I suppose that the father there could be charged with "communicating a threat", but it didn't sound much like a threat to me, more like a promise... and I think a jury of his peers might find likewise.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake