Poll of the Day > Should escalation be considered a crime?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Deliberately and willfully trying to make a tense situation worse, should that be expressly against the law?

that's way too broad, you would have to be more specific

Sahuagin posted...

that's way too broad, you would have to be more specific

Well if there's evidence that you're deliberately trying to incite some kind of uncivil behavior from another person instead of simply knowing when to stop should you be charged if things do in fact get out of hand?

Like refusing to stop arguing with another person in the stands at a sports game and just seeing if they're going to get violent even though you don't have to drag it out. If someone catches you on video should you be charged with escalating a situation instead of not reciprocating and maintaining civility? Or interjecting yourself to egg on the other party when you weren't involved in the initial situation (such as a row at a restaurant between your table's party and another), that could be another example. Just some instance where the actions on display were clearly meant to make things go from tense to outright disorder.

It's definitely worse if someone else were to get violent but if you're doing literally nothing to allay that and in fact are causing more harm than good in that moment can it be said that you should have to face consequences too? Apparently incitement is a crime but this is a little more personal than causing an entire crowd to lose their shit.

Mind you I get if this is too vague and in that case I can totally understand why such a thing should never be codified into law.

It is depending on the situation and country.

Theres such thing as an aggravated assault charge, which is exactly what it sounds like. Its a lesser charge than assault or assault and battery.

TC, your heart is in the right place and have good intentions but since it is really broad, it can cause more harm than good.

This is a thing. It's called "fighting words" in the US. Fairly limited in scope, but the Supreme Court has continually held fighting words are not protected speech.

No, because sometimes people just get into a heated argument and can't step away for a breather. You frequent gamesfaq, I'm sure you've seen that happen more then once.

Like when someone is standing on a ledge and a guy yells "JUMP!"?

What's so wrong with escalators?

ya mean like when police intentionally shout conflicting instructions?

It sounds like this is what you're talking about:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

This is a thing. It's called "fighting words" in the US. Fairly limited in scope, but the Supreme Court has continually held fighting words are not protected speech.

"Hey, you! Let's fight!"

Metalsonic66 posted...

"Hey, you! Let's fight!"

thems fightin words

GanonsSpirit posted...

What's so wrong with escalators?

Escalator temporarily stairs

My uncle says his best friend just got sent to jail because some guy jumped him and he used a knife on him. I was like, no way, he wouldn't get sent to jail (tis a good dude), but I guess he really did.

Seems seriously fucked up to me, but that is what my uncle said the charge was for, escalation, using a more deadly weapon, even though the dude was waaay bigger then him and was the aggressor.

Seems stupid to me.

Sahuagin posted...

that's way too broad, you would have to be more specific

This. The inherent vagueness would make the law ridiculously arbitrary and capricious, the kind of law that gets wantonly abused and it'd be fucking stupid regardless because the actual behaviors associated with it are often already illegal under some other law. (ie, if you get into a shouting match and start shoving each other, that's assault).

Solid Sonic posted...

Deliberately and willfully trying to make a tense situation worse, should that be expressly against the law?

I got told I couldn't press charges on a guy once cause I talked shit to him too (he started both the shit talking and the actual fight) without me getting arrested too.

I didn't expect there to be q fight. We had been friends and it wasn't the first time we got into a heated verbal exchange.

The law mostly exists to keep the scummy and powerful people scummy and powerful, so no, I'm not for this.

On a side note, I don't wish jail on my worst enemy. By all means remove certain terrible people from society, but jail and prison isn't something I wish upon even worst person on the planet, because I wish neither a very painful death, nor sexual assault on anyone.

GanonsSpirit posted...

What's so wrong with escalators?

They eat your shoelaces.