bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
So the thing is that even by Tesla's report, the journalists "climbed through a fence". This means that by the time they were back at their vehicle (where the altercation took place), they were no longer on Tesla property. At that point, did Tesla employees have any legal right to attempt to detain the journalists? If someone trespasses into your home, you have every right to attack and/or detain them, but if they walk in then leave and they're back on public property, if you touch them you're guilty of assault. It's no longer self defense.
Once the journalists were back at their vehicle, they were assumedly back on public property. Unless they took something of Tesla's with them (and I don't know that pictures count), Tesla had no right to detain them, only the right to take explicit notes or pictures and file a police report. If the Tesla employees were attempting to use their bodies to block the vehicle, I don't know that the journalists were completely at fault for hitting them.
Yeah, we don't know that. You may be right - but it's more likely (imo) that Tesla, like most properties, didn't fence the borders of the property but rather took a more economical route and fenced the area where they wanted †o protect privacy. I'm going to guess they were still on Tesla property.
- - - Updated - - -
'Well you should if you're going to characterize them based on their actions. The way they're characterized right now (from the blog post), they're violent and uncaring individuals. However, in a different scenario, they could be extremely nosey reporters who got busted sneaking into somewhere and then felt physically threatened.
Also "once they broke the law"... There are various degrees to that. Trespassing != assault != murder. Someone breaking the law doesn't then mean they're instantly fair game for whatever retaliation.
All true points. But I think it's reasonable to believe if the security guards had been physically threatening the reporters, they would have been arrested also.
All speculation - but the facts should come out in court.