I get how frustrated Yong Hyun Kim must have been. The 31-year-old was in a Washington movie theatre trying to be all romantic, watching Titanic in 3-D with his girlfriend. Then the kids in front of him started acting like punks. Just how big of punks is in question, but he says they were yelling, throwing popcorn, and when he asked them to be quiet, they laughed at him.
I can only imagine how angry this made Kim; I would have been pissed too and wanted to do all sorts of things to their smug, rude little selves. The problem is that Kim actually did -- he punched one of the boys in the face. He hit him so hard that he knocked out one of the 10-year-old's teeth and left him with a bloody nose.
"I got so mad that it just happened," he told police.
He was charged with second degree assault and could serve up to six months in jail if he's convicted. I don't think that and some serious anger management classes are unjust. He hit a kid.
Some, however, are lauding him as a hero, like a vigilante with a valiant mission to smack some manners back into kids. Comments like this from "krazykittymatt" on CBS have flooded in where the story has been reported:
This guy's my hero! He did what we all want to do to bratty kids in the movies. If he's 10 then I blame the parents for letting him go alone with friends. He's still in grade school, he doesn't need a social life.
A hero for hitting a kid? That anyone would condone his actions in any way is simply appalling. I don't like my movie to be interrupted more than anyone else, especially when the tickets are so expensive, but he could have gone to get a manager and let him handle it. He could have done a lot of things, but instead he lost it.
Kids can be rude and disrespectful, no doubt, and it's infuriating, especially when they're blatantly egging you on, but they're kids. Moms deal with it every day, and if we went and punched our kids every time they drove us to the point of blood-boiling anger, no one would think of calling us heroes. We'd be in big trouble, and so too should Mr. Kim be. He's no hero.
Do you think this man is a hero in any way? Do you think he should have to serve jail time?
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Comments 45
"Why jail time?????"
If some adult came up and punched your precious snowflake in the face, causing a missing tooth and a bloody nose. . . .you wouldn't want the guy in jail?
The guy is 21, not 31, and he can serve anywhere from 3 to 9 months in jail, not 6. I agree, a grown man shouldn't punch a kid in the face for something as bad as disrupting his movie and he definately should have gotten the management to handle the situation instead of taking it into his own hands, but did you even bother to read the actual article or just skim through the interesting points?
I've read other articles about this incident. The man had no idea it was a kid. He thought it was an adult. He was horrified to find out it was a 10 year old and he feels massive guilt. It is a disturbing yet common thing for Cafemom bloggers to miss facts.
Yes the kids were being obnoxious and should have been accompanied by an adult. But that is a whole other subject. It does not excuse what this man did.
And, blh, a douche is a grown man who sucker punches a child. Not a 10 yo acting like a 10 yo.
It's right there in the fourth paragraph(or whatever you call that) of the orginial article. The man told police he thought he hit a grown man. I don't think he should get jail time but should do community service and maybe attend some classes on anger management.