First of all, its a battery. Do you want law enforcement resources devoted to investigating a bar fight into which the "victim" taunted the aggressor? That's all they'd be doing. There used to be a defense of "fighting words."
Of course I would want some unprovoked attack on a stranger, or a premeditated ambush being investigated. What I don't want investigated is a fight between two probably drunk young men that results in nothing more serious than a fat lip or black eye. Its impractical, because placing young men in close proximity with alcohol and young women (most stupid shit in bars happens because one or more guys is trying to impress a specific girl) and you get one or two punch fights-since the beginning of our species I'd guess. The law will not change behavior that is so instinctive in almost every man.
It's distracting because law enforcement is not using its resources to target crimes of a larger and more public concern, like meth in Iowa.
It's also invasive of freedom, although I was not making that point about battery laws in general. That assailant is going into an FBI data base for life now. Why? Because he punched a taunting smart ass outside a bar when he was probably drunk, and still in his 20s? Given the problems confronting our society, our economy-especially spending on "the public" I think we, as a culture, can afford to overlook incidents like Jordan's.
