Muffin, you broke a cane over your knee? I would like to know what wood it was made of. I actually teach a cane fighting system and want to tell my students to never buy a cane made of that wood.
By the way, the cane stuff really has nothing to do with the topic of this discussion.
Fortunately, very little. As an adult, mugged, shot at while in a plane, had a fellow come across a table at me during negotiations, and had a fellow try to break through a door to get at me. I don’t pretend to know much about fighting other than that you have to assume that the assailant may be bat shit crazy and keep trying to come at you.
It doesn’t take any great knowledge to recognize that the fellow at McDonalds could have safely backed away and found refuge elsewhere in the building once he had thrashed the assailants to the ground with the metal bar. As far as whether or not he was mentally capable of recognizing that he should have backed off, I have covered that in a previous post. Would I have backed off? Yes, for although I don’t have any experience in fighting, I have a significant amount of experience in being in situations where I have expected to not survive, and have learned about how I react and think under in such situations.
Now you tell me, at what levels of court have you represented people charged or convicted of assault or murder? How many times have you been in court and observed your client or another person’s client plead self-defence and go down in flames? What experience do you have in pleading self-defence? What have you learned from your experience in fighting about the all important difference between the subjective test and the objective test?
I don’t know type of wood it was made of. It was solid (as opposed to something hollow like bamboo ski poles or laminated like modern wooden canoe paddles), but whether it was a hardwood or a softwood, I don’t know.
Apologies for posting too quickly. I’m impressed that you were able to break a solid wood cane over your knee. You must have been very angry. Perhaps so angry you didn’t even know what it was you were doing?
In white water paddling, solid hardwood shafts of hickory or ash gave way to wood and epoxy laminates, which in turn gave way to aluminum, which in turn gave way to pvc wrapped with fibreglass or kevlar and epoxy. To put it in perspective, my wood laminate shafts and aluminum shafts lasted a couple of years on average, whereas the pvc/glass wrapped shafts that I presently use are over fifteen years old.
Nope. I was not angry. I just figured that it would help get the point across that she must not keep whacking at people. A solid wood cane (or at least the cane my grandmother had) is not hard to break at all. No different than breaking kindling over one’s knee for the campfire.
You must be pretty hardcore then. I have a 1" hickory cane at hand and even with my training I wouldn’t try to break it over my knee. I tip my hat to you sir or madam.
The fact of whether or not he was still at risk after he floored them is debatable. The law in New York that a person must not continue to thrash someone once that person is not longer a threat is not debatable.
Prisons are full of people who got so angry they didn’t even know what they were doing. That is a good thing.
Severe anger management issues/impulse control issues never got anyone off the hook - in fact, I’d wager they’re more the kind of factor that makes juries opine warrant confinement away from civilized society. Nobody wants to live around a violent loose cannon.
Beats the hell out of me. (No, wait, that’s the wrong phrase to use in this thread.) I don’t know – it would depend on what the cane was made of. If you are a strong fellow and you can not break it, then I doubt if I could.
I have to add this, are you so very certain that the two women not seen because of the counter are not a threat that you would risk your license (I’m presupposing you are a practicing attorney) upon it?
I find it pretty lame people are making judgement calls on this guy when they can’t even see what is happening behind the counter. Just because they are “down” out of view and behind the counter doesn’t mean they’re not reaching for something or still going after him.
I.E. If I was that guy and one of them was going for something in their coat pocket, your damn right I’d keep on beating.