Police have arrested Andre Robinson, 21, who appears on a deeply disturbing YouTube video where he lured a street cat to approach him by pretending to feed him and then kicks him into the air. What is equally disturbing is the cries of joy and laughter from his friends.
Robinson celebrates his sick accomplishment with a victory dance as his friends cheer.
We have previously discussed how some cases of animal cruelty are so egregious that the person should be considered a danger to society at large after displaying no basic humanity. Nevertheless, Robinson’s mother, Mary Kirby, 48, insisted that hew son “loves animals. He loved his cats, he had dogs, he always loved them.” Robinson has eight prior arrests, including a 2011 arrest at knifepoint. He also has various Facebook photos showing him smoking what appears to be a joint.
Police say that Robinson was outside waiting for a food delivery when he turned to his friends and said, “Watch this.”
Witnesses say that the cat was a long-term resident of the building and was friendly. The cat is a resident of Robinson’s building who identified herself only as Shyvonne, 32, said the cat had been hanging around for months and was friendly and playful. The problem is that sentences under animal cruelty remain relatively limited even though individuals who commit such acts are dangers to society at large.
YouTube has since removed the video; the content of which they indicated violated their terms of service. WABC-TV New York has excerpts of the video during one of their news stories.
The news story along with the video can be viewed HERE and HERE.
Sources:
Daily News
WABC-TV
Cruelty to animals is extremely unacceptable and should be met with a harsh penalty. It is astonishing to see what some individuals will do to a helpless animal.
The sad truth is, nothing will really be done about animal abuse until we actually start voting in people that make animal abuse a priority, otherwise we will just continue to show our outrage online and nothing will happen. Laws make it happen, although this judge that let this POS walk is exactly what I’m talking about. They don’t take animal abuse seriously whatsoever it’s up to us the people somehow
This is just another version of the knockout game, the sucker-punch delivered to the unwary by a heartless, amoral young black male for the cackling amusement of other heartless, amoral young black males.
These videos typically get posted to Worldstar Hip Hop.com, the ‘big time’ site for black mayhem, which is why you hear blacks shouting “world star” in so many videos of attacks and brawls.
I find this claim disturbing: “We have previously discussed how some cases of animal cruelty are so egregious that the person should be considered a danger to society at large after displaying no basic humanity.”
So we’re to jail people not for actual crimes but because their mentality indicates they’re a social hazard? Criminalize psychopathy? We imprisoned more than enough citizens. Always, it’s driven by moralistic excess.
Stephen – you are correct. The PC police live here and they would like to put anyone who does not fit into their mentality in jail or prison.
Theo, and whomsoever it may concern:
I have not experienced any of the “reactions on this site” as being excessive; rather, I have consistently experienced the comments on the Turley Blog which I have read as being completely appropriate in their actual, full, existential context (meaning, when every factor related to a comment is taken into truly accurate account), and always as the most truthfully honest a comment as the commentator was actually able to post.
The human tradition of rejecting a messenger whose message calls my attention to tragic aspects of attempting to reject a message by rejecting the one who carries the message seems to me to go back before the dawn of human events.
When I was younger than I now am (perhaps when I was, perhaps, four years of age, my brother and I, with some help from our parents, made a “tin can telephone.” It consisted of two tin cans that had food in them when purchased by our parents, one end of each can had been removed to remove the food from the cans, with a small hole put in the remaining end of each can, and a length of string secured with a knot inside each can, so that sound vibrations could vibrate the end of one can, which vibrated the string when the string was held in suitable tension, and the string vibrated the end of the second can, and talking could happen at a distance greater than was audible without the tin can telephone rig.
Is the string of a tin can telephone properly held accountable for the vibrations it conveys from one can to the other?
Is a new “string theory” of human communication worth devising?
It is my best hunch thus far, that Andre Robinson had become so strung out by his aggregation of lived experiences that the best way he could actually find to share the message of his life’s injured wounds was the displaying of his inner sense of having nearly been kicked to death by the kicks of life which had impinged upon him.
Mere palliating the signs of a severe problem never, in my view, actually addresses the severe problem itself. Alas, the only way I have ever come to be aware of a severe problem is through having become aware of its signs.
