It was a assault by both parties. She couldn’t claim self-defense for hitting him as he had stopped assaulting her and clearly had not intention to continue …
or
… we could stop exaggerating and see it as an unfortunate situation for both parties. She was obnoxious and harassed him and he shoved her rudely away.
Or we could accept that having a camera crew in tow doesn’t give someone exceptional rights to the pavement. She was verbally obnoxious and he escalated to physical violence. If someone walks up to me in the street and hurls verbal abuse at me and my company (which has happened to me more than once), it does not give me lease to step it up to physical assault, simple or otherwise.
The sides are not equal here. One person’s asininity doesn’t excuse anther’s violence.
Technically, it’s not assault: it’s battery. In fact one could argue that this is an unusual case of battery WITHOUT assault.
Common Assault, section 39, Criminal Justice Act 1988: “A battery is committed when a person intentionally and recklessly applies unlawful force to another.”
In other words, keep your groping hands to yourself. Perhaps if people didn’t see physical violence as a reasonable and acceptable reaction to verbal abuse, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today.
The public prosecutor and the persons involved thought otherwise. No one’s charged …
What does an old video of an asshole and a smartass yelling at each other in Seattle have to do with this situation in the UK where one person responded to another by shoving her in the boob for interrupting his camera-time?
Wow! that’s almost as inappropriate as oh I dunno… deliberately interrupting a live broadcast.
Wow! I can’t believe this got flagged!!!
Turnabout is fair play.
If you are doing something rude and wildly inappropriate you may get a rude and wildly inappropriate response. A guy doing the same sort of deliberately obnoxious behavior could expect to be punched or tackled.
Looks like he just tried to put his hand around her side (fingers on ribs) to push her sideways. Unfortunate how it came off, with her standing an inch or so further away than he may have judged. It was certainly not a “grab.”
I think you use the word “certainly” in an unorthodox way here.
ɡrab/
verb 1. grasp or seize suddenly and roughly.
noun 1. a quick, sudden clutch or attempt to seize.
I think I’m okay. He kept his palm open as he pushed her aside. Towards the end of the push, as her breast came into his palm due to her turning sideways as she moved, he wasn’t even paying attention to her anymore.
I contend that there is no recklessness evident here, m’lud.
Well there’s certainly not much in it, between the two, I’ll grant you that.
I think where the sides differ here is whether what he did actually was “deliberate violence”. He contacted her physically, yes. He was gently trying to do what he could to thwart her deliberate intrusion into his interview. She, on the other hand, clearly assaulted him.
Motivation matters, or should. It’s funny, I find a lot of people who don’t ever take public transportation have very different views of their private space than people who are regularly crammed into a moving sardine can. Someone can lose their footing and slam into you, but it’s not an assault unless you freak out.
That’s fair.
In all honesty, this blog post was the first time I saw this story. I’m now aware of the magnitude and just how (oddly) polarizing it became. I kind of regret writing my first impressions out, not because I think they are wrong, but because comment boards seem to force discussions into side taking, which wasn’t something I personally intended. I also noticed all the jokes about intentional groping that would be awful in reality, and only contribute to normalizing it…there doesn’t seem to be any possible positive in trying to parse an incident like this.
Damn social media! 
.
For more on this subject please consult Encyclopedia Brittanica Volume 11: Girl to Grab.
Not surprising. You have a few more volumes to go until you reach How to Hug.
#How Presidential?
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