Posted on 01/06/2014 4:03:40 PM PST by MNDude
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to slapping a crying toddler on an Atlanta-bound flight to serve eight months in federal prison.
Joe Rickey Hundley was accused of using a racial slur to refer to the 19-month-old boy, who's black, and hitting him under the eye as the flight from Minneapolis descended to the Atlanta airport last February. He pleaded guilty in October to simple assault after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
As the plane descended into Atlanta, the child started crying. Hundley leaned over to Bennett and "told her to shut that (N-word) baby up,"
Hundley's only son was in a coma in Atlanta after an insulin overdose that was the result of a suspected suicide attempt, Shein has said. Hundley had spent the prior day talking to his ex-wife and doctors after his son was declared brain dead, Shein said, and he booked a last-minute flight to Atlanta so he and his ex-wife could take their son off life support.
"I made the most terrible day in my life much worse for me and for others," Hundley told the judge.
(Excerpt) Read more at kstp.com ...
The biggest mistake parents make when flying is bring the wrong stuff and bringing too much of it.
Tell me about it, when you’re in route to take your “baby” off life support, and already undone.
Yes, what he did was assault. Mostly, the endless screaming set him off and he snapped. He got no sympathy, will pay the price and his son is dead.
Comprende?
I realize this man was in a bad way; but he slapped an infant in the face; file under: way to lose all sympathy.
And maybe if you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown you shouldn’t get drunk.
I wish I could!
But I'll be calling a taxi here in about 5 hours to take me to the Jacksonville airport while I'll be flying to Newark, to DC, and finally to Dubai. Fortunately, I'll be traveling solo --and hopefully not seated next to any screaming kids!
i remember on one chi-sf flight (zoo flight) one night back in the 80s a poor mom had one of these (less that 1 year old though).
i too was sick to death of the screaming so i offered to take the munchkin and spent the next 30 minutes pacing the aisles
holding him. he stopped crying in a few minutes, went to sleep and we all enjoyed the peace.
of course when my son was 18 mos old he patrolled the cabin looking for unattended beer on the little tables..
It takes a village. Wise mother.
He slapped a baby.
I don’t care what the situation, this cannot happen.
Do you really think slapping a baby will stop the crying?
he’s lucky not to have met an irate father who might or might not have believed his story
Mostly, the endless screaming set him off and he snapped.
<><><><
I like how we insert made up facts to bolster our positions on these matters.
As the article plainly states, when the plane began to desend into Atlanta is when the crying started. It was clearly not endless crying.
But prison? I think I would have gone the community service route, in a neighborhood where folks don’t look like him.
Nice catch. But, if you’re landing to remove your own son from life support and your heart is broken, your nerves are shattered, and your space is penetrated by the ear piercing scream of a baby in your ear, it’s conceivable that a 10 minute landing could seem, “endless”.
The guy got the book thrown, deservedly so, probably because he had a record. One past assault on a female, and was reportedly intoxicated on this plane flight. How intoxicated is “intoxicated” is relative to opinion, I suppose. May be that he is an alcoholic.
Just a sad case turned bad.
Worked with most of mine.
Of course, the girls didn't get it until they got to High School.
Come on. You made that up!
And the way it turned out didn’t excuse what you did — it only means God’s mercy was upon you.
It would be interesting to speculate on what the circumstances were. But I won’t go too far and please fill in anything you know. It sounds like you were on your motorcycle. Fast forward 15 years, now the boy is a man driving a cage, he sees a biker, he remembers the attack, he succumbs to rage and does something like stop short in front of the biker, the biker dies. As one possibility. On the other hand maybe he took it all in good humor at the time, ah one of those bad-ass bikers cared enough to whup him and now he has a “father figure” and he’s a bad-ass biker in spirit too... and later he goes on and does something bad-ass in a bike gang and innocents die. Really don’t know, but the consequences you see don’t always justify what happens.
I don’t own and never have owned a motorcycle.
I did something like that once. I was shopping in an odds-and-ends store that was going out of business. Everything drastically marked down. Store was packed with shoppers, and nobody could move through it very easily. Very close to my position was a camping display with a tent set up. Somebody had allowed their 4-5 year old to play in the display, and he was in the tent, yelling, “Mom, Mom, Mom” at the top of his lungs over and over, to the irritation of everyone around him. I waited until he took a breath to start back up again and in a low voice said, “she left you.” That shut him up. Then he stuck his head out and in this quiet, little voice said “Mom?” Got out and ran off. We all cracked up.
Mutando mutandis.
Quod ita sit.
It means “whatever needs to be changed to suit the situation, changed.”
Face it. Beyond possible knock-on consequences of a stranger butting in, you got forgiveness, not permission, in that incident.
There’s a reason why we don’t believe in “it takes a village.” How’d you view it if someone horned in on the way you raised your kids? Unless of course your view is something like “Damn ‘em, let ‘em get all the hard knocks they can and let ‘em learn their own way.” Which God is going to hold you plenty accountable for. He was not hooting when He said mothers and fathers should be honored... for all they do, to nurture and to chasten and to guide.
Anyhow, she didn’t excuse you before God. Two answers possible at the end: either guilt is on you or guilt is taken by Christ, who has at that point taken over your entire life. Nothing else is available.
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.