Verbal abuse can be as damaging as other forms of abuse. The hurt of a deliberately aimed unkind word can be an emotional wound which never heals. A society in which individuals habitually need to protect themselves from verbal attack has put up barriers which reduce its humanity.
The problems of violence in contemporary society exists at the top as well as at the bottom. The language and thought of government and public discourse has coarsened, taking for granted a casual recourse to violence against people who, by their behaviour or nature, are assumed to have invited it.
Should we ban insults? But you can do so much with them – fancy not being able to insult our rulers. Should we then ban insults on the weak? This is attractive, but unfortunately what has usually obtained is precisely the opposite.