Physical altercation

“ It will be noticed in the photograph that the assailant has his foot placed in advance of that of his intended victim. This is done in order that the man making the assault may be able to bend forward far enough, and quickly enough, to throw his man to the floor by a trip. Where the trip is employed there is danger that this feat will result in a broken arm or forearm. If the man on the defence resists with sufficient strength, and if the assailant employs just barely enough power to accomplish his end the man so attacked is certain to have broken bones. ”

“ It is an assault deliberately to strike or touch another person other than in self-defence with the intention thereby to cause bodily harm, or a fortiori so to act so that bodily harm is thereby caused intentionally or recklessly. ”

“ The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerly these disputes were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times could supply—the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth of prudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. ”

“ Ruffling, and facing each other with their necks outstretched, “blood in their eyes,” and realizing to the full extent the danger of the situation, they prepare to fight it out to death. A quick stab, and the victim, trembling violently, a stream of red blood trickling down its leg, drops at the first encounter, and the fight is over. ”

“ But when one who creeps upon his victim unawares, shoots him from behind, and, as he falls, fearing the work is not completed, shoots again, the victim, as you must see, receives the wound further to the front as [Pg 40] the body falls forward and partially turns in falling. ”

“ It is better not to visit the room of a violent patient alone, and if an attack is feared, especially with a weapon, the door should be slowly opened, and held so it can be quickly closed. The patient usually makes an immediate attack, and, before he has recovered for a second, can generally be disarmed and controlled.
Violence usually consists of noise, tearing the clothing, breaking glass or furniture, biting, scratching, striking, hair pulling, kicking, or attacking others with weapons. ”

“ A weary and harassing thing it is even where the body is the aggressor—when the fevered blood, darting like liquid fire through the veins, mounts to the throbbing brow, and, pressing like molten lead upon the brain, crushes out thought and feeling, leaving but a dull consciousness of the racking agony which renders each limb a separate instrument of torture. ”

“ A scratch, a cut, abrasions left by removal of tape or rope, bruises, nervous shock, disturbance of digestion, all of a kind which heals or passes before 'liberation' occurs? Few kidnappings take place without harm of some kind to the victim. They may be executed by force or by mere threats. One produces traumatic injury, from minor abrasion to death, the other nervous or mental shock of momentary or lifetime duration. How much injury, and what kind, did Congress have in mind? ”

“ There are dozens of these places where the blow follows the word in a moment, where life is held of the least account, and where assaults are so common that the victims would as soon think of asking the police to notice their broken windows as to take cognizance of their broken heads. ”

“ We are insulted—some one slaps our face—the fierce emotion of anger arises and through us surge waves of feeling manifested on the motor side by tensed muscles, rapid heart, harsh breathing, perhaps a general reddening of face and eyes. Instinctively our fists are clenched, a part of the reaction of fight, and it needs but the slightest increase of anger to send us leaping on the aggressor, to fight him perhaps to the death. ”

“ Men with arms in slings; men with trousers torn away at the knee, and bandaged legs; men with brow, face, mouth, or [Pg 152] throat swathed; men with no shirts, but a broad swathe around the chest or stomach—each bandage grotesquely pictured with human figures printed to show how the wound should be bound, on whatever part of the body the bullet entered. ”

“ A man with red blood in his veins sees the assault, and [72] attacks the attacker with strength enough to save the victim, arrest the disturber of the peace, and prevent a repetition of the offense. He has been engaged in a fight, but he is not a beast. ”

“ The assailant then lifts her weapon, and holds it horizontally so as to protect her head, and receives just as many blows, and thus the fight goes on until the men separate them. Broken knuckles are the injuries mostly given; but sometimes a clever woman hits her enemy on the head and disables her. They invariably fight fairly, and strike no foul blows. ”

“ The clumsiest and, so far as rude and blood-thirsty attack could contrive them, the most deadly weapons were the first used; the sudden destruction of life, not the art of defence, being the brutal instinct of the vengeful, cunning, and cowardly savage, or the treacherous manslayer. ”

“ If you concluded that the applicant was male E [that is the man kicking, not wielding an umbrella stand] , then you would ask yourself if it was proved that he participated in the joint enterprise to an attack that included the fatal blow, realising that one of the group was attacking with intent to cause really serious bodily harm. ”

“ By this time my blood was up, and, leaping in, I landed one blow on his chest and another on his mouth, which latter drew blood and loosened two of his teeth. I had taken several lessons in the art of self-defense and these now stood me in good stead. My blows sent him staggering up against a gun, where he stood gazing at me in bewildered astonishment. ”

“ But if, on a sudden quarrel, they fight upon the spot, or if they presently fetch their weapons, and go into a field and fight, and one of them falleth, that is but manslaughter, because it may be presumed the blood never cooled. ”

“ As to its manner, it is an ordinary fight or a duel, according as it takes place without or with previous arrangement and stipulated conditions. (c) As to its eject, the civil law distinguishes between assault and battery. Assault is a show of violence against the person of another, as when one lifts one’s fist or cane in a threatening manner to put another in fear of bodily harm. Battery is the actual infliction of personal violence, as when one strikes, pushes, scratches, bites, or spits on another. ”

“ A brutal, frantic struggle then took place; women and children were trampled to death, and men were disabled by kicks and blows from their rivals, while a perfect Babel of yells and curses from the injured and injuring rent the air. ”

“ QB 715 at 719 where two men quarrelled and fought with bare fists Lord Lane CJ, delivering the judgment of the Court of Appeal, said:
'... it is not in the public interest that people should try to cause or should cause each other bodily harm for no good reason. Minor struggles are another matter. So, in our judgment, it is immaterial whether the act occurs in private or in public; it is an assault if actual bodily harm is intended and/or caused. This means that most fights will be unlawful regardless of consent. ”

