I don't know the legal terms, but this was more like menacing and obstruction, maybe even trespassing depending on how that was all set up, and maybe a weapons charge...probably a weapons charge, considering it's NY. Maybe a lesser assault charge considering he did technically get physical.
Under older criminal statutes, "assault" is the threat to use physical force, and "battery" is the actual use of physical force. Modern statutes will merge them together and have them as separate subsections of one overarching "assault" statute.
From my brief scan, it looked like NY's second degree assault required intent to do physical harm, which didn't really seem to be the case here. If that dude had wanted to harm Zeldin, he had time to get a punch or two in for sure.
The brass knuckles are going to be hard for this guy to explain away. Having said that, it does seem like the guy was there to disrupt the event rather than harm Zeldin.
Yup, again, not defending the guy, and the weapon itself is almost certainly illegal and, even though he didn't seem to try to harm him, that was certainly threatening. Dude should certainly face consequences for his assholery.
I thought that both the attack and the reaction were underwhelming. The attacker, if he wanted to cause violence, should have just struck, rather than trying and failing to grab the mic while arguing with Zeldin. I'm also disappointed with the crowd, because this dude's actions warranted an ass kicking, not just being hog-tied.
Under older criminal statutes, "assault" is the threat to use physical force, and "battery" is the actual use of physical force. Modern statutes will merge them together and have them as separate subsections of one overarching "assault" statute.
From my brief scan, it looked like NY's second degree assault required intent to do physical harm, which didn't really seem to be the case here. If that dude had wanted to harm Zeldin, he had time to get a punch or two in for sure.
The brass knuckles are going to be hard for this guy to explain away. Having said that, it does seem like the guy was there to disrupt the event rather than harm Zeldin.
Yup, again, not defending the guy, and the weapon itself is almost certainly illegal and, even though he didn't seem to try to harm him, that was certainly threatening. Dude should certainly face consequences for his assholery.
I thought that both the attack and the reaction were underwhelming. The attacker, if he wanted to cause violence, should have just struck, rather than trying and failing to grab the mic while arguing with Zeldin. I'm also disappointed with the crowd, because this dude's actions warranted an ass kicking, not just being hog-tied.