If the child who was slapped by the hateful old man in GA had been with a man,

[raccoon]

I bet the old man wouldn't have slapped her.

I've posted this in two of the many threads about the incident.

No responses--is it because I'm stating the obvious?

Maybe I do state the obvious at times. I figure somebody needs to. Fish do need to be reminded from time to time that they live in the water. :-)


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6454280&mesg_id=6455082

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6447034&mesg_id=6452936

[Curtland1015]

Wait... are you saying if the child had been a male of the same age or if the child were an adult?

I'm confused...

[raccoon]

4. If the child had been with a male adult, instead of with the mother. nt

[Curtland1015]

7. Ah... I get it now. I'm a little slow on the uptake this morning.

Well, in that case, the OP is likely right. But it begs the question, how did the "slapper" not KNOW the father wasn't around somewhere?

[dgibby]

10. Here, this will help.

:donut: :hi: I'm working on my first cup right now. I didn't go to bed until about 4:00am, dogs got me up at 0-dark thirty to go out (little bastids!).

[dgibby]

11. According to one article I read,

he verbally confronted her in one aisle, then followed her into another aisle, where he assaulted the child. I interpreted that to mean he was basically stalking her, knew she was alone or that there was no male companion close enough to be a threat to him.

[CrispyQ]

5. The OP means, if the child had been with an adult male instead of an adult female,

the nasty old coot wouldn't have slapped the child.

[dgibby]

6. I read it as if the little girl had been with her father/uncle,etc.,

then the perp would never have attacked her in the first place. In otherwords, he's a bully and coward who feels safe attacking women and children, but wouldn't risk his own personal safety by provoking another male.

[dgibby]

1. I agree.

I also think they would have been having his bond hearing in a hospital.

[lillypaddle]

27. doesn't matter

I'm a mom, and I woulda beat the shit out of him.

[dgibby]

28. I'm not a mother,

except, perhaps, in the hyphenated form of the word, and I'd have done the same thing.

[jschurchin]

2. I know this much

If it was MY child, I wouldn't be typing this right now. I would be in jail, but his ass would be in the hospital recovering.

It would be worth it.

[Fuzz]

9. +1

[CoffeeCat]

26. Would you be in jail,

Seriously. if some stranger came up and started slapping my child--I'm not so sure that I wouldn't beat
them to a pulp.

I would be afraid that this person was trying to seriously harm my child and I would assume that I was dealing
with a very deranged person.

Wouldn't this be considered self defense? You have the right to defend yourself and your innocent child...I just
can't imagine law enforcement understanding that.

[guitar man]

34. yes

you would have every right to defend your child....with extreme prejudice :evilgrin:

[CrispyQ]

3. It's a point I hadn't thought of, but I'll bet you're right. --nt

[saltpoint]

8. If the crying child had been armed with automatic weaponry, my guess is

the guy who slapped him would have had reason for pause.

If the parent and child had brought along a dozen snarling attack dogs, same outcome -- the guy would have likely held back.

If Thor, the God of Thunder, was an older sibling of the crying child and had been in attendance on this outing, I'm thinking the slapper guy would have moseyed along and left the party unmolested.

If death lasers were built into the store's sprinkler system and were triggered to shoot out whenever someone's body chemistry veered toward agitation, they could have nailed the slapper before he acted on his impulse to slap the kid.

If the Rapture had kicked in moments before all those folks even walked into the store, the slapping incident would be moot.

And gender-free.

[dgibby]

13. And if bull frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their asses when they jumped.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[saltpoint]

14. LOL! Maybe that's why those darn environmentalists keep saying

frogs are disappearing. That Muslin socialist Barack Obama probably has set up secret death panels for bullfrogs!

[11 Bravo]

38. And if your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle.

[hlthe2b]

12. I'm betting this guy has a history of domestic violence...

whether he has managed to escape the "system" or not. While most of us can understand the frustration of crying or screaming children, none of us would ever think to hurt that child. What a horrid man.

[raccoon]

16. Probably beat his wife too. nt

[dgibby]

17. I'm betting you are absolutely right.

I hope he's filthy rich and can afford to support that mother and her child in the style to which they would like to become accustomed, and I hope she gets every last time he has.I also hope he gets to spend time in the general population in the big house.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Agreed.

[CBR]

18. This is probably true. One time Dateline (or a similar show) did

a hidden camera experiment in a restaurant. They had kids misbehave to see stranger reactions and strangers were much more likely to intervene if the parent was a woman.

[raccoon]

20. I didn't see that show, but thanks for posting. nt

[hfojvt]

40. I had a store and a theory

I used to wait for parents to corral/control their children and that seemed to be the wrong thing to do. It turned the parents into the bad guy. The kids resented the parents for controlling them. It seemed to me that if I were to control the children that they would then likely run to their parents or parent for support. Thus, the parents would be the good guys. I never tried it because I wasn't sure that parents would understand the point of the exercise. It's good cop-bad cop and they get to be the good cop.

