Reasonable and Necessary

       Sorry it' been a few days since the last post. Things have been crazy at work the past few days. I'm back now, and with a topic that I think all parents and their students need to read. However, this can apply to even us adults. The law talks about a reasonable expectation of defense. Meaning that you are able to defend yourself when your physical safety is IMMEDIATELY threatened. That word immediately is pretty important if you couldn't tell by the caps. But what does that mean?  To be honest, the public perception of what a threat is can be pretty vague. On top of that, how far can I go in self defense, and do I have to wait to be hit first?
    So first,  let's talk about what elements you need to have before you can defend yourself.
1. The other person must be there.
2. Violence has to be imminent. In other words, they have to be coming at you to fight.
3. The level of violence has to be enough that a reasonable person would be afraid for their safety. So a 9 year old coming at an adult swinging, wouldn't constitute a valid threat. In most cases at least.
   Those are the three basic elements that need to be in play before you can defend yourself. So, what are some situations where I shouldn't defend myself by fighting?
1. If they made the threat over the phone, then you can't go over there and attack them.
2. That whole 9 year old situation, you'd be surprised how often this happens.
3. If they tell you they are going to attack you but they make no actions to do so, then you can't go attack them for just saying it. (this can be confusing, because there are some caveats here, but I'll get to those later)          
     I think those are three good examples. There are certainly more, but I find those are ones that happen all to often. In fact, this is an area where high school and middle school students get caught up all to often. You need to understand that if the threat of violence is not immediately upon you then you cannot act out physically to defend yourself. In those situations, where you believe that there is a threat, but it's not imminent, then the best defense you have is to walk away from the situation and report it to the police or your principal. However, this seems to bother people because there pride gets caught up in the situation. They feel like they have to save face by lashing out with violence of their own. Understand this, people talk a lot of big game, but the vast majority of them never carry out that game. You have to let your pride go, and walk away, because at the end of the day, no matter what they said, you will be the one in handcuffs.
    I say all that, not to deter you from defending yourself, but to stress to you that when it comes to defending yourself, pride can't enter the situation. The last thing I want is someone reading this, and being afraid of acting when there is an immediate threat. Like I said folks, defending yourself is ok, there are just some rules to it. So let's skip ahead and talk about what you can do when there is an actual threat.
    The law says that you can use the amount of force that is reasonable and necessary to stop someone from trying to hurt you. Let me repeat that. The amount of force that is REASONABLE and NECESSARY. This is where people get into a lot of trouble, because once again they let pride and anger take over. Reasonable and necessary means that you do what you have to stop the attack so you can get away. This doesn't mean that when someone comes up and slaps you that you deliver the beat down of the century. Let me give an example:
     Recently a high school senior was sitting in the hallway talking to friends. While talking another girl, a junior at the school, walked up and slapped her across the face then began calling her names. The senior tried to turn away but the other girl kept turning her back around. The junior was about to punch her when the senior violently attacked her. She knocked the punch away and punched the junior in the side of the head twice. The junior fell back and did not make a move to continue attacking the senior. Instead of ending her attack the senior paused, then continued, grabbing the girl and slamming her head into a group of lockers. She then threw the junior to the floor and kicked her twice in the rib cage, and three times in the side of the head. It was at this time when the school resource officer arrived, and stopped the fight. The junior laid on the floor bleeding and unconscious. Later, the senior girl told the officer what happened. The other girl had attacked her first, and she was, "just defending," herself. After reviewing security camera footage and talking to other people who saw the fight, the senior was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
     This is a little bit of an exaggerated story, but I did that to make a point. The senior was in the right all the way up to the point where she continued her attack after the junior stopped. The two initial punches were legally acceptable. At that point she used the amount of force that was reasonable and necessary to stop the threat. Where she went wrong is when she let her pride and anger enter the fight. So often we teach children to just turn and walk away no matter what happens. However, we have to be honest and admit that walking away is not always possible. There are some people who are going to fight you no matter how many times you try to walk away. You have to be ready to defend youself, but likewise, you have to be ready to STOP once the threat is over. Just because someone attacks you first doesn't mean you can do whatever you like. If someone slaps you, you can't just go and stab them; that's not what reasonable and necessary means. Yes, you stopped the threat, but not in a reasonable manner.
   Lastly, do you have to wait to be hit, shot, stabbed etc.? The short answer is no, you don't have to wait. However, understand, someone voicing a threat does not give you the reason to attack. The imminent threat of violence rule still applies. Not waiting means that the person is preparing the attack. They are clinching their fist, blading their body back, bringing an arm up to swing, they are running straight at you. In other words, the attack has to be in the progress of occurring. Consequently, it's the same for shooting, you don't have to wait for someone to shoot you before you can shoot back. However, I don't want to get into deadly force situations today. I'll save that for next week, I think.
     Understanding self-defense can be extremely confusing. How much is enough, how much is too much. I go on calls on a daily basis where people have received threatening phone calls, and they basically are asking my permission to go out and attack first. Listen you have to stop, think, and decide before you act. At the end of the day, as I've said before, you are responsible for your actions, not someone else's. If you are ever confused about this stuff please, please contact your local law enforcement and ask what you should do. We don't mind giving advice, especially if it helps keep the peace. As always, if you don't understand the laws in your local area, please study them before acting.

Thanks!
      P.S. If you have questions or suggestions for the blog, leave them in the comment sections. I'll see what I can do about answering some.