After close viewing of the video, I can now see it IS a skate park...look at :29, and you can see in the background 2 skate rails set up in the open area...so now I put the fault at 70/30 with the child/parent 70% at fault...so perhaps the skater should have sucker punched the mother/child for causing the accident?!?

To me it's one or the other...either it's justifiable violence or it's crazy to think it's justifiable violence. To me, using violence to answer an obvious accident is just plain crazy.
I watched in full screen and could not see the head touch ground, and never once noticed the child putting it's hands up to it's head, which would be the normal reaction if it's head were hurt. I mentioned it was not bleeding to indicate there didn't seem to be even a superficial skin wound, not to indicate that no blood means no injury.
Well, I indicated race because they were of different races, and sex because they were different sexes, and age because they were different ages, and for some reason it seems you expected different levels of responsibility from them. Perhaps it was not for any of these reasons, but I think they all come into play in your apparent theory that have differing levels of responsibility for their own actions, certainly sex seems to for most people.
Somehow my first post in this thread disappeared, I explained there that I thought they had about a 60/40 split with the larger responsibility going to the adult skater because NEITHER was looking where they were going, perhaps even 70/30. My point is that the child was not looking where it was running either, and was not being supervised by anyone that was watching out either, and it bears SOME responsibility. It could just as easily been hit by a bicycle that likely would have had every right to be there the way it ran diagonally across the open area, and I feel the reaction would have been identical.
I am not surprised that the law is different in many places. In many states, if someone assaults you and you have something in your hands, you may use it to defend yourself. It wouldn't be 'bringing in a weapon' because you had it in hand when attacked. If you pick something up, it would likely be different. In almost every state, if the attacker is still moving towards you (as she was at the end) you may use whatever force needed to stop the attack. In some states, it seems you may arm yourself before being touched and use deadly force to stop the advance if you fear attack. Once the attack/advance is halted, I think that all changes almost everywhere.
On a moral basis, my feeling is if they sucker punch you in the face, you should get one free shot back at them, even if they turn and run. I'm not sexist or ageist and try to not be racist, so none of those things should enter into who hit who.
edit: and you are correct, I just guessed the skater was white based on his appearance, accent, and the fact that he's skating. I may well be wrong about that (and many other things).

This bitch needs to be dealt with. It was an accident and she assaulted the guy. Plain and simple. Her kid is running in a skate park, and the skater is riding, neither see each other, and accidents happen. But her reaction is independent from anything else, and she needs to be charged with assault.

Okay- it looked to me like it was just a park, but if that's actually a skate park where a parent should expect distracted skaters to be flying around, I feel a bit less passionate than I sound ^above and that it is more the mother's responsibility to keep her child out of harm's way and to teach him to stay out of the path of approaching posers.

Context makes all the difference.

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.

Your video, Skater punched by kid's mom, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Skaters are just people who enjoy a sport. A skate park is a TERRIBLE place to let a tiny kid run around. It's like letting them run around on a bike lane.

Edit: I didn't realize it was a normal park. Knowing that, the skater did make a dumb ass mistake.

I grew up in an area where we didn't have a skate park but we always went to a business during their closed hours (the ones that allowed it) or buildings that had been abandoned. In most towns, places like malls and public parks would get the cops called instantly so I don't see why they even tried skating there.

I'm a cyclist, both on-road and off. One day, while on a trail no less, I was coming down a really steep hill hitting around 30MPH plus. I'm on the right side, no one else is around, it's the middle of the day etc. Near the bottom, some kid, who was on the other side of the trail by himself on the bench, gets up, runs across and stands directly in front of me.

Lucky for him I have better reactions but I certainly could have killed the kid if I hit him. In regards to the skater, I understand his side a lot better because I've had this happen to me. Given his level of concern for the boy, I'm pretty sure before doing the tricks he checked to make sure no one was in his path. And then suddenly, errant child out of no where.

Also, having 2 daughters I can also say she's a shitty ass mother. I see stuff like this happen often when the parents are completely off in lala land because they don't want to care for their child and "want a break". And the mother comes up saying "you hit him on his birthday?!" As if that makes any difference except, WHY THE HELL DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG? She causally walked over the from the pavilion, which her son was running away from and never once checked on her child. I have become Flash Gordon the moment I hear either one of my kids get hurt. I have leapt over benches, tables and other people.

So yeah, I agree, mother of the year and I hope that kid grows up and finds someone who actually cares about him.

Yeah man, sorry @Ryjkyj if I riled yer tender sensibilities mate but her poor attention and timing does not necessitate my going to jail for injury to a child because yer an over-reacting mother and a worse fucking citizen. "Almost killed" inna...ahem, "SKATE PARK!" Kinna different than yer average, let the kids sit in the middle of the sandbox sorta place. Oh, and wear your safety gear, I hear the pavements' pretty hard when it comes-up fast.

Uhh, Mom's a dumb ass and over-reacted, skater 1, mom 0

I would hope a skater could take a punch to the face after almost killing someone's kid in a fucking park where kids are supposed to be able to play without their parents hovering over them every fucking second.

I thought skaters were supposed to be tough. Apparently not as much as people who like to talk tough on the internet.

Kid was in the zone under mom's care, assaulted the skater, reaction may be predictable, understandable, but sucked-ass. She would only get a pass from here if she exhibited remorse for her actions a few ticks later...after I stayed to make sure her kid was ok and that she wasn't on her fucking cell phone...'Cause if she was less tha 3 minutes after this happened, I'd be smashin' it. So yeah. There ya go ya dumb bitch, yeah. Take yer whiny, no-skatin' brat and yo ugly-ass to a "filled" pool or something why don't yas?!

the skater was in the middle of a flip trick when he ran into the kid. its not exactly something you do with your eyes closed. arguably unavoidable from his standpoint.

i wanna know why she was in the next county when it happened and then took her sweet ass time getting there, and then utterly disregards her child so she could hit that skater cuz it was the kids birthday (isnt that what she said?)

ok, so at the sound of her son wailing, she casually strolls over from 60 miles away, completely ignores her son, and assaults a guy over what was clearly an accident which, presumably, resulted in no serious injuries to either party. I'm calling it: mother of the year

the skater was more concerned with the child than the mother! if i was that little boy, i'd run away... silly bimbo

It's much more convenient to stereotype all skaters as thugs than to acknowledge your kid might have been being a typical dumb kid running where he shouldn't have.