Where are the Parents

[Dill]

(01-15-2019, 03:03 PM)bfine32 Wrote: None of the nobility in this thread changes my original question. Where were the parents and should they be held accountable?

As I said we do not know the man's level of flight or fight and I have no issue with a Samaritan trying to restore peace. As I said we all wish he would have taken less physical measures, but I don't see where he "attacked" anyone. The child charged at him 3 times.

As to a man doing that to my 11 year old. I'd feel a level of responsibility that I left my 11 year old child unattended in such an environment. I,m the one that put my child in harm's way.

The parents were at work.  Maybe.  I don't know what they could be accountable for. Their daughter did not knock out a 51 year old man. She was knocked out.  Like JJ says, no excuse for a 51-year-old man decking a kid.  Sure, 11-year-olds can do damage, but not that unarmed GIRL with her fists up.  I am 67, out of shape, and confident I could manage that "assault." If we were in a courtroom discussing HIS case, that's all that matters, not where the girl's parents were.

Still, I absolutely share your anxiety about the larger cultural-social implications of this incident. I don't want to just talk about one guy's bad judgment.  How is it that a bunch of un-supervised tweens can get into fight in a public area like that?  Why do so many, not just the girl who was clocked, assume they can sass and defy an adult stepping in to break up the fight?  In what world can an 11 year old 80 lb girl seriously think she can trade punches toe-to-toe with a 200 lb man? 

I am just as disturbed by that defiant girl as I am by the guy.  So while I don't see any legal accountability for the parents here, I do wonder what she has been taught.  Seems like she was presuming way to much "child privilege" here. Were she my daughter and i found out that this happened, I would not be all up an arms about the guy who punched her (assuming the law takes its course).  I would be seriously concerned about HER judgment. What social map already in her head opened up "fistfight a large adult man" as a viable way through the conflict, and is likely still there? I suspect she has been very defiant before with no consequences. Friends have probably reinforced this ("teachers can't hit you if you talk back or THEY will get in trouble"). 

And I am disturbed by what I suppose the rest of those tweens will learn from this, if the guy gets jail time and nothing happens to any of those unruly defiant children. The message is hardly that both sides were out of order, if there are legal consequences for only one party.