What Would You Do?

So I witnessed something driving home today. I was stuck in traffic in Biddeford and saw an older man with a cane, a little girl and an even littler boy walking along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. As I watched, I noticed the little boy had his hands down his shorts. Since the shorts were sliding pretty far down, it was pretty obvious what he was doing. By the way, the boy looked to be about five years old….maybe four.

All of a sudden, the older man swung his cane and hit the boy on his leg. He hit him so hard, the rubber foot on his cane popped off and landed in the road. The little boy yelled and started crying and ran down a driveway next to an apartment building.  The little girl noticed the rubber foot in the road, pointed it out to the older man and then, since there wasn’t any traffic coming on that side of the road, ran out and got it for him. By the time she gave it to him, the little boy had stopped crying. He also didn’t have his hands down his pants anymore.

So, here is the question…was that child abuse? And, if so, should I have done something? And, if so, what should I have done? What would YOU have done?

I thought about this as traffic started moving and I drove away from the scene. It was inappropriate for the little boy to be feeling himself on a public road like that and he needed to learn not to do that. Otherwise he would grow up to be a pervert and get arrested. Being hit by the cane certainly achieved this objective.

But it seemed a little bit of an excessive punishment based on the crime. I mean, it seemed a little harsh when he could have been told not to do that and he, more than likely, would have stopped.

I was wondering if that was a sign that there was more abuse in this household. After all, the older guy hit this child on a public street. If he was willing to hit a little boy with people around witnessing it, what is he doing in the privacy of their home?

Then again, the boy seemed to recover quickly, stopped crying and walked back up the driveway to stand near the man again. So he may not have been hurt that bad. Or he is just used to that kind of abuse, which, if that is the case, is really sad considering his age. No one should be used to abuse when one is only four or five years old.

I guess I’m not sure what I could have done differently than just drive away. Should I have stopped my car, holding up traffic, and tell the old guy to stop abusing the boy? Should I have found a place to park, walked back there and tell the old guy that he needed to treat the boy better? Should I have called the cops? And tell them what? I saw this old guy hit a little boy with a cane? By the time the cops arrived, they probably would have been in their house, eating dinner and wondering what the fuss was about. Not to mention, the little boy would have been embarrassed that so much was being made of the fact that he was playing with himself and got hit in the leg by a cane.

I guess it is just really hard to know what to do when I only witnessed an interaction that only lasted a minute or so. I just wish people wouldn’t treat children that way. I wish I could rationally explain to the neanderthal hitting the little boy that abuse like that is unnecessary. But, being as his reaction was to hit rather than talk, he probably wouldn’t understand rational explanation. And, if I had grabbed the cane and hit him in the leg, I would have been arrested for assault. And I really would rather not spend a Friday evening at the Biddeford Police Station and, subsequently, the York County Jail.

Even now, hours later, I can’t think of anything I could have done differently. I just hope I didn’t miss an opportunity to help someone. That would be truly sad.