Jesus Christ. I wish I knew why I cared about this so much but it's late and I'm tired so, fuck it:

The fucking kid's head is laying on the ground for three fucking seconds after he falls. You're fucking delusional.

There is no HD res for this video. Are you trolling or are you an idiot?

The concrete is pretty standard throughout the park with a few exceptions. That's your argument? This whole thing is a skate park from the parking lot at the south to the street at the north? Seriously?

Obstacles (in this case concrete benches throughout the entire park) that have marks on them do not qualify as a skate park. There are marks from skating on every bench, rail and staircase in my entire city. I assure you, the whole city is not a skate park because there are marks.

There are no ramps out of the skate area. If you can't see it on the overhead, look at the pic I posted. Seems like a small distinction? Nope. Stairs, not ramps. In fact, I can't see one ramp the entire place.

The "clear separation" comes from the stairs, wall, trees and fucking garbage cans surrounding the entire skating area which, by the way, has been sunk below the grade of the whole rest of the park! I mean, I guess they could've built a fence too but how clear does it have to be?

The kid was heading in the direction of the street, yes. But whose to say he wasn't going toward the fucking swings or anything else? Are you really now trying to imply that the mom was letting her kid run through the fucking street? Also, you don't have to start referring to him as "the child" now.

Nice way of avoiding the "barrels" question. I was expecting you to say he came out from behind that Greyhound bus that's so clearly present.

And enough with the fucking proximity of the fucking mom already. Kids are allowed to run through parks. And the guy who hits a kid with a fucking skateboard is the one who bears responsibility for hitting a kid with a fucking skateboard. Ahhh!! Seriously, what fucking world do you live in?

Alright, sorry. I'm cooked. Later.

I'll start by apologizing for the long reply...
I looked as closely as possible in HD fullscreen and on my computer the head never touched ground. More to the point, the child never reached for his head. Either way the point is moot, the mother never once even glances at the child to determine injury.
I did look closely, down to street view, at the whole park, and what I saw was it seems that in the non-skate areas there is a different texture to the ground (around the pool, playground area, etc.)
From my viewpoint (and I admit I could not read the park rules, I tried from every angle) the rest of the park is built specifically for skating, and has obstacles designed to skate on that have clear marks on them that that's what they are used for. The area you think is the only skate area has ramps in and out to skate on, so perhaps I'm wrong, but the implication of that design is you can skate everywhere. If I'm wrong in that guess, I'm wrong. There's no way to tell for certain from what I can see. That said, I draw the line at the areas designated for skating, and not in the areas designated for other things. As I've repeatedly stated, the skater bears some responsibility for not looking in a public place, but mom bears far more for allowing child to run free in a public skate park, especially when he was headed straight towards the street with no one watching until he screams.
I do admit from what I see this park is not well designed, as there is not a clear separation of the skate area and non-skate area, or a path from one non-skate area to another. If all the areas besides the small rail/bowl area are not for skating, they certainly should not have built it filled with skating obstacles and ramps, knowing that skaters will skate them.
I guess I misunderstood, yes, he was skating towards the picnic tables, but was no where near them at the end of his run, so who's to say he didn't plan on turning left into the rail area or stopping after the kick flip? The child was headed for the street, agreed?
Barrels out from behind an object is what children often do, and why they get hit, they don't know to look first.
Kid's mom is not seen until after the incident, then walking from the pavilion, she was not with or watching her child from every thing I see.
My reaction to blame the mom is because she was not watching her child and went off because that inattentiveness led to an accident, and she was the one responsible for her child's safety, no one else.

second post reply starts here:
OK, that's clearer that you don't excuse her actions. I accept and agree with that.
Expect the parent to be upset, absolutely. Expect them to be aggressive, not really but many people go that way. Expect them to be violent to address their own parental failings, not at all. Expect them to understand they (not the skater) is 70%+ at fault for not supervising a toddler? Never, parents rarely accept their failings and almost always deflect responsibility.
I feel you miss-state the situation. I say he should have hit her to stop her advance, not if she stopped, at the end of the video, she's still attacking. That's self defense, and using the skateboard in that capacity seems fine to me. We may disagree, people are different.
I think you hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph...we just don't see it the same way. I feel like many parents have a natural defense mechanism of responsibility deflection, and I don't accept any responsibility for other's children, and would never expect them to take it for mine. I understand the mindset of parents that believe we all have a responsibility to take care of their children, I just disagree with it.
I also disagree that age is an excuse, if the child is too young to watch out for itself, it's 100% the parent's responsibility in my eyes, not mine.

And then there's the new idea that this discussion is all about a faked video. If true, the parent is still irresponsible for letting their child be run into on concrete where he may well have broken his skull, but maybe not completely out of control crazy violent.
Again, apologies for the long post.

