And yet, I think it was his choices that eventually provoked this woman to escalate to physical aggression. Physical aggression is not safe! He made a bad choice that did not preserve the safety of his child and it is okay to call him out for it.
So you're blaming the victim. Sorry, only cops are allowed to get away with that when they screw up and assault someone.
Fine, if you want to look at it like that, I'm blaming the victim. The victim had the choice of indulging in a trivial act that had a great chance to de-escalate a tense situation and he chose not to do so.
You keep saying trivial. It's only trivial in the sense that it was physically easy. But the events unfolding are not trivial. Being randomly accused, having someone demand proof of your innocence and then requesting a grown man takes your phone from you is not trivial.
You also say 'had a great chance to de-escalate' but that is entirely an assumption on your part.
And just to be clear, I'm not ONLY blaming the victim. She screwed up, but he did too and it doesn't help society to ignore or excuse people making bad choices like this.
He didn't screw up. He made choices in an emergent situation that were all well within his rights and aimed at protecting his son against a situation that was quickly escalating against him. The woman was escalating and the hotel manager was now approaching him for his phone. Had she not decided to behave in an unlawful manner, they would have been on their way and out of the situation.
It's easy in retrospect to opine on what would or would not have been optimal, but it's all angels dancing on the head of a pin. Why would we assume that showing her the phone would have placated her when we cannot even account for her irrational accusation in the first place? Why would we assume that prolonged interaction would have led to increased calmness when people were getting amped up?