shanti0608 said:

mdiver said:

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Well, I have been put on the crazy list ever since we got together. Some even stopped talking to me all together.
It's ALL good!

shanti0608 said:

Whaaat?!? Well, that's their loss then!

You two are cool in my book!

FuNkeNsteiN said:

and that is awesome in my book.

Take care!


As far as this thread goes.... I agree with IB and Mdiver.
I do not stand behind the violence first, ask questions later bullshit.
[Edited 4/17/09 2:56am]

Vendetta1 said:

I hope this mother (or guardian) takes action against the dad.

Even IF someone were to argue the dad's reaction had some justification, punching a kid to the ground is hardly a proportionate response to a little kick the toddler didn't appear to react to.

As someone with a mentally disabled brother, I hope that guy gets prosecuted. Take account of the situation then act.

mdiver said:

Oh! so you read minds now? How do you get "revenge" from a man diving in after the person who attacked his small child? Where did you see all that?
1. You don't even KNOW whether or not the father even knew the DS kid WAS a DS kid... All I saw was an adult-sized MALE kicking a small child.

You're adding all this other shit to justify your judgemental attitude toward that parent. How you got"vengeance" out of that video I'll never understand.
Did your shit have audio w/ the dad saying "I want revenge" or something?

If the DS's kid's father would have been there and fought the other dad, then that just would have been that. He would have seen just like kid's so-called chaperone whould have seen that he kicked a child. I don't give a fuck about anything other than that. He kicked a little kid and the kid's father neutralized his ass just like I would have if an ADULT sized male kicked MY son.
Fuck all the hyypothetical situations, I'm talking about what really happened. Father's should go to jail for protecting their kids now? I would have the guardian he was with fired for not doing her fucking job. That's the only person who should catch any hell here.

alwayslate said:

Wow. No wonder the world is in the state it is in. I guess it is ok to just "see" and react? I guess sense and being a grown up are commodities we don't need anymore?

You said it yourself "I don't give a fuck about anything else".....that is why you are unbalanced in this viewpoint, you take 1 thing and that is all you use for your decision. Makes me sad for the future.

mdiver said:

"The world???" We're not talking about road rage here so stop trying to make what I said into something that I live by on a daily basis; like I'll beat up an old lady for cutting in front of me at the grocery store check out.
This is the last thing I am going to say about this. I am not saying that you "react first" with every goddamned thing in your life and "i don't give a fuck about anything else" like you tried to make it out to be.
Go ahead and try to spin what I said in your effort to make me seem like a cavewoman because my child's safety is paramount (maybe I didn't use words big enough for you). But yes, when it come to my child .. to my CHILD.. I will not ask questions first in CERTAIN situations. FOR EXAMPLE: If an ADULT sized person physically attacks or batters my kid I will NOT ask if he's mentally impaired first. I will NOT ask if he has a chaperone first. I will NOT SEE if he'll do something else first. I will physically prevent his ass from doing another damned thing. I will put an immediate end to whatever danger my son is in. I commend that father for protecting his son. The only wrong thing I see in that video is that guardian's gross negligence in failing to properly contrl a dangerous person.

alwayslate said:

Your words speak for themselves, no spin required

alwayslate said:

so what should the mother have done in response? an adult attacked her child, with full force. what's the proper escalation here, in your opinion?

mdiver said:

Ah, the lovely benefit of hindsight.

I would've done the exact same thing. He came looming at the child very quickly, and the kid was obviously scared which is why he backed up.

Just as this father reacted instantly, so too do people with disorders. They can hurt people very randomly, very quickly. He should've had a carer with him or watching him more closely.

purplesweat said:

No, it isn't hindsight. The guy with DS is backed off and was moving away, the father had every opportunity to get between the 2 to "protect" his son, he chose to ignore that FACT, run PAST his son and whack the guy. That was his choice.

As many have said on this thread, what is the correct reaction now for the mother of the kid with DS? According to this thinking she has every right to "protect" her child and beat the shit out of this dude.

Wow.

An unfortunate situation, to be certain. I honestly don't know what my reaction in that case would have been. I'm fairly certain it wouldn't have been to punch the guy in his face. I'm a person who sees violence as a very last resort. And relative to the damage it appears was done to the child, I can't say that punching a guy out would have been necessary.

