veiled
Ad Threats and Those Who Make Them: Taking Them Seriously David Adams , Contributor Co-Director, Emerge 08/16/2017 01:09 PM ET | Updated Oct 02, 2017 “Oh, looky here , what a pretty face….what a shame about that pretty face” These words were allegedly uttered by one of four members of the Teamsters union to Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi as she sat in her car. The Teamsters stood accused of attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion for using strong arm tactics to coerce the production crew of Top Chef to stop using nonunion labor. A jury in Suffolk County Massachusetts found them not guilty of these charges on August 15, 2017. Though he was not charged with making threats, the Teamster member’s choice of words to Padma Lakshmi is a prime example of a veiled threat. Veiled threats are coded statements in which no explicit intentions are articulated. This gives the utterer grounds for claiming that there was no legally actionable threat of harm. Veiled threats are similar...