Now, I don't know why I have so much trouble explaining this but I still really want you to understand that I'm not excusing this mom's actions.

The only thing I'm saying by suggesting her reaction is normal is this:

If I was skating through a public park, not watching where I was going, and I ran directly into someone's kid with a fucking weapon made of wood and steel, knocking them to the ground (except of course for their gravity-defying head), the first thing I would expect is for that parent to come at me.

I would be apologetic, just like the guy in the video because I would know it was ENTIRELY my fault. What I wouldn't do is try to explain to them that I actually bear only seventy-percent of the responsibility and that they shouldn't let their kid stray out of arm's reach in a park.

Sure, I would defend myself because I wouldn't expect that they were just going to immediately forgive me and think only about their shortcomings as a parent. I would defend myself because I still have the right to be safe in a public place, regardless of my actions.

What would I not do though? I wouldn't hit them with a fucking skateboard. Especially not the one I just hurt their child with. I wouldn't do that because I would know the only excuse I had was the petulant, middle-school refrain of "she hit me first!" I wouldn't do that because it would escalate the situation even more and I don't like to use violence to solve my problems. I'm perfectly capable of defending myself without hitting someone's irrational mother.

And then there's the question of pressing charges. Which for some reason to me is just laughable.

Was the lady wrong? Yeah, absolutely. Was she crazy? Maybe temporarily, it might have had something to do with someone running into her kid. I know a lot of people might not have acted the way she did (I would certainly have been more concerned about my own kid than the skater) but I know a lot of people might have FELT the way she did.

I just still don't think her actions were so far from what a person could expect after being a dumbass and skating directly into a little kid.

Maybe I don't get it because I'm an overprotective, irrational parent. Judging by how many times you referred to the child in the video as "it" however, maybe I just shouldn't expect you to understand my side either.

OK, OK... I know I'm talking to a person who can't see a kid's head hit the ground in a video where a kid's head clearly hits the ground but please do me one favor:

Look at the park layout from google maps that Eric posted above. Really zoom in and get a good look. What I see is a skate park on the left with some soccer fields further on and a parking lot on the right. In between, there's a narrow pathway leading from one part of the park to the other. That's why we see all those people walking through there in the video. They're not walking through the skate park, they're walking along a path.

Now, by your rational, this guy is allowed to skate wherever he wants in this park with no responsibility for running into anyone who happens to be walking through(since a toddler runs at about a normal person's walking speed, maybe a little faster). So I'm curious, where do you draw the line? Is this guy literally allowed to rail slide up the play equipment? Slalom between the swings? I really want to know where you think the line is. Are you really saying that the only path from one end of this overall park to the other runs right through the skate park portion of it? And everybody that walks through is supposed to expect skaters that aren't watching where they're going?

I only get so specific because a skateboard is a vehicle. You can ride one in many public places and I'm all for that but you bear a responsibility for hitting someone just like you would on a bike or in a car.

And I wasn't saying that the kid was running towards the picnic tables. I was saying that the skater was heading toward them, which it seems you agree with since you said the kid was running away from them. (BTW: Where do you get the idea that this kid "barrels out from behind an object?" What object?)

What it looks like to me is that this kid and his mom were coming from the north end, maybe the kid gets excited running to the play equipment on the south end when a guy, skating down the middle of the only path through the park, runs right fucking into him with a skateboard.

And the first reaction everyone has is to blame the kid and his mom? For running down a path through a park?

A note to all the silly commenters whose panties are in a twist:

Has anyone other than myself even bothered to read the youtube description and come to the conclusion that this video is fake?

this clip is from Leland Goldberg's part in "Warm Gravy"
a skateboarding video by Daniel Miranda
http://warmgravy.bigcartel.com/product/warm-gravy-skate-video

skater gets punched for accidentally running into little boy. (on his birthday)

A kid running into the path of a moving object should be glad it wasn't a bicyclist or car.

The skater wrongly assumed she had the same cultural assumptions as himself.

He should have had his guard up early on... use the skateboard to block. She only attacked because she could see he wasn't prepared.

Wow, I hate to even justify your ramblings with a response but I want to make something clear:

I am not advocating violence or trying to justify her action. I never said that lady was in the right for hitting the guy, only that it's not such a crazy reaction to expect. Nor would hitting her back be so crazy... if the guy didn't just run over her child. Sure he might be legally justified but he'd also be a dickhead.

I don't know what video you were watching but the kid's head clearly hit the ground in the one I saw. And I know you're probably not a doctor, but a head injury that doesn't bleed is exactly the kind you don't want.

As for your making the issue about race and sex, I'm not even sure where you're coming from. I'd be really interested to know how you determined this man's race from a grainy youtube video. And for that matter, as a white male, I'd be interested to know why you even think it's important at all.

