Oh hell, I’m going to do it.
So Ambivalid, are you saying that if you came at me and I defended myself, you should be granted some sort of leeway because you are in a wheelchair?
No, and I’m not saying that the women should have been granted any leeway. I’m saying the women should have been reacted to by the McDonald’s employee as women.
Just as if an out of control 8 year old kid came charging at you; you are going to do what you need to to defend yourself but the threat is clearly not the same as a 220 lb man charging you. Now that may sound ridiculous as an example but Im using it to make the point.
*nothing wrong with that question, I actually was thinking about using myself as an example 
You really don’t see the contradiction in this statement?
Recognizing the magnitude of the threat for what it is; that is what I meant.
So, you in your wheelchair should be thought of as less of a threat than an adult male able to stand?
Of course. Again, I’m simply discussing human physiology.
Thank you for your thoughts. They are interesting in as much as I’ve met one or two chair bound people that are actually rather formidable if pressed.
For myself, I will only see a threat towards my personal safety and health as that of a threat. I don’t care if it’s male, female, young, old or even seemingly incapable.
Unless you’re this guy.
Ok, but they nonetheless have no use of their legs. That right there is what makes a paraplegic less of a physical threat than an able-bodied counterpart. Just as I’m sure you could match up a huge buff woman with a tiny, scrawny twerp guy and the woman would win the match up; there are many individual people in wheelchairs who could be victorious in fights with smaller able-bodied people. However, that doesn’t mean women and men are on equal ground when it comes to physical confrontation. Men clearly have the advantage over women. Well the same is true for the able-bodied over those who use wheelchairs. The fact that you are even arguing this is ludicrous. ,
Actually, I’m not arguing the point that people should be treated differently. I’m saying that a threat is a threat regardless from whom it comes from. You are the one that is saying people should be treated differently.
Ha. Ok. I’m saying don’t bash an old lady’s teeth out with a crowbar who is coming at you with her cane as if you life hangs in the balance. :rolleyes:
I know one or two old ladies who, with their canes might just be able to bash out someone’s teeth. Have you not read the thread? Fighting is something of a hobby with me.
But nice try at goal post moving brah.
Nice to know that the SDMB has an expert in bashing cane wielding old ladies.
Of course for the matter at hand, it was not an old lady, it was a sizeable young man, and it was not a cane, it was a metal bar.
Most people don’t realize that for centuries the cane has been considered a formidable weapon. That aside I was responding to the post of someone else.
Way to misdirect the discussion Muffin.
Muffin, if attacked by someone how would you react?
In that fellow’s situation, I’d simpy lock myself in the office and call the police. Problem solved. No one hurt.
If there was no refuge available, then I too would go at the assailants with the metal bar, and I would stop once they were beaten to the floor, for by that point, they were no longer a threat. Problem solved. No hurt caused to me, and no unnecessary hurt caused to the assailants.
I would not thrash them some more on two further occasions. That’s where the fellow crossed the line from self-defence to committing a couple of aggravated assults himself.
Going Rambo is all well and fine in the fantasy world of block buster movies and internet tough guys, but it does not work when pleading in front of a judge, for the law for the most part only permits what appears to be reasonable on a partially or fully objective basis, rather than what appears to be reasonable on a fully subjective basis but is unreasonable on an objective basis.
You are an astute one, aren’t you? I didn’t move any goal post, I used the “old lady and the cane” example to illustrate the point I’ve been trying to make.
Astute? Thank you for the compliment.
Muffin, how close to real violence have you ever been?
My grandmother was in the habit of poking and striking people with her cane.
Once she struck me with it, so I took it from her, snapped it over my knee, and walked out of the room with it. Since fighting is not a hobby of mine, it never occured to me to start thrashing her with it – my bad I guess.
About a decade later, she ended up in a senior’s home, but was evicted for poking and striking people with her cane. And she was evicted from the next home, and the next home, and several more after that, until my father had her committed. All along the way, no one ever had to thrash her with a cane. Too bad none of the people she took a swipe at fighters who could defend themselves by beating her to a pulp. Or perhaps not.