Need help right away EMERGENCY

Standing on a public sidewalk and saying "I think so-and-so is fat and ugly" is an opinion and would not be seen as "verbal abuse". I am entitled to think that everyone is ugly and say so over and over again and it is not abuse or harassment - might be pretty stupid of me, but we also have no laws against being stupid.

In regards to the first part, there is nothing "invoking fear or harm" in saying you think someone is fat and ugly -- even if the person does choose to cry and claim hurt feelings.

In the case of the second, standing there giving your opinion of one person is no different than many demonstrators or street preachers -- hell, they probably disrupt more people that a lone insulter would.

And some of us are kind to the truly downtrodden. It is not a matter of an inability to be kind -- it can simply be a matter of what we think deserves what type of response. I do not believe that every utterance out of my mouth has to be nice.

Yep - but you have to be yelling quite a bit.

That is a gross misstatement of the law. Disorderly conduct covers a range of conduct including unreasonable noise, the person must be warned to cease making the alleged unreasonable noise and continue to do so before they can be arrested. It is a largely discretionary call on the part of the law enforcement officer which is why the courts confronted with cases stemming from such arrests have from time to time had occasion to restrict the broad and vague definitions of the statute to make certain that freedom of speech and assembly and other forms of protected expression under the First Amendment were not affected.

It's also completely irrelevant to the kind of outlawing of speech that Jenshae was claiming exists which may exist in other countries, but not in the United States.

Wrong. You obviously didn't bother to read the actual context from which you took the statements you quoted. They don't support any such conclusion.

"Verbal Assault" in the first instance means means intentionally threatening through spoken or written words to cause physical harm to another through use of force or violence, with the apparent ability to carry out that threat. In the third cite it means essentially the same thing. The quote from the Florida House Committee on Condominiums & Homeowners Association Governance is laughable. It's merely a characterization of one person's words against the others in an argument at a board meeting.

No it isn't unkind to give practical advice; I think I even acknowledged it's good practical advice earlier in the thread. However I was also adding that not everyone is able to do that, especially in their newbie days. Some people's responses will be to simply freeze. And it does sound a bit pervasive or insistent when it extended to other places like the common group all three shared.

By this time in SL I have no problem fighting fire with fire if absolutely necessary, or at least, standing my ground. But I can think when I was in my pilgrim months here, those same incidents would've absolutely rattled me.

The kindness was an overall rhetorical question, and spoke to how everyone treats everyone in SL. I've had my moments of temper myself but I like to think only if very provoked and the person has been an absolute ass. I've never gone after/stalked anyone as the perp did to the OP and his wife. That sort of insistence can be very unnerving for some.

If someone's been attacked with an object or caged they may not even know that relogging will probably solve it. And the first group or 'home set' one finds in SL can be very precious to one. It would have maybe upset me to have to leave a group in my early days but at this point I'd probably just inhale deeply perhaps take an SL break and find a new stomping ground.

...urinating in a public convenience.......