LOS ANGELES — By the time Will Smith made it back to his seat after smacking Chris Rock across the face in front of a stunned Oscars audience, armchair legal scholars had taken to social media with their hot takes on whether the theatrical slap amounted to a crime.
And the twittering masses erupted in debate again hours later when the Los Angeles Police Department announced it was not investigating the matter because Rock had declined to pursue criminal charges.
On Monday, with the debate raging on, criminal defense attorneys, former prosecutors and other criminal justice experts, reached a more sober and informed consensus that the LAPD had been right to steer clear of the assault, dubbed online as “the slap heard around the world.”
