The kid does not react like he was kicked, looks to me like punch first ask later. I agree the father has a right to protect his offspring however that kind of reaction to what was obviously not harming his child was uncalled for.

Hope he gets his ass sent to jail

You will soon understand how protective a parent is with their children.

You have time to look at the video objectively and analyze the video. But as a parent, if I saw someone walk up to one of my daughters and kick them especially unprovoked (even if it looks like it didn't look like the kid reacted) I would lay them out the same way.

In that situation you have no idea what the intentions of the kid are. Obviously you know that they walked up to another kid and lashed out at them unprovoked. What else are they going to do? Kick again? Punch? Pull out a weapon? All you know for sure is the kid is aggressive without being provoked, and twice the size of the other kid.

That kick looked pretty real to me, although it seemed more impulsive than malicious. The outcome is unfortunate, but I can't say most people wouldn't have reacted the same way. And somewhat more importantly: What that father did was well within legal provisions of defense of his child against immediate physical threat, as I understand it... at least in most areas of the U.S.
[Edited 4/16/09 13:08pm]

In the video I see a man use his phone and walk up to a little kid and try to kick him. I don't see a drooling mentally incompetent "hands curled up to his chest" retarded boy.

See to me the boy about to be kicked is a little child.
At first glance, without the title to help you out it seems like a man just wants to beat up on a little child.
I am sorry the man with DS was punched so hard, but this dad reacted instinctively and quickly. If he knew the man had DS then maybe he wouldn't have done that.

There are too many assumptions being made here. The greater point that should be made is
"At what point do we hold a person with DS responsible for his own actions? Where do we draw the line? Can a person with DS brutally beat a child? What about the child? No the child wasn't hurt THIS time... but what if the child was?

Violence is not an answer, but if some grown person lays a hand on my child it is my duty as a parent to protect my child. If that young man can't be controlled then maybe this mother shouldn't have her son in a place were these things can happen. She should protect her child too.

can to can't edit.
[Edited 4/16/09 12:30pm]

You will soon understand how protective a parent is with their children.

You have time to look at the video objectively and analyze the video. But as a parent, if I saw someone walk up to one of my daughters and kick them especially unprovoked (even if it looks like it didn't look like the kid reacted) I would lay them out the same way.

In that situation you have no idea what the intentions of the kid are. Obviously you know that they walked up to another kid and lashed out at them unprovoked. What else are they going to do? Kick again? Punch? Pull out a weapon? All you know for sure is the kid is aggressive without being provoked, and twice the size of the other kid.

Because he didn't want to. Clearly.

If my kid was being full on attacked and I had to get the person off him, I would do what I could to get them off and keep them off.

It would not involve sucker punching someone in the face - more like pushing/pulling them off.

That wasn't a threat, that was a guy with Down's Syndrome playkicking a kid.

They should have called the cops on that stupid son of a bitch. The dad, I mean. He punched the guy to the floor! What the fuck?

Great response.

It is not immediately obvious the boy has DS, at least by the video, and he was on the phone and actually looked like a normal adult.

If I was just shown the video without any headlines or comments it would look to me like a man or at the very least an older teenager who was more than twice the size of the little boy on the phone then just attacked the little boy without being provoked.

Again, it is very easy to now sit back, take your time and analize the situation with the help of a video and commentary after the fact but as it happens very quickly in real life, the persons involved don't have that luxury.

My question is has the boy with DS ever lashed out like this before? And if so, why wasn't he being looked after more closely or why was he put into a situation where this could happen?

I feel sorry for the boy with DS because he probably did not realize he did anything wrong and he probably still doesn't know why he was hit. But the man protecting his kid had no way of knowing that or no way of knowing what the guy was going to do next.

How do you know that....you can't. The Father might have had no idea who was the Mother of the older kid or who he was or wasn't with, if anyone at all (from the Fathers perspective). For all he probably knew if he saw the woman at all, was that she could have just been a bystander. I would not trust my childs safety to a bystander I never met.

Plus from his angle it looks like she was probably mostly hidden from his view (his view is not the same view from the video that we all see).






.
[Edited 4/16/09 15:27pm]

If I can't know anything then neither can you or anyone else defending this.

But the Father had no way of knowing if this guy was armed or on drugs. All he knew was his 4 year old son was kicked/attacked without provication by a much bigger person that could do some serious damage very quickly if he wanted to.

And sucker punching someone is punching someone from behind...the Father came straight on from right in front of him.

Remember...the angle we see from the camera is very different from the Fathers view who was more behind the kid. And from what I can see in the video, it is not clear the kid has DS. If I was just shown the video, I would have thought it was a man or older teenager attacking a 4 year old kid for no apparent reason at all.

Not to mention this all happened in real time as where we all can look at the video over and over again with time to digest and really think about the situation.

You said that the Father CLEARLY didn't want to. I said the Father might not have had any idea. That's the difference.

if we take some of the comments here to their logical conclusion, then the mother or guardian of the Down Syndrome kid should have immediately beaten the crap out of the father.

of course we all feel protective of children, whether they are ours or not. but there are ways to do so without immediately resorting to violence. the young man could have been seriously hurt.


grammar nazi edit
[Edited 4/16/09 9:47am]

That is exactly what it is.

But in a situation like that, you really do not have time to sit back and think about it without putting your child in more danger. All you know is another kid twice the size of your own attacked your kid unprovoked. It is a natural reaction for a parent to react immediately to protect their children.

I mean if an intruder broke into your house in the middle of the night would you take the time to question them and their motives or would you react to protect you and your family?

This was a very unfortunate incident that is made even worse because the one kid has a disability.

Fuck that. he kicked him. I saw that much. He may not have kicked him hard but he did it nonetheless. I'da knocked him the fuck out too.

Many adults with Down's Syndrome are rational enough to have jobs, pay their rent and know right from wrong. He's in a place, seemingly unchaperoned, using a cell phone... we're not talking about someone who is totally 'retarded'(for lack of a better word) and has no self control.

He's lucky he only got hit once. That father wasn't going to wait around for him to do something worse before reacting. He probably didn't even notice he had down's syndrome. All he saw was a grown ass man KICK his child.

Oh, for fuck's sake!

It's obvious even on the video the guy has DS. What kind of a fuckup would even think the kid would be packing heat and railed on coke?

You're defending the indefensible.

What are you talking about, it's not obvious? Play that video again and look at his face and facial expressions. It's clear as day.