If anyone ever deserved a smack....

The Torygraph columnist Anne Atkins, writing in CiF, argues for the continued use of smacking as a method for disciplining children in the UK. I've found that it's futile trying to argue with people who believe that it's okay to abuse your power over child by hitting them. Instead, I ridicule them (to control my violent urges):

"Smacking, properly used, is a controlled way of persuading your child that undesirable behaviour is not worth repeating."

Your argument reminds me of an article I read concerning a mentally ill (unarmed) man who climbed into a tree in my wifes home village:

Translated from Borås Tidningen:
"We [the policemen] first tried to calm him down using pepper spray and batons, but when that didn't work we shot him."

Violence as a form of gentle persuasion?