On the other side, I often see parents snapping at and controlling their kids when other people don't really care. That sometimes strangers find kid's behaviour to be cute or mostly harmless, and the parent seems to get all angry with the kids. I had one mother with six children. Five of her children promptly used my store as a library, proceeding to grab new books and read them - thus smudging and bending pages of a book that is supposed to be NEW. One other child was doing a little running around and talking. As was typical of my small town, they were the only customers in the store, so that kid was not bothering anybody. The mother snapped at the running kid a few times and finally left with all of them, blaming the one kid for misbehaving and making them all leave. And I was thinking, 'lady, that one kid was the only one of your kids that WASN'T ticking me off.'

[H2O Man]

19. Cowards always look

for people they view as weaker than themselves to victimize.

[Captain Hilts]

21. I strongly agree. People feel MUCH more comfortable correcting/confronting women.

Especially on childcare, where the standards for women are much higher than for men.

[rurallib]

22. Hadn't heard this story - WOW - what a fucking cowardly asshole

You are right. He goes no where near the baby if there is anyone around who he couldn't push around.
I am coming to some conclusions about this man without much more information.

[dgibby]

24. Here ya go:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/03/crimesider/entry5284681.shtml

[rurallib]

25. Well, he looks just as I expected.

He could easily have picked the girl up and shook or squeezed her to death. Fucking coward.
I am guessing when his ass is in the slammer, he won't be treated very nice by the inmates.

[zbdent]

23. he's lucky he's still got his pinky ...

[stanwyck]

29. All four members of my immediate famiy had Obama stickers

on our cars. My husband, my son, my daughter, and myself. All of us had the same Obama bumper stickers on our respective vehicles. My son and daughter are both 26 yrs. old. (twins - who look absolutely nothing alike). Guess who got the vile confrontations in parking lots? (in Atlanta, Georgia). Not my husband. Not my son. Just me and my petite daughter. We were the ones attacked, verbally, by men in parking lots for having Obama stickers.
Curious.

[krabigirl]

31. Lol, that used to happen to me with my Dean stickers, but I would fight back.

I think I scared them.

[krabigirl]

30. Well, if she'd been with me, he may not have slapped her, either. I'm not too friendly when ro

my kids are upset.

[seabeyond]

32. hadnt thought of that. he confronted her, then followed her. i would have ripped into him when

he first mouthed off. none too gently. i have no problem being aggressive. then he followed her. right there it would have ended with confrontation. for him to have moved in on child would have been the last thing, and would not have made it

must have been a passive woman at that.

not that there arent many. and there are passive men. women tend to be trained passive though

i was raised with two aggressive males and aggressive father. tis in the genes. and certainly reinforced in conditioning jsut to survive that environment. passiveness was not allowed

[Echo In Light]

37. Understood. I frankly can't see why he wasn't beaten to pulp over it.

[redqueen]

33. Yep - stating the obvious.

Heh... fish/water... I wonder if you're thinking of what I'm thinking of when you say not... probably not, but neat coincidence. :)

[SacredCow]

35. Obvious? I dunno. If he's unhinged enough to slap a complete stranger's child....

I'm not sure that the gender of the parent would have made much difference. Or, maybe it would depend on the size and/or demeanor of the parent. Perhaps he would have been just as likely to slap the child if the parent was a meek looking, small-framed man? Or less likely to intervene if it had been a large and angry looking woman who could have clearly cleaned his clock?

I really wouldn't want to bet either way- the dude is just a lunatic, and you can't count on lunatics to behave according to any sort of logical pattern.

[Quantess]

36. It's true.

Mothers are viewed with critical eyes by strangers. People think mothers need to be told how to raise their kids.

[fascisthunter]

39. stating the obvious, but no one has made the statement

[winyanstaz]

41. It is assault and battery..regardless of who this man attacked....

And for any of you people saying its ok that he struck this child..you need some help because your head is not on right.
If it is ok for him to strike a child (regardless of his "reason".....then it is also ok for anyone to walk up and slap your lips off as well.
Children are human beings and have the right not be be assaulted by strangers.
I am only 5'4" and female...but I would have kicked his ass if he had done that to my kids..or to anyone else's kid.....(thanks to a step father that taught us children martial arts)..he would have went flying.

[Maru Kitteh]

42. Additionally, you would not have seen the calls from a few of the men of DU to slap the caretaker

of the child, if that caretaker was male.

They may deny the shit out of it. But it's true.

It's EXPECTED for women and children that some men will feel justified in slapping them, advocating for the slapping of them or simply *empathize* with those males who do slap them.

[Prometheus Bound]

43. I have to believe that a guy with anger problems like that has had his face punched in a few times.

At some point those guys pick on the wrong person. I know of several stories like that. And in one case I watched a woman beat the crap out of a guy. In another case a guy broke a leg of each of two bullies who used to cut people off in their truck and them beat them up.