dv8 Report This Comment
Date: September 03, 2009 06:52AM

Roger Stephens, 61, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children. An incident report obtained from police in Gwinnett County indicated Stephens did not know the 2-year-old girl he stands accused of hitting.

The confrontation happened shortly before noon at the Walmart in Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta.

According to the arresting officer, the child's mother said her daughter was crying as they walked down one of the aisles.

The mother said a stranger later identified as Stephens approached them and said, "If you don't shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you."

bus Report This Comment
Date: September 03, 2009 12:25PM

Not a very tolerant man. He must have had a really bad day and then, it got worse.
The news last night said he slapped her 4 times. What a champ!

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 03, 2009 12:54PM

If that had been my child he slapped, he would be buried not arrested.

FrostedApe Report This Comment
Date: September 04, 2009 03:30AM

You can barely get away with disciplining your kids, much less someone else's. I definitely don't condone it, but I understand where the impulse comes from.

dv8 Report This Comment
Date: September 04, 2009 04:00AM

the parents will let their kids cry and scream or if the kids don't stop crying the parents will smack their kids which makes the kids cry louder and more. why don't they (because the parents are stupid) take their crying kids outside and deal with the problem. the man should have smacked the parent not the child if your going to hit anyone.

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 04, 2009 10:49AM

If a child is crying in the store, just grit your teeth and bear it like everyone else does in the store. I raised 4 children and it occasionally happens. It is just as hard (if not harder) on the parent as it is on others. When children are throwing a temper tantrum parents need to just let them go so they can see it won't get them what they want. It also seems to be harder on people who have never had children than on those who have.

fossil_digger Report This Comment
Date: September 04, 2009 03:30PM

i told a kid one time that you had to be "this" tall (hand extended to around 4 feet tall) to cry in any store, he shut up and mom thanked me.

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 05, 2009 11:54AM

I am surprised that mom didn't tell you to mind your own business. Most people nowadays take offense to anyone interfering in their life.

Mrkim Report This Comment
Date: September 05, 2009 04:18PM

I think this incident is really just symptomatic of a much larger issue which is parents failing to actually be the advisors, mentors and disciplinarians of their kids. So many parents I see will stand idly by as their kids do all sorts of shit that is either disrespectful of others around them and THEIR rights, allow them to talk back to them as well as others, throw public temper tantrums and all sorts of other behavior that's unacceptable.

Far too many parents look to the schools, their churches, social organizations, etc. to teach their kids what's appropriate and what's expected of them instead of understanding it's THEIR FUCKING JOB as the parents to do so! These same parents are also the same ones who typically will wonder in disbelief what happened to their little darlings when they turn out as sociopathic monsters when they reach adulthood (if not before then!).

I personally don't and can't condone a stranger physically disciplining someone elses kids without consent of the parents as this is stepping waaaay over the rights one has in such things. But, how many times have one of us been in a restaurant or a store and had to deal with little heathens runnin up and down the aisles, talking loudly if not screaming at other kids, their parents or other customers? I can truly only comment on my own experiences but there have been far too many instances of this I have personally observed and it really pisses me off!

I go out to dinner once or twice a week to enjoy someone else doin the cookin and cleanin, NOT to be verbally and visually assaulted by little Johnnie and Janies antics that would be fine on a playground, but NEVER in a restaurant where others are PAYING for their right to be there. I feel I should have some expectation that parents whould mind their kids behavior instead of just allowing this kinda crap. The underlying message such behavior by parents sends to the kids by not correcting such aberrant behavior is that by allowing this behavior in public it sanctions/justifies them acting this way and teaches them disregard for others rights is A-Ok in Mommy and Daddys eyes!

I raised 2 kids myself and can relate unequivocally that I never allowed my kids to disregard others rights while in public. I also hafta say I agree that the parent of this kid would have been the proper one to have approached about the kids behavior as they are the one responsible for their actions. The kid was just bein a kid and behaving as the parent was allowing them to

dv8 Report This Comment
Date: September 06, 2009 12:28AM

we need to send you to the ghetto and the trailer parks to school the parents on how to do their jobs. also to the parents out there, stop doing drugs with your kids, stop drinking with your kids, stop fucking around with your kids/kids friends.

