The state’s highest court decided yesterday that “forcible touching” does not necessarily have to include squeezing, grabbing, or pinching. “Any bodily contact involving the application of some level of pressure to the victim’s sexual or intimate parts qualifies as a forcible touch within the meaning of penal law,” said the highly sensible Court of Appeals ruling. “It is hard to believe that the Legislature meant for ‘forcibly touches’ to cover only contact that compresses and is painful or physically discomforting.” In the case at hand, the court rejected the claim from one convicted subway assaulter that rubbing his (exposed) penis on a stranger was somehow not as bad as using his hands. Um, no.
