In a sitcom I watch, a business owner got fed up with a protestor on the sidewalk in front of her business and shot the contents of a fire extinguisher at him (the CO2 kind, presumably).
Putting aside whether or not this type of “force” was/is justified, would this be considered an act of assault? We discussed the dangers of fire extinguisher blasts decades ago here on the Dope. I can’t find the thread, but ISTR that the dangers would mostly hypothetical. The CO2 could cause the “victim” to briefly gasp for breath, or the cold could irritate the eyes, or whatever. But my guess would be that, particularly in the outdoors, all of these “dangers” would literally dissipate and/or blow away more or less instantaneously.
In evolving modern usage, where even touching someone in a non-violent manner leads to screams about “Assault!”, this would almost certainly qualify. The intent is to cause sufficient discomfort as to inspire the person to end their protest, and that discomfort, however mild, would certainly be more than merely laying a hand on them, or poking them in the chest with a finger.
It depends on where you live, but I think in most jurisdictions in the US, it would be considered assault. IANAL. I recently read an article in my local paper where someone was arrested for assault for spitting at someone.
“Assault” is generally defined as a threat or action that would reasonably cause another person to fear for their safety. It does not require actual bodily harm. That’s battery.
The classic example is threatening somebody with an unloaded gun. It doesn’t matter that the “danger” to the “victim” is “hypothetical.” It’s still assault.
If the DA is particularly motivated against the wielder of the fire extinguisher, not only could they definitely go for an assault and battery prosecution, but they might be able to stretch to a “use of Weapons of Mass Destruction” prosecution.
That’s the danger of making across the board pronouncements. Laws are different in every state. I can assure you there is no such thing as battery in my state’s criminal code. It all falls under different paragraphs in assault statute.
This actually happened to me in college, when someone sprayed my room (to get my roommate) while we both slept. To this day, 40 years later, I can find residue in album covers. That dust went everywhere.
I feel like I’ve been corrected on this before. That’s why I usually say things like “in my state” or “round these parts.” Figures that the time I don’t is the time I make a mistake.
Someone in my dorm did that. Powder everywhere and someone mentioned that trying to clean it up with water just made it worse as it turned into a clay. Apparently the trick is get as much of it cleaned up as you can before using anything wet (like a wet rag).
However, the kind of extinguisher used in the show the OP is referring to are just filled with nitrogen. In fact, I think they’re specifically meant not to damage anything (people or property).
I’ve been to a fire extinguisher factory before. Yea, that powder gets everywhere. It hangs in the air and even covers everything in the office area, well away from the production floor. They had to use a series of compressed air puffers to blow residual powder off the necks of the bottles before the nozzle part was installed or the gaskets could leak.
It wasn’t as bad as the printer toner factory, though.
See also the first ten minutes of Pixar’s Up: Carl is arrested and charged with (some form of) assault and battery when he hits a man with his walker, but no one cares when he blasts another man in the face with his leaf blower.
There was an old “For Better Or For Worse” strip where the mom and dad went OOT for a weekend and left teenage Elizabeth at home alone, with one of Dad’s dental hygienists, ahem, babysitting. Elizabeth couldn’t have her boyfriend over, but the hygienist replied, “Well, he never said anything about MY boyfriend,” and when they got hot & heavy on the couch, Elizabeth sprayed them with the fire extinguisher, and all of them were completely unprepared for the total mess that it made.