Inspired primarily by this post in this thread. What Alice said in this thread is what I’ve always been led to believe is true—namely that there is nothing that the authorities can do if somebody threatens you. The authorities can only act if the person in question actually carries out a physical act. I myself have my very own personal stalker, and the police have told me that there’s nothing that they are willing or able to do about it. He’s been calling my home on a regular basis for about five years now, threatening to kill me, shoot me, cut my head off, cut my mother’s head off, and lob hand grenades through my window, among other things. He had me a little worried for awhile, until I finally identified him as a kooky old man who lives down the street. After I talked to his wife and ascertained that he didn’t own any firearms, I basically blew him off. You can see him in all his lunatic glory right here. Anyway, if this is true and there’s nothing the cops can do about people who make threats, why are we constantly hearing ridiculous stories from the media about elementary school children who are handcuffed and dragged off to jail for drawing pictures of their classmate with an arrow through their head? Or constantly hearing that so-and-so was arrested for making ‘terrorist threats’? Or hearing that the police have launched a massive investigation because somebody hung a noose from a tree on a college campus somewhere? Is it illegal to threaten somebody or not?
At least in CA there are charges for someting called “Criminal Threats”.
Also, IANAL, nor do I play one but Assault in and of itself does not require contact.
From Nolo
A crime that occurs when one person tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the person under attack feel immediately threatened. Actual physical contact is not necessary; threatening gestures that would alarm any reasonable person can constitute an assault. Compare battery.
In PA, a person commits a crime of harassment when, with internt to harass, annoy or alarm another, they strike, shove, kick, or attempt or threaten to do same, or communicate to such other person threatening words… Source: PA Crimes Code.
Odd that CA doesn’t have a similar statute.
Well who’s to say he won’t get a gun? It’s not like he has to get one from a gun dealer. If some handy man or other person he knows wants to sell one, all it takes is a hundred dollars and it doesn’t take an Olympic athlete to pull a trigger.
Crazy old coots with guns have killed plenty of people. If it were me I’d be taking some relatively serious action if he called up my house, and made these threats. I think you’re being much too casual about this. Demented old people are capable of doing anything.
Re no action possible “Led to believe” by who? I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine (even in CA) you could carry on a campaign of death threats over the phone and be legally untouchable. It just does not make any kind of sense from any angle.
In my part of Australia shaking your fist at someone whist threatening to kill them will see you charged with assault, particular if its your soon to be ex wife.
Isn’t making death threats over the phone a crime? I thought it was a Federal offense? 
Isn’t that what it says in the statutes printed in some phone books?
Have you shown the police the video you linked, just after it happened? I’d think you could have filed assault charges there, since he ran into you with his motorized scooter.
Yeah, exactly—so what gives? I even have recordings of most of his calls. After I talked to the cops, I e-mailed an Internet buddy who works for the Baltimore, MD PD and asked him what he would do in this situation, and he basically told me the same thing—there’s nothing that can be done until he shoots me. But as I already mentioned, they haul off preschool kids for wielding a deadly crayon. There’s gotta be an explanation for this. But let’s not make this thread about my stalker—I don’t want it moved to MPSIMS. I was just using him for illustrative purposes. What I’m really addressing here is the apparent blatant discrepancy between what the authorities tell us and what they do. This just boggles my mind, and there has to be a reasonable explanation.
To some extent, there’s a difference between which laws are on the books and which ones the police are able and funded to enforce properly. There’s also a difference between the laws on the books and the ones that are likely to be successfully prosecuted. It may be that, given how often people in general say things like ‘I’m gonna kill him…’ and don’t mean it, a lot of this sort of behaviour falls into those cracks.
Go in to your phone company, play them the recordings. They might have a clue as to who to report it to?
Or threaten him back and claim self defense?
See this, they are violating Federal Law, and I’d bet the phone company would be able to help you assert your rights and report it. I believe it’s the same for all states, I just looked in the information section of a phone book, and found this
You may also wish to look for a statute such as ‘Harrassment by Communication’ dealing with repeatedly calling another person absent a legitimate purpose. In PA, the phone company will monitor your line, and every time the annoying party calls you, upon termination of the call, you punch in a special code of *two digits, and that logs the phone call just received by you at phone company HQ. Once you have a dozen or so calls logged, the phone company will turn those records over to law enforcement for further action.
Okay, first off I have to say I found it funny that the Youtube link had backround music playing the song “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain. Especially hearing lines like “We Belong together” Then I realized that I had someones Myspace page on another tab and it was playing the music.
Second, along the lines of threats. Is it illegal to threaten someone with a lawsuit. My father once heard (and still beleives) that if someone (for example) owes you money and you say “Give me the money you own me, or I’m going to sue you” that it’s extortion, or a threat or something. According to him, the proper thing to do is to ask for your money and if you don’t receive it, sue them, don’t threaten to sue them, don’t tell them you’re going to do it, just do it.
Any truth to that.
California Penal Code 422:Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which
will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with
the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or
by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a
threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,
which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made,
is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes
that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own
safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished
by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by
imprisonment in the state prison.
Even though you could doesn’t mean you should. He didn’t cause any real harm, if you ask me.
Could you get a restraining order against him? He seems like an annoying little creep.
I had a creepy guy who had it in for me for no reason a while back and he wasn’t a little old man on a rascal either. I considered a restraining order since I had no interest in throwing down with the creep and getting arrested myself. My story ends happily since he disappeared from town some time ago.
At the very least you should make complaints against him to the police when he pulls this kind of stuff. The cops will not do anything about it, but at least they will have documentation if and when something worse does happen.
IANAL, but I believe the common law definition of assault included verbal threats with the apparent means to carry them out. If that’s the case, then most U.S. states would [likely] have similar standards for the situation.
Regardless of which law such a person is guilty of violating, I find it difficult to imagine that authorities would treat such abuse so trivially. I wish you luck in getting some traction with the police.
I see a world of difference between “I’m going to kill you” and “If you touch my child I will kill you”.
Often wondered if the latter was acceptable, legally speaking.
I was just wondering how you ended up standing in the street outside his house with a video camera trained on this guy. Not that I am implying in any way that it excuses this obvious wacko from hitting you with his scooter, nor threatening to kill you. But I can see him getting pissed off that you are standing there filming him and refusing to answer his questions. Could you give us a little backstory on this event?
p.s. I’m new here and this is my first post, hope I don’t step on too many toes.