this makes me sick. it's to bad he didn't do this in texas because he'd already be dead. also, who the hell gave this guy a baby? sorry but if you see demons you shouldn't be in charge of another person's life.

I read about this incident and I couldn't believe it either. It's just hard to imagine that more than 1 person couldn't get a guy off a toddler. I think the rage I would feel at seeing such a thing would simply fuel so much adrenaline that no thought processes would be taking place - just jump his ass and fight him off and to the ground. This is one hell of a sad story.

People please stop thinking about possible repercussions and just do what you see needs doing. Surely we haven't gotten to the point that our personal safety is all that matters? I can't stand that to be true, but after so many Americans willingly gave up personal freedoms in favor of a false sense of security imposed by government, I am starting to believe it. Too sad all around.

I read about this before there were any details available about the identity of the man & the toddler. My thoughts exactly about the "do or do not".

Two words: Kitty Genovese.

I was watching one of those 20/20 or dateline shows recently, and they staged a scenario to see if people walking by would stop to intervene while this man yelled at and got physical with his girlfriend. The main people who acted? Women. Most of the men just walked on by and did nothing.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Honestly, I am that scared. I have two little kids, and there's no way I'd try to put myself in danger when they're with me. Which is nearly all of the time. I've cooled down with the road rage, and just started trying to be nicer to idiotic people that I encounter randomly, because I don't want trouble.

So of course this is a different situation. But if officers had to shoot this guy, rather than tase him or beat him with batons, doesn't that suggest that he was pretty out of control? I just believe that in a case where someone is obviously raging, you do have to think of yourself. I'm not going to die to save someone else's life, unless it's my kid. That's where I'm at right now, because two little people really need me. I'm guessing that a lot of citizens feel the same way. And this is so different from the elderly man who was hit by a car and no one would even kneel beside him to offer words of comfort; this is putting yourself in a potentially lethal situation. Where was that baby's mother? Where were the grandparents? Plenty of people should have had the opportunity to put a stop to this well before strangers had to get involved. It's tragic, really.

I've seen things like this on the news; of abuse or people ignoring screams from neighbors and letting a man die, just walking over a dead body in the park etc…I think that the fact that our society/media is so obsessed is, because we are afraid that we'd do nothing if confronted with varying degrees of suffering and torture. I don't want to read in a paper a brief paragraph or two, that a man beat his baby. It's sensationalism and exploitation at it's worst. It's taking the most graphic part of a gigantic tragedy and making it just a blur. I hate to see about a rape on the nightly news, and hear the "journalists" nonchalantly say what the rapist said to the victim and then move on to the weather. It's disgusting. In the worst ways these things piss me off because they give the spectators a reason to get angry without knowing someplace to direct that anger. In this case it's so easy to call for this man to be burned alive, he should be beat to death like he did his son? We hear about the hundreds in our communities who are going hungry, children starving at school, but that’s not where we can step in, oh no; that’s “their” personal problem. Is everyone really scared you ask? No, we just don’t care. We will let someone else step in. We are a nation whose been ruined by never-ending horrors on the nightly news and not enough personal contact with our neighbors. (I’m sorry for the long comment)

I agree with Lale.

I have no kids yet, so no, I'm not too fucking scared to risk my life for a baby! Either I would die trying to stop him or that fucker would be dead from me killing him, but the baby would LIVE!

That's because people are guilty of "Someone else is gonna take care of it"itis. I would have jumped out and grabbed my tire iron and smashed it across that guy's back and when he dropped to the ground he would have gotten my size 9s a few dozen times in the face. Yeah- I probably would've beat him to death, not only because he was pounding on an innocent child, but because his dumb ass probably would've sued me afterwards. Fucking sickos in this world. That cop should get a medal for popping a cap in his ass. The bystanders should be open handed slapped.

Thanks, Kitchy. Maria, you do have a point about the general apathy of so many.

Sometimes it's hard to help because you have to do so much work to figure it out. Here in Colorado a month or so ago, a really devastating series of tornadoes hit a few towns just north of me. We're not used to tornadoes, so obviously it was big news. Well I went online AND called the help center to determine what was needed. Two days later, I hauled my kids for an hour drive (not always fun with a 2- and 3- year old), only to be sent to three different locations, and ultimately told that no one needed all the items I'd brought for donation. So I drove another hour home, feeling like that old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished," suddenly rang very true.

