{Linked video has horrific audio. Ear rape warning}

Best I can find is that it seems that the white guy in a white shirt 'slapped' a guy before the fight. Don't think this was a hard slap out of the Power Slap sport. When it hit him, it probably made a 'plap' sound. That being said, from the video that I saw, it does count as battery. It does also count as starting the fight.

However, the problem is that this isn't a self-defense claim by the white guy. A claim of innocence from starting the fight is not the problem. The problem is the disproportionately violent response towards him and all the random white people around him. The fact that he started the fight doesn't change the fact that the response was disproportionate.

If the black guy he slapped had punched him in the face, knocked him out, and walked away, that would probably be considered self-defense, and that would be the end of the issue.

The problem is that the black guy the white guy slapped was an ex-con who spent 7 years in prison for armed robbery, and was out on bond for four felony gun charges. The old white man slapped the worst person he could have hit, who responded in the most disproportionate manner he could, which turned it into a mob beat-down. The black ex-con (Mr. Meriwether) also alleges that the white guy kicked his car and called him 'nigger' before the slap. Again, none of that excuses the disproportionate response.