[Villager357]

You have A LOT of assumptions in your reply. Again I have a family friend who works for this man. He became physically sick when he saw your post, he became sick because all to many Villagers believe this is how Chief Tucker is when in reality he is EXTREMELY belittling to his employee's, has not lifted
a finger to help clean up after a fire in years (because that's below him), has not written a report in years, and if he was exhausted it was from driving to the fire. Please don't believe me or my friend on this one, take a drive to your local fire station and in conversation ask when the last time THEY saw the fire chief fighting a fire, picking up hose, or returning to the station to help after a fire. You are sadly misinformed of this man, and his actions as a chief. His crews do not respect him, they have no confidence in him and they are leaving in mass numbers. Last number I heard was almost 20 position needed to be filled, he will quickly blame this on the retirement these firefighters have but the truth of the matter is a lot of them are tired of being treated like yesterdays garbage.

WE NEED TO STAND BEHIND THE ONES THAT SERVE US SO WELL AND FORCE THE VILLAGES TO GET THEM A TRUE LEADER, one that will do all of the tings you posted, for a second I thought you had him confused with the Sumter County Fire Chief.

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

I have to agree with this comment .................. and I'll continue by asking "is this really child abuse" or was it a one off over-reaction to a smart mouth teenager, or is it an ongoing problem in the house? If it is an ongoing problem in the house then it's child abuse. I think if there was habitual child abuse in the home someone outside the home would have known about it. There are four boys, one of them would have mentioned something to someone by now.

I have just finished reading the piece in the paper which states that Mike Tucker had been out with his crew fighting the Villa fire, I am going to assume he returned to the Fire Station to help with the clean up of the engine and putting away equipment and then probably had to write at least one, probably two or more lengthy reports on the fire. I am going to assume he then went home exhausted and the son in question probably made a stupid typical teenage comment ................ At that point Mike Tucker appears to have lost it and pushed, slapped, whatever, his son causing him to fall off the kitchen stool. The son probably was more than annoyed by this reaction and continued to give his Father lip and from then on all hell broke lose in that house.

I have raised boys, great kids, but push my buttons they certainly could and did.

I am hoping when this case does go to court Mike Tucker will have a Judge who has some commonsense and gets to the bottom of this.

[jbdlfan]

Originally Posted by Barefoot

I personally don't think we should be rushing to judgment until the facts of the situation are known. The media has already made corrections to some of their initial incorrect reports. So far, all we have is a lot of speculation and judgement, but few substantiated facts.

What corrections have been made? I haven't heard anything new, just curious.

[kittygilchrist]

Originally Posted by tucson

His child could've been killed from this beating......

sorry to ask but are you an M.D. or medical examiner or...?

[kittygilchrist]

so here we go just like the trayvon martin case getting an opinion from what we read in the paper. I hope if this goes to trial which is doubtful, that nobody posting on here with an opinion arrived at already serves on the jury. just ain't right.

[LndLocked]

Originally Posted by jbdlfan

What corrections have been made? I haven't heard anything new, just curious.

The only change or inconsistency that I have read is the initial reports said he was being "held without bond" .... then it was reported that he had paid a 5K bond and been released. Apparently the initial report should have read more along the lines that ... bond has not been set.

[Warren Kiefer]

Originally Posted by madelaine amee

but his child was not killed from this altercation ------ but his child now runs the risk of losing his father, the father's income and the home life he has enjoyed to this point.

is this post a joke and someone using satire to lighten up the issue or what ?? If serious, i cannot believe that anyone would indicate the are concerned that reporting abuse could result in the victim possibly losing their good life. Abuse is a felony criminal act, tucker admits he did the act and called it a tussle. I am shocked at some of the posts that paint a totally different image many had of tucker of being a pillar of the community. Other posters tell us tucker is a bully, a belittler, someone that does no work etc. As for me, i have no idea. But rest assured, there will be no winners here. It is factual that abuse is not usually a one time occurance but goes on sometimes for years. And usually when children are abused by a father, the mother also suffers abuse.
And using the reasoning that no one was killed, it would only take a few minutes to come up with 50 cases where the abuser, usually the father, killed his wife, the wife killed the husband, the abuser killed the child or perhaps the child killed the father. Open any newspaper on any day !!!

[Shirleevee]

I AGREE! Thank you for a real common sense post!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by Warren Kiefer

is this post a joke and someone using satire to lighten up the issue or what ?? If serious, i cannot believe that anyone would indicate the are concerned that reporting abuse could result in the victim possibly losing their good life. Abuse is a felony criminal act, tucker admits he did the act and called it a tussle. I am shocked at some of the posts that paint a totally different image many had of tucker of being a pillar of the community. Other posters tell us tucker is a bully, a belittler, someone that does no work etc. As for me, i have no idea. But rest assured, there will be no winners here. It is factual that abuse is not usually a one time occurance but goes on sometimes for years. And usually when children are abused by a father, the mother also suffers abuse.
And using the reasoning that no one was killed, it would only take a few minutes to come up with 50 cases where the abuser, usually the father, killed his wife, the wife killed the husband, the abuser killed the child or perhaps the child killed the father. Open any newspaper on any day !!!

Excellent post. Totally well written and immense common sense.


There is a faction at TOTV that likes to take the side of whomever the rest of us would find to be less than upstanding citizens.


