Where does assault or battery come in?

[Kythas]

(a) "Assault", purposely or knowingly placing or attempting to place another in fear of physical harm;

(b) "Battery", purposely or knowingly causing physical harm to another with or without a deadly weapon;

This is pretty much what it was in Louisiana when I was a sheriff's deputy.

Battery was committing physical harm upon the body of another person or administering poison to another person. This was explained to us in the academy as any offensive, unwanted touching.
Assault was the attempt to commit battery or the placing of another person in fear or apprehension of having battery committed upon them.

Any weapon used in the commission of either of the above was an aggravating circumstance and elevated to aggravated battery or aggravated assault.

So to nitpick, battery occurs when someone taps you on the arm to get your attention, since it is unwanted, and you feel it is offensive, yet it was not "purposely or knowingly causing physical harm"?

Seems like a stretch of the definition to me.

Remember that Louisiana law (both criminal and civil) derives from Napoleonic Code and not English common law, due to Louisiana having been established as a French colony. It is the only state in which English common law is not the basis for its laws, so it is a bit different in places.

But, yes, technically if I poked you in the arm with my finger in Louisiana you could file a simple battery complaint against me. The DA would probably not prosecute it, though.

[gigag04]

But if he did, La is the only state where you could get "hard" time for it.