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Various thoughts:

- Interesting how nearly everyone in this thread assumes that the only two choices are to either a) do nothing except call 911, or b) use a gun (and yes I count putting your hand on your gun without drawing it as using it). When all you have is a sledge hammer, and you are presented with a finishing nail, what-to-do, what-to-do...

- Does it matter what started it? It might politically/tactically, but not in legally, I think. Assuming the white "girl" somehow provoked the incident, "self-defense" by the two black girls had long since ceased. This was a beating to inflict punishment, no doubt. The two black girls were long safe from whatever transpired earlier, and had many opportunities to break off without any risk. Assuming something had happened earlier, IMHO what appeared on the video was a new incident.

- As to what transpired earlier: the videographer has been identified as an employee of that McDonald's restaurant. I read (altho don't have the link handy) that he claims the white "girl" was actually a guy who went in the women's restroom and was ejected by the black girls. He also claims that the seizure was fake -- that as soon as the cops got there, the white person jumped up off the floor. The videographer has his own interests to serve, of course, but I have to admit that when I saw the seizure segment, I thought...hmmmm. Perhaps it was real, perhaps it was a tactic. That would not matter much as to the culpability of the two black girls.

(edited to add: found the link with the videographer's claims: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/mcd ... um=twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

- Assuming for a moment that what the videographer said is true (that the white person was a cross-dressing guy who entered the women's restroom) I would not have (much) faulted the black girls for physically ejecting him, but what transpired after that was an assault, not an "ejection" or self-defense, or what have you.

- I don't think I can categorically say I would have intervened or not intervened -- it would be based on my perception the whole thing, seeing the situation in person -- but had I intervened it would not have been with any indication that I had a gun. That's my ace in the hole if things get worse instead of better. It would have been seriously aggressive though. This was way past de-escalation by talking. I think that at that point the only way to get the two girls to back off, and keep any of their supporters in the audience from intervening on their behalf, would be to indicate that I was not intimidated by them, and was in fact ready, to borrow a phrase, "to punch back twice as hard."