“ Strangulation or smothering, or throttling, is consistent with what has been described, but particularly throttling or applying the hand under the throat, and throwing the head backward, would prevent the access of air. I found unequivocal proof of violence, in the contusions dispersed throughout the body, and in no signs of disease being visible. I beg to add, from the woman being seen so recently alive and well, from the blood under the bed, as well as the appearances already mentioned, death by violence is extremely probable. ”

“ Have they ever, even in thought, put themselves in the place of the criminal, when the heavy knife falls, bites into the flesh, grinds through the nerves and shivers the vertebræ? But all pain is over in half a second. ”

“ As if they had been desperate, they used violence against themselves, crying and shrieking piteously, tearing their flesh with their nails from their cheeks in a monstrous manner, the blood streaming down over their bodies. ”

“ There is a determined resistance of personal injury by means of injury inflicted, as when a man deliberately takes life to save life, destroys an assailant's eye to save an eye, inflicts a violent blow to prevent a blow; or, as when, in retaliation, he takes life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, &c. Or, as when, by means of governmental agencies, he causes an injurious person to be punished by the infliction of some injury equivalent to the one he has inflicted or attempted. ”

“ Law enforcement agencies report the number of assaults resulting in serious injury or instances in which a weapon was used that could have caused serious injury or death. Agencies record other assaults only if they involved more than verbal abuse or minor resistance to an arrest. ”

“ All these noises, blended with screams and imprecations, the jingle of spurs, the clatter of sword-scabbards crossing and recrossing each other, excite and intoxicate me. Wild at my lack of energy and strength, I seize with both hands my stool. It is old and worm-eaten, and after I have several times flung it on the floor, the joints give way, and it falls to pieces. As I turn to find some other object for destruction, a flushed and agitated face appears at the wicket, and a moment later the door is partly opened, and a warder pushes with violence a woman into my cell. ”

“ They came trudging from out the smoke clouds, and across the untilled fields, alone, or in little groups, some armed, more weaponless, here and there a bloody bandage showing, or a limp bespeaking a wound; dirty, unshaven men, in uniforms begrimed and tattered, disorganized, swearing at each other, casting frightened glances backward with no other thought or desire save to escape the pursuing terror behind. ”

“ Others state that they not only did their duty, but that less firmness might have proved fatal to themselves. The instances of violence are certainly, though very naturally, on the part of the attacking force; several batons were smashed in the melee; a great number of men and women were seriously hurt, especially about the head and face, while not one of the policemen, so far as we can learn, suffered any injury in consequence. ”

“ Thus wounding may simply occasion actual bodily harm or it may inflict grievous bodily harm. If the victim's consent is a defence to occasioning actual bodily harm, then, so far as concerns the proof of guilt, the line is drawn, as my noble and learned friend Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle puts it, 'somewhere down the middle of s 20', which I would regard as a most unlikely solution. ”

“ Wounds by Blank Charges.—Experience has shown that no matter with what the piece is charged, it is capable, when fired close by, of producing a wound which may prove fatal. Thus a gun loaded with wadding or gunpowder only may cause death. ”

“ When the assault is directed against a person that has been singled out for them either for his wealth or other purposes, the assault made upon him and his escort is always of a murderous nature, terminating in the inflictions of cruel wounds or death. ”

“ Asking to be forgiven after slamming a door is like touching off a Rodman gun, and then calling out to the fort in front to 'look out' 'take care!' 'do get out of the way.' A first class slam is cumulative long after the noise has ceased—the nerves go on slamming—the valves of the heart flap to and from—the tympanum roils a revelrie to all the shattered senses, the offender slammed at, at once subsides from rage to fear ”

“ And in cases where deadly violence is inflicted with deliberation and malice aforethought, one may nobly throw his body as a temporary barrier between the destroyer and his helpless victim, choosing to die in that position, rather than be a passive spectator. ”

“ The question may arise in regard to a wound, whether the victim wounded himself by precipitating himself on the weapon. This may be alleged by the defence, but it is difficult to believe if the wound is deep, for the body would naturally repulse the weapon. If the wound is deep the weapon must at least have been strongly held, which may or may not be consistent with the theory of self-defence. ”

“ Furthermore, the assailant is more likely to escape without blood-stains if there is a single wound than if there are several, and each additional wound makes it more likely that he will be spotted with blood. ”

“ If another break my arm by violence, this will not certainly give him additional health or strength; if he stun me by a blow or inflict torture on my limbs, it is I who feel the pain, and not he; and it is hard if I, who am the sufferer, am not allowed to be the judge. ”

“ Duelling and fighting are both unlawful and the consent of the protagonists affords no defence to charges of causing actual bodily harm, wounding or grievous bodily harm in the course of an unlawful activity. ”

“ When the victim floored, imprecations and oaths, and threats of vengeance, in case of resistance, immediately follow, accompanied by the most active search for the property, while they cover his mouth, kneel on his body, or beat him, as the case seems to them to require. ”

“ Such self-inflicted wounds are usually produced for the purpose of bringing a fictitious charge of assault, feigning self-defence or provocation on the part of the assailant when accused; and in order to divert suspicion, as in the case of a person who alleges he has received the injuries by an assailant who was committing robbery while he himself is guilty of it. ”

“ Thus, in treating of murder, it will be necessary to consider the various modes in which it may be effected; as, by hanging, strangling, suffocation, shooting, stabbing, poisoning, and, at the same time, the different kinds of sudden death from natural causes, which may be mistaken for the results of violence. ”

“ Upon the boards lay men with their eyes gone, with their jaws shot through and crushed, with their arms, their legs mangled, with their thighs pierced, their bowels pierced, with tormenting stomach wounds, with a foot gone, a hand gone. ”