Store Owner Charged After Spanking Customer
 

<b>Store Owner Charged After Spanking Customer</b>

STATESVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina store owner says a boy was bothering a parrot and teaching it to swear -- so he spanked him.

Now he faces a misdemeanor assault charge.

William Soper says he was just defending his property.


Soper keeps eight pet parrots at his Clock World store in Statesville. He says one of them, named Sparky, began using expletives for the first time when a 9-year-old boy was at the store last month.

Soper says the boy and his 12-year-old brother also were spitting on the 6-year-old female green-wing parrot. The boys deny it.

Soper says he grabbed Matthew Bustle by the shirt, spanked him and told the boys to stay away if they couldn't behave. Their mother called police.

If convicted, Soper could face up to 60 days in jail and a fine.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Kids these day have to learn respect for others somehow, back in the day this guy would have strung them up by their ears on a pole, and noone would have said a thing!

He shouldn't have spanked the kid... BUT he should have escorted them out of his store, banned them from returning and spoken to their parents.

It is a clear case of assault. He has no right to hit another person's child (regardless of how ill behaved that child was).

agreed.

he didnt have the right to spank the kids. he could have called the cops or juvi cops or whatever, but shouldnt have laid a hand on the kid.

I'd like to believe those days are over, that we've found different ways to deal with these things.
I've never been completely sure, but I think it'd be better to just ban them for a while.

I think the guy shouldn't have spanked the kid but... I definitly don't think he should go to jail over it, they were harassing him.

I need another option.

No, he shouldn't have spanked the boy.
No, he shouldn't be prosecuted about it.

We have other more important things to tie up the court systems,
and he doesn't need this shit on his record.

he should be somehow reprimanded tho.

both the boy and the store guy.

I agree that 60 days seems pretty steep. On the other hand, not prosecuting is just passively accepting.
I'd prefer a clear signal that corporal punishment is no longer acceptable.
Let them both do a couple of hours of community work together :)

yep. He had no business trying to discipline the kids.

He didnt do any real harm, and the kid shud have known better. If the parent isnt going to do anything, some one has to.

If he's prosecuted and convicted, that opens the door wide for a civil suit ... scary. Infliction of mental distress, etc. He should have known better.

SOme of you defend the parents of a NINE-YEAR-OLD who knows and is so open about swearing that he does it in stores? That he was brought up in such a way that it is acceptable, in his parents minds, to spit on what is not just other peoples property, but a living, innocent creature? Dear god people, someone needed to teach this kid a lesson about respect of property and the proper way to treat living creatures, becuase his parents sure as hell wern't

these kind of things should be allowed. Only problem with allowing these kind of things is that people don't know how much is enough. Nobody walks away without saying anything when someone dies because of it.

I agree with the mind set that he shouldn't have spanked him, just escorted him out. That said I highly doubt that whatever spanking this guy did REALLY did any damage to the kid. In fact it probably served some kid. Think of it like this, is it better for the kid to learn respect, albiet harshly,now; then for him to swear and spit at me in ten years and me beating him within an inch of his life? As far as the shop keeper being reprimanded, why? I mean its not like this guy is some serial spanker who randomly spanks kids and kicks them out of his store. Just tell the kid he is banned from the store and tell the guy to stay away from the kid while out of the store and everything will be fine.

He had no right to touch the kids, but he shouldn't get bar-time for it...

If someone did that to one of my kids I would first return the favour and lay a beating on him.

Then I would go home and punish the child, though in a less severe manner I am sure.

You don't hit someone else's kid.

Case in point:

I was driving my new (at the time) GTP through a poorer part of town. Some kids pointed a pellet gun at my car and one actually fired, causing a small dent and scratch.

If I was that store owner I probably would have done something even worse. However, I did not.

I talked to the child's parents. One thing I can count on in the redneck part of town is that the parents would have A) told me to fuck off and threaten me until I got off the property, or B) beat the holy hell out of their kid.

Luckily it was b. It was kind of vindicating. That kid won't likely be pointing a gun at a car anytime soon.