Friday, September 4, 2009

The Bogeyman...

Meet Roger Stephens, a 61 year old Walmart shopper who took it upon himself to make his visit to a Walmart in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a more pleasant experience for himself by grabbing a crying two year old and slapping her in the face several times in an attempt to make her stop crying. Mr. Stephens reportedly said to the child's mother, "If you don't shut that baby up, I'll shut her up for you". The mother picked up her child and walked away, but Mr. Stephens followed her into the next aisle where he grabbed the child and slapped her several times, after which a fellow shopper restrained him until the police showed up and he was arrested for felony cruelty to a child.

If you want to get really depressed, read the comments in the various places this story is posted on in the internet. There are people defending this jerk.


On the arrest report, which is available on the internet, the child's race is listed as black. If that's correct, it makes me wonder...would he have felt compelled to do this, if it had been a white woman with a crying child? Would he have dared to do this if it had been a white man with a crying child? And if Mr. Stephens had been a black man hitting a white child in a Walmart just outside Atlanta, would this story be a different story?

cross posted at Talking to Myself

6 comments:

JACKIE said...

I'd love to find out what a psych exam would show for this individual. (I've got other descriptions for this guy but I'm working on my bad karma) And you're right, the comments I read on AOHell alone were enough to curl your hair.

JACKIE said...

Thanks for posting on your blog that the child was African American. Google Stone Mountain Georgia and probably explain a lot.

Hint: a certain organization was founded here. Bunch of really brave guys who liked to ride around in sheets, carry torches and burn crosses. Hey, tweedle dum pick on somebody your own size.

emmapeelDallas said...

Thanks, Jackie. I'd read the arrest report before I posted this, but I didn't bring up the racial difference since none of the news stories had done that. In retrospect, I think that's wrong, so thank you.

Lisa :-] said...

Good lord...this guy's a nutcase.

Just for grins, I wonder what a jury of his "peers" will find him guilty of, given his race and the race of the child...

Kathy said...

This is one of those stories (sad but true) that make me want to run and hid under my covers for a good long time.

Nutcase is too nice a word for the likes of that ... er ... can't use the word here, ladies.

Bridgett said...

If anybody touched my child like that, I would kill them. And no, I'm not joking.

What a douche.