Terrible, horrible idea IRL, almost as bad as the Ops (which would get him killed).-
A woman who was caught on camera violently smashing the windshields of parked cars with bricks in Los Angeles has been arrested.
The suspect, identified as Lisa Jones, 30, was taken into custody Wednesday in connection with a series of unprovoked attacks targeting vehicles across L.A. County.
Security video captured a March 28 incident where the woman was seen stepping out of her car and approaching a parked Porsche SUV in Venice at around 5 p.m.
She lifted a large brick over her head and smashed it into the windshield at full force before
Because that is exactly what would happen.
Excellent advice.
It wouldnt. It would just make the driver angry- and he has a car, you have a stick.
Please be wearing a SDMB T-shirt. So I can notify the board.
Seriously, if you’re using your hand what if you injured yourself or the driver speeds up to gun by you and you catch the side mirror on your body. Big Ouchy!!
Never forget the ol’ Briny Deep 10/10/10 rule (I made this up:) 10% of people are insane; 10% of people are enraged; 10% of people are armed right now. Multiply together for odds of how a random encounter with a stranger might go. For people who are already enraged, the math is simplified.
Some decades ago I was crossing the street, in the crosswalk, with the light, when a car almost hit me. I yelled at the driver, pointed to the crosswalk line and the red light. The driver got out, told me that he was a cop (he was not in a police car) and that I shouldn’t yell at drivers because they might attack or shoot me. His attitude seemed to be that pedestrians had no right to complain if a driver illegally hits them.
I don’t rush forward to strike vehicles, so if the driver hits me with their mirror its because they got close to me not because I got close to them. As for injuring my hand, it’s not like I hit the car with my full force. I’m just trying to let the driver know I’m dissatisfied and a good solid thump will relay that information.
There are people who assume that doing something dangerous must be illegal.
Before I sold my previous home, my neighbor came running out to my yard to warn me. Her husband’s friend, who was a cop, was coming over to visit and she didn’t want to see me get arrested or ticketed.
My crime? The grass was wet and I was mowing it barefoot. I told her I didn’t think mowing barefoot was illegal, but she insisted it surely was because it was dangerous.
The grass was wet and I had few options. More rain was expected. I felt I had to get the grass cut, but didn’t want my shoes to be wet. It worked just fine.
This is the crux. Self defense is the minimum amount of force necessary to make yourself safe, and “getting out of the way” is considered minimum force in states without stand your ground laws.
So if the driver hasn’t seen you, a light thwack to the hood seems justifiable. Putting out a headlight or applying enough force to otherwise damage the car, not so much.
But in your scenario the driver knows you’re there, and no amount of thwacking is going to make you safer. Either the guy intends to hit you and there’s nothing you can do about it or the guy has no intention of hitting you and you aren’t in danger.
Damaging the car isn’t self defense by any metric.
On the other hand, a guy inching towards you as an implicit “get out of my way” threat is definitely committing assault.
States without Stand Your Ground - someone assaults me, say takes a swing at me … my legally allowable self defense is just to get out of the way or, legally can I hit them to deter another swing that connects? (Not what one should do, what is allowable.)
If being vehicularly assaulted does it differ?
In any case if this was occurring in the real world I would in no way believe or trust a “light thwack” as sufficient to make a, minimally negligent, driver aware of my presence. I am slamming on the hood with full force available to me to make sure they are aware of me. Sincerely that would with no intent of revenge or to cause harm but with no shits given if harm is caused. I would swing a cane hard if I had it to make sure they were aware they were in process of running me down, and be prepared to use said cane as a defensive weapon against someone getting out of the car.
