That’s because you’re getting responses from people who are interested in the topic but don’t actually have the answer you’re looking for. 
Honestly, exactly what would happen probably depends on A) who the secret service people involved are and what their moods are that day, B) who the cop who writes you up is and what his mood is that day, and C) who the judge involved is and what his mood is on the day he sees it.
Interestingly enough, GWB probably doesn’t really have any say.
There is the minor question of what the term “bodily harm” includes and whether or not a slap is “bodily harm”. There is also the statement at the end that it is “up to” 5 years, rather than “not less than”.
So it’s still up for grabs.
I’d propose that we be scientific about the whole thing and discover what happens empirically… but somebody might take it the wrong way.
Read the quote again. It doesn’t say the assailant must inflict bodily harm, it says the assailant “threatens to…inflict bodily harm.”
I doubt the Secret Service will wait around to see if Cardinal tries to follow up with an actual punch instead of a slap.
As for the “up to” vs. “not less than,” well Cardinal still winds up being convicted of a federal offense, even if no jail time results. So that pretty much answers question #2.
Now that’s funny.
You were thinking basically the same thing I was thinking. Except I’d want to slap in while he is still President.
Actually, if I ever do met President Bush, I’d step on his toes!
When I did my stint with the Security Forces for a year, they taught me that it wasn’t my job to stand there and get stabbed in order to prove that the assailant had a knife on him. If you attempt to slap a police officer they are within their rights to blow you out of your shoes. That they don’t is more a testament to their own desire to preserve your life at the risk of theirs than any particular legal restraint.
And yes, a slap is “bodily harm”, just like a punch is.
So I guess I’ll have to inform him that he’s a horrible person who needs to get right with God, and that I’m not just using metaphors.
Hey, great idea! Fighting ignorance in the true spirit of the SDMB–like the famous and awesome
waterboarding thread.
But, then again, if you actually do try it, the mods* might slap you…
(which may be a worse fate than being shot by the Secret Service
What if Cardinal did something silly instead? Like the ol’ pie in the face or spraying him with a super soaker?
You’d have a pretty tough time slapping any of them.
That law was enacted in 1953, 73 years ago. They were at least 25 years old at the time in the House, 35 in the Senate. So they would be between 98-108 years old now. I doubt that any of them are still alive to be slapped.
So if you try it, you’re likely to be violating various laws regarding desecration of a corpse.
I am friends with the son of a Secret Service agent that specialized in Presidential detail. He is about the most screwed up person that I have ever met and he claims that it was the extreme stress that his family went through because of his father’s job. He was in elementary school in Northern Virginia when Reagan was shot and the school speakers reported Reagan was down as well as an Agent. It took hours to sort things out. It turned out that the agent in question and also a friend was permanently disabled. The agent was James Brady. That was preferable to his father who he regards as a sociopathic asshole.
Immediately afterwards, his family got transferred to California to protect ex-president Gerald Ford. According to my friends accounts, there were either assassination attempts or assault attempts almost every day. The Secret Service protects against those just like they would a sitting president. Who would assault Gerald Ford? Plenty of people tried. I don’t think a slap attempt on Bush would be successful and would land a person in a world of hurt.
No, my statement was correct. James Brady took a bullet just like his position required him to:
James Brady was, as the article you linked to states, Reagan’s Press Secretary, not a Secret Service agent.
Press secretaries are only required to take a figurative bullet for their bosses, not a literal one
If a Police Officer attempted to slap me, do you think I would be within my rights to blow him away? If I was in a conceal-carry state, anyway.
Bullshit. Cite?
Maybe if it was Mike Tyson. All the laws that I’ve seen on the subject say that you have to be in fear of death or serious injury, to yourself or others.
He didn’t say blow away, he said blow out of your shoes. Maybe he means another definition of blow. If not I have no idea what he is saying. I have had more than a few use of force briefings as a cop and a number of rules of engagement breifings in the military and I have never heard of being allowed to shoot someone for a slap.
That’s not exactly what I said. What I said was “If you attempt to slap a police officer…”. Once it’s done you obviously can’t shoot somebody, but if, in your judgment, someone is going to cause you grievous bodily harm and/or death, you are allowed to use deadly force. Do you know, really, what that person has in their hands when they come towards you in a threatening manner? If the answer is no in your judgment, you may shoot. Being former military, you know how the Use of Force Matrix works, and you know that it is based entirely upon judgment and escalation/de-escalation based upon the immediacy of the situation. The standard is “reasonableness”. If you move to slap, you may just as easily be moving to stab, hence it is reasonable to escalate your level of force in kind.
That is not to say that you won’t answer for your actions, and the after-the-fact judgment may be that you acted inappropriately, but your judgment on the scene is (theoretically) not affected by what may happen at a hearing later.
The lesson here is that you really shouldn’t try to slap President Bush, even after he ceases to be President.
I have been punched, slapped, bitten and kicked. Never came close to shooting someone (not exactly but that had nothing to do with me being assaulted). A police officer does not have the discretion to shoot someone just because they are making a violent movement towards them. I can not assume that there may be a knife. I have to see a knife or weapon to raise it to a deadly force situation. (OK I can do it but I don’t feel like going to jail) As a police officer I do not have to use equal force against someone who is attacking me. I am authorized to go one level above what is being used. If someone is using their hands, I can spray them or use the ASP. I cannot shoot unless I am getting beat down to a point where I could be seriously (permenantly) injured or they are going to get my gun.
I am current military (19 years Army Guard) and about to be fulltime again. I have never been a MP. Every ROE I have ever worked under has been more restrictive than what I work under as a police officer.