At a Walmart store near Atlanta, Georgia, Roger Stephens, 61 heard a crying 2-year-old girl and walked up to the mother and allegedly said, “If you don’t shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you.”
According to a CNN report, a few moments later as the child continued to cry, Stephens allegedly grabbed the child and slapped her four times, then said to the mother, “See I told you I would shut her up.”
Roger Stephens was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children. According to the incident report, before he was arrested, Stephens apologized to the mother for striking the girl, CNN reported.
CNN video of the story
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Comments
if that was my cild, id be in jail right with him for elderly abuse. lol
If that guy had laid hands on my child, he would be going to jail with no eyeballs because I would have clawed them out! And I wouldn't have been going to jail, because defending your child is not illegal. I think he ought to be required to go through some kind of therapy too, like say anger management.
If that were my child. That would be the last person he ever touched. Throw the book at him.
I agree completely with Patrick. The next thing they would have heard: Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers...Clean up on aisle 9. We're gonna need a gurney, and a mop.
He is my hero! Kids are so spoiled today!
OMG! This is ridiculous! It couldn't have been me! I would have killed that man right there in Walmart!
I couldn't believe this when I first heard, I couldn't believe that when he first opened his mouth to say shut your child up or I will for you that the mother didn't puch him in his dentures!! What a horrible man!
OH MY GOD!! I WOULD HAVE DROPPED HIM RIGHT THERE!!
I would have broken every bone in his face.
THAT IS VERY VERY WRONG OF HIM. BUT THAT MUST HAVE BEEN THE WAY HE WAS RAISED.
IT IS SHAMEFUL....
I agree completely with Patrick. The next thing they would have heard: Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers...Clean up on aisle 9. We're gonna need a gurney, and a mop.
he would not die happy.
I would have slapped him so hard he would be completly def for the rest of his miserable f ing life.
crabby ass old geezer
I would have beat the breaks off of his a!@#$%^&
hey JZ you need a f' ing role model or have a kid so you would have a danm clue how a parent would feel or handle the situation!
The blows should have been for the parent. Not the children. Where the hell do you think they get it from? Spoiled, selfish, pathetic, society.
All of you talk so much s**t, you probably would have just watched in amazement. Everyone talks like there so big on here, you might have wanted to do something to him, but he probably would have beet your a** too.....
Oh...ok Talking Trash. So you're telling me if some man came up to your child and hit them 4 times, you would just stand there and watch them????? You're out of your f*cking mind. Most parents would attack, anything to protect their child. That man should never have gotten 4 hits off that child without the mother doing something after the threat!!!!
I guess the AK40 would have hurt just a little, he would be begging to die....
I swear I've been in stores before and wanted to just start screaming back in some screaming brats face. its like you parents are immune to their HUGE, LOUD, SPOILED, INSANE mouths and the rest of us have to suffer with that annoying sound! I would never put my hands on any child, including my own. But My Son KNOWS better than to embarass me or him self like that! I've NEVER had that problem. Half of you don't need children, period. Because you are selfish, spoiled stupid adults and you are raising selfish spoiled stupid children!
Man no lie if it was me, when he told my child to be quiet, me and hym would have had some words as a matter of fact he would have gotten slap when he told my child to shut up, naw kidd i dnt play dat SHHYYTT!!!!!
Here we have a perfect poster geezer for America's "GREATEST GENERATION"
Madea,
Whats an AK-40? 40/47ths of an AK-47?
Kids are out of control today because their parents are
GENERATION X!
GENERATION X, the ruination of America, scourge of the universe!
I think the mother should have control over her child. 2 yrs old is old enough to understand. I have a child and I can't stand to see or hear children that are out of control. Most of America is spoiling their children and that woman needs to learn a lesson or 2. Maybe she has? That man deserves punishment too but come on...PRISON??? Times have deffinitly changed for the worse.
I don't like little brats... everytime I go to the store and I hear kids throw a tantrum. I make the same noise as they do. It was fun. The parents feel stupid afterwards.... Parents who can't control their child should not become a parent. They should cut the cord while they're ahead or just have safe sex....
The man is awesome. I wonder if he's available to come over and discipline my child for me.
The man is a hero. He has the gut to do what none of us have. I applauded him. He's the man. If that happens again. I hope someone would put the child in its place since the no good mother wouldn't do it.
I agree completely with Patrick. The next thing they would have heard: Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers...Clean up on aisle 9. We're gonna need a gurney, and a mop.
ya for sure!! grab somthing and beat his ass till cops show up...lol touch someone elses kid?? crazy. cops might understand or atleast the judge would!! Protect your child!!
Two points I would like to address here.
1. As a single mother to a two boys I must say that I have had my share of crying at a store. I leave when this happens, but I have had a couple times where I needed items and could not leave. So maybe this mother needed something and could not wait. Shame on the posters who approve of this man’s actions. Children are to be protected and nurtured, not violated by strangers or parents.