I've read stories of college students put out by a fire in their apartment building, with no information on how to help. I looked everywhere I could think of, and never found any agency or organization that was soliciting assistance from the general public. And all I wanted to do was make some food or drop off some extra clothes! I'm one who cares, but sometimes it's so much work to try to help that it becomes not worth it.

Then again, you do have people who are just raised differently, who won't go out of their way to offer any sort of assistance. That, indeed, is disheartening. I think media does play into it to some level; you hear about things going wrong so often, that it's easier to tune out rather than deal with the banality of it all. In the end, it's not good.

I've also been virtually immobilized by fear. I don't know if that happened to anyone who drove by this maniac. When I was an elementary school teacher I was attacked by a nutjob on drugs, and did nothing to defend myself except scream. I studied tae-kwon-do for a while, and am a pretty powerful woman. I could have at least kicked this guy in the nuts a few times. But I freaked out. You know why? Because before he turned on me, he was bothering a woman with two kids. When she said, "Help me," I thought one of her kids had fallen down and she needed medical help. The guy moved to me and all I could think of was, "I can't hit him in front of his children." Again, this situation is totally different, but people react so strangely when faced with stuff like this.

Part of the problem is law enforcement itself. I would not doubt that many people who dialed 911 were told not to approach the guy or to try and intervene because it could be potentially dangerous to them. I have heard of many situations where this has happened. Screw that. Everyone has something in their vehicle which is a great equalizer. Media and law enforcement have convinced the public they should be afraid to defend themselves and others. Even helpless toddlers.

That's just beyond words. I can't imagine what I would do. But I hope it would be something. I too am usually lugging around about 4 kids at any given moment. I hope I would do something like maybe ram this nutjobs car. Probably not the best plan but that's not really the everyday situation.

Mostly all I can do is imagine my own children at that age and cry. Just thinking about what that poor baby was feeling. Alone and unable to do anything to save himself but cry. Probably wanting his mommy. What a sad tragic way for a life to end.

And then I think, if I was that babies mother I would have wished more people would have tried to save my baby. Something. I haven't read the update, if there is one. I just hope there was someone out there that loved this little guy.

I think if I had kids I might feel differently but as of right now, at this moment, if I had seen that guy beating the kid, I would have tried to stop him.

People like that sad excuse for a human, are why I think the death penalty is necessary in some cases. This would be one of those times, in my opinion.

I read about this last night before I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this poor child and the exact thought went through my head - Why didn't anyone try to tackle this guy or something?!? Sorry, I'm a mother of a little boy and I would have tried to save that child's life. It's the right thing to do in my eyes.

Yes Cord, everyone is that scared. We've created a society of people who are too scared and/or too apathetic to stand in the way of a grown man kicking a child to death. We've totally desensitized ourselves to the point where people will do nothing because they don't want to cause a scene or the horror just doesn't register. It's fucking pathetic and if I were one of those people, I'd be ashamed of myself.

I agree with what has already been said. One, there is no excuse for what this guy did. And two, what the fuck is wrong with the people who saw it and did nothing? Sometimes you have to step up and do the right thing. And if it's a kid in danger, you fucking do it. Some people will say, 'it's easy to say that when you weren't there, you don't know what you would have done.' Hell with that, I would have tried to help. What kind of person sees something like that happen right in front of them and does nothing? That just blows my mind, I can't believe it. I don't want to believe it.

Cord,

You are an imposter or you have seriously altered your style. Answers Please.

Even if they couldn't tackle the man, couldn't someone have grabbed the child and ran with him?

So easy to say, "DO SOMETHING !!!@!@!!@!@!!@#!@#!" after the fact. Makes you feel all powered up and self righteous. Then you get involved one day- and then the lawsuits come. Because you're not a cop.

So if you have kids, you don't have to step in to avert a tragedy, because your own kids would suffer?

Hmm. Or you'd teach them by your shining example to stand up for the weak, the defenseless, and the abused, no matter what the price or cost, because it's the right thing to do. You know, a little thing some people like to call "values."

But you don't want your kids to learn about those, apparently.

After all, YOUR kids are so much more important and better than the other kid getting beaten to death by a psychopath.

I'm not trying to be mean to you Lale, but that's how you came across in the above post. And I see it all the time with people who have kids. It's all about how important THEIR children are, how they're God's gift to the planet - and then the parents become oblivious to anybody else who might be suffering around them because "It's all about my kids, that's where I am right now."

While I applaud the hard work of loving parents like you obviously are, your stated unwillingness (albeit in the hypothetical here since obviously you weren't there when this psycho in Texas was doing his thing) pretty much shows the typical, selfish blinders that most people have on - especially after they have their own kids.

