Also, I suspect the protester was more injured by the dragging and knocking to the ground than by the love tap to the ribs. But the former might have been justified - or not. This fact is awkward, but it doesn’t really touch upon the central topic of my OP which involves proper treatment of minor crimes, probably simple battery in this case.
Broken Windows Theory
So… what should local prosecutors do? Should they release a statement to the press that information on this crime would be appreciated, call this hotline? I say yes, but I find it difficult to imagine this happening.
Ok. Normatively, should the prosecutor call up the media (or issue a press release) describing his concerns, request that a) the perp turn himself in to face justice and b) request help from the public? I say yes, as this was a very public case of lawbreaking.
Again, I don’t want the guy to lose his job. I just think this indiscretion should be punished in some way. He would have to hire a lawyer under this scenario, unless he was indigent.
Heh: [INDENT] Rojas, a senior at FIU, was holding up the letter Q before, he said, the Trump supporters standing in front of him turned around, grabbed their signs, and tore them to pieces.
“There were some choice moments of irony,’ said Rojas, whose friend reported seeing a Trump supporter whacking a protester with a sign that read “The Silent Majority Supports Trump.” [/INDENT]
Fighting is illegal, unless you’re defending yourself. The Trumpy-Wumpy supporter kicks the immigration protestor while he’s on the ground. Charge the Trump Lump with assault.
If protesters throwing rocks at police and burning down stuff aren’t rounded up and charged appropriately. An extremely light kick to a conference disrupter ought to be ignored.
Most people don’t realize the consequences of locking someone in American-style prison, even for less than a year.
It’s not just a time-out. People leaving prison have substantially increased risk of mental illness (or, in many cases, worse mental illness than when they went in)–especially for those subject to solitary confinement, which is a lot, including inmates who have not broken any prison rules. Many of them are sexually assaulted by guards and other prisoners. More are simply assaulted. Many lose friends, some family. And that’s the *good *, well-run prisons. There are also bad ones.
And when you get out, you are a second-class citizen for life. In most states, there are hundreds of jobs you officially can no longer hold, and thousands you unofficially cannot. And hundreds of other collateral consequences, legal and social, associated with a prison term above and beyond the fact of their crime.
It is terrible fate, often disproportionate to the crime. Given the choice between a couple of years in prison and having a hand chopped off, I’d choose the hand every time and twice on Sundays. So I wouldn’t send someone there for a crime like this.
The guy in the red shirt should had been arrested for taking the law in his own hands ! I am not surprise this has happen , Trump is stirring up a lot fear about immigration and only hope to hell this does not get worst . And it’s not a crime to protest at a rally.
I’m not sure they were though. As I understand it the protesters were chanting rudely, making it difficult for the candidate to speak. Which I disapprove of. Then they were dragged off. Is there any evidence that they refused to leave when asked?
I personally don’t think this warrants any prison time, even at Club Fed. Unless this fellow is a repeat offender. And even then, this incident is simply too mild to make a guy lose his job.
I wouldn’t have a problem with strapping a tracker to his ankle for a month though.
That’s not just a thing protesters do. I was at a legal, permitted public rally in front of the US Capitol building in 2014. The Park Police watched the whole setting-up and mic-testing business impassively. When the main speaker began her speech, the Park Police immediately interrupted with their own high-volume “sound check” to drown her out. It was pure assholery. The crowd was families with lots of kids; everybody but the Park Police was being nice and well-behaved. The cause wasn’t even controversial.
I’ve been at other well-behaved, legal protests, and they’re routinely disrupted, threatened, and occasionally even physically attacked by random young people, BMW drivers, self-styled Christians, and all manner of police and security people. Once in a great while the entity being protested will join in, but it seems mostly to be random assholes with no stake in the topic. Businesses, for example, usually (but not always) seem to be more cautious about their public image.
A popular trick by (some) local police is to insist on speaking to whichever protester is currently talking/speaking out. They don’t really need to talk to that person at that moment; they just want to interrupt the protest and suppress the exercise of constitutional rights. Often it’s nothing the police would be expected to care about; they just don’t like protesters, regardless of topic, and seek reflexively to thwart them.
My theory is that some people are just thugs looking to harass and/or attack anyone they can, and they see anyone protesting any topic as “outside society’s protection.” “If these protesters were in the majority, they wouldn’t be protesting, would they?” seems to be the line of thinking. “If they’re outside the majority, I can safely threaten/demean/attack.”
How many people are like this? Well, not too many attack; a modestly larger number threaten. But a LOT of people seem to be personally offended by protesters. Curiously, many are angry even before they read the signs and learn what’s being protested.