Insane Right Winger Assaults A Couple Of Would-Be Journalists

Where is the menace or threat of violence in filming a question. There is no way that is assault. If it was a toy gun, yeah but not a camera.

And the harm thing is irrelevant...you're thinking slander/libel where actual harm is the qualifyer. Spitting on someone is considered assault and battery, punishable by fines and jail/probation time. I think you'll find putting your hands on someone will fetch worse punishment...and guess what...being a government employee often doubles the punishment.

Eh. He'll probably be out of a job come November.

Amazing how far the looney fucking fruits like garamet and lietard will go to defend the almighty D.

He acted totally like that astronaut that faked that moon landing.

Actually, yes it was and yes he did.

Only the most partisan of shitbags could look at this and defend it, regardless of their party affiliation.

You and Liet should be shot.

Some people just need killin'.

Not in any sane jurisdiction. On a public sidewalk, you have zero expectation of privacy or personal space.

Ever get poked in the eye? Ever get offended by someone you don't know touching you? Deliberately creating the aprehension of a threat that either of those things might imminently happen is assault. It doesn't matter whether you do or don't intend them to happen. So long as you deliberately cause the reasonable apprehension of a dangerous or offensive contact, that's assault.

To be clear, I am talking about the tort of assault, not the crime of assault, but even the tort likely legally justifies using the fairly minimal force seen in the video to remove the threat of imminent harmful or offensive contact, and even if it doesn't there's not much wisdom in pressing charges that effectively require you to admit a tortious offense when you suffered minimal actual damage.

All that said, the Congressman reacted rather stupidly. Just because his actions were, at my estimation anyway, perfectly legally justified doesn't make them wise or politically astute. Everyone you see in that video is an idiot.

The moment someone pokes you in the eye, it becomes a physical assault. These men didn't give indications of assault. They were out in the open, clearly stated their questions and stayed outside the personal zone until Etheridge stepped inside and grabbed the one guy and his camera. He initiated the assault.

It most definitely fits the textbook definition of the tort of assault. Not the kind of thing you'll collect damages on, but probably enough to legally justify taking minimal measures to end the assault.

If the camera man had even accidentally made contact that would have been criminal battery in any MPC jurisdiction.

You are the biggest fucking idiot on Earth. And that includes garamet and Obama.

No bonehead. It requires intent for it to fall under the tort of assault.

Clearly, there was no intent in this instance.

I know Ray and Liet are trying to win the Stupid Olympics here, but really. I have to give you a 9.5 for that gem of stupidity.

Bullshit.

There was no reasonable act here to cause a belief of imminent injury...Ethridge stepped into their personal space and committed real assault.

Asking a question and holding out a camera is not threatening....the only apprehension here is the fact they asked a question the snake didn't want to answer on film. That ain't assault....actual or tort.

Didn't happen so who gives a fuck?

You can't really blame garamet. She suffers from oxygen deprivation due to having her head down to the neck stuck up Obama's sphincter almost all the time. Not a whole lot of air up there.

And here I thought it was 14thDoctor that was conducting Obama's rectal exams.

Honestly, I don't see how Etheridge's actions are at all defensible. We've seen the whole video, we've heard what was said, we saw what actions were taken.

Some of you really need to go look up the definition of assault and battery, because you're very much mixing up the two.

What this representative did was unjustifiable. Period. Paragraph.

Even if these college students had literally been prodding him with the camera, he should have known and done better.

Lightly bumping into someone on the sidewalk, even intentionally, is not assault. Period.

Indeed. And now having seen the unedited video, I'm convinced of that.

Happy?

I'm still a little creeped out by the "students" or whatever having their faces blurred in the video, as though they've got something to hide, but that doesn't excuse what was done to them.

Write a letter to the manager, then.

Depends on the nature of the light bumping. Generally speaking, it's not deemed an offensive contact. I'm sure people could come up with circumstances where it could be deemed an offensive contact. Now, realistically would it ever result in someone's arrest? No.

But I am fairly confident Liet is wrong about a criminal battery being a possibility resulting from accidental contact under the Model Penal Code. Generally speaking under the Model Penal Code, crimes require one of three states of mind: intentional (with the express purpose to do the crime), knowing (having knowledge that the crime was substantially likely to happen from their conduct) or recklessness (flagrantly not caring about the risk of the crime happening). Mere negligence isn't enough, unless the crime specifies negligence.

To be fair, that's exactly the kind of spin you'd be seeing from RightieForge if the guy had been a Republican or a Teabagger.

And if the assault was as blatant, obvious and nuts as this one, anyone saying it would get the same drooling smilie from me.

Honestly, Ethridge could be in bigger trouble if it turns out these were not college students, but high school students who are still minors...that could be why the video is hiding the identity of shooter.

Woodhouse also works desperately to push away from the fact that Etheridge still took matters into his own hands and attacked the students first. I have no doubt that there was a strong political undercurrent in this. If I found out tomorrow that the kids were part of an RNC effort to undermine Etheridge, I'd STILL be right here saying what I have said, because the responsibility falls on Etheridge. He made the first move, he attacked. The students were innocent in that respect.

Even if he hadn't accosted the kids, his actions would have been indefensible.

He's forgotten who he works for.