[flyer]

Frank, press charge. The little f***er needs to be taught a lesson, and you might be able to do it. And he also needs to learn there are consequences for his actions.

You can also launch a civil action for assault. It can take a few years, but the more troubles he gets out of it, the more he might learn.

[mel]

I say press charges on the girlfriend too. She was kicking you. Maybe if she's a decent person deep down it'll be a wake up call that she's running around with a loser. If she's a loser too then she deserves it for threatening your wife and kicking you.

[lithos]

If you don't press charges, maybe the next person he hits won't be able to fight back like you did.

[res3567]

I would have taken the first few blows......then kicked his ass.....the girlfriend I would not have touched...unless she was really threatening bodily harm....lets say with a weopon. You are about the same size as me.....5'11 250lbs.....and a sensable man. But there comes a time when you have to defend yourself.

You can press charges or not.....weigh the pros and cons. you were clearly the winner in this unfortunate sitiation....no one was seriously injured. You have some pain that will evetually heal but should have no pain in your pride.....perhaps your wife being there prevented you from unleashing your beast.

Do what is best for you and good job on maintaining self-controll. I probably would not have.

I had a similar incedent just a few days ago.....I veered into the center lane of a three lane road and then all of a sudden a horn honked a kid started yelling at me The car was a honda hatchback. I was driving a Yukon XL. I braked to let the punk get ahead of me and I also got the bird as the idoit passed. I thought as you did...what to do next if this escalates any further....but the punk left me alone.
We had an incident of road rage last week which resulted from a minor colision. The a$$ hole kept on going. When the victim tried to get the licsense plate, the perpetrator got behind the victim's car and ended up shooting at the car and a 13 year old girl was killed.

My brother is a police officer and he tells me constantly.....it aint the way it used to be. However, you all's gun laws are stricter than ours so the likelyhood of that happening is low, I guess.

Any way hope you get better.....TOUGH GUY!!!!

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Last edited by res3567; 03-08-2010 at 12:19 PM.

[Ratmagiclady]

Whoof, that's terrible, Goreman. Admirable restraint, there. Best to keep a good distance when some crazy person's up in your face, though. (At half your size, that'd be a pretty darn serious situation for me. Not much room to screw around when someone's already flown off the handle, and if it was me and my sweetie, anyone that aggressive probably wouldn't stop at road rage. I think locking the doors and stalling for the cops might have been a good option for me in that situation.) I hope the nose is feeling better.

There's a couple with a serious anger management problem somewhere between them: I think we can guess where. These kinds of things tend to be chronic, so stuff like that's likely to have happened before with them, and is likely to happen again.

That's hilarious! That's exactly what's happening

Best to try not to make it keep going through your head: healthier that way. You were well in control of the situation, but your subconscious may have a different interpretation of those events, and be trying to resolve the matter by replaying it. It's OK to feel angry or whatever you need to feel, take some quiet time, be warm and comfortable a while, maybe go ahead and burst into a sprint somewhere:

(Your body and subconscious will have been all primed for fight-or-flight, which response you overrode to do responsible things: the non-talky, non-thinky parts of your body may be trying to sustain some of that energy for what it may feel is an unresolved situation. The repetitive thoughts are often your conscious mind feeling that and trying to work out the source of it. )

...so it just helps to let your neurology resolve the situation before it gets too bound up. A good sprint till you feel you've done enough of it may sound less macho than pounding on something, but your body don't care: something that registers to your instincts as a nice, vigorous 'successful escape' is the least complicated, and sends fewer mixed signals. (Hitting a punching bag or something can be a way to feel your strength, but it generally doesn't alter the bag very much, like running alters the landscape. You want your nervous system to feel 'done with this energy.' )

Now, if we could just get the average *road rager* doing stuff like that....

All the best.

And Rob's right, that was very tough. Goreman needs a deed-name like Who's Da Wall.

[Parallax]

//////////////////////I hit the brakes and honked the horn, then waved the one-finger salute.

..............

Impressive display of self-restraint. Kudos.

Hmmmmmmmm..........

[er1kksen]

Hmmmmmmmm..........

Flipping the bird has become a pretty accepted means of expressing displeasure. People honk the horn for a friendly hello as often as anything else (at least where I live), so the finger makes sense.

Anyways. if the "crazy little bastard in the civic" had merely recieved a rude gesture after cutting someone off in traffic, he probably would have thought it was hilarious and he and his girlfriend would have had an (idiotic) laugh between them.

I'm sure the collision was what set off his "civic pride" to the point of provocation.

Judging by your sig, you may just be looking for an argument , but this is my take on it.

[Parallax]

Flipping the bird has become a pretty accepted means of expressing displeasure. People honk the horn for a friendly hello as often as anything else (at least where I live), so the finger makes sense.

Anyways. if the "crazy little bastard in the civic" had merely recieved a rude gesture after cutting someone off in traffic, he probably would have thought it was hilarious and he and his girlfriend would have had an (idiotic) laugh between them.

I'm sure the collision was what set off his "civic pride" to the point of provocation.