Making the signs of a severe problem vanish from one’s awareness seems never to make the actual severe problem itself vanish.
Who, among us, has never, never ever, become strung out by some problem that we could not promptly solve?
When words have been forbidden through social consensus construction of models of reality, and when a message is overwhelming for a messenger carrying it, what can a messenger do except to act out the message in ways effectively bereft of words?
How does a little child whose parents are acting out their not-yet-healed childhood injuries on the child, effectively and safely tell the parents, “It hurts me when you do that,” if the parents were successfully taught to believe that, as they were being hurt as children by their parents, “We are doing this for your own good.”???
What is the nature of such “good”?
Wow, Some thoughtful, articulate, comments. Kudos!
A tour de force, Dr. Brian. I too have been disappointed at some of the excessive reactions on this site. Some individuals rise above the pain of their childhoods, not unscathed but unwilling to inflict their pain on others, while others do not have that ability, either because the pain is too great or the pain from the discriminatory conditions and everyday cruelties of society or further negative life experiences from such causes or other causes prevent a person from moving on and putting things in perspective. It would seem that sometimes the different result is because of the influence of a mentoring figure, whether parent, teacher, friend, early in life. I too read Dr. Miller. She has much to teach. I don’t like the expression used in one piece, bad seed, as it seems to denote the holding of the contrary opinion that the person cannot be helped and at the same time is a wounded animal deserving of help. We don’t yet fully understand the roots of psychopathy and we cannot know if this man is such a person, we only know that such people exist. What we should know is that the lives of African Americans are not easy ones, especially men living in the ghettos whether city or suburb, massively unemployed and on the school to prison pipeline since grade school, badly educated by design, and sent to prisons where deranged authoritarianism and cruelty are the norm. Such an inhumane system is the result of human decisions and can only be changed by other human decisions informed by empathy that at the same time protect society from the few who would do harm, but, again, not by inflicting more harm. I have always believed parents (indeed all of us) must be trained but trained not in authoritarianism, which is a dead end which binds the human spirit and stifles creativity and which our society exudes on all levels, but in the nurturing of compassion and empathy. As human beings and a nation, we have a deficit of empathy. It is killing us and the world’s peoples and the earth itself.
Ar-villa: I agree with you that empathy is very necessary when raising a child to be civil in society..
. . . . .
I also know that most people do not recognize that it is an integral part of the training of a child. The problem is that most people do not know the difference between empathy and sympathy. Some do not know how to give either. Unfortunately we live in a fast moving world where time is of the essence and it is our children and elderly who suffer the most from the lack of both. A prime examples are kids from broken homes or kids in foster homes. kids who get shoved from home to home as in foster homes or kids torn between divorced parents..
A child needs to learn what empathy is through interaction with others. Divorced parents try to buy their love many times and the child learns how to work the parents. Children are not dumb, manipulation is the skill they conquer first.Foster parents have rules to abide by so they truly have little control over an unruly child. Foster Parents too many times fail to give them the love and affection that they have been deprived of and really strive not to get too attached so the child may as well be living with strangers whose only goal is to give him/her a home to live in and food in their belly but the thing the child needs most is accomplished through………. love, understanding, moderate discipline and empathy which is withheld. Too many times those homes have much sympathy, no discipline and fail to realize the child is missing the essential things needed to make him/her a well rounded child. A caretaker/ parent who feels his pain and understands how he feels and knows what to do about it. Another example: A kid loses a parent or sibling, the average person really feels sorry for that child but cannot feel what the child is going through. To them , after 6 months, the kid should snap out of it and get on with his life……..after all the rest of the world has. A truly empathetic person will understand that that child has many problems to work through and needs one’s love and understanding to overcome his loss. The friends and caretaker not only feels the child’s pain but understands what the child is suffering. Such a situation can take a couple of years maybe more to work through. ………..I guess that is why I call myself “been there, done that”! I’ve seen too many kids with problems.
