Actually no, if you don't specify beforehand that you won't fight anyone with a shield, a horse, a bow, shit like that, then a guy is allowed to use it against you.
If he's already carrying it. If he picks it up on the ground, then it's definitely griefing, and is bannable.
Anyway, seems to me like serr request is legit, and doesn't need any more information. Just stay patient, admins will eventually catch up to the big number of ban/unban request.