To those of us "outside the bubble" who live in the real world, it's nice to see a free thinking intelligent post.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by jhrc4

A lot of sympathy for the Fire Chief ( Adult ) grown man. More sympathy for the Chiefs family...how about the " Alleged " Victim. Where is the feeling for him.
What goes on behind closed doors, lot's of movies, TV shows, and it is usually " He " was the nicest, kind, gentile, would do anything for you, the " Pillar " of the community, and then the shoe drops along with the jaws. Held without bond should tell you there is more to this. Skip the feel sorry for the Chief until we get the scoop. We'll see how long " Alleged " last's. Keep in mind...Grown Man vs Child !! " We Were Tussling Pretty Good ", so said the arrested person, and extent of injuries to the victim came from more than a " Tussle " . Big Brave Adult , not so big and brave sitting in a jail cell.

Yes. Agree.

We raised a teenaged son. Once in high school, especially around their friends, the once little angelic boy will "test their parent's" via words.

I always felt I was the adult and I always remained in control, emotionally.

The one incident that comes to mind was when I calmly replied that "No, Dad and I cannot host a keg party" at your graduation barbecue as it's illegal". He got in my face for that; his friend was nearby.....I figured it was to impress the other kid.
At the time, our police were cracking down on parents supplying any type of alchohol at all during graduation parties (which in years previously had been totally acceptable as long as the parents and other adults were on the premises and a lot of parents in the "olden days" would rather have all the kids and their friends at their place than out driving or at someone else's place. But times changed and it was just when these boys were reaching graduation time. The newspaper was full of warnings that if parents supplied any alchohol, even a beer, they were responsible. So I said NO. I also retained my composure.......even later when I tried to talk and explain to him in private, he remained mad at me all night. But parents should show some maturity and control.
It can be done without resorting to violence.


By the way, these "barbecues" were attended by all the kids' parents as well as us......so there was adult supervision.
It wasn't like a free for all keg party one might imagine. So, the kids had a ride home.......or else the kids slept over.


But, we got through the high school years and the college years and everyone is still alive, thankfully.

Neither myself nor my husband ever felt we had to use *corporal punishment on either of our children. Neither did we scream or yell at them. Ours was a peaceful household and they both turned out great.

They actually thanked us for giving them a wonderful childhood, etc. (they both did this when they were juniors in college) and even thanked us for staying intact as a family when so many of their friends' parents had divorced.

Today they are raising their children in the same loving way without corporal punishment. I always felt that if you explained things ahead of time.........their behavior was as expected. The few teenage outbursts can be chalked up to hormones or trying to impress a friend.

Besides, knocking a kid off of a stool and then carrying this "tussle" out to the front lawn seems more like a physical attack of a father "out of control" when he is the adult and should be in control.

Even the best mannered and behaved teenage boys will test their parents at times. This man sounds like a class A "bully".


p.s. Another remembrance of the teenaged years comes to mind when we hosted Spanish Exchange students from Granada Spain (twice, once for our daughter and again for our son). Our daughter had explained to us how the boys were machismo and spoiled rotten by their mothers in Spain, yet the girls were sweet and polite (it was true).
For our son's "student exchange party" which all the teachers also attended (Spanish and our local teachers), held at our home, the boys immediately spoke up about the fact that only coca cola and other soft drinks were being served and NO ALCHOHOL........in Spain they were all allowed to drink, both at home and out while having "tapas". The chaperoning teachers tried to calm them down, but these boys were really annoyed that they couldn't drink in our house. All of them also smoked (this is junior year in high school) and they knew it was not allowed in the student exchange program so would go into the bathrooms to smoke. Boys , in particular, can have an attitude in their teens.
The teachers also retained their composure when the boys got surly over no alcohol rule. Adults do that.

[NECHFalcon68]

Originally Posted by gomoho

Until you walk in someone else's shoes...

Agree!!!!!! Only the family knows the true story.

And posting hearsay from a neighbor doesn't cut it...why cant the neighbor post their observations themselves?

[Challenger]

Lots of speculation in this case is not useful to anyone. Let it lay until more FACTUAL info is available.

[samhass]

Originally Posted by Villager357

You have A LOT of assumptions in your reply. Again I have a family friend who works for this man. He became physically sick when he saw your post, he became sick because all to many Villagers believe this is how Chief Tucker is when in reality he is EXTREMELY belittling to his employee's, has not lifted
a finger to help clean up after a fire in years (because that's below him), has not written a report in years, and if he was exhausted it was from driving to the fire. Please don't believe me or my friend on this one, take a drive to your local fire station and in conversation ask when the last time THEY saw the fire chief fighting a fire, picking up hose, or returning to the station to help after a fire. You are sadly misinformed of this man, and his actions as a chief. His crews do not respect him, they have no confidence in him and they are leaving in mass numbers. Last number I heard was almost 20 position needed to be filled, he will quickly blame this on the retirement these firefighters have but the truth of the matter is a lot of them are tired of being treated like yesterdays garbage.

WE NEED TO STAND BEHIND THE ONES THAT SERVE US SO WELL AND FORCE THE VILLAGES TO GET THEM A TRUE LEADER, one that will do all of the tings you posted, for a second I thought you had him confused with the Sumter County Fire Chief.

Your statement that we are understaffed by about twenty positions in the fire department bears investigation.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by Challenger

Lots of speculation in this case is not useful to anyone. Let it lay until more FACTUAL info is available.

Yes, I quite agree. I can make a case for or against the father, the son, the mother, the neighbors, the fire department, the commenters here, etc.. But Challenger hit the nail on the proverbial head.

[ROCKETMAN]

The chief knocks his son off a bar stool, beats him while he is on the ground, drags him outside hitting his head again and posters say our prayers are with the chief. When people who worked withg him claim he was a bully, I tend to think he has anger management problems and needs professional help. He might be in jail to get it though.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Challenger

Lots of speculation in this case is not useful to anyone. Let it lay until more FACTUAL info is available.

This will never happen on TOTV.................there is always another way to state the obvious.