Ar villa: To be honest, in reading your mini “dissertation”, I would have sworn I was back in college reading from one of my many books on the psychology of a child. Never-the-less, I could have sworn I had read those words before. Of course empathy is necessary in the training of a child as well as when faced with many situations in life with adults..
Arvilla,
Dr. Alice Miller, as I have read her work, was profoundly empathic.
It comes to my mind to paraphrase an idea that I have found attributed to some of the “North American” first nations:
Giver of Life: “Let me never criticize my neighbor, unless I have walked with him, in his moccasins, for his whole life.”
Mary Wells,
Have you actually studied the books that Dr. Alice Miller wrote, studied them carefully and in detail? Can you actually address,directly and in detail, her observations about society and children?
If you believe that Dr. Alice Miller was wrong regarding her scientific observations, can you also demonstrate the actual happening of an actually avoidable event of any sort whatsoever?
My curiosity is piqued.
As I read through all the comments, the one word I did not see referenced so far was “empathy.” As most know, to feel empathy is to stand in the other’s shoes (be they human, other living creature) in order to know (own, intuit, best guess) how THEY are ‘feeling’ in order to better self-correct (conduct, control or police) one’s own interaction…with that person. With young children, they are developmentally able to feel empathy (demonstrated by word, actions) as young as three (3) years old. Usually this happens in a seamless manner as a result of following the mentoring example of a primary (influential) person in their family of origin such as with an empathetic parent or otherwise custodial person…who by repeated word and actions towards the child can be trusted (huge!) to speak up for, not forsake or abandon that child.
Unfortunately, with 50% of this nation’s children now being raised by single parents who feel compelled to work at more than one job just to keep food on the table, there is far less time and motivation to pay adequate attention to their impressionable off-spring in so far as how they may ‘feel’ about a matter…since it is more important about what they can ‘do’ to help shore up the household…if not get out from underfoot altogether. However, even in families with two parents, it is more often the case that this most subtle nuance of teaching a child (by tacit example or articulated instruction) how to both understand and better manage their feelings (fear, resentment, anger, frustration, affection, trust, etc.) still doesn’t get appropriately addressed.
In other words, contrary to how children are being urged to learn via the standardized methods of rote memorization and mechanical skill development from age two (“Pre-K”) and there is less time allotted in early home or later school to prepare them for proper expression of feelings for more successful interaction in adulthood, it is as though children are being left to figure out both the identity and consequences of visceral emotions all on their own.
For me, the Lord of the Flies metaphor comes to mind because when a developing child (first five to seven years are most critical) is ‘deprived’ of an early life experience that includes routine civility, respect and caring discipline within a paradigm of predictable kindness, attention and nurturing…they are far less inclined to know how to share, interact and trust others, again, due to lack of empathy…or projected understanding of the ‘other.’ There are many milestones in childhood whereby if a lesson (in this case, character trait) is not learned at an age-appropriate time, it is harder to incorporate later in life. And this deficiency then finds the later adult in a perpetual state of Arrested Development relative to the ‘missed opportunity’…and by how callously and narcissistically (showing off) this young man treated the (too) trusting cat…as well as with his already long record of getting into trouble (belligerent, not socially adept) it is fairly obvious that he, like thousands of others, was emotionally neglected or deprived at a young age. After all, children do not know how to raise themselves into adults, let alone those more civilized…and since this would reap huge benefit to our growing all the more violent society…I believe the consciously practiced or honed traits of empathy need to be taught in ‘all’ schools from K-12. In my opinion, we sorely need the positivity of caring empathy to be THE counter balance to all forms of cruel bullying which is what I see this broken man-child as most guilty of.
Actually, I had an uncommonly happy childhood, perhaps in part because I never experienced an unmet need. As I learned of World War II, I wanted to direct my life to understanding war, without being a combatant and without understanding war only vicariously, and, even in early childhood, after I began talking, it seemed to me that pretty much everything in my life helped me to understand human conflict better.
There is a notion about that which I find does well for living a life that is basically thriving, and it is finding decently useful ways to turn symptoms into life-enhancing assets.
I have always been able to consciously remember the most difficult times of my life; I never developed amnesia for them, so, whatever else may be true, nothing that happened to me was so damaging that I became unable to readily remember it.
