Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Valis Quote of the Day

"...our charedi community’s response to this incident was clear and loud: Trash fires, threats to “Make Jerusalem burn,” 140,000 shekels in damage to public property.

A cheshbon hanefesh is long, long overdue. This type of lawless behavior is, in my opinion, a disgrace to our Torah."
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

What is also a disgrace to our Torah is the efforts of Yaakov Menken to exonerate Valis by discrediting the police. With narry a drop of evidence, he gives undue credance to the claim that Baby Valis died in a "tragic accident" and suggests that the "Amona Police" framed his father.

The trouble with the "accident defense" is that it is see-through. Every accused child abuser trots out that line, but a competant medical examinar can tell very easily the difference between a beating and an accident. They leave different injuries. A child who was dropped on the floor won’t look like a child who was beaten, or thrown against the wall.

I am commited to the idea that a man is innocent until proven guilty; and, certainly, I am more commited to this idea than the people at Cross Currents, who employ it only when one of their own is threatened. But discrediting the police - when there is no evidence that they have done anythign wrong - is not how responsible people advocate innocence. Unless the ME is a liar, there can be no doubt the baby was murdered. Suggesting the baby’s death was an accident, is suggesting that the medical examiner framed Valis. Are you prepared to do that? On what basis? And are you prepared to deal with the fall-out?

Because as another wise Cross Currents commenter said, "When we tell our children the police, the media, the secular are all against us, how do you expect them to internalize the message?"

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