http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8189296.stm
… I have a very hard time figuring out how you can light someone’s dangly bits on fire in self defense. Unless you held a torch out in front of you and they charged at you, pantless and covered in booze. Whatever happened to the age-old tactic of a knee to the groin?
Perhaps the knee was on fire? She totally smoked that guy, huh?
…
[duck]
Seriously now – it is less than straightforward, but I would probably conclude she exercised reasonable force to defend herself. At most, she deserves probation.
She was assaulted, she defended herself. In this case, it was not a physical assault, rather a sexual assault. Merely because he didn’t actually do her any physical harm is no reason to conclude she was not assaulted. Furthermore, he had exposed himself to several people immediately prior to this, and then groped her. Who knew what else he was going to do? He’d obviously completely lost control of himself, and under the circumstances, was a danger to everyone around him. Was the reaction harsh? Yes, it was. So were his actions.
When one of the moon-landing-hoax nutjobs (who himself had doctored footage) ambushed Buzz Aldrin and accused him of being a liar, Buzz punched him in the face. He tried to sue, but the case was thrown out of court; the judge basically said “you asked for it, you got it, you don’t get to complain about it in my courtroom.”
No, this woman deserves to be charged with assault. She had a right to self defense , but getting booze and lighting him on fire proves she was able to retreat and deserves to be imprisoned.
I don’t know if the article you link to has changed since you read it papillon, but it doesn’t read the same as your quote. The way it reads now sounds a bit more murky.
The joys of the internet age… people update on you! My quote was what the article said at the time I pasted it.
As the story went when I pasted it, I’d think that if a guy was waggling his penis around and groping people, punching him to tell him to GET AWAY is reasonable, lighting him on fire sounds more like revenge than defense.
As the story goes now, if you throw your drink at an idiot and he then manages to set himself on fire… well, it’s an unfortunate accident.
I’d say even kicking him in the jewels would be appropriate (while hitting below the belt is usually off-limits, pulling it out and waving it in public is as well), but yea lighting on fire is too far.
whatever happened to the age old tactics of the good ole 1-2? or a nice knee to the groin, or just a regular slap?
IMO reading the article doesnt provide a strong base, unless there are comments from an witness. Either way if its an assault (which it looks like) than she should be punished.
Wow. Unless she just happened to have some booze and a lighter on hand right at the moment, I have to wonder why she thought that was an appropriate response. Even then, he was just a drunk dude waving his junk around, knee him and call the police.