What is assault?

[Kittan Bachika]

I have been reading this thread and I am a little boggled by it. In a nutshell, some people were visiting a town, a town official
demanded and grabbed one of them. Then the state police were called in.


http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/jbkir/i_visited_an_ultraorthodox_jewish_village_was/


http://youtu.be/KpZHR_s0QLw

Whether you are right or wrong it is not a good idea to mouth off to a cop.

But do government officials have the right to grab people off the street just because they deem them suspicious? Is this assault?

 

[chinto]

yes it is. it is also abuse of authority under color of law. that is a felony under tittle 18 US code.( I am not an lawyer, but have seen that kind of thing.. and asked lawyers. )
also I would say it is both conspiracy to violate civil rights... I would suggest you contact the United States attorneys office about charges.

 

[MJS]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_stop

Gee, thats funny....cops where I work, are always stopping and running the names of suspicious people. Now, theres a difference between public safety and a LEO. There is a University in the city in which I work, and their PS guys are always coming across people who dont belong on the campus, and 9 times out of 10, they call for an officer to assist in the ID process.

As I've said many times before, IMO, its better to avoid the headaches, not be a dick, and just cooperate. If you feel that you've been wrongly accused of something, complain about it later. Refusing to cooperate, starting to record things, etc, is doing nothing more than raising the tension level of an already tense situation.

 

[Big Don]

Qft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/terry_stop

as i've said many times before, imo, its better to avoid the headaches, not be a dick, and just cooperate. If you feel that you've been wrongly accused of something, complain about it later. Refusing to cooperate, starting to record things, etc, is doing nothing more than raising the tension level of an already tense situation.

 

[Buka]

The town mentioned has history. This battle has been going on for some time.

http://www.vosizneias.com/40247/200...tank-standoff-at-power-struggle-over-shul-use

 

[oftheherd1]

Well, actually, assault is whatever the law defines it as in the jurisdiction where you are when something takes place. Usually it involves placeing someone in fear of impending violence of some type. Grabbing, hitting, kicking, whatever, these things are then battery, so that when you hear of assault and battery, someone has threatened violence, then commited it.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault for more.

The next question is what legal authority the "public safety" person had to enforce law? If he had State police powers, he could have not only demanded ID, but enforced his demand. Another question is what are the State laws concerning whatever kind of municipality that place is, and if it can make any enforceable laws of its own. That touches on his right to accost a person over the municipality's dress code, and also concerns the policeman's authority to demand ID in the first place. In most places he must have some legal reason for stopping a person and demanding ID. If he has that reason and you decline to ID yourself, he may or may not have authority to arrest you. Again, depends on the law of the jurisidiction.

But it usually goes back to what MJS said. As a rule, even if you well within your rights, the less you confront a policeman's authority anywhere but in court, the better off you are.

 

[jks9199]

Generally speaking, assault is placing someone in fear of battery and battery is any unwanted touching. Functionally, the two are rarely separated, and the actual battery is often included in the simple allegation of "assault."

I don't know what authority the public safety officer or director have under NY law. In Virginia, it's very possible that they could have full law enforcement authority.

But... I'm skeptical that the account provides the full story. It's possible that the representatives of the community were simply trying to identify some people wandering around, snapping pictures. And that the tourists did nothing but ask "why" and be grabbed. But I kind of doubt it.

Once the troopers arrived, they're almost certainly dealing with a report of "suspicious people, resisting arrest" or "being disorderly" or something to that effect. So, they cuff them (reasonable, especially if the public safety people there have any arrest authority...) and figure out what the situation is. From what I've seen here, it's unclear if they were actually charged or not.

Folks, it's simple. Don't be an ******* when you go places, especially if the place lives by a different set of rules. After all -- if it was just "another town", these tourists wouldn't have wandered in. Be courteous, and polite, and think about what you're doing. If official representatives show up -- be reasonably cooperative. How much trouble would it have been to simply provide some ID?

No, I'm not giving the guys from Kiryas Joel a free pass. They have to accept (and appear to, on one level, based on the sign) that they will get tourists. That those tourists will sometimes be jerks. And, whatever their faith, they must accept that the rules of the US apply. I'm not sure that they had grounds to actually demand ID. I don't know; NY law may be different. I wouldn't have been able to in Virginia, based solely on the accounts here.