A video of a young boy being pushed over is dividing viewers online, with some saying he deserved it and others saying violence against children is always wrong.
In the clip, a young boy aged about 10 is seen taunting a bearded man, throwing punches and getting in his face. The man blocks a few of the boy's attacks before grabbing him by the neck and pushing him to the ground. The boy screams and wails, but later gets up and appears to be unhurt.
Media reports on the incident are scarce, but according to posts on social media the incident happened at a park in Brookfield, Illinois. The bearded man is believed to be the park manager, who was called in to investigate reports of the boy abusing members of the public and throwing rocks at cars.
It's said the man who filmed the clip was driving past the park when the boy and a friend cut him off on their bikes, and started throwing rocks and swearing.
A "backstory" published by a user of Disney messageboard site disforums.com earlier this week claimed the child was expelled from school recently after bringing a knife to class and threatening a teacher and other students.
"The man went to a concession stand and found the [park manager] and asked him for help... [He] told them to leave and they started swearing and cutting up with him... After the video the police came, watched the video and asked the park manager if he wanted to press charges... They felt it was a self-defense case, however, they did advise the park manager not to push a kid like that again."
The man and the child reportedly apologised to each other and left the scene, but hours later it's claimed the mother of the boy posted a short clip online showing the park ranger pushing her boy to the ground - but leaving out what happened beforehand.
"The police advised [the park manager] to post the full video... to try to make sure the whole story is out there."
The video first appeared online four or five days ago, and is said to have been recorded at Ehlert Park in Brookfield, Illinois.
The backstory on the Disforums thread appears to be based on a post by a member of the public on a local Illinois TV station's Facebook page. The post has since been deleted - it still appears in a Google search, but doesn't load.
The original Disforums thread in which the alleged backstory was published has also been deleted, but still exists in Google's cache of the site.
Newshub.