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 06, 2009 10:57AM

I sell all kinds of things at a local flea-market and see first hand parents allowing kids to run wild. I had one kid playing with domething I was trying to sell and it was very expensive. I made the comment to the kid, that if he broke it would he be able to pay for it and the parent over heard and said yes he would be able to. Then she grabbed up the child and said let's go we don't want any of his trash anyway. I see this kind of behavior all the time from parents which is why I do not put controllers out with the games systems I sell. I have even sold a handgun there and I had to make children put I down many times and got dirty looks from the parents. Parents don't even teach their kids to leave guns alone. Thai is utterly ridiculous. I raised 4 kids around the flea-market and they were taught that the stuff there is for sell and not to play with until it belongs to them. I blame Wal-Mart for this.

Mrkim Report This Comment
Date: September 06, 2009 01:49PM

I was taught 2 very simple principles regarding others property.

1. If it doesn't belong to you, keep your hands off of it unless invited to do so by the owner.
If we went to someones home and began to handle or mess with other peoples things the conversation always went somethin like this: "Does that belong to you?" to which I would have to answer "No", and the response that always followed was "Then leave it alone".

2. While in a store, unless you personally were going to buy something, leave it alone.
Here's a common conversation that occurred many times as a kid when we were in a store and I picked something up to look at it: my Mom "Kim, what are you doing?", I'd say "I'm looking at this." then my Mom would gently but firmly remind me "You look with your eyes, not your hands.".

These 2 simple rules were intended to teach us respect for things we personally did not own as well as respect in general for other peoples things and anytime we erred, we were quickly reminded.

These principles are really nothing more than simple manners, something else that's seemingly gone the way of the dinosaurs these days. I've heard it said that laws are only in place to "enforce" the concepts of proper manners and this seems pretty reasonable to me.

In our home the rules of proper conduct were well defined and always applied evenly to every situation. What I see in a lot of families is that simple respect for others and their property isn't taught at all and even if it is, the rules are bent and changed all the time, sometimes even totally overlooked. This leads to kids that feel the boundaries can always be pushed regarding whatever rules might have been taught as there's no strict definition of exactly what the rules are.

My feeling is that kids need structure regarding these types of rules that is immutable and consistent to insure they have a clearly defined concept of what's expected of them. Otherwise that expectation is simply a moving target which leads to confusion about what is truly expected of them.

The other major failing I see in parenting is threats of actions or discipline when the kids step outside the bounds of reasonable behavior that are essentially empty in nature.

In our family it went like this. The 1st time we were reminded of what was expected, the 2nd time we were told what was expected of us and if that didn't seem to come across the 3rd time lead to punishment for disregard of the rules. This was always enforced in exactly the same way so there was no confusion about what was expected of us and just as surely a clear understanding that there were absolute consequences if we chose to disobey the rules.

Discipline in our household was never brutal, though it was often physical in nature if we pushed it that far, but it was always consistent and fair. What I see a lot today is parents "threatening" discipline but seldom doing a damned thing more than exactly that which teaches the kids there are no real consequences for their disregard of the rules, whether they be ones outlined by the parents or society.

If more parents actually acted like parents and taught respect for others and then meted out discipline fairly and consistently when the kids break the rules the world would be a much more civil place to live in than what we see these days

dv8 Report This Comment
Date: September 07, 2009 05:19AM

EVERYONE, the monthly plus613 meeting will be held at jgoins place...jgoins has guns!!! le le le le

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 07, 2009 11:45AM

Sure come on over all are welcome to my town hall meeting. Better to have a gun and not need it then to need one and not have it.

FrostedApe Report This Comment
Date: September 07, 2009 04:32PM

After re-reading this, the kid was only 2. A certain amount of crying and screaming is to be expected at that age. He should have smacked the mother, instead.

jgoins Report This Comment
Date: September 08, 2009 12:43PM

He should have smacked himself and saved a bunch of trouble.