Judging by your sig, you may just be looking for an argument , but this is my take on it.

No, not looking for an argument. It was just an observation.

[Ratmagiclady]

Well, it doesn't hurt to not-flip the bird in the first place, certainly, but horns can actually be quite expressive where I come from.

[flyer]

I'm sure the collision was what set off his "civic pride" to the point of provocation

Maybe he wanted a collision. There are many reasons for some people to cause an accident.

[JeffJS]

People honk the horn for a friendly hello as often as anything else (at least where I live), ................

My oh my!! Aren't people nice where you live.. Around here, most often, it means "get the phuck out of my way. I'm in a hurry, I own the road, and you're in my way! ". It's then usually followed by the one finger salute.

For the record, I would have Never gotten out of the truck. I would have grabbed the bastard's arm, put the truck in gear, and floored the gas pedal. Pushed his POS honda out of the way and Drug his ass for about 50 yards (sorry, Meters)... "Gee officer, I don't know what happened. He punched me and I just tried tried to get away from the situation."

There isn't anyway in hell I would be debating pressing charges on this, especially when his girlfriend (sister, mother, daughter) tried to go after my wife (girlfriend, sister, mother, daughter). I would be pressing charges against Both of them.

[Peter Zack]

Guarantee you this f*ck-knuckle will be going around telling people how either the cops won't do shit if you start a fight, so it's ok, or that he's got you so scared you were too chicken to press charges.

You've got the moral high ground. This isn't like when he was down on the ground. This is what you're meant to do.

Cops find it frustrating when they get dragged out a fight, spend X amount of time settling things down and then only to find it was all a waste of their time, because someone won't let them do their job and press charges. And then it'll probably happen again, because this dick will now think he's invincible.

I'd press charges, ami.

I couldn't agree more. The next person this idiot comes across could be a woman and her kids. He clearly has no sense of restraint and she might not be so lucky. Give the cops a chance to do their jobs. Plus if he's convicted, you could even sue and teach him a much bigger lesson.

As a community, we have to stop fools like this and give the cops/courts every opportunity to put them in their place. He needs to have this on his record if it were ever to happen again.

[flyer]

Plus if he's convicted, you could even sue and teach him a much bigger lesson.

A civil case is completely independant from a criminal case (at least in Québec), so he can sue for damages in a civil case, without having to worry about a pending criminal case.

[philbaum]

GoremanX,
Sorry to hear of your encounter. I agree with the comment someone else made - better to stay in the car, especially in a high traffic area. Your actions were highly commendable under very difficult circumstances.

A few years ago, i had my own encounter with an angry man. My wife had this custom ring built by a local jeweler that incorporated the small diamonds from her mother's and grandmother's engagement rings. It was a pretty ring but more valuable from a sentimental basis than the actual diamonds. Anyway, it went missing.

I was in a local hardware store one day, 20 years ago now, and as the clerk was processing my credit card, i observed that she was wearing the ring my wife had lost. I went home and got my wife to come back to the store with me. she confirmed it. we talked to the clerk and she said her boyfriend had bought it for her. Her boyfriend showed up and before i talked to him, the clerk warned me that her boyfriend had a bad temper and to watch out. he threatened me a lot but nothing happened and he gave me a bogus story about buying the ring. Eventually a police officer showed up.

Turns out he had worked at the local Safeway store. I wrote up a letter of the details with the proof that i had, jeweler's sketch of the original design, and dropped it off at the Safeway Store with my opinion that my wife had lost it there. and the boyfriend, who was a janitor there had picked it up. Safeway, much to their credit, sent over an investigation team and the janitor confirmed to the team that he had found the ring on the floor of the store. They obtained the ring from the janitor, and with a local police officer took it to the jeweler who made it, who confirmed our ownership.

The angry man lost his job over the ring as Safeway has a strict policy that any lost items must immediately be turned in. Next time my wife goes shopping at the store, they treat her like a hero, they hated working with this guy and were just glad they had an excuse to get rid of him.

If it helps, angry men like this have rotten miserable lives. The lose jobs over their anger. Noone wants to work with them. Sooner or later they start hitting girlfriends or spouses who leave these guys in droves. They almost never learn and continue to blame their misfortunes on those around them instead of learning and modifying their own behavior. How do i know this, well i was a Division Head for over a decade and tried to never have these guys on my staff - they are toxic. When i was younger, i had volunteered for 2 years to serve 4 hour shifts on a local mental health crisis phone line where i heard a few stories from the wives entering the women's shelter. I know they have anger management classes when they get involved in the judicial system - not sure how effective it is.

Not sure whether you should pursue this case against the man or not. I doubt that the man has any assets so a civil case would not likely produce any rewards for you. As least don't file it till you can confirm that he has some assets, if thats possible. you might want to consult a lawyer who specializes in criminal matters before filing a complaint.

[Peter Zack]

That's true here as well Yves. But if he's convicted a civil case is a slam dunk. But at this point that's putting the cart before the horse. First he needs to be charged and made to pