Mother charged with punching infant son in the mouth on a T bus
MBTA Transit Police report arresting a woman they say punched her infant son hard enough to make his mouth bleed on a 23 bus yesterday afternoon.
According to police, when fellow passengers on the bus "expressed their concern for the well being of the child," Erica Ryan, 25, told them to mind their own business.
Police say Ryan told responding officers that "I was trying to feed my baby on the crowded bus, then my hand slipped and I hit him in the mouth."
But fellow passengers told a different story:
That she began calling him a "motherfucker" and a "fucking nigger" when he wouldn't eat and that after she said she was giving him "one more chance" and he still wouldn't eat, she made a fist and punched him in the mouth.
When officers arrived on scene, the report says, they found Ryan holding her son, screaming at passengers surrounding her outside the bus that nobody was going to take her baby. When she spotted officers, she ran up the street, still holding her son, still screaming nobody would take her baby.
Officers took her to MBTA Transit Police headquarters on Southampton Street for booking on a charge of domestic assault and battery. EMTs took her baby to Boston Medical Center for treatment and observation.
Ryan is scheduled for arraignment this morning in Roxbury District Court.
Innocent, etc.
Comments
The time to worry about "taking her baby away"
Was before she decided it was a good idea to brutalize him in a very public space.
I'm hoping this is something that can be treated - like post-partum depression.
This is a real downer
Something serious must be going on in her life. I sure hope the child gets taken care of somehow, and also this woman gets some help as well.
I have a treatment
How about a hysterectomy?
Really ignorant Will
You are either so dim that you know nothing about contraception options - even permanent ones - or you are a pathetic woman-hater wanting who simply gets his rocks off just thinking about inflicting unnecessary pain.
Come on Swirly, you know better
Why does me wanting to stop child abuse make me a "woman-hater?"
You don't stop abuse with torture
Clearly, you need to study up on your contraceptive methods if you don't see the differences here.
I'm not Johnny Medicine
But don't women sometimes voluntarily get hysterectomies?
Hardly Voluntary
Don't men sometimes have their balls cut off?
Well, yes, when there is something PHYSICALLY WRONG with them.
Like I said - you are an ignorant hater if you think compulsive major surgery is an answer to a single child abuse incident.
Ah
I stand corrected on the applications of hysterectomies.
As for you calling me a "hater," to that I say "thank you." I do hate people. I hate people that punch babies for no reason, and I hate people who perpetuate a double standard for use of the "n" word.
You may have noticed that my hate is not limited to this incident...I'm capable of hating pretty much anybody I find repugnant.
Single Incident
You are crazy if you think this very public, very abusive, very violent incident was the only time this woman hit this child.
How about this: You have kids, right Swirrly? Would you let this woman raise them? Would you even let her near them?
It's not a method of birth control
That wouldn't even make sense when you have a less invasive, risky, and costly option available (tubal ligation).
Women who "voluntarily" get hysterectomies do so for reasons such as cancer prevention because they are high risk, or to treat chronic pain from disease.
A hysterectomy is way to
A hysterectomy is way to drastic. Kind of like having a guy loose his gonads instead of getting a vasectomy Getting her tubes tied might work, or some type of injected birth control.
Treatment...
The best way to "treat" this issue is to remove the child from her care. No way she is fit to be a mother if this is how she treats her child in public.
But there's nothing stopping
But there's nothing stopping her from popping out another one.
If she's that unfit of a mother, do you think she has common sense to use a condom or birth control? I doubt it.
I'm all for forced sterilization one some of these jerks who do this. Yeah it seems like its inhumane, but its also inhuman to the children who are brought into this world.
Its easy to say "Well we can just take the child away" but how about lets stop her from popping out another one.
One incident = sterilize?
Really? You guys are feeding right into the right wing anti-woman, anti-contraception noise machine's bleating about genocide.
Of course married, affluent white women who whack their babies at home and then raise their concerns to a private therapist get a pass, no?
How wonderful a world you all live in. I remember a time when beating your kids was not only a divine right, but considered necessary for society's sake. Should all of our grandparents have been forcibly sterilized? Fortunately, that has changed ... but I don't think that draconian forced medical procedures change the underlying issues of poor mental health support, irresponsible and absent fathers/mothers, or people trained from childhood by their own parents that whacking kids is the way to go.
Remember folks: Forced womb control, be it about banning abortion, restricting contraception, or forced sterilization is all about hate. If it wasn't, we'd be talking about PPD awareness here and how to help a temporarily psycho parent become a good parent (because it can be done and has been done).
Whoa...
I never said "sterilize her" but there is 0 chance that this is an isolated incident with this woman. And I recognize the larger problems that contributed to this child's plight. But the immediate issue here is the safety of the child.
