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Surrounding protesters start smashing up your car. You fear for your life. What can you legally do?
I don't know various State laws on this. Accurate commentary appreciated for the benefit of all.
from the article:
What does the law say?
The quick answer is that a motor vehicle is pretty much universally considered a deadly weapon if a driver uses one to purposely hit another person. Therefore a driver has to be acting in self-defense and in fear for his life or serious bodily injury to do so.
So, if protesters are sitting on a hood and scratching the side panels with their keys, then no — a driver can't plow through them. The protesters' crimes don't match up with the driver's crime.
But if protesters are shattering a windshield with bricks or baseball bats? If they're brandishing other weapons? If they're threatening to grab the driver and drag him from the car? That's a different ballgame.
'How serious is this mob?'
TheBlaze spoke to Nashville criminal defense attorney Kevin Kelly of Eastside Legal, LLP, who said Tennessee law includes a "solid self-defense statute."
In the case of a driver surrounded by protesters, Kelly said there "has to be reasonable belief on the part of the guy in the car that he's in danger of imminent bodily injury" for him to hit anybody.
He also said drivers need to ask themselves other questions: "How serious is this mob? Are they armed? Do they have bats?"
In Tennessee, Kelly said there's a kind of "stand-your-ground law" that dictates a person doesn't have to retreat from a scene if the person has the right to be in that location. And again, he said, whatever force a person defending himself uses can't exceed the force that's threatening him.
"Is the crowd loud, angry and large?" Kelly asked. He replied that if it is, that's not enough of a reason for the motorist to drive into the crowd.
I don't know various State laws on this. Accurate commentary appreciated for the benefit of all.
from the article:
What does the law say?
The quick answer is that a motor vehicle is pretty much universally considered a deadly weapon if a driver uses one to purposely hit another person. Therefore a driver has to be acting in self-defense and in fear for his life or serious bodily injury to do so.
So, if protesters are sitting on a hood and scratching the side panels with their keys, then no — a driver can't plow through them. The protesters' crimes don't match up with the driver's crime.
But if protesters are shattering a windshield with bricks or baseball bats? If they're brandishing other weapons? If they're threatening to grab the driver and drag him from the car? That's a different ballgame.
'How serious is this mob?'
TheBlaze spoke to Nashville criminal defense attorney Kevin Kelly of Eastside Legal, LLP, who said Tennessee law includes a "solid self-defense statute."
In the case of a driver surrounded by protesters, Kelly said there "has to be reasonable belief on the part of the guy in the car that he's in danger of imminent bodily injury" for him to hit anybody.
He also said drivers need to ask themselves other questions: "How serious is this mob? Are they armed? Do they have bats?"
In Tennessee, Kelly said there's a kind of "stand-your-ground law" that dictates a person doesn't have to retreat from a scene if the person has the right to be in that location. And again, he said, whatever force a person defending himself uses can't exceed the force that's threatening him.
"Is the crowd loud, angry and large?" Kelly asked. He replied that if it is, that's not enough of a reason for the motorist to drive into the crowd.