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Yeah, I've wondered about phrasing things vaguely or hypothetically in order to avoid actual threats, then I realized it's a good idea to stay clear of that whole territory.
What if you had a tape recorder with you, and when someone said in court, "He threatened me," you could show the court a transcript and give them a tape.
This is a purely hypothetical question I've been discussing with my colleagues, by the way.
I guess it boils down to a question of tone. I don't mean "do people feel threatened by tone," of course they do, that's the whole point. I mean can tone of voice be accepted as evidence in court?
Is it a threat in legal terms to give someone a suitcase full of tampons and then when they ask why the fuck you did that for you say for the holes motherfucker and then shoot them like 120 times with a Mac-10?
Do you mean, if someone said "I'd sure hate to see your nose broken" you'd be within your legal rights to clobber them, in self-defence?
Generally I don't think threats are taken very seriously unless they involve some kind of physical contact. If it was said accompanied by a shove then maybe that'd count for something. If it was said and then used to justify self-defence then I guess that would depend on the state of mind of the people involved - or in other words, what else happened before and after the threat. Still pretty tenuous I'd say.
You have nothing to worry about, dodgy. Just don't go on a rant about how you throw out your designer duds instead of donating them because the people at the Goodwill had the audacity to suggest that you remove them from the trunk yourself and respond to my objections with, "Please, my father could buy and sell you!"
Clearly, jrossi, you were being incredibly threatening. What you should have said is:
"Please. My father could buy and sell your father. If your father was, like, on sale at Target. And, speaking of targets... it would be a shame if your father got his nose broken."
It all comes down to a "reasonable person" test. If you can turn and walk away from it, it's not much of a threat. If you've got no way to get away, it becomes more realistic.
But it's not a cut and dried thing. In a criminal matter (like assault or harassment) you have to convince twelve people beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil matter, you have to convince then that it's more than 50% likely (preponderance of evidence.)
But the general rules of thumb are things like "is it realistic" or "can you get away?" Fer example, threatening someone that you will zap them with a disintegrator ray isn't realistic.
I've got a case now where a guy was framed by a bunch of people who lied their asses off about being afraid. If their claims were true about this guy, they have all been hacked into small bits and fed to wild dogs years ago and wouldn't be around to give false testimony now. It fails the reasonableness test.
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