Posted on 05/29/2024 3:28:16 PM PDT by Morgana
Police were alarmed after receiving a cellphone video showing a middle-aged man apparently choking a 10-year-old boy in a local park on Memorial Day.
The suspect from the video taken at Gwen Margolis Park in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, was quickly identified as Robert Sandy Marcu, 60.
Marcu was charged with aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm and battery by strangulation, though he described the incident in court as 'minor.'
Video of the alleged strangling shows Marcu grabbing a 10-year-old boy by the neck and shaking him at the park.
The child's head can be seen moving back and forth, though his face has been blurred in the video to protect the minor's identity.
Sunny Isles Beach Police Sergeant Melissa Porro said of the incident, 'The biggest concern here is that a grown man with the strength of a man went after a young child that was helpless and could not, based on size alone, defend himself.'
Authorities say that the young victim and another child, reported to be Marcu's son, were playing with water guns on the hot day, when a fight broke out between the boys and Marcu intervened.
'It was at this time that that individual approached one of the children involved in that little child's play fight,' said Porro.
He 'began to violently choke this child, pretty much scare this child to the point that he was crying hysterically and very upset,' she added.
In the arrest report, authorities wrote that Marcu grabbed the young victim by the neck, which halted his ability to properly breathe and restricted his airway.
He then shook the child while keeping a tight grasp of his neck.
The report than reads that Marcu said, 'I know what I did, and I did it to teach him a lesson.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
See in the old days parents just went to the other parents and those parents were like "we will take care of it" and things were dealt with. Now days the other parents are like "my kid din' do nuffin"
I get it that parents are upset. What is a parent to do, let your kid get killed by other people's brats?
$20 says the man was bullied as a child.
It doesn’t say how old the man’s son was. If they were both 10, leave them be. If the kid is 4, don’t strangle the other kid, but you can interpose yourself in some other way.
Now let’s say the kid was 4, and the 4 year old’s 13 year old brother did what the father did, would that have been so terrible? I don’t think so.
Lawyers, guns and money will soon come into play.
Not much info here, but when my son was being bullied at a Christian school. I tried to initially talk to the other kid’s father, but I was told he’s a good kid and doesn’t do any wrong. I witnessed an entire event with the boys one day, so at pickup I went back to that father and said everytime your son touches mine, I’m going to touch you. Period. It all stopped immediately.
I grew up at a time when this kind of act by a parent would not have raised many eyebrows if it had been done to break up a fight. Obviously an adult beating up a kid has never been acceptable but we’ve gone so far over to the crazy side now that people think even the police have “no right to touch me without permission”. Anyone regardless of age who is hurting a kid is fair game for physical restraint or equal and opposite force.
My little sister and her friend were playing in the school yard right behind the friend’s house. Some 13/14 year old boys took their kite, broke it, and pushed my little sister around.
My two friends and I went to the school yard to throw down. Although I was only a 12 year old girl, dance, gymnastics, and cheerleading meant I was fit and strong (you can’t do full aerials or round-off back handsprings with weak arms and legs). I also knew how to fight.
They wouldn’t come off the roof of the school so I trashed their food and bikes instead.
A few minutes later, they come down the street looking for me. By this time, my older brothers (14, 16, and 17) learned what happened to my little sister. Mind you, all of them were muscle-bound giants and looked like full grown men.
The dopey “leader” approaches my 14 year old brother, describes me, asking my brother if he saw me.
“That’s my sister!”
My brother takes the boy’s bike, tosses it about 30 feet down the road, and the front wheel pops off. Then he grabs the kid and lifts him off the ground by the neck.
After a few choice words, he tosses the kid, too.
The bullies scampered off.
They came back again about 20 minutes later, this time with a father. Mom comes out to talk to him and the father gets nasty with my sweet, petite mom. My three brothers spring into action, threatening to beat up the father. I knew my middle brother, who bench-pressed between 200 and 250 lbs. several times a week, could really hurt the father if he wanted. He flexed up and went nose to nose with the father; the father quickly backed away, threatening a lawsuit instead.
He got back into his car and we never saw any of them again.
Good times, huh?
My mother and father were very strict with us growing up. We were expected to be polite, respectful, well behaved, responsible, to get top grades in school, and to do our best in sports and activities. None of us ever bullied others, we defended them from bullies.
They also taught us never to start a fight; however, if someone brought the fight to us, we ended it.
Heart-warming story.
They messed with the wrong little girls. My sister and her friend were 7 years old. My mom was livid that the neighbor’s mom wasn’t keeping a better eye on them and any future play dates were at our house under my mom’s watchful eye.
Those 4 boys didn’t expect an army of older siblings to come to her defense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.