Money-paying moviegoer slaps unsupervised 10-year old

[emax4]

http://consumerist.com/2012/05/slapp...e-theater.html

Some of you may agree or disagree, but a pretty typical story.

[firecat88]

While I can perfectly understand being annoyed by a kid being loud and obnoxious in a theater, physically lashing out at a complete stranger so hard that it apparently bloodies their nose and knocks out a tooth is a bit much. Also, I don't believe the slapper's claim that he thought the kid was a grown man. I know all of zero ten-year-olds who sound like they're 21.

I count three SCs (five if you count the kid's friends) here:

1) The kid and his buddies for being loudmouthed twits during the movie. Even when I was half that kid's age, I knew that the proper behavior for going to the movies was 'Once the movie starts, sit, watch and do not talk unless it's to quietly tell my mom that I'm going to the bathroom'.

2) The guy for slapping the kid instead of flagging down the theater staff. I don't care if the annoying person is 10 or 110 (like I said, I don't entirely buy that he could honestly not tell the difference between a kid and an adult). You don't go around slapping people you don't know. Especially if their mom is present.

3) That brings up another thing. I followed that link to the Seattle PI article, and it revealed that the mom of the kid who got slapped was, in fact, there when all this happened. Why wasn't she controlling the three kids? For that matter, why did she bring them to a 10:40 PM movie on a school night (April 11 was a Wednesday)? Know where I was at 10:40 PM on a school night when I was that kid's age? In bed.

[tropicsgoddess]

Sorry, but kid or not there was no excuse for slapping somebody. He could've gone to the usher to kick the kids out and/or made a complaint to management about it.

[crazylegs]

This?

Only for fratching. Take it there.