Although I am not fond of kids for I find them little devils, they are still kids, they are practically defenseless against everything, and it is the job of PEOPLE/Adults to keep them safe and unharmed, second this child was smacked, she was harmed.

I don't care if the child is breaking your ears, she is a child and it is NORMAL for a child to cry. Now to those who have said "A 2 year-old can learn" Well you know what? Not all. Not everyone is normal, it is very well known. Everyone is different. Certain babies learn to talk at certain ages, just like they say certain first-words. Not all would know how to be 'respectful' in public places, some children are just different, some take time and some don't.

This "man", had NO right to hit this child. Even if his ears broke, he still had no right. He could have complained, but no, he smacks her? Really? Not to mention the child not being his! Don't touch what is not yours.

Yes, violence is violence, but justice wouldn't be one for me unless I saw that "man" in jail or I beat him myself if he ever, ever hit my child. I have none, but if I ever did (yes, the IF word) he would never get the tale pass jail or never even live to tell it if they decided not to take that "man" to jail. I'm curious as to what the father or mother did, or what both of them did, whoever was in company of the child...

As for a few other comments, I agree with one of them very much. If you hit a screaming child, don't you think the child will scream more? It sure as heck would hurt the child she/he would not quiet down, it would hurt and so the child would cry out and scream more than before.

Seeing the other comments, the ones that think the child deserved what she got, I must say I am very disappointed that people could ever think like that.

Have any of you ever seen a small cat cornered by a big dog? A cat determined to survive will fight for it's life. If protecting it's offspring is a part of that equation, the viciousness of it's attack will increase tenfold. A person is no different. America's Most Wanted and the news have reported on seemingly defenseless elderly people who fought back against a young thug attempting to bully and rob them. There is a lot of ignorance shown in this column.

It's serious and often fatal mistake to underestmate a person simply because of their size, or determination to survive. It is clear to me that those who believe this have never been in a real fight for survival. I have seen a small skinny woman attack a big guy who wanted to have his way with her by force and he lost an eye for his trouble and suffered injuries to his face and groin. To this day, he doesn't take such a woman or man smaller than him lightly.

He learned his lesson. He had to check himself in the emergency room. This woman clearly had a determination to survive and fighting back was her powerful impulse. If a child were involved, I doubt he'd be walking.

In truth, not everyone who fights back survives, but when someone goes down fighting, it's not a fight the other person wants ever to repeat with someone else who has that kind of fighting instinct to survive. Therefore, the next person may make the difference and accomplish what the previous person did not.

It is always a matter of time. Never underestimate a person's size. A bully will always focus his attention on someone who doesn't fight, not someone who is determined to fight whether he/she loses or not.

The woman in this case apparently didn't have that determination to survive and protect her child. Thaht makes all the difference, it's not about size. Remember, "It's not the size of the person in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the person."

So, everyone, shut up about beating this guy up, you wouldn't, and you probably couldn't. He's big, and age doesn't mean much when you're in shape. So to conclude, this man is a good guy, and nothing wrong with him.

Second of all, if the child was really sick of course she was crying and the mother had every right to bring her to a store and get medicine. If the child cried the whole time then she cried. Big deal. Put on your big boy pants and deal with it! If the child was not sick and they weren’t ready to check out yet, I agree that the parent should have tried to leave the store or go to a private area to help calm her down. I don't think anyone here knows how long this fit lasted. Maybe it was several minutes in which case, I don't think it was wrong of anyone around to POLITELY ask the mom to calm her child but in no way did he have a right to threaten the mother or child and certainly had no right to follow through!

Third: What did this idiot think would happen when you hit a crying child? I always get appalled when people think that hitting a child will make him quiet. Are you stupid or something? If someone hit you, you may not scream like a baby but I'll bet you don't shut up! IDIOTS!

And for screwyourkid and all the others who think this is justified in any way or that it would only happen at Wal*Mart or that it’s the mother and child who shouldn't be in society, GET A F**CKING LIFE! Children are part of society and so are you jackasses unfortunately. If you think this wouldn't have happened at any store in the world you are sorely mistaken. Children don’t just cry at a Wal*Mart. The only place they don’t cry is a store that won’t let them in to begin with. I’ve heard them cry anywhere from on the street to a 5 star restaurant so that comment is just plain ignorance.

My son is a teenager now and we both get extremely annoyed with screaming and crying children so I sympathize whole heartedly with anyone who has ever had to deal with a screaming child (parent or bystander) but this is ridiculous!

Action > Reaction.

clearly, there is something mentally unstable about this man..

not to exempt the mother in this situation, either.. she not only was neglecting a crying toddler (which, i'm not sure how you can), but also, left her defenseless daughter to be "manhandled" (no pun intended) by a stranger without intervention! what kind of "mother" is that?!

all this being said.. it was a Wal Mart, afterall- this event isn't terribly surprising.. i'm sure it's been seen on a daytime talk-shows (e.g. Jerry Springer)

For those who say you would beat this guy to a pulp, what would you do if you had a sick child, trying to get some cold meds for her and this 6ft2in angry man came up to you? And you are a 5-2 woman distracted by trying to get your sick daughter to calm down a bit? She was in shock - never expecting the man to make good on such a threat. BTW, two guys on line brought this man down quick and he gave them quite a struggle.

If a child is throwing a fit over a toy, a snack, etc., you let them know it's not acceptable.

If a child is crying because they are teething, upset, tummy, etc.. do you beat them for communicating? Wow. I love how classy our world is.

Also, since many of you are blaming the mother in this incident, if you read the other articles, she took her child to ANOTHER aisle and this old CRETIN followed her and picked up her child and SLAPPED HER. WTF?

I had an old crotchety old bastard tell my daughter to shut up, she has brain damage and can not speak so her "talking" is squealish type noises. I looked at him and told him where the hell he needed to go. I am tired of these old fuckers who demand respect but scream at a disabled child for trying to SPEAK in the only way she knows HOW.

Also, when you go in to public, you have to deal with what is in the public: crying kids, assholes on cell phone, farting old people, bitchy people, ghetto people, white trash adn the like. If you don't like.. then don't go into PUBLIC

I'm fairly lucky that my son (almost 20 months) is normally a very even-tempered and quiet child, but even he has his moments and will throw a tantrum. If I'm in an area with a lot of people, I'll try to get to a fairly secluded spot (or parking lot) and let him cry out his tantrum. Trying to hush him only makes it last longer. With most toddlers, if you *ignore* the tantrum they usually realize fairly quickly that they're not getting what they want and stop. After all, a tantrum is almost always just a tool that children use to get attention. Sometimes I'll just try to distract him and that usually works.

If you find annoying kids annoying, just try to remember that a) for every angelic kid there are plenty of little devils, b) this is not necessarily down to the parents - kids are all different and have their own furrow to plough and c) quite likely you were a vile little bugger sometimes, too.