So, my question is this:
If a grown man gets hit by a 17 year old girl, can he hit her back? What if it takes him a several seconds to get up out of his chair to hit her? Would the law say that is plenty of time for him to have just removed himself from the situation?
This videoshows a bus driver uppercutting the bumbaclaat out of a smart mouthed disrespectful teenager. What are the chances he will go to jail?
I know laws differ by state. But is there a pat answer that generally applies?
Go bus driver, go… he he he
I’ve never hit a woman. Never been hit by one neither. Someone takes the first swing, all bets are off.
He’ll probably be charged with assault, and I guarantee that he’s fired.
IANAL, but it’s my understanding that self-defense must be of “reasonably proportionate force” to an assault. From what’s on the video, I do not see where she physically assaults him; she appears to put her hands on him as the guy in the reflector vest is sitting down next to the cameraman, but it’s definitely not a punch. The driver’s response is grossly out of proportion to any danger or assault he may have perceived or experienced.
That said, #1 personally I wouldn’t have done it given that situation, but #2 that girl was a bitch and she literally asked for it, and #3 I laughed my ass off so thanks for sharing this.
That was not self-defense, just assault and battery. That girl was obnoxious, disruptive, annoying and wrong, but the driver was not defending himself, just acting out in anger.
He’s been suspended, but not fired (yet.)
Notice that after that fine execution of an uppercut and getting literally thrown off the bus - she gets back up swinging.
Cleveland - Ya gotta be tough. 
I think the world would be a much more polite place with about 100,000 more bus drivers like that.
Yeah. I laughed at the video. Scared to admit it, but I did. I really wanted to hear that the dude somehow got away with it. Dorjan, did he get charged with anything?
No thanks.
The rule of thumb for personal defense is whether a reasonable person would perceive the violence to be proportional to neutralizing the threat. You are also expected to cease using force once the threat has been neutralized (which depends on the situation). So if there is a significant delay between the assault and the victim’s response, it could be argued that there was no longer a threat and so force was no longer authorized.
Looking at the video, the real question is whether the violence was proportional to the threat. I didn’t see anything in the video that would have justified him striking her like that. IMHO, he could be subject to prosecution or a lawsuit. Then it would be up to the jury to decide whether her provocation justified his response.
If she continued to strike him repeatedly, he would have a better argument, but since she was not continuing to attack there was no reason for him to pursue her. He would have been better off removing himself from the situation and summoning the police.
As an additional note, many states give businessmen broad powers to protect their place of business. Depending on the state, he may have been permitted to physically eject her from the bus. In such a case, you are expected to use the lowest level of force and then escalate only if the detainee resists. He would still have to explain why it was necessary to strike her and why he could not have waited for the police.
I’m assuming the video would be entered into evidence by the prosecution as well as the defense. Would the judge be glaring at the snickering jurors?
I don’t see anything to snicker about.
Probably. One of the biggest pitfalls of the jury system is that a juror can vote whichever way they want, for whatever reason they please. So a juror could just decide “she had it coming” and refuse to convict. This is called “jury nullification,” defined as when the juror just says “screw it.” They’re not supposed to, but it’s happened.
Hey, can you see your house from there?
House? I have no house. Foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.
Could the driver have a case for the “fighting words” defense?
When the video starts, the bus is clearly moving. It looks like he has to stop before getting up to deck her. So she was interfering with the operation of the bus while it was moving and endangering the other riders.
Um. That is an awesome post. I’m being sincere. That was just awesome.
DCnDC, I know, right? You gonna talk about that old man mammy when she likely dead and gone? Man, that girl from the streets. She knows thems fightin words.
Yeah, but he could have just stopped the bus, got off and called the police. As I saw it, he stopped the bus, got up and walked several steps before striking her.
The fact that the bus was stopped and the driver was standing up shows that the bus was no longer being operated and the passengers were no longer in danger.