I tend to guess that any experience which is so damaging as to generate amnesia must be far more damaging than anything that ever happened to me.
What has been challenging for me is coming to a way of understanding why I was seriously abused by people, as though I was being betrayed by society. I never deemed the people who treated me abusively as being responsible for what they did regarding me, because what they did had nothing I could recognize to do with me or my life, and everything to do with their lives.
Harris, PhD, PE re: Dr. Alice Miller “the child is always innocent”. Incorrect. Anyone one on this site ever have to teach a child to lie? Anyone ever have to teach a child to blame someone else for something they did, etc, etc. None of this justifies harming a child, but Ms Miller was quoted twice, and she is incorrect. Children come into the world sinful, and barbaric, and the “infant/child transition” is the beginning of moving them from that state to one of a productive, civilized member of society. It can be done kindly, firmly and with a great deal of love, or it can be done viciously with no love. If it is NOT done at all, however, society ends up with products such as Mr. Robinson and the friends who applauded his actions. It also tends to be the case that if the transition from barbarian to civilized member of society is not accomplished, society has a propensity to do it itself, but it is not done with kindness and love, i.e. the legal system, the penal system etc. Mr. Robinson is simply a grown version of a child that has had no effort made to civilize him. Society is beginning the civilization of him.
His attorney will claim, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client is horribly dyslexic. He thought the game was kick the cat, not kick the can.”
Schulte: I confess, that was my major. But, the boy needs help and he should also suffer the consequence for his cruel actions
J Harris: I also feel the same about a baby in the womb, they feel pain as is proved by the fact that in the womb they move around to get more comfortable. I found that out by poking my children when they were in a very uncomfortable position for me in my belly and the reaction of the child was to move. Babies can feel pain too and the cruelty they are shown is as cruel and evil as that shown the cat………….Abortion sin my opinion is no different than murder.
J. Brian Harris, PhD., P.E.:
From your opinion of the infant- child transition, you apparently had a very unhappy childhood and for that I apologize to you. My own childhood was much different, in fact it was quite joyous. Looks like you solved the problem of life all by your self and all that matters is that you can now live side by side with others quite harmoniously. However, I would not have chosen the people you chose to quote from, but to each his own. It is amazing how people can read the same articles and glean much different messages.
Unfortunately, not all children are as fortunate as you or I as is witnessed by the numerous prisoners, murderers, violent people and the events going on in the world today. there are those in this world that are not as strong or as smart and as fortunate as you to work things out all by themselves and may need help trying to figure out how one must conduct themselves to survive in the world. Many of these people truly need help and we can do that. Sometimes it works and sometimes it is a waste of time, It all depends on the depth of hate the child has developed within him and his ability to evoke his own self control. however, he deserves a chance to know that not all of the world is evil.
I truly congratulate you on your success in life. From your title you have achieved much.
I hope he meets an animal lover in prison who lures him in, bends him over and kicks him in the balls.
Perhaps I am unduly ignorant of biology. To some extent, that notion can be tested. Perhaps the following will comprise an insignificant sort of test.
It is my best guess that Andre Robinson is human. It is also my best guess that every comment on this Turley Blog thread has been written by humans.
What is a human, and what are humans?
Zoological taxonomy to the rescue?
Humans ( by which I mean what some taxonomists have labeled “modern humans) appear to me to be:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mamalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Tribe: Homini
Genus: Homo
Species: Sapiens
Subspecies: Sapiens
Oh, oh!
All humans are animals!
So, cruelty to humans is cruelty to animals?
Neurologically shattering cruelty to human animals of, typically 18 months post-birth age, mandated by societal norms is no less neurologically shattering through thousands upon thousands of years of generational repetition.
It is social norms, perhaps most especially, norms that define life as intrinsically and extrinsically adversarial. which I observe is that which, being comprised of cruelty inflicted on one generation after another, is that which inflicts cruelty onto the next generation, ad infinitum, until some aspect of evolution provides a practicable alternative to endless eons of human cruelty generating human cruelty generating human cruelty?
