Pensioner on a train

He should be charged for assaulting a child , given a short prison sentence and every time he broke one rule be put in an arm lock.

Draconian viewpoint Anniebach And the rude and inconsiderate children?

If there's a guard on the train, best to call him to sort it out.
Very provoking though, we all know what children of that age can be like.

It is not for a stranger to approach and man handle a child , he abused the child , he broke the law ,

It is not for a child to ignore a reasonable request from an adult either. I agree an over reaction and the guard should have been called & other passengers back the man might have made the kids see sense..but we do not know what the children said to the guy. My big objection is the press reaction. The boys need to know that, whilst the man should not have been physical, they have to follow rules and one is to behave appropriately on a train. The papers are making them out to be innocent lambs cruelly assaulted!

Children do misbehave, annoying I agree but some adults think they have the right to chastise a child not related to them , they do not . The man was in the wrong .

Do not condone the crime, a ridiculous over reaction - but I know how he felt. I have often felt like that in the presence of rude ill-behaved children, with or without their parents.

I don't think you should ever lay your hands on other people's children, no matter how badly behaved, unless you are breaking up a fight or something.

it was an over-reaction by the man concerned, but the young men were at fault in the first place. They presumably paid for one seat, and so were not entitled to the other. Personally, if I had not wanted the seat, I would not have bothered to tackle the problem, but it would have irked me. I think the arrogance is worse than the deed.

They were both in the wrong.

The days of manhandling anyone are gone.

The boys ( did they give an age) were also in the wrong. Outdoor shoes on a seat someone is going to sit on is offensive . Perfect way to get chewing gum or other things on your clothes.

I would have asked the boys and if not I would have either found the guard , or taken their picture and shamed them on social media.

I wouldn't have ignored it because I believe that's the way things escalate. Today feet on the seat , tomorrow ...... What?

They were both in the wrong but in this day and age the man (unlike the DM I see no relevance in the fact he was a pensioner) should have known better than to lay a finger on a child. If he'd asked them politely and received a load of abuse in reply the next step should have been to find a guard. A person with authority. If more people stir up the guards to do something then fewer young yobs may grow into adult thugs.

Completely inappropriate in my humble - dreadful 'old' man who seems to have lost control.
As others have said why not report to the guard?

They were not young men, their ages were 8 to 11 . They were wrong to put their feet on seats but some children do, this does not mean they will grow up to be thugs. The actions of the man was so wrong

I can understand wanting to do that with some awful kids,but no,he should have restrained,
Just accidental( but by purpose,)as my great niece used to say,trip him up as he passes.

A child between the ages 8 - 11 is too young to be put in an armlock, no matter what the circumstances. Well, perhaps if he was about to kill someone.

Pensioner nasty, idiotic, bully.

Totally inappropriate and illegal. Gives our generation a bad name

Of course he should not have touched the children, but I do have some sympathy for him. Badly behaved kids are becoming more and more common on public transport and apart from putting feet on seats, most of them very rarely give up their seats to old people or pregnant women the way we were taught to do when we were children. Unfortunately on ourlocal trains the conductors tend to hide in the driver's cabin when not actuallty issuing tickets.

The.children were in the wrong but he was totally out of order. This is 2016 not 1956 for goodness sake. There are ways of talking to children without getting physical..

Totally agree with Anniebach
Two wrongs do not make a right
Children were misbehaving
Man broke the law.

As I said before I would not condone the man's action but no other passengers appeared to support him in asking the kids to get feet off the seats or to stop him touching the boys! Now the press have forgotten that the boys should have just put their feet down when asked. None of the witnesses, as far as I can see, suggested the man asked the boys inappropriately. What are the boys learning from the press response? It's OK to break social rules & to rile people into losing their rag! When you see 18-13 year olds with their feet on seats, swearing etc. what do you think?

I get exactly where you're coming from, pen. The man's best approach might have been to sit on the seat opposite the boy whose arm he twisted — non-violet, direct, and hopefully effective, action.

The boy could have been badly hurt by a man in a rage attacking him and twisting his arm.
There is no excuse to react like that, however irritating the boys were being.

There are very few trains with guards any more.

So if someone's behaving inappropriately, what do you do?

Precious snowflakes of any age or sex are allowed to put feet on seats, break trays, swear at people, spit, etc? Act aggressively or be racist?

Would you support the man in question so it didn't go so far as he went (and the boy didn't appear to be hurt). Or would you just stand back?

I don't know when or why we became a society that does not take communal responsibility for each other..either to protect or to chastise (verbally). We (as a society) have allowed individuals and groups to think they are untouchable because we won't voice our disapproval. This results in some youngsters not responding to reasonable requests to 'rein it in' when larking about gets a bit out of hand.