Can beating up someone for calling you a racial slur be considered justified by the courts or the police?

Question

Whether you are Black,White or any other race.I'm talking about adults and teens,who should know better,not kids.

For the record,I've never beaten up someone for that,just want to know for future reference.

Answer 1

as far as the courts are concerned you assaulted someone, pay the price, but as far as myself, good job..

Answer 2

For one person to call another person by a racial slur ... that is a crime ... I don't know if misdemeanor, or how serious each instance.

For one person to assault another ... that is a crime.

In general in the law, the fact that one person did any crime to another person, that is not justification for some other crime. We are supposed to report criminal behavior to law enforcement. We are not expected to take the law into our own hands.

You know when there is some accident, we are expected to deliver first aid, while waiting on the medical professionals to arrive.

Similarly it is expected that we deliver first something to retrain some criminal behavior, while wating on relevant emergency response.

Suppose we witness a rape. Our obligations are
1. Call 911
2. Restrain the rapist
3. Get rape victim to medical attention

Restrain the rapist does not mean beat the crap out of him, does not mean kill him.

There is appropriate force to get the job done.

Little children are taught
* sticks & stones may break my bones but nasty names never hurt me
Now this means that while bad words may be mentailly painful, they do not do any physical damage, and that children are not justified using violence against persons who use bad language against them, taunting, or whatever.

It seems to me that your parents never included this in home teaching your behavior.

It is an important part of character building, not to let hurtful language lead us to lose self control and indulge in hurtful violence.

If our parents, teachers, other leaders, are unable to teach us this important lesson, then it becomes the court system responsibility.

Answer 3

No, because you still had the option to ignore the person or walk away. YOU chose to escalate the fight into physical violence, and therefore you would have to pay the penalty.

The courts might take it into consideration that you were provoked, and may even recognize the slur as "fighting words," but you'd still have to pay your debt to society for taking the fight too far.

Answer 4

In most jurisdictions, you'd still be guilty of a crime, i.e. battery, but the provocation would probably be considered in determining the degree and would be a consideration at sentencing. Usually, verbal provocation is not going to be a defense against the use of physical force.

Answer 5

Unfortunately no . No matter what "words" or "names" someone uses , that in itself is not considered by the courts as a valid reason for beating someone .

If the words are accompanied by physical aggression , that`s a different story .

Answer 6

No. You go to jail for assault and possibly a hate crime. There is a freedom of speach issue. If I was the responding officer it would depend on the situation whether I arrested you or not. But you are wrong in this case.

Answer 7

As a legal matter, words are generally not considered a sufficient provocation or threat to justify a violent response.

The specifics vary by jurisdiction, as with all laws.

Answer 8

Theres no way it would be justified. Violence is only justified when defending yourself against violence.
Unpleasant as it may be you just have to be thick skinned about these things. Its just words from some ignorant person.

Answer 9

Sort of. You could claim diminished compacity because you were enraged but the slur itself is not a justifiable reason.

Answer 10

I don't think any violence is justified in the justice system unless it's in self-defense.
And certainly not just because someone else is being an ignorant loser.

Answer 11

I don't think so. I think it is one thing to verbally call someone a derogatory name (it is bad, to be certain), but it is completely another thing to do physical violence to someone. Neither is acceptable, of course, but the physical violence is a more serious legal matter.