Self defense or not?

[AAAgent]

about 3 weeks ago i was dropping off a friend at his apartment at school. We're parked outside of his building less than a 5 second walk from the entrance. It's a college apartment complex. At about 4:15am a drunk black kid who seems to be a college student by the way he was dressed comes strutting out of the complex by himself. He is about 6'1 and 200 or so pounds. I am 5'11, 165 ish and my friend is 5'6, 140 ish. The kid comes out and knocks on my window and i roll it down. He ask's for a ride and since i don't know him and he seemed obnoxious in the way he was asking i said clearly "No." He then sticks his arm in my window and hangs onto my car. I unbuckle my seatbelt because i sensed there would be some possible trouble in the midst.

The drunk kid just keeps talking and doesn't listen to removing his arm from my car so i get out and try TALKING to him. I try telling him nicely to just go home and we don't want any trouble but he insist that he wants to fight. I tell him he's drunk and that we don't want to fight. For 10 minutes i try to talk to him passively to go home and that he's drunk and that if he were to fight there are two people here against himself and that fighting doesn't solve anything anyway. He begins pushing my smaller friend and attempts to choke him in which i remove his arms. I try talking to him again for another 5 minutes clearly explaining we don't want to fight and everyone should just go home happy. He chokes my friend again violently this time and i end up hospitalizing him badly. We drive away and some other guy gets my license plate. The drunk guy is now pressing charges and has a white sober kid as a witness. The white guy came about 12 minutes into the conversations we were having to talk him down.

Basically i beat him down badly and attempt to drive off but the white guy chases my car down and flags me to stay and his my car with a cane (no clue why he was a cane at college). I get out about to hit the white guy but he said he was a cop so i hit the drunk kid a few more times and drive off.

what do u guys think about the situation?

 

[Kerpal]

Why didn't you just drive away when the kid first knocked on your window? I wouldn't even have rolled it down in the first place.

 

[6-heads lewis]

that's a fvcked up situation.

i highly doubt a cop would chase you down and hit your window with a cane.

its over now and advice on what you should have done is moot. id say just leave, dont bother talking to him. or better yet, call the cops, let them handle it. that's what they're paid to do.

for now go get a very good lawyer. he'll probably play the race card, i mean get a REALLY good lawyer. and hope that the white guy's creidiblity is sh*t, like they're personal friends or something, rather than a neutral observer who pins you as the aggressor.

 

[AAAgent]

well we'll see what happens. it's kind of my word against his right now. i have no one to prove that i tried talking to him for 15 minutes telling him to go home and that we didn't want to fight. all the white guy saw was probably 2 people talking to one guy. Although we weren't being agressive and the black guy was he saw us talking for roughly 3-5 minutes and then the drunk guy choked my friend and i beat him up for choking my friend. I'm told everything depends on how badly he is beaten.

It was just some random drunk college kid i assumed. I didn't know he would try to start sh!t for no reason when he's outnumbered.

Another reason i didn't drive away was because i had to drop my friend off and we were literally a 5 second walk to the entrance of the lobby. why would i drive away when i'm right outside his house. Never knew there'd be people that obnoxious.

 

[SeanyB]

Quick question, why was race relevant to the story?

 

[Luthor Rex]

Why didn't you just drive away when the kid first knocked on your window? I wouldn't even have rolled it down in the first place.

Well too late now...

I had something like this happen to me once at a red light around midnight. Some white guy was walking over to my car "hey I need to use a phone". Mind you no stores are open and a police station is literally ONE block away. Of course I blew through the red light.

 

[Luthor Rex]

Quick question, why was race relevant to the story?

Because in America if you are white and your accuser is black you are automatically a racist and you will be presumed guilty.

 

[3countriesPlan]

Because in America if you are white and your accuser is black you are automatically a racist and you will be presumed guilty.

I'm so sick of this type of crap. Hope the poster can get a favorable ruling if it comes to that. Looks like another self hating white liberal boi is going to try to make your life hell. Anyways you stood up for your friend. Screw that dude for making you have to beat him down.

 

[Quiksilver]

The laws for self-defense aren't exactly the same as, but are similar to, the ROE(Rules of Engagement).

There is a threat to your life or your friends life, you neutralize threat, now you must give First Aid and medical help to the attacker.

In other words, once you dusted him, you should have stayed and made sure he got to an ambulance alright.

Kicking him for the heck of it then driving off is a sure way to face the unfortunate side of the law and you won't get any sympathy because of that fact.

--

It's easy to claim this now when I wasn't involved, but if that happened to me I'd call the cops as soon as I beat him up. Doing that puts you on the moral high ground right away.

good luck in court

 

[speakeasy]

Quick question, why was race relevant to the story?

I was wondering the same. Unless race had something to do with the story, like the black dude saying, "fvck you whitey", then I see no point in bringing it up.

 

[piranha45]

yeah, but luthor rex already explained it, so i dont see the point in bringing the question up a 2nd time.

 

[Da Realist]

You may get boned on this because you got of the car. You basically got out of a protective environment and decided to argue with a drunk. A good lawyer will probably spin it so that you and your friend got out the car, argued with the guy, and he defend himself since there were two people to his one. I don't know how the laws are where you're at, but I remember hearing that if you didn't do serious damage, you will get a misdemeanor. If it comes back something broken, you may screwed.

 

[AAAgent]

i forgot to mention they impounded my car all the way in jersey and towed it to philly. this was a week and a half ago. i'm finally getting the car back tomorrow and don't have to pay any fines for having it impounded.

 

[DJDamage]

1) You should have never exited the vehicle.

- because you did, it now looks bad (2 against 1). If someone reaches through your window with his hand, you should have started the engine and drive off , its his loss if he get seriously injured, because it looks bad on him (reaching into your vehicle and making you think that he might rob you).

2) You never negotiate or talk to drunk people. You were like 20 mins talking to this guy.

3) Any guy claims he is a policeman, need to show you a badge! I am sure its illegal to make such a claim and your lawyer should look into that (if he lied there then maybe he isn't so credible witness).

 

[AAAgent]

driving away can cause fatal injuries that's why i didn't drive away. It would still be my fault if he did get hurt hanging onto my car.

He did say he'd show me a badge but it never came out. Besides he is the only witness of the incident besides me and the drunk guy. I doubt one false statement like that during that incident can render his statements un-credible. It'd be nice if it did. then it'd just be my word against the drunk guys, and him being drunk puts him at a disadvantage.

 

[AAAgent]

i mentioned race because i thought it may be relevant from what i've been told. I may be wrong and i'm not trying to target any specific type of race when i comment on this subject.

I was told since philly is such a high volume violence area and most crimes are committed by black/african males that race may come into play. Also i was told by being a student that is about to graduate and having a clean record also helps me. I'm not sure if the other guy is a student or not but if he isn't i could only assume that would help me because of the stereotype.
My lawyer also said because it is philly they tend to spend less time on fights depending on the severity since they have more serious things like murders and shootings that require their attention.

 

[Levex]

Get a good lawyer man. But for the future, if someone reaches into your car and tries to hold on, step on it. Theres a good chance the guy will severely fvck his arm up and you wont get in trouble with the law...win-win situation.