{"id":973,"date":"2014-09-01T07:31:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T11:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=973"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:21:00","slug":"glitter-bomb-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2014\/09\/01\/glitter-bomb-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Glitter Bomb Attack!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t those darn Republicans stay focused on the issues?\u00a0 At a time like this, when there are\u00a0No Jobs<\/a>left in the American economy, I want our GOP contenders to be discussing their plans to reduce unemployment.\u00a0 But one presidential candidate has found a more important issue, an issue that poses a threat to our basic safety.<\/p>\n

And that threat is Glitter Bomb Attacks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Diabolical glitter bomb attacks have already been carried out on numerous American citizens:\u00a0Newt Gingrich<\/a>,\u00a0Tim Pawlenty<\/a>, and\u00a0Michelle Bachmann<\/a>\u00a0have all been the victims of vicious glitter bombing.\u00a0 Hey, wait a minute, those are all GOP presidential candidates with anti-gay rights positions.\u00a0 Turns out it\u2019s not a coincidence.\u00a0 The glitter bombing attacks are a protest campaign designed to support LGBT rights, highlighting a serious issue by showering politicians in sparkly silliness.<\/p>\n

But to yes-I\u2019m-actually-still-running presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, these glitter bomb attacks are no laughing matter.\u00a0 In a recent email to the New York Times, Gingrich declared:<\/p>\n

\u201cGlitter bombing is clearly an assault and should be treated as such.\u00a0 When someone reaches into a bag and throws something on you, how do you know if it is acid or something that stains permanently or something that can blind you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Assault is a serious criminal charge.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look to Newt\u2019s reasoning to see how he gets to this conclusion.\u00a0 First Gingrich says the glitter could have been acid.\u00a0 This would constitute assault with a deadly weapon, if it actually happened.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t.\u00a0 To brand the glitter bomb attack as assault on these grounds would be like saying it\u2019s a crime to bring an assault rifle to a presidential town hall event just because its owner could have used it to shoot attendees, and\u00a0we all know how ridiculous that is<\/a>.\u00a0 Next, Newt brings up another serious issue.\u00a0 Even if the substance being thrown isn\u2019t a deadly acid, it could be something that \u2013 gasp! \u2013 leaves a stain.\u00a0 But glitter doesn\u2019t do that either; the worst thing it does to your clothing is make them all sparkly, and if you don\u2019t like the bedazzling all you need to do is wipe it off.<\/p>\n

Gingrich\u2019s claim of a crime is based entirely on the fact that the act in question could have been some other hypothetical act.\u00a0 By this logic, any act could constitute assault.\u00a0 The only way to judge whether this \u201cattack\u201d was actually assault is to examine what Gingrich was really bombed with, and given the damage that glitter causes (absolutely none), it seems clear that it\u2019s use \u2013 even for bomb attack purposes \u2013 does not warrant criminal charges.<\/p>\n

As light as this incident seems, the ramifications of this stance by a presidential candidate are no laughing matter.\u00a0 Gingrich\u2019s rant reflects the true extent of his devotion to free speech; for someone seeking to be President of the United States, it is severely lacking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque\u00a0 Why can\u2019t those darn Republicans stay focused on the issues?\u00a0 At a time like this, when there are\u00a0No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-fH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}