I'd also be interested to know how you came up with the crazy idea that skateboarding into a toddler who's running around in a park is partly the toddler's fault. And again with the "unwatched toddler" bullshit. Lucky put it pretty eloquently above.

Oh, and while we're on the subject: you might be surprised to know that in many places in the US, if someone assaults you, even if they sucker-punch you, and you escalate the situation by bringing in a weapon, you can get in just as much, if not more trouble than your assailant. I know a lot of people like to believe otherwise but you'd probably be surprised at the amount of people who get in trouble for that.

Yes, you are advocating violence because you are stating clearly that it's acceptable and expected that when a child falls someone else must be at fault and should expect to be punished violently and should accept the attack. Hmmmm.
I would say getting hit back in the face with a skateboard isn't an incredible reaction to being shoved hard and sucker punched in the face.
What I love are idiots that want to excuse this out of control woman because she's a woman or a mother, neither gives her any excuse to hit someone. Period. Being a mother is one big reason she should NOT act the fool like this.
The child's head didn't hit the ground, he was not holding his head or bleeding. The child's mother was not interested in whether the child was injured, she was interested in getting back at the person who disrespected her by having an accident with her child "on his birthday".
When an unwatched toddler runs into someone else (as happened here) it is the child's fault, at least in part. You seem to want only the adult white male to be able to control himself and accept responsibility while women and children get a free pass. That's asinine.
If you hit first, you should be the one prosecuted. That simple. After the first hit, it's ON. If you start a fight and then loose, that's all on you for starting the fight. When you hit someone because they 'dissed' you or your son (and I'm saying she's angry not because her son was hurt, but because she was disrespected, which seems obvious by her actions), YOU are the one in the wrong.

How far away the mother was and what a terrible mother she is is irrelevant. Even if she was Mother of the Year she still wouldn't have been hovering over her son with a leash she could use to yank him out of the way to safety.

The bottom line is the skater was a douchecock for being so careless as to potentially seriously injure that defenseless, innocent little boy. Yes, smashing someone's head to the concrete can be fatal. It's very common for someone to impact the ground with their head and die from the resulting brain trauma. (It happened to a Marine in the news last week. It happened to a guy I knew in high school. It happened to Natasha Richardson. It almost happened to Larry Miller, but they saved him by removing his skull.)

For his fucking selfishness and ignorance toward people around him he deserves more than a single punch to the face. It should be beaten into him to watch out for bystanders and especially small children when practicing his poser-ass skateboard tricks.

Of course, he, like many people commenting here, surely feels he didn't do anything wrong, so I'm sure he'll take nothing away from the incident except that some little asshole kiddie got in the way, causing himself to get an owie, and his low-life absentee psychopathic mother is just a raving lunatic.

Chi Chi, I don't think you've ever offended me even once. Most of the time, I can't even understand what you're saying.

Look I'm not advocating violence: it's pretty ridiculous that the mom in this vid walks right past her son to confront the guy. I can't imagine doing that but I can imagine going into a fevered blood-rage over someone hitting my kid with a skateboard while he's playing in a park. (I also can't imagine what makes you guys think this is a skate park?)

All I'm saying is that, regardless of the fact that it was an accident, if you hit a toddler playing in a park, it's your fault (speaking of trying to find blame in others). And that, just maybe, getting punched in the face isn't such an incredible reaction to expect in that situation.

What I love are the comments about charging the mom with assault or smacking her back with a skateboard after she just watched you smash her baby's head into the pavement. Yeah, that's definitely the appropriate reaction. Congratulations, you share the sensibilities of every twelve-year-old who commented on Youtube.

I'm willing to bet that the skater brushed it off and thought roughly, "oh good, now we can call it even."

Not so much though with Internet Tough Guys.

I'm with neither of them, because shit happens, but... seriously, that area looked wide open and the kid came straight at him. Couldn't either the skater or the guy with camera have, y'know, just looked in the direction they were moving at some point? If you're riding your skateboard in a public space and you've got your eyes locked on your feet because you totes want to stick that ollie (or whatever the fuck us crazy kids are calling it these days), accidents like this one are just waiting to happen.

Your video, Cop Car Runs Over Skateboarder!!!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

http://wtvr.com/2013/07/31/video-va-state-trooper-hits-skateboarder/

FTFA: “I do not have any other details to provide to you,” said Sergeant Molnar. ”This is a personnel matter and state police does not have further comment on this matter.”

Bullshit. This is a criminal matter. Even though this video is edited it still appears the hit was intentional. Not sure about Virginia but shouldn't that be assault with a deadly weapon or aggravated assault?

I couldn't ride a scooter or skateboard as well as this dog... well learned sequence my ass!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dad, loser, skateboard' to 'dad, loser, skateboard, supershort' - edited by calvados