Kentucky teens' harassment of indigenous man 'qualified as the legal definition of assault'

[workinclasszero]

Kentucky teens’ harassment of indigenous man ‘qualified as the legal definition of assault’: Attorney who observed incident to CNN
MARTIN CIZMAR 19 JAN 2019 AT 19:04 ET


Elder Nathan Phillips is harassed and intimidated by a smirking Catholic school student in Washington, D.C./Screenshot

The Kentucky teens who dressed in MAGA garb and harassed indigenous protestors met the legal definition of assault, an attorney who observed the confrontation told CNN on Saturday.

Students from Covington Catholic High School in suburban Cincinnati were videotaped as they formed a mob surrounding native Americans demonstrating at a march in Washington, D.C.

According to CNN, the white Catholic students originally harassed a group of black protestors before Nathan Philips, a Native American elder of the Omaha tribe who is a veteran of the Vietnam War, stepped in to diffuse the situation.

As the video shows, the white Kentucky students then surrounded Phillips and aggressive intimidated him and spewed insults at him.

Attorney Chase Iron Eyes of the Lakota People’s Law Project witnessed the entire event and told CNN’s S.E. Cupp that the teens could face legal problems as a result of their actions.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/kentucky-teens-harassment-indigenous-man-qualified-legal-definition-assault-attorney-observed-incident-cnn/

[Beakybird]

2. So you disagree that assault occurred?

[EffieBlack]

15. Seriously?

Wow

[Squinch]

19. This thing about "drumming in his face" is not in that video. He was four feet away or more.

And "the boy should have moved out of the way" is not accurate. It is more like "the 50 boys" should have moved out of the way, because they had surrounded Phillips so he could not get away as they mocked him.

[Squinch]

28. Yes, as the circle closes, they obviously move together. But Phillips was 4 feet away until the

circle formed around him. While we can see him where he is standing with his back to us, he is not "right up in" anyone's face. He is a distance away from them.

[Squinch]

37. And you think that was the doing of Phillips and not the kid? You think that confrontation

was "Phillips getting in the kid's face?"

[Squinch]

41. So you do. You think that is Phillips and not the kid. OK. You go with that.

And you still, I am thinking, have not viewed the video I linked about what it looked like from inside the circle.

I am wondering if you would feel threatened if you were encircled by a mob of about 50 hostile near-men who were taunting and mocking and trying to intimidate you.

I guess you would just tell them all to behave.

[David__77]

8. I don't think it's assault. I do think it's white chauvinism.

The chant of building a wall, and mockery of indigenous culture is white chauvinism.

[David__77]

16. I watched a few videos.

I believe I heard chants about building a wall. Something was being changed in at least one video, briefly. It might have been one with the African-American group, without the Native American man.

While it does appear to me after watching a number of videos that the man with the drum approached the group of right-wingers and also walked up to the one particular student, what I saw was mockery and support for Trump’s racial nationalism (wall building).

[obamanut2012]

35. In MANY threads, you keep spreading the same RW garbage as in The Donald

And other Alt-Right garbage dumps. Why is that? What you keep crowing about didn't happen.

So:

1. Why are you spreading KNOWN false RW/Racist/Alt Right talking points about this incident THAT ARE UNTRUE, and

2. Where the hell is MIRT?

[dsc]

3. this would be a very big stretch from what I have seen on video

Our country has for decades permitted even inflammatory and loud speech and that is what those kids did.

[workinclasszero]

5. That MAGA POS invaded that Native American Vet's personal space bigtime!

So if some MAGA hat racist pig got in the face of your mother/daughter/son like that it would be okay with you?

He was so very obviously hoping the guy would swing on him so he and his redhat gang could beat the shit out of him!

Thank God the man was wise and brave enough not to take the bait.

[dsc]

6. actually the vet walked toward him not the other way around

according to his own story. Not sure you can get assault from that.

[workinclasszero]

7. Oh I see

So if I walk peacefully toward a MAGA hat Trump lover rally, I'm the guilty party.

Is that it? SMH

[Squinch]

22. Watch it again. He was not "in his face."

[John Fante]

32. Drumming in his face, huh?

That's some junior-level gaslighting right there.

[John Fante]

43. OMG, Nathan Phillips was practically beating the little Trump Youth

with his drumstick!

Won't someone think of the children?!

[writerJT]

17. What else was he hoping/thinking?

Just curious.

[writerJT]

29. Pick any video and tell me

what the MAGA kid or the vet was hoping/thinking.

I have no idea what was in the mind of either one. Somehow you do, so I’m asking what else you know about the hopes/thoughts.

[rockfordfile]

9. They should be arrested. Those Neo-Nazis are un-American. Should found more about every one

Those types are the ones that commit the mass shootings. You can already see that they are history, a lost cause. At that age and the parents clearly hate the USA.

[oberliner]

13. Is this post for real?

[Eliot Rosewater]

51. Neo nazis are Un American, right?

[EffieBlack]

14. It does indeed.

[moondust]

18. Where is Mr. Good-People-On-Both-Sides?

[Squinch]

23. He's right in this thread.

[oberliner]

21. "the white Catholic students originally harassed a group of black protestors..."

That is the characterization they are going with?

[writerJT]

27. Yep. And they won't budge even in the

face of irrefutable video documentation. Bizarre.

[obamanut2012]

36. yawn

[John Fante]

44. I'm shocked SHOCKED to see you defending the Trump Youth.

No, really.

[Eliot Rosewater]

52. LOL

yeah, shocked

Remarkable how many times...never mind

[Shrike47]

39. Not anywhere near assault under the laws of my state (Oregon). Please don't call it more than it was

Terrible judgment by kids and their chaperones, but Phillips did something stupid, too.

[John Fante]

45. Both sides!

[EffieBlack]

50. Whether something constitutes an assault depends on the state law

In some states an assault is defined a putting someone in fear of immediate bodily harm. In others, it requires and actual physical contact (which is defined as "battery" in other places).

Washington, DC does not require that an act constitute physical contact to qualify as an assault, only the threat. And a threat need not be a specific "I'm going to punch you in the face" but can be a act that reasonably puts someone in fear of physical injury.

[EX500rider]

46. Can you have assault with out actually touching the other person?

I thought he was more guilty of rudeness.

[workinclasszero]

47. Assault Definition:

The definition of assault varies by jurisdiction, but is generally defined as intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.

Physical injury is not required.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault

[EX500rider]

48. But I don't think getting in someones face and grinning would count as "imminent" harmful contact.

[workinclasszero]

49. With a howling mob of young thugs surrounding an old man?

He had no reason to fear for his life and well being at all huh?

Sure whatever. SMH

[Eliot Rosewater]

53. I see a member of the hitler youth purposely standing as close to the only real American

there, on purpose to try and instigate civil unrest.

Fortunately for the hitler youth, the only REAL American there stood his ground without violence.

[stonecutter357]

54. lock him up !