France -- proposed new law against domestic verbal abuse

I listened to an interview in a podcast the other day in which a fellow told a story about confronting his wife about her infidelity. She got angry because he snooped, and she started hitting him. He pushed her back, she called 911, and the guy spent the night in the jail. No charges were filed, and apparently the only injury was to the guy's reputation.

Now let's be clear, domestic abuse is serious when it happens. But anyone wanting to abuse the process could do so quite easily with a single 911 call, and it's usually the guy who is victimized by domestic abuse law abuse.

So it's interesting to learn that lawmakers in France are taking domestic abuse a step further by proposing a law making verbal abuse a crime. They call it "psychological violence," and here's a BBC article about it. If it becomes law, the accused could be guilty of a crime simply because of something he said. Now that really would be a case of "he said," "she said."

"Whatcha in for?" "She asked me if the dress made her look fat, and I said 'yes.'"

Somehow I don't see this coming to America. Never mind the free speech issue, give lip to an American woman, and whoa, look out buddy.

Comments

[Jeff]

George, I wonder if there could be a lesser charge of "justifiable psychological violence" ... sort of like "justifiable homicide" ?

:-)

[Geo]

Good one, Jeff! People should have the right of self defense!