince you that William Adams isn't merely someone who gets carried away about the tough love, and is actually an abusive prick, I don't really know what will.