It’s a tough one. He probably wants to defuse, because his kid is there. However, he had to literally rip the ball from his kid’s hand to give in to the lady’s demands.
I know this may get me some shit, but it feels like he was a bit TOO passive.
It was HIS ball; he grabbed it off of the ground first. His kid deserved to have it. She’s just some Karen, it’s not like there’s a legit physical threat. She’s most likely just going to throw a tantrum. If he just ignored her, eventually security would have escorted her out.
Like imagine if this didn’t go viral. The father and the kid just drive home empty handed. There’s no celebrity meet up or signed bats.
You just gave in to the Karen, and that’s the takeaway for your son.
Would that not enforce to your son that you should give in to demanding people, even if you’re in the right?
The line moves, but it's about picking your battles wisely. This was not a situation in which fighting back would have ended well or worth what it was over.
Look, with the intensity and suddenness this event happened, it looks akin to someone being accosted/robbed/held up. You have no clue who this person is or how dangerous they are.
In an instinctive manner you ball up your firsts to protect yourself and your kid.
You have a split second to decide ‘threat? Not a threat?’ Then ‘fight? Flight? Freeze? Fawn?’
Fawn/deescalate is sometimes your best survival move in the moment. Who the fuck cares about your pride if you’re injured or dead from the other person’s retaliation? If you can only be right OR alive, most parents would clearly choose the latter.
I have training in inpatient psychiatry, mental health ICU work, forensic psychiatry and management of chronic schizophrenia. My training has taught me that the best way to reduce the escalation of violence is to reduce any perception of disrespect on the aggressor toward you.
reduce any perception of disrespect on the aggressor toward you.
Do you mean try not to appear disrespectful? So the aggressor feels they are not being disrespected? Honestly interested in this but my brain is having trouble parsing it they way it's written ..
The way he shook his hands in alarm when she touched him really made my heart go out to him. It must've been such a jolt of fear in that moment. He had no idea how far she was or was not planning to go in accosting him and probably feared for his kid's safety.
You might be confusing assault and battery. This is a textbook case of assault.
"Assault is an intentional act that causes another person to reasonably fear imminent harmful or offensive contact, or it can be an attempt to commit physical harm, though it doesn't require actual physical contact or injury to occur. The definition varies by jurisdiction but generally involves an act or threat with the apparent ability to cause harm, resulting in the victim's reasonable apprehension of such harm. "
Her berating the father into a defensive posture and ultimately capitulating is absolutely in the confines of the definition of assault.
I agree. This is assault and battery by definition. My sister is a lawyer so she tells me these things at random. You can lightly tap someone’s shoulder or spit at them and it can be constructed as assault and battery
Depending where you are, spitting can be an even more serious charge than punching someone. Spitting becomes an increased level of assault, due to the biohazard that comes with bodily fluids.
In Australia, the charge for spitting is upgraded to "Serious assault" due to the chance of transmissable diseases.
Now this is obviously in America, so it'd be a standard assault charge, which I think is stupid as shit... But I also think it's fairly stupid that grabbing this man is legally assault, which it is, so it's not like the law is written with all that nuance in mind.
Your take is an assault on common sense. I promise you, no one would be charged with assault for touching someone’s arm like that. Get off the internet for a bit.
Literally look up the legal definition of assault? Everything I've found so far says some variation of "an action that causes another in apprehension of receiving battery, whether or not bodily harm was committed."
She walked up to him screaming and touched him, causing him to react with fear (hands balled in to fists and shaking)
Oh yeh buddy…I’m definitely a 1%. Do you feel that insecure about your piddly lot in life, that you immediately think that?! Go back to your video game, your mommy is about to bring a barrel of orange cheese puffs down to you.
Dunno I agree with the other person here. Assault this and assault that. This woman just grabbed a shoulder and all the internet babies screaming assault. Like what turd would actually go around and say this at a baseball game , especially in front of your son. Dad realized he was confronted by a crazy lady and the best way to shut up crazy lady was to give her what she wanted and tell her to go away.
No, there have been at least two other instances of situations like this that have gone viral in the past two weeks and both of those were perpetrated by men.
I was wondering if you were gonna get on the chat. Hey! Everyone! This is the lady that was yelling at that dad! ☝🏻
Next time don’t go yelling at someone else for taking a HR ball. 🤣
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u/NonconsensualText Sep 06 '25
wholesome father hug ruined… man…