Having said that, I think a few things should be noted. One, as someone has already pointed out, the kid began backing up as soon as the guy approached him. That says to me that either the guy said something to the kid or the kid saw something in his face that suggested he needed to get away. In other words, before the kick even happened, the kid felt threatened. That could factor into the father's reaction.

Secondly, it's been pointed out that the guy kicked the kid and was "done" or that he had backed away and wasn't intending on causing the kid further harm. I don't necessarily see that at all. It was only a mere second or so between the kick and the punch. The backing away of the guy seems to come from him seeing an angry father charging at him rather than being done with the kid, per se. Of course, this is something we'll never know, but certainly should be considered.

Lastly, I think the father's intent was simply to ensure the guy didn't cause anymore harm to his kid. We can debate all day as to whether he chose the proper method of doing so, but I've seen similar situations where a punch wouldn't have been the only retaliation.

Knowing the guy had DS only makes it that much more unfortunate. And probably emphasizes the need to talk first before acting. Again, particularly in light of the idea that the kid appeared to be unharmed.

Wow, that was pretty hard to watch. I understand why the child's father was so upset but it did look like an overreaction. Pushing the guy away from the child seems to be more reasonable.

I was also wondering if maybe the father didn't realize that the guy would kicked his child was mentally retarded. Sometimes I don't always realize that a person is developmentally delayed or has some form of mental retardation right away. It could have been that what this father observed was a man kicking his child for no reason. In that case, his actions make perfect sense.

Thats what his bitch ass get

paisleypark4 said:

purplesweat said:

This is very true. When I was younger I had an unfortunate experience with a young man with Down's Syndrome who, for some reason, tried to physically overpower me. We were in a public space and his chaperone was distracted. She took notice of the situation after I started calling for help.

This young man was bigger than me and quite strong and could have caused someone serious physical harm. What exactly is the right action in that situation? If his chaperone hadn't reacted when I started calling out for help my next step would have been to punch this guy in the balls as hard as I could so that I could get away. I would have done this to anyone who was trying to harm me, regardless if they were mentally retarded or not.

June7 said:

purplesweat said:

So why wasn't the father watching his kid closer?

Vendetta1 said:

What did the toddler do wrong?

the father probably didnt know the guy had down syndrome

cause most white people look the same

LiquidGold said:

No, I am not saying the toddler did anything wrong but purple said the DS kid should have had someone watching him closer so that is why I made that comment.

Cuddles said:

OH

MY


GOD!

Vendetta1 said:

I see

Well, the mother/caregiver should know the young man's behavior patterns and not let him walk to the side to use the phone like that. She should have stayed near him or made him stay near her

This all happened rather quickly and I'm not sure how I would react to that if I was the father of the little one. I know someone who has a child with DS and the way they describe the child's behavior is quite alarming and the child is considered high functioning too

LiquidGold said:

im sure the caregiver got reamed for all the shoulda woulda coulda stuff at the very least.
but its more likely she lost her job completely because of the publicity and scrutiny this video is getting.
she lost a job not many people want or get paid enough for, over an incident that is likely quite common.


its too bad we cant just lock all those people up, away from the rest of society.
[Edited 4/19/09 13:25pm]

So we should expect random attacks from grown-ass DS guys? And it's OK that the DS guy hit a toddler because he has DS?

Ennnhhh..


You guys are acting like the mom at the cashier should have handed a punch back to the dad?

That was definitely an automatic reaction from the father to protect his child. Good for him. The mother of that down syndrome guy should have paid attention if she knew her son reacts this way in public. What if he injured the 4 year old? The father was within rights to protect his child. What ass would let someone kick their child?

I saw something like this happen with a mother who had a child who was mentally-disabled, and he was just randomly walking up to people and shouting at them. She was holding on to him, but had let him go freely, and was doing her shopping, and he did walk up to a young child shouting and frightening the child as if to hit her, and the mother of the frightened child immediately ran up to her child to prevent the mentally-disabled adult from harming her kid, it was an automatic reaction. It wasn't until she realized something wasn't right with the adult, that she hesitated to take it further, but the mother of the mentally-disabled adult son, should have kept her eyes on him, knowing he reacts this way in public.

In the video in looked the father had just walked in the store behind his child and at that second, all he saw was an individual who looked like an adult jump directly at his child and he reacted immediately to defend him.
[Edited 4/19/09 13:40pm]

2elijah said:

Or he could be a kid with DS that never hit anyone before?

I wish the mom's automatic reaction would have been to fuck that dude up.