Laws and Consequences
May. 11th, 2010 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsThis is, very tangentially, not about me at all. It's about a bunch of my flisters being upset at each other and something that happened that I only heard about fifth-hand and don't know all the details. But a very significant detail appears to be that someone had to physically move someone else in order to leave an area.
So now I'm going to talk about a personal experience about physically moving someone.
A few weeks ago, one of the clinic protesters broke trespass laws and the bubble laws and ran into the private parking lot to get to someone walking into the clinic.
It is our job to protect the people going into the clinic. If they wish to go down to the public sidewalk to talk to the protesters or take flyers, that's their business and we won't stop them. But if they want to go in with the minimum of fuss, that's what we're there for. Not to mention when someone who has been yelling "Burn in hell! You'll burn in hell!" for weeks bolts towards us, we get pretty damned worried about ourselves.
Long story short, a group of escorts grabbed the protester gently but firmly and returned her to the public sidewalk. No one was hurt, not so much as a bruise or scratch.
But we had laid hands on her. As I rapidly found out, by law, regardless of what she was doing at the time, regardless of her trespass, the fact that we had touched her meant she could file for assault, possibly even assault and battery, and it took a fair amount of talking by the cop to talk her out of pressing charges.
Everyone had grounds to countersue. Had the cases come to trial, they would probably have been perfunctorily dismissed. BUT IF THEY WEREN'T - well, there aren't a lot of companies that will hire someone with an assault and battery record regardless of the circumstances. That's a simple and pretty universal fact.
Let me rephrase: by laying hands on someone, no matter how lightly or gently, no matter if it was on someone who was breaking the law, livelihoods were put on the line. It's a real burr under my saddle to realize that my only legal recourse in similar situations is to not even stand my ground, but to literally abandon the clients, run away, and hide without making any physical contact, so that there can be no question -- but I've got a job I really like and I intend to keep it and my career, thanks.
As this issue rips through my flist (and no, I'm not linking) there are posts about personal responsibility and community policing and social conditioning and victim blaming and the meaning of friendship, but I haven't seen a post about the possible legal consequences of touching someone else for *any reason.* So this is that post.
So now I'm going to talk about a personal experience about physically moving someone.
A few weeks ago, one of the clinic protesters broke trespass laws and the bubble laws and ran into the private parking lot to get to someone walking into the clinic.
It is our job to protect the people going into the clinic. If they wish to go down to the public sidewalk to talk to the protesters or take flyers, that's their business and we won't stop them. But if they want to go in with the minimum of fuss, that's what we're there for. Not to mention when someone who has been yelling "Burn in hell! You'll burn in hell!" for weeks bolts towards us, we get pretty damned worried about ourselves.
Long story short, a group of escorts grabbed the protester gently but firmly and returned her to the public sidewalk. No one was hurt, not so much as a bruise or scratch.
But we had laid hands on her. As I rapidly found out, by law, regardless of what she was doing at the time, regardless of her trespass, the fact that we had touched her meant she could file for assault, possibly even assault and battery, and it took a fair amount of talking by the cop to talk her out of pressing charges.
Everyone had grounds to countersue. Had the cases come to trial, they would probably have been perfunctorily dismissed. BUT IF THEY WEREN'T - well, there aren't a lot of companies that will hire someone with an assault and battery record regardless of the circumstances. That's a simple and pretty universal fact.
Let me rephrase: by laying hands on someone, no matter how lightly or gently, no matter if it was on someone who was breaking the law, livelihoods were put on the line. It's a real burr under my saddle to realize that my only legal recourse in similar situations is to not even stand my ground, but to literally abandon the clients, run away, and hide without making any physical contact, so that there can be no question -- but I've got a job I really like and I intend to keep it and my career, thanks.
As this issue rips through my flist (and no, I'm not linking) there are posts about personal responsibility and community policing and social conditioning and victim blaming and the meaning of friendship, but I haven't seen a post about the possible legal consequences of touching someone else for *any reason.* So this is that post.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 05:03 am (UTC)You have another option -- to stand between your client and the attacker, making no threatening moves yourself, and make THEM be the one who initiates physical contact. (Works better if 2 or 3 of you form a human wall.) Then you call the police and press charges. This law cuts both ways.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 11:00 am (UTC)Not really. Someone else on the line did exactly that; planted herself with hands in pockets and let Eeyore bounce off her. Eeyore is small; she fell and picked herself back up to continue.
But by the time the cop showed up, everyone in the parking lot was telling him that the escort was just standing there doing a passive block and everyone on the sidewalk was swearing that she'd been pushed, they saw it clear as day, that escort reached out and deliberately shoved her down.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 05:24 pm (UTC)