The idea that all children are innocent is simply a lie. By 16 many children have wrap sheets that are long and sorted. Most gangs consist of "children", who are responsible for carrying out theft crimes, since they are still jueveniles. Older gang members focus on protecting turf.

In this instance the "child" appears to be a good kid and did not deserve the treatment he received. At the time, all the man knew was that the boy had grabbed his son's bike, he knew nothing else. Zero, Zip, Nada, Nothing else.

The boy did not have permission to grab his son's bike. Again, the father overreacted to seeing someone grab his son's bike. But restraining someone, you have cause to believe was stealing something is not crime. If he "injured" the boy the situation changes, but it does not appear he did.

At this time, you don't know the complete facts only the cherry picked ones used in the story. I am not aware that the man struck the boy, do have evidence of that? If you have reason to believe someone is committing a crime, you have a right to restrain them... whether doing so is a good idea, is another matter.

I will be interested to see hear the rest of the story. The man may be charged with unnecessary use of force, but if it is ruled he had reasonable cause to believe his son's bike was being stolen, I don't think any serious charges will be made.

My guess is you are not qualified to determine whether the individual is sociopath nor do you know the individual's history to determine whether he is racist. Racists have a pattern of behavior and no reference in the article you read establishes a history prior to the event of racist behavior. So labeling as you did is exactly the why so many African Americans are victimized today... stereotyping is deadly.

I understand how minorities feel, my wife and two of my children are minorities and five of my seven grandchildren are African American or African Hispanic American.

I view events based on the facts presented...

Boy grabs bike that does not belong to him.

Man responds to boy grabbing son's bike and restrains but does not injure boy.

Only subsequently was it made clear that the reason the boy grabbed the bike that did not belong to him was to move it. Technically, the boy was in the wrong, but it is not unreasonable that he would do it, if he felt it was in the way.

Unknown is whether bike theft is a major problem in the area.

I did not mention to you that about a year ago, I was in San Francisco down in the Fisherman's Wharf area waiting for an Uber. A man with a unique bike rode up and placed his bike against a light pole to run into a store to grab something. In less, than 30 seconds, another man walked up and started walking away with the bike.

I asked the man what he was doing, he said he was leaving. I asked him if that was his bike, knowing it would be strange if it was, but not impossible.

He said yes as we rolled the bike away... the man who owned the bike came out about 30 seconds later and I pointed at the man walking his bike away about half a block down the street. He managed to catch the man and recover his bike.

What would you have done in that situation? Call the police, the bike would be gone by the time they arrived. I did make sure I got a good "image" of the thief in my mind, but at 66 years old, I was not going to confront the thief. But a 40 year "me", might have. If that was your son's bike, what would you recommend I had done if I had the strength to restrain the thief, just let it happen. What if restrained the "thief" only to find out, the man was in fact picking up a bike left there by his friend?

Life is simply not as simple as you paint it.