[/quote] I had a similar incident happen to me about 25 years ago. A pissed off group of bikers followed me closely out of town. I led them to a dirt road out of town thinking the dirt and dust might discourage them from followin. When it didn't I swung my truck sideways across the road, stepped out of the truck with a mini-14 which had been wedged between the split bench seat beside me, popped in a 20 round mag and laid it across the hood pointed at the bikers. Thankfully they immediately and quickly turned around and left. I'd not have wanted to explain killing a bunch of bikers to the law but kill them I would have if needed.[/quote]
Yep.
As had been mentioned on this thread a couple of times, it sometimes comes down to the matter of “rules.” Clearly, both the bikers and the rednecks could have played it smarter. But they did not. The bikers were playing by “today’s polite and lawful society rules.” They are claiming to be the wronged and injured group and showed this by their feeble attempt at taking the videos of the incident and showing no attempt to engage once things got out of hand. Expecting that their show of numerical support, rudeness and lack of overt aggression would somehow find the law tilted in their favor if something took a turn for the worse. Well, for the bikers, it did take a turn for the worse. The guys in the pickup trucks were playing with different rules. Redneck rules if you will.
I have only had to play by “my rules” a few times in my life. In every case when I played by my rules the other party was both surprised and outraged that I was not playing by their rules or the rules established in the organization we were parties to. The outcomes were in my favor as I was willing to escalate well beyond the level of escalation the other party was expecting or willing to employ. Yes, there is risk associated with this sudden change of rules and sometimes the law will bite you in the butt. Gotta be careful.
I was asked some advice by a young man one time about how he could handle a certain guy harassing his wife. I told him to be smart and that if necessary, I would bail him out of jail and pay for his lawyer. The issue was decided at the next meeting and that was that. The other guy was expecting a war of words with an audience of his own choosing. It was not what he got.
If one wants to get involved in some sort of mixup, one must understand that the other guy may be following a different rule book. The whole idea of bringing a knife to what turns out to be an unexpected gun fight.
The tax collector said: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said he went home “justified.”
