Some states have “fighting words” clauses in their statutes or case law that stipulate when someone’s held less accountable for an otherwise clear-cut Assault/Battery.
If what you say is obviously an attempt to get under someone’s skin to make them throw the first punch it essentially blames you for the fight.
Of course the devil’s in the details, but rumor has it those exceptions exist.
If it were me, I’d hope I’d have the courage to risk my job to use some Discretion in an event like that without clear statute/case law backing up a Fighting Words issue, but I never handled a case like that so we can never be sure.
Some states have “fighting words” clauses in their statutes or case law that stipulate when someone’s held less accountable for an otherwise clear-cut Assault/Battery.
If what you say is obviously an attempt to get under someone’s skin to make them throw the first punch it essentially blames you for the fight.
Of course the devil’s in the details, but rumor has it those exceptions exist.
If it were me, I’d hope I’d have the courage to risk my job to use some Discretion in an event like that without clear statute/case law backing up a Fighting Words issue, but I never handled a case like that so we can never be sure.
- Ex-cop
Just mentioned “fighting words” in another comment. But those words weren’t directed to the attacker, so would that still count?
That question exceeds the scope of my training, experience, and rumor I heard on the job from other cops, so your web search would be as good as mine.
I’m 99% sure I was never trained on it, 100% sure I never saw it applied, and such a scenario never came up in the rumor mill.