Is this threat illegal?

[ClassicDropout]

For those in the U. S.

A racist man is following another man around using slurs and hate speech repeatedly. The other man is ignoring it and leaving the situation, so the racist man blocks the other man's path and pushes him back into the crowd of onlookers. The other man says "say anything you want I don't care. But if you touch me again I'll kill you." The racist man goes on to say that the threat is on camera and that the other man is going to jail. Do you think that threat is enough to get the second man in legal trouble?

[WindAtMyBack]

If the first man (the racist) presses charges, I think the cops will arrest the second man. After that it depends on whether the prosecutor thinks they can win the case.

Bottom line is, that I think the threat is illegal. It doesn't matter if the first man is doing something wrong. The first man has a MUCH stronger case against the second man than the other way around.

As a very rough rule of thumb - you can use non-lethal physical force against a non-lethal threat to yourself, and possible your property. You can use lethal force against a serious lethal threat. That's not going to hold everywhere, so you need to check locally, and most of all you need to understand how it really works in practice.

With my very limited experience, the conditional "IF" part of "if you touch me" does not protect you and allow you to make threats.

[NaultD]

It's honestly impossible to understand a legal situation like this preemptively. Thats whole point of a jury of peers. As a defense is leaning into the jury as bro i don't know what what's going on I'm just trying to make it another day just like the 12 of you.

While the prosecution say otherwise. This was an agregues act that no one sane person, let alone 12 random peers do the same actions.

It depends from attorney Tom on YouTube. Even his catastrophic incident analyze will help you understand everyday legal system cases.

Ultimately our government is of the people by the people. If you feel you are powerless in our government system we the people have the highest power in jury duty. Jury duty and how we have power over lawmakers we elect meet rubber against the road.

[Daniela1982]

What would the cops do if someone touched them, depending on how they touch them of course. It can be like, tag, you're it!, or swinging at them with a hammer. Why should citizens do any different? If someone is forcing a confrontation then it is on them, not the one defending himself after he has tried to walk away repeatedly.

[ClassicDropout]

That does make sense. I personally feel like the second man did no wrong since no fight actually occurred. I just don't know how the law works when it comes to threats though. I feel like there's some way the racist guy might be able to get the second man in trouble if the context was misconstrued

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

A legal argument can be made that the second man was provoked into that threat, especially if that video is used as evidence in court. Any judge worth their salt would throw out and dismiss any case against the second man after seeing the whole thing.

[KostasKouvalis]

I'm no lawyer, but I will say yes. Even if the racist man committed hate speech and assault, you still can't be threatening to kill someone

[exitseven]

It depends on where this happened and what race the racist and the other guy are.