We’ve discussed whether or not it is okay to discipline someone else’s child when they are acting out. There’s a video of a store clerk spanking a customer’s child and we’ve all given the side eye to bad kids in stores or even in our homes. This situation is a bit different though.
On February 8, onboard Delta Airlines Flight 721, 60 year old Joe Rickey Hundley demanded that a mother “shut that n***er baby up” before smacking the child with an open hand across the face. Hundley is being charged with simple assault, but denies the incident.
Thirty-three year old Jessica Bennett was sitting in the same row as Hundley with her adopted, 19-month-old son Jonah. As the plane began its descent to Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Jonah began to cry due to the altitude change. Bennett tried to get her son to stop crying, but was unsuccessful. Hundley, who Bennett claims “reeked of alcohol”, yelled the racial slur before slapping her son, leaving a scratch under the child’s right eye.
Passengers who heard the derogatory remarks and witnessed the slap came to assist Bennett. This isn’t Hundley’s first brush with the law. He was arrested in 2007 for simple assault against his girlfriend, carrying a concealed weapon (a wine corkscrew), and public intoxication. He plead guilty to that incident. If charged for the simple assault against Jonah, Hundley faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison.