Criminal rock throwing

Rock throwing is a form of criminal assault.

Throwing rocks at cars

Historical background of laws regarding rocks thrown at vehicles

In the 18th century, William Blackstone stated that throwing stones in a town or city on a highway, when it caused a death, was to be defined as manslaughter rather than murder.^[1][2]

Rocks thrown at cars moving along highways at high speeds have been a particular problem in a number of developed countries.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} According to Austin, Texas police detective Jarrett Crippen "When we’re talking about highway speeds of 60, 70 mph, that rock is hitting you full-force... If it's coming through your windshield, it can cause serious damage to the body, vehicle or even death."^[10] A Washington State trooper said of an arrest of criminal rock-throwers, "Any one of these rocks could have punctured a windshield, hit the driver in the face and killed them."^[11] Although the rocks are often thrown from overpasses or high points along the roadside, people riding in cars have also been killed by rocks thrown at random vehicles from passing cars.^[12] Thrown rocks can kill in a number of ways; a rock can hit a passenger directly in the head with lethal force, a rock can strike the driver causing him or her to lose control of the car and crash, the "jolt and shock of a barrage of stones smashing against the front windshield" can cause the driver to lose control and crash, or the out of control vehicle can slam into a passing car, causing it to crash.^[13]

Legal status

• In the United States, rock-throwing could be a felony^[14][15] and rock-throwers could face criminal charges, dependent on the circumstances that may include second degree murder,^[16] aggravated assault, throwing a missile into an occupied vehicle, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment of life, and aggravated assault with a lethal weapon.^[10][17][18] Punishment upon conviction varies as with all punishments for all crimes. A Florida judge sentenced a teenager to serve life in prison for throwing rocks at cars.^[16] A New England judge, ruling on teenagers convicted of throwing stones at passing trains, at windows, resulting in eye injuries to passengers, sentenced them to be kept in an eye-injury ward of a hospital for two weeks with their eyes bandaged, in order to make them understand the consequence of their delinquency.^[19] Rock throwers can be charged, tried and convicted even when no injuries or damage result.^[20]
• In Great Britain, expansive legislation on public disorder introduced in 1986 allows stone throwers to be sentenced on average to 3.5 years in prison if the criminal justice system can prove that the action took place in a riot.^[21]
• Under Australian law, rock throwers can be sentenced to up to 5 years in prison.
• Under American law they can receive very long sentences and even be sentenced to life in prison.^[16][22][23] Under American law, individuals who were part of a group engaged in rock-throwing can be convicted and imprisoned even if they did not personally throw any missiles.^[24][25]
• In New Zealand, individuals who throw rocks at cars can serve 14 years for endangering transport.^[26]
• In Vietnam, youths convicted of "vandalism and battery" for throwing stones at vehicles have been imprisoned.^[27]
• In Turkey the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) introduced a range of legal measures criminalizing both Kurdish political claims and protest activities by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The harsh sentences handed down against stone throwing children (taş atan çocuklar) led to a public outcry and to an amendment reducing the length of the sentences on the grounds that it was inappropriate from ‘a criminal justice point of view’.^[28]

Selected deaths and injuries

On January 11, 1994 Sheila Mayfield, a 25-year-old motorist from Jasper, Montana, was killed near Tulsa, Oklahoma, by an 8-pound rock thrown through the windshield of her car. Her assailant was charged with first degree murder.^[29][30][31]

In 1999, University of Alabama professor Julie Laible was killed by a 22-pound rock thrown from an overpass on Interstate 75 by hooligans in Manatee County, Florida.^[32]

In 2000 near Darmstadt, Germany, a gang of stone-throwing American teenagers killed a 20-year-old woman and critically injured her grandmother, then hit another car, killing the 41-year-old mother of 2 small children.^[33]

In 2005 Chris Currie, 20 years old, was killed by a 8 kg block of concrete dropped from an overpass and hitting the car by Ngatai Rewiti, 14-year-old, who was charged with murder.^[26]

In January 2003, then 15-year-old Dennis Gumbs dropped an 18-pound chunk of ice from an overpass near Allentown Pennsylvania onto a car traveling westbound on Route 22, killing 33-year-old passenger Elaine Cowell, as she was riding with her husband and three children.^[34] Gumbs was eventually tried as a juvenile and served four years in a maximum-security detention center.^[35]

Michael Baker, 47, was killed in 2010 in Kent, England by a chunk of stone thrown through the window of his lorry by a gang of youth as young as ten years old.^[36]

In 2010 a rock thrown by Cody Chavis, 16, and a 15-year-old companion hit the car in which 23-year-old Alicia Thomas was driving near Rockingham, North Carolina, killing her. Both boys were charged with first degree murder.^[37][38]

The I-80 rock throwing is a case of criminal rock throwing that took place along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania in 2014, critically injuring and permanently disfiguring a passenger. Four local youths, aged 17 to 19 years, were found responsible.^[39]

On August 21, 2016, a 30-kilo rock was thrown from a bridge near Kildebjerg in Assens municipality on Funen, Denmark. A German woman lost her life when the car she was travelling in was hit. Her husband sustained serious injuries while the couple's six-year-old child was unharmed. The police are investigating the incident as a murder case.^[40]

Throwing rocks at trains

Throwing rocks at trains is a long-standing problem in countries including the United States and New Zealand, where passengers and train crews have been injured by large rocks thrown through windows.^[41][42]

Rock throwing during political protests and rioting

Many notorious and deadly riots have begun with rock throwing, or included rock throwing as violence escalated, including the Toronto Jubilee riots, the Boston Massacre, and the 2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots in the Ukraine.

