Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is assaulted by a protester during her first town hall meeting in her district of Minneapolis amid ongoing tension and protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The protester jumps out of his seat and charges the representative before reportedly throwing a substance on her. This came following her call on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign.
It’s going to keep escalating. Wonder when this will mirror the Caning of Charles Sumner.
Because that’s an explicit threat. Spraying water is—at least on the face of it—a step below throwing rotten fruit or creme pies or fake blood: you can always claim it was meant to be symbolic.
Edit for clarification: The point is, you can deliberately make it as non-threatening as possible, and it may be obvious to everyone that it’s not a threat—but if there’s a protocol to always check anyway, you’re shutting the speaker down by exploiting the protocol rather than the threat.