Andre Robinson’s overt conduct is that of an injured/wounded animal, an injured/wounded animal of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens. Injuring an injured animal only adds to the animal’s injury. Wounding a wounded animal only adds more wounding of the already-wounded animal.
So, let me see if I can plausibly identify some more injured/wounded animals whose actions have contributed to this Turley Blog thread…
I think I may have identified an injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken.
“rafflaw
Disgusting. Anyone who would harm a defenseless animal should be put away for a long time.”
The post by rafflaw suggests to me the possibility that rafflaw was morally injured (or traumatized) as a defenseless toddler human animal, as is characteristic of “neurotypical” people who have amnesia for their infancy and early childhood. As the late Dr. Alice Miller wrote, “The child is always innocent.” I find no fault with rafflaw; I sorrowfully grieve regarding his apparent injury/wounding with respect to which he was clearly defenseless.
I think I may have identified a second injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken:
“angelforisrael
Reblogged this on Taking Back America and commented:
Sick son of a b****. We need tougher anti-cruelty laws.”
I have similar thoughts for angelofisrael as I have for rafflaw.
I think I may have identified a third injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken:
“americanforchange
Reblogged this on My Opinion My Vote and commented:
A man like this should be thrown on the ground and savagely kicked himself ”
I have similar thoughts for angelofisrael as I have for rafflaw.
I think I may have identified a fourth injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken.
“Darren Smith
Guys like him you just love to cuff up and take to jail. Since he is a “kicker”, maybe it might mean hobbles for him as well”
While I have thoughts for Darren similar to those I have for rafflaw, for Andre Robinson, I think that, were I to have any influence, I would take Andre to places such as the 8 East Psychiatric Unit at the University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital, to a place like the now-closed Forest Hospital, in Desplaines, Illinois, to the now-closed Charter-Barclay Hospital, in Chicago, to the Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, or to the University of Chicago Hospital Medical Psychiatry Unit, for those were important places where I was able to substantially heal the injuries/woulds inflicted on me by people who believe that injured animals need to be punished for having been injured and that wounded animals need to be punished for having been wounded.
I think I may have identified a fifth injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken.
“jsquaredone
I think what this disturbed individual did is hideous and he should be punished to the fullest extent permissible under the law if he is indeed deemed guilty of charges.
What I do find some what fascinating is the outrage at this act of violent and aberrant behavior against an animal when violence against babies in the womb warrants the sounds of silence. In my opinion the life of the baby in the womb deserves the same respect (more in truth) than we accord an animal and I wonder how we have reached the point that the baby is ranked lower in that hierarchy of life.”
The thoughts I have for jsquaredone are comparable to those I have for Darren.
I think I may have identified a sixth injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken.
“Anon
What a sick B___rd.”
The thoughts I have for Anon are like those I have for rafflaw, for children of any age are always innocent.
I think I may have identified a seventh injured/wounded animal, but I may be mistaken.
“V
Agreed, we need tougher laws. He has prior arrests. Keep him in jail.”
For me, “tougher laws” would lead people such as Andre Robinson to places where the goal is healing of social-norm-based traumatic injury, such as the places where my healing from personally-shattering social norm-based cruelty was well and effectively healed.
The older cat who lived with us developed multiple systemic organ fallures over the past few weeks, and died this past Saturday. She had been a shelter cat who had been tentatively adopted and was returned to the shelter for being not suitable for living in a house with humans. I worked with her to help her overcome her trauma-induced injuries and wounds, and, within a few weeks, she was a wonderful house cat.
The younger cat who lives with us was tentatively adopted and was returned to the shelter for being unsuited for living in a house with humans. It took less than a week for that cat to become a wonderful house cat.
My wife and I are in the process of adopting another cat, one that the shelter people indicate, and my working with her at the shelter this week indicates, was severely maltreated while she was a young kitten. Like the cat that died Saturday, this cat is being kept in a cage because her unresolved/unhealed injuries/woulds are yet too strong for her to live in the general population at the shelter. I expect that her injuries and woulds will be well-healed within a few to several weeks.
Is mercy more honest than sacrifice?