Why is that, I wonder? That after you become a parent, it's so easy to become blind to the suffering of the rest of the world?

Again, Lale, I don't mean to single you out unnecessarily- because as you said later on you've tried to give help with donations and so forth when there have been tragedies in your area, and it was hard due to lack of organization from the rescue workers, etc.

I'm just saying I see an even WORSE attitude like this in most parents I know. It's like the whole freakin' world revolves around getting their kids to soccer practice, to the point where they'll run over pedestrians in their SUV's to get them there.

I know this because I used to live in a college town filled with soccer moms who were, to a one, miserable as hell. And I went up on the front of two different SUV's when the clueless soccer moms ACCELERATED ON ME while I was walking in the pedestrain crosswalk, right after they had gestured for me to walk across in front of them!

The fact that I wasn't seriously injured either time was due to the intervention of my guardian angels, I think.

Parents - stop being so freakin' clueless about the rest of the world just because you happened to have sex and didn't use birth control. It doesn't make you a better person. And your kids are not (contrary to your opinion) more important than other people who might be suffering in the world.

I have a serious issue with people not acting. Wasnt it like 2 weeks ago when people on the street in Conneticut witness a 70+ year old man get hit by a car and lay on the ground? No one went over to help him or even sit with him until help arrived. If I saw this someone beating a baby I think I would go nuts. I am not a big person at all but i would at least make it more difficult for him to continue. Once, I saw a man pick up his dog and slam it against a building and then proceed to kick it repeatedly on the ground. There were a good 15 people standing around that saw it and I was the only one to stop him and cause a scene. Grown men just staring not saying a word.
I think people are so scared-scared bc you they dont know if he/she has a knife, a gun and they obviously have no problem beating the shit out of you.

Darre. I live in an urban, pedestrian area, with lots and lots of soccer moms. Very few SUVS. (But those Honda Odyssey vans are the big thing here because they have the "theater" for the kiddies in the back and are not "gas guzzlers." I guess it's a blue state thing. I wouldn't know. Personally, I drive a '96 Volvo that I have had since she was a baby.) I have never had anyone "gesture" for me to cross in a pedestrian crosswalk, (and i walk almost everywhere) and then accelerate on me. That sounds downright homicidal. Not to mention, at the least, a potential felony that could go on your record. Methinks you exaggerate.
Maternal instincts and the inclination to protect your own are natural. Otherwise, the human race would probably have died out long ago.

hindsight is always 20/20. i like to think that i would have done something. ANYTHING.

hell, jump out of the car and strip down naked and start acting crazy. that might have given the guy pause.

i don't know. the world is depressing right now.

think about that dude in nyc a few years back who saw a stranger trip and fall on to the subway tracks, jumped on to the tracks and saved him from an oncoming train.

he had kids. he said he didn't even think about it. he just saw another human in danger and acted. i hope i would be like that guy.

I agree with the above. It's just necessary to do something sometimes. It just is. I have a kid and I wouldn't want him to see me in any other way - it's that important.

bbb - you can't simply blame this on law enforcement though. They can't tell you when you call 911, "can you go ahead and kick his ass for us until we arrive?"

I just don't understand, like Erica said, why someone didn't run up and snatch the baby and run off or something.

If you go back and re-read my comment, you will see I did not "simply" blame them; I stated they were "part" of the problem. You can go websites from law enforcement agencies all over the world. They all give the same advice, "Never fight back. Never try to defend others."
Being confronted with a situation as unbelievable and horrific, as this one must have been, would catch anyone off guard. Someone who had small children with them would probably be less likely to approach. But like many others have stated, if I am ever confronted with such circumstances, I hope I would be able to overcome the fear mindset that is thrust upon us by the media. "Be afraid of everything and everyone." Heck, some people can't even cross the street without it going into overdrive.

Quite simply, none of you were there so you cannot speak about what you would have been able to accomplish.

Being in the Bay Area, I live not too far from Turlock. I'm glad that what started out as a local story became national news so quickly. I'm glad that people are talking about this in such deapth. It tells me that what this man did is rare (though, unfortunately, not unheard of) and that is, in a sad way, kind of comforting. I read on SF Gate that one of the witnesses said that there was no point in intervening because the baby was already gone, but I think that just for dignity's sake, thay could all have gathered their forces and stopped that man from causing further harm on that little baby's body. I wish our maternal / paternal instincts could pertain to all children.

Homeland security begins at home.