CHLSteve wrote:... my question is at what point does it become warranted? I was expecting him to start shoving or pushing at which point I think I would have doused him rather than get into the a knock down drag out fist fight on the tee box.
The answer to that question is found in PC PC §9.31. I'm not going to quote it because y'all know where to find it. Basically, if someone hits you, grabs you, shoves you, etc., you are justified in using force to stop the assault, "when and to the degree the actor [you] reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect the actor against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force."
That clause always leads to endless debates about the possibility of prosecution, but I can't figure out what you can do besides use force or retreat. The same section of the code explicitly says that you do not have a duty to retreat (as of Sept. 1, 2007).
"Use force" does not necessarily mean that you punch the guy's lights out or pepper spray him. Holding a person at arm's length (if you have longer arms) is a use of force.
... I don't know why people cannot wait an additional 20-30 seconds for the group in front of them to clear before hitting.
I don't know either, but impatience and rudeness have been epidemic for decades. I date it to the late 1960s-early '70s.
The ironic thing is that these goofballs waste more time yelling at you than they lost by following the rules.
- Jim