And equating the well-deserved spankings I received as a child to a mother punching her infant in the mouth to the point where blood was shed while calling him/her racial epithets is quite the leap. Like comparing the gasoline spill in Saugus a few weeks ago to the Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Postpartum Depression??
"Remember folks: Forced womb control, be it about banning abortion, restricting contraception, or forced sterilization is all about hate. If it wasn't, we'd be talking about PPD awareness here and how to help a temporarily psycho parent become a good parent (because it can be done and has been done)."
Let me start by saying I agree with you on everything you said about forced sterilization. I can only assume people who are suggesting this aren't serious. Forced sterilization is barbaric and there are many good reasons it has been held unconstitutional. However, are you suggesting that this woman's behavior might be postpartum depression? Suggesting that a mother calling her toddler horrible names and beating him on a public bus because he would not eat his food is akin to a mother, for example, thinking about hurting her children because of untreated postpartum depression is insulting to the women who actually DO suffer from postpartum depression. This person is a child abuser. I think that you are deluding yourself into thinking this could be postpartum depression so that you don't have to face the reality that this woman is a horrible, horrible person. Unfortunately, there are many other parents out there who do horrible things like this every day. This is why we have an entire foster parent SYSTEM. Not all bad acts can be cured by treatment or rehabilitation. Some must be addressed by incapacitation.
How many horrible labels that
How many horrible labels that have no place in all of this. The words he said were obviously words of outrage of a woman who obviously have no love for her child and should be allow to be near them. As the above said, post-partum depression does not equal to reckless abuse and to a baby no less.
There were not words of hate to women or race and most certainly doesn't amount to pure evil and gravity of genocide. Mentioning whether it is right wing or left wing is an empty words trying shame the person rather than trying to any attempt of argument by logic and reason.
Throw away the key
God, if this does this in public, imagine the abuse that poor child must get in the home away from public eye.
Throw away the key....
We really need to start
We really need to start licensing childbirth and pregnancy... :-(
Providing free condoms and contraceptives and information
Would be a good start.
But then that's considered rewarding bad behavior and allowing people to have sex for fun without consequences. This sort of story is exactly what those type of people thrive on.
but nooooooooooo our govt
but nooooooooooo our govt believes in abstinence education. Like this has worked...
God for bid we pass out contraceptives to prevent things like this.
That she began calling him a
That she began calling him a "motherfucker" and a "fucking nigger" when he wouldn't eat and that after she said she was giving him "one more chance" and he still wouldn't eat, she made a fist and punched him in the mouth.
So you think that free condoms would solve this problem?
How about
Free
hysterectomiestubal ligations?Baby in custody of another family member
Roxbury District Court Judge David Weingarten set bail at $500; the DA's office had asked for $25,000. However, Weingarten agreed to order Ryan to stay away from her son at least until her case is decided, the DA's office reports, adding the baby is now in the care of another family member in Boston.
Man this poor kid has the
Man this poor kid has the deck stacked against him.
Hope the family member didn't teach Ryan her parenting skills.
And because of our messed-up justice system,
the DA can't appeal the judge's decision to grant this woman a absurdly low bail amount.
But if it were a case where the DA recommended $500, and the judge raised it to $25,000, you can bet this woman's lawyer would cry "excessively high" in a heartbeat.
Absurdly low?
Why should it be considered absurdly low? Even if it's proven that she's guilty of whatever they charged her with (and she's innocent until proven guilty), what are you afraid she'll do while out on bail? Birth another kid and start slapping it around before trial?
Danger to self and others?
If she's psychotic, she's better off in the slammer. Sounds like they are dumping a mental patient so they don't have to take care of her.
Other kids
Maybe she has other kids that she'll take her frustration out on, ever think of that?
No Comment...
For some reason boston.com decided to not have a comment board attached to their coverage of this story.
Now that would have surely restored your faith in the forgiving Christian goodness of our Commonwealth.
This is Massachusetts. Not
This is Massachusetts. Not only will she receive no punishment beyond a slap on the wrist ($25,000 down to $500? Seriously?), but she will probably continue to receive all her state handouts and will have no incentive whatsoever to not bring into the world another child whose deck is stacked firmly against him/her, who will probably grow up fatherless and undereducated, vulnerable to gang influence.
Racist, you think? No. This is reality. This is not scripted--this HAPPENS. ALL THE TIME. How many more stories like this do people need to read before they wake up?
Bail is intended to guarantee court appearance
and only secondarily to keep someone in jail before trial on account of dangerousness. $500 seems a bit low but that's just bail, it's not the sentence she'll get if convicted.
This womans actions
I have seen this woman myself and she is very disrepectful. I hope the child gets a better home and a family that will take care of him.