[CyberAnt]

Sorry .. I think "assault" means just that .. assault. It's an attempt to injure by grabbing someone and twisting their arm behind them and threatening to break their arm (but not actually doing it) .. but "battery" is the actual injury. It's kind of weird how they word it, but assault is not merely shouting or verbally threating someone.

[usafsk]

From English common law we inherited the concepts of assault and battery. Assault traditonally involved only words, not deeds. Today, there is variety among the states on what assault constitutes. Regardless, in any state Franken's actions would clearly equal battery. There is actually no right to personally remove someone physically who is disrupting an event verbally, unless there is some written contract that admitted the individual (a ticket to a baseball game for example). If you hold an open event and someone disrupts it, you are expected to call the police and they can be charged with tresspassing and disorderly conduct, or the local equivalent.

Usually, however, such dopes are just dragged out and the cops - rightfully, in my opinion - look the other way. Regardless, Frankens is a loser.

[neverdem]

Sorry .. I think "assault" means just that .. assault. It's an attempt to injure by grabbing someone and twisting their arm behind them and threatening to break their arm (but not actually doing it) .. but "battery" is the actual injury. It's kind of weird how they word it, but assault is not merely shouting or verbally threating someone.

See comment# 20. I forgot that attempting to hit someone but missing also is assault. I'm not a lawyer, but I have had some formal teaching about it because of my line of work. Don't blame me. The lawyers made the distinction.