A 61-year-old Michigan man was charged with a felony hate crime and assault for allegedly attacking a mail carrier for delivering a "Harris for President" mailer.

A Michigan man was charged Friday with allegedly assaulting a mail carrier over a “Kamala Harris for President” mailer that the mail carrier delivered to his mailbox.

Russell Frank Valleau, 61, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, was charged by Oakland County, Michigan Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald with assaulting a mail carrier.

“The defendant was allegedly upset that he had received mail regarding presidential candidate Kamala Harris and allegedly said that he did not want that ‘black b****’ in his mailbox,” according to press release from the Oakland County, Michigan prosecutor’s office said. “He then called the mail carrier a ‘black b****’ and threatened the carrier. The mail carrier used pepper spray to stop the defendant.”

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  • nfh@lemmy.world
    8·
    3 months ago

    There’s a lot more gradation in laws against actually hurting people. I’m guessing misdemeanor assault here means that an attempt was made, but maybe he punched the carrier once and the pepper spray stopped him. An aggressive threat and a fairly ineffective attack? That kinda makes sense to me

    • medgremlin@midwest.social
      15·
      3 months ago

      “Assault” is shouting and threatening, “battery” is actually making contact. It sounds like she got the pepper spray out in time to prevent him from touching her, which is a very good thing.