2. If that man had spoken to me that way once, and then approached me again he would never have had the chance to lay his hands on my child. He would have been in the ER because I would have beaten his ___!
To the old cranky posters here; you look your maker in the face and see if you have the nerve to tell Him what you would do to that little child. When you are so old that you can’t care for yourselves anymore I pray that whoever takes care of you have more compassion than you do.
What I don't understand is how people can post stuff on here saying child abuse is o.k.....and yes, what he did is child abuse!! How were YOU brought up?? "He's a hero? He doesn't deserve jail time??" Come on, this 61 year old man, 6 feet something weighing over 200lbs, hit a two year old that has no way to defend herself and that's o.k.???? It doesn't matter if this child is screaming or not, when is it ever o.k. to hit someone elses child????
i agree with with the conment from jazzy. these parents are a bunch of stupid,idiots..and who wants to listen to someone's screming child.. don't bring them in a store if you are so brain dead that you do not understand how to control them..
So what...... are we supposed to leave our children at home 24/7???? This poor little girl is just a baby. Babies cry. It s what they do. Any parent will understand. We as adults cried as babies. You know what my parents did if we cried in the store? They removed us from the store. How can this man or anyone for that matter, hit a baby? This man is a coward, and he deserves whats coming to him. He is no hero, and anyone who thinks he is, is a coward themselves. Shame on him.
This is not an either-or situation. Both mother and jerk have some blame, it appears. Babies cry, but when parents do NOTHING to reduce it in public, they teach the kids that this is acceptable behavior in public. He, however, has no excuse for striking another person's child, no matter what.
I've had that frustrated feeling, but I wanted to slap the mother, not the child. But even more than wanting to slap her, I wanted to teach her the importance of being a real parent.
First off Mother of One, I don't think anyone thinks of this guy as a hero, but i've been in places with parents whose kids controlled them, at two you should be teaching your child it is not acceptable to scream and cry to your hearts delight,at others expense, the parents of these "little gremlins" seem to be able to somehow tune them out, while anyone else within a 5 mile radius must grin and bear it,(I don't think so)and if they can't or won't stop, GET UP! and take them at least out of ear shot of others for heavens sake. No one else thinks "little Johnny or little Sarah" is just such a cutie that we can ignore their bellowing... And let's put a truthful spin on this, we all know that sometimes they're just throwing a TANTRUM...Now that's when the parent should be shoveling out some tough justice, but oh no, yet again they're tuning them out. No one at that point thinks your little tasmanian devil is a cutie, look at the faces around you...they really want to do what that man did.
.....And this man certainly wasn't right for what he did,(not on any level), BUT I CAN UNDERSTAND.
Hey XXXX, I bet you think telling a child NO!! is child abuse...Don't You?
Hey again XXXX,thought about your comment, you're right, how did he get four hits in on the kid, and he had just given warning. Do you think the spineless, (I can't control my little gremlin,go ahead and do it for me)parent let him?...hmmmm, just a thought.
I am glad that it was her child, because if it were me, you would be reading "2 year old slapped and woman beating the HELL out of 61 year old fool" They wouldn't be holding him for the cops, better yet, the paramedics or Forest Lawn depending on how my day was going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He may start it but I will surely finish! and when her father finds out, or its really on for sure! He thought he was bold, I am one not to be reckoned with when it comes to my children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kids cry, his ass cried, so people in stores, deal with it. YE WHOMEVER IS WITHOUT EVER CRYING IN PUBLIC,CAST THE FIRST STONE". Men who fight the weak are punks and most likely was slapped around as a child and now wants revenge. His face is full of the Devil! He needs some prayer and Holy water thrown on his wicked ass!
The point of the matter is not rather the child was controllable or not. It is the fact that he actually slapped the child. Second, to the writer that said that at the age of 2 the child should be more disciplined at that age, get back to me in when you child turns 12 years old. You see your child my be very respectful when he is in the home, but onces he leaves your safety zone you do not know what mischief they will get into no matter what the upbringing is.
I saw that I had a few grammar and spelling mistakes, but I am sure the message was sent across clearly.
A baby slapper is better than a baby f*cker. I discipline babies, I don't screw them. Y'all need to give me a break here.
I once took candy from a baby. It was as easy as people say. That baby didn't scare me. She didn't do nothing.
AS a mother of a child with autism, I could say I been in this mothers shoes for a long time. I have a family who thinks they need to man handle him because I am not doing my job. When I used to visit I had to take my child to the bathroom to keep them from abusing him. I had a grandmother who put tobacco sauce on his thumb to try to keep him from sucking it. Then when he licked the ground in pain thought it was funny. People can not mind there own damn business. I wonder what would of happened if once this man slapped this child 4 times, the mother go and slap this old man a few times. All for one right? I live in right wing nut job land where they push love for all the unborn but hatred for the born. I am used to this kind of crap.
I hope this f---er burns in hell and has a huge boyfriend in Jail...thats where he belongs!
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