15 year old punk learns a lesson or depraved old man beats child? You decide!

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/29/cops-a...ldnt-turn/

I support the old guy in this. Stupid shithead should've turned off his phone. I personally would've grabbed the phone and turned it off, but I like the old guy's style.

Overreaction by the old guy imo. =/

He overreacted.

Well, he wasn't texting, so it was an over reaction.

I came in here expecting a head shot, but all he got was a punch to the arm? Quit QQing.

The old guy did right in my eyes, but what I find funny is the overreaction about the punch;
""He punched him so hard there was a mark on the teen's arm," Lt. Kent Lipple said." Oh noes, not a mark! As if the kid's never gotten a bruise in his life .

I came in here expecting a head shot, but all he got was a punch to the arm? Quit QQing.

I read a lot of comments that were "If you're gonna get arrested for assault at least make it count"

Kid being a douche and old man overreacting.
Kid learns nothing, old man learns nothing.

Woo, old people rule! The guy did right to teach the kid some sort of lesson. If nothing happened, the kid only learns that he can get away with anything.
I know this is a case from personal experience. My "brother" ended up getting away with stealing $500 from parents. They just happened to "forgive" and "forget".
All I'm being taught here by said parents is that if I steal from people I know, it's okay.

Spoiled brats need some pain and tough love.

Regardless of the data from Mythbusters that says a cellular phone or PDA device won't interfere with a airplane's communication, navigation, and directional system... it's against federal law to have any electronic device that can broadcast a digital or analog cellular signal enabled on an airplane. My mom couldn't even use her BlackBerry on a flight once even thought it had an airplane mode on it.

Laptops and other devices have a switch to enable/disable the wireless communications hardware for a reason. Why else does a laptop have a Wi-Fi switch, a PSP has it's Wi-Fi switch, and other devices have a special airplane mode (that's a hardware switch and not software).

Old guy was right IMO. Besides, some of these teenagers anymore don't respect authority anyway. He better be glad it wasn't an air marshal that told him to turn it off and continue to ignore.

I agree with jamie. There's no way that would have done anything to the safety of the flight, but at the same time it's a pretty plantain move to refuse to turn it off for like 10 minutes.

I agree that something needed to be done, but he went a little too far with the punching.

Punched in the arm <<- really?

Over reaction yes. Necessary? Probably. Honestly he could have talked first/ had the parents discipline their dang kid. Even if it doesn't matter with the phone and plane instruments, when people are concerned about these things, you don't mess with that.

I would have yelled out "omg this kids a terrorist" and gotten him thrown off the plane mid-air.

I don't blame the old guy at all. Especially if the flight attendant insisted on the kid turning it off.

Kind of misleading title. expected some gangbanger to be shown beaten up by some old dude.

I'm split between a few things:
- How was the kid "punched" exactly? (If it was like an older brother punching a younger one I'm not all that concerned, but the way it's portrayed in the article is as if the kids arm was broken.)
- I wouldn't really call him a "punk", maybe it's because my imagery of punk is more "dark" then not turning off electrical equipment (honestly there are a lot of rules surrounding stupid things like that and I bet everyone in here has broken at least one).
- What was the situation? Was the kid asked and he just kind of shrugged it off when told to turn off the phone or did like curse out the stewardess? (Like when you're into a good game and someone tells you to do something and you go "in a minute" or something.)


Seriously I've never been beaten by my parents but FFS I can still take a punch. And a punch in the arm and people call the police? What a platypus of a kid.

Overreaction by the old guy imo. =/

[COLOR="Magenta"]
This, and this is like asking to shut off your fucking DS.

iPhones have Airplane Modes kthx. This was unnecessary and uneeded by the old man. What exactly did he expect from this? A fucking cheering crowd?[/COLOR]

So was the kid actually ignoring the airplane attendant or trying to explain there was no problem? If the kid was ignoring the attendant and was just being a little pimento, then yeah he was just being stupid and should have turned off the phone, but the old guy over-reacted.

Meh, old guy was out of line but, is it really that hard to follow the rules? Some people are so stupid.

In my experience most flight attendant don't bother checking if any electronic device is off or not. This create the "gray area" ->
some people think it is important to follow the instruction while some think it is stupid to follow meaningless rule.

OH NOES! NOT A... a punch in the arm... you kidding me?

I've done worse things to my brother just for fun.

Shame he didn't just haul off and bury his fist 3 feet behind his face with a left hook for a KO... it probably wouldn't have made the news. Although, I would have laughed if an air marshal had said something to the dumb kid and ordered the plane back to the originating airport and had him arrested on suspicion of acts of terrorism.

Scenario...

Man (angry): Hey kid turn it off already!
Kid (flipping him the bird): Screw you!

*man decks kid KOing him* WHAM!!!

Flight Attendant (walking by seeing kid unconscious and bleeding from his nose): Is he okay?
Man (reading paper): I think so. He might just have a nose bleed from the altitude. Could be asleep too.
Flight Attendant (walking by): Oh well... juice? Peanuts?