Can someone please explain to me how in the world this is assault and battery.

[patdog]

I've watched it 4 times and all I can see is a clean legal hit.

Link

 

[BigMotherTucker]

why do I always get this screen when I try to watch a yahoo video???

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[benatmsu]

What gets me is the parents say "All we really wanted was an apology...or for them to suspend him for two games".

But since the school's position was that there was nothing wrong with the hit and therefore neither of those things were going to happen - the parents' next step is to demand criminal charges be brought? So you're telling me it wasn't that big of a deal as long as he made little johnny feel better afterwards, but as soon as he didn't do what you demanded, it's trial time?

Damn, you let your kid play a violent sport - A sport in which its stars commonly break out into street brawls during the course of a game - and you expect your kid to never get hit? Give me a break.

 

[patdog]

I was expecting to see something that was at least borderline, if not outright dirty. That wasn't even close to being dirty. That was just a good clean check. I'm sorry your kid got hurt so bad, but he's asmall kid playing hockey against bigger stronger players.

 

[downwarddawg]

I don't even click on yahoo videos anymore.

 

[benatmsu]

No doubt... That doesn't look much different than the kind of hit you (used to) see free safeties make. If this kid is charged, expect to see even more ridiculous "hands off" rules in every contact sport.

 

[RonnyAtmosphere]

..this is hockey.


Short of pulling a gun & shooting the guy, there is no such thing as assault and battery in a hockey game.

 

[ckDOG]

"If this [check] was off the rink, on a public way, that is gross, negligent assault and battery," Jay Mullen, the attorney representing Thomas and Sheila Hannon, told the Patriot Ledger.

A simple tackle in football, or a pitcher hitting a batter with a pitch, could qualify as assault in battery outside of the sport. That argument doesn't work unless you want to press charges on everyone that physically harms another in sport.