"Give me one good reason not to kick your ass right now!" Those were his fighting word. Then he knocked me on my ass. He walked up to me, from behind, while my attention was on my dog. He was nose to nose with me when I turned around. I said, "Get the "funk" out of my face!" He continued to look into my eyes for a moment and then shoved me, which left bruises, in the lower part of my chest, and I actually went about 10 feet off my feet, backwards onto the ground. I had my 9mm in the back of my pants. And about the time I thought, "I'm too close to him to even draw my gun if I thought I needed it", he shoved me. He was a coward. He had been in jail recently for some violent act. But after the police got there, called by three different residents of our community, his girlfriend asked me not to press charges on him. And since she was a sweet person who worked at our apartments, I let it go without charges.
Even as a child I never gave any credence to anything a stranger said to me. I'm very hard to insult simply because words from someone who has not earned my respect have no effect on me. Maybe I'm autistic or something but, I just don't get it when I see others become enraged when a stranger says something to them. If a person's actions (which may include words) indicates they are an immanent threat I would respond in what I would hope is an appropriate manner. That may mean I run away, or I try to de-escalate, or throat punch, etc. In this context, I guess I'm saying the concept of "fighting words" has about as much meaning to me as someone giving me "the finger". None.
Excellent class. My state, 30 years ago when I looked this up, did not OK any physical attack by the person insulted over words alone. This should vary if the words were Pre Assault Indicators, taken with other information of Pre attack indicators. I know this is not John Wayne Law, where being called a card cheat merits a gun fight. But much of movies are full of bad legal advice. Good vid.
