It was lame and personal and I apologize for that. But it's not that I don't have a case, it's that I literally can't comprehend your side, on a human level. There's an empathy I'm trying to appeal to and it's just not hitting home with you. A 120 pound woman tapping a 220 pound bully is not the common sense, human definition of assault or initiating violence. That I live in a world with people who would argue that her actions justify or are deserving of what happened to her--it's actually kind of chilling.
It wasn't tapping. Come on. Let's not whitewash this. She shoved him. She didn't tap him on his shoulders or chest. It is the legal definition assault. Assault is assault. A shove is assault as is a punch in the face (we can argue aggravated assault but clearly this was not the case in the eyes of the law). Her actions did initiate the violence, technically. He initiated the confrontation from what we can see in the video (again, we don't know what happened before the video). Here's the issue, had she not put her hands on him he likely would not have punched her in the face. We don't know this for sure, but we do know he punched her
after she laid her hands on him. So we can only assume his actions were in direction response to hers, especially considering how knee-jerk it seemed
The fact that you think I am saying that her actions justify or are deserving of what happened to her means that you just aren't reading what I'm writing. I thought I laid this out a little better but I guess not. She shares some blame here. She didn't deserve it. It doesn't justify his actions or what happened to her. He was completely inappropriate. But she isn't some snowflake that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. From a legal standpoint she is equal party to this. She took it to another level (physical) and unfortunately paid the price for it.
From a human being/moral stand point, yeah he's a loser. I've said that in almost every post I've written on here. What he did was completely unacceptable and he is at a greater fault here from a moral standpoint. What she did was reasonable, I agree with you, but I don't think it was warranted and it is why the confrontation ended as it did. Again, if she just walked away she'd have a different college experience to reflect on. I think her actions were bad as well. His were way worse. But she's not completely innocent in this. That's the only point I was trying to make. Yes we should be furious at his actions and that is the main focus of the confrontation, but this is nowhere close to equal as him walking up to a random girl and punching her in the face.
To repeat a previous made point, if he punched a male in the face, this wouldn't be an issue at all. Or if it was a female soccer player, this probably wouldn't be an issue. The only reason this is, is because it's a male hitting a female. Which, I agree, is egregious, but let's not let that cloud the facts of that actual fight; all of the fingers can't be pointed at him. I think the legal decision on this case validates this claim; she was equal party to the fight itself. Maybe that's where our disagreements stem. I look at this from a legal standpoint primarily, but I do condemn his behavior on a moral standpoint. Her behavior on a moral standpoint, yes shoving someone is morally acceptable. Standing up for yourself is good practice. However... escalating a fight to a physical level with someone with about 100 pounds on you is quite stupid and does often carry consequences. She was hoping the individual she was speaking to lived by a higher moral code than she did... unfortunately for her, he did not. You can't hide behind that though, and this example proves that. She obviously thought she could do anything to this guy and he wouldn't strike her. That is what my issue with her is