Historical background of laws on rock throwing in English common law

Rock throwing has been in the past often adopted as a method by an unarmed population to protest a governing power's authority. Under English common law, soldiers were not permitted to shoot at civilians engaged in this kind of protest, unless their lives were in danger or they obtained beforehand an express order from a civil magistrate.

At one point, when town officials tried to arrest a British officer who was commanding the guard at Boston Neck, Captain Ponsonby Molesworth intervened to confront a stone-throwing crowd. Molesworth ordered the soldiers to bayonet anyone throwing stones who got too close. A Boston justice told him that, under common law, a bayonet thrust was not an act of self-defense against a stone, which was not a lethal weapon. Had a soldier killed anyone, Molesworth could have been tried for his life.'^[43]

Political demonstrations in many countries have resulted with the arrest of violent protestors for throwing rocks and other objects at police.^{[44][45][46][47]}

Legal status

Rock throwing during riots is a criminal offense, for which rock throwers can be charged with felony crimes, including assault on a law enforcement officer.^{[48][49][50][51]} Incidents of criminal rock throwing have resulted in arrests during sports riots, especially notable are incidents of rock-throwing football hooliganism.^[52]

• In the U.S., charges vary by state. For example, in New Hampshire , Oregon individuals who throw rocks during demonstrations can be charged with riot, also called "criminal mischief,," a felony.^[53][54][55]
• Turkey presses charges and imposes prison sentences for the crime of being part of a group throwing stones at police, even when the rock-throwers are 15 years of age and younger.^[56]

Throwing rocks at people

Rock-throwing can be used by thieves, as demonstrated by a 2015 case in India in which Ratan Marwadi (45) was charged with throwing rocks at a random passer-by, Darshana Pawar, for the purpose of disabling and robbing her. Pawar was killed. Her murderer, Ratan Marwadi, had previously served time in jail for pelting rail commuters with stones with the intent of robbing them.^[57]

Legal status

In the 19th century, "stone throwing" was defined as a "nuisance", one of a number of offenses such as "kite-flying" and "doorbell ringing" to be handled by bylaws which differed from town to town.^[58]

• In the United States individuals throwing rocks at another person can be arrested and charged with assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.^[59] As a 15-year-old, actor Mark Wahlberg was charged in 2 separate incidents of throwing rocks and shouting racial epithets at African-American children.^[60]

Throwing rocks across borders

United States - Mexico

Rock-throwers on the Mexican side of the border between the United States and Mexico frequently target United States Border Patrol agents with barrages of rocks to prevent them from apprehending individuals illegally crossing the border, particularly smugglers moving illegal drugs or illegal migrants across the border.^[61] Between 2010 and 2014 Border Patrol agents were assaulted with rocks 1,700 times, they fired weapons at rock throwers 43 times, resulting in 10 deaths.^[62] Border Patrol agents are permitted to respond to rock-throwers with lethal weapons, although as of 2014 policy is that they should attempt to avoid finding themselves in situations where responding to rock-throwing with lethal force becomes necessary.^[62][63]

Spain - Morocco

In recent years, increasing numbers of undocumented sub-Saharan Africans have passed through Morocco attempting to reach European Union countries, many attempt to enter Spanish soil at two Spanish enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, located on the African side of the Mediterranean Sea. On several occasions, Moroccan and Spanish border authorities have defended lethal violence against African illegal immigrants near the Melilla border fence and Ceuta border fence by asserting that groups of migrants attempting to storm the border in mass-entry events threw rocks to drive border guards away from the gates.^{[64][65][66][67]}

Egypt - Gaza

Stone throwing rioters have repeatedly clashed with Egyptian troops at the Egypt-Gaza border.

• In 2008, Gazans assaulted Egyptian border guards by throwing barrages of rocks over the low, concrete border wall topped with barbed wire, then tore down a section of the wall, opening a road and moving goods and people across for several hours before the Egyptian Army, avoiding the use of lethal force, managed to regain control of the border.^[68]
• On January 6, 2010 Hamas called on Gazans to protest the Egyptian border blockade; Gazan men responded by massing at the border and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Egyptian security forces, who responded with gunfire.^[69]

Hungary - Serbia

In the 2015 Horgoš riot during the European migrant crisis, Illegal immigrants at the Hungarian southern border fence threw rocks and chunks of concrete at Hungarian border police.^[70][71]

See also

• Jewish Israeli stone throwing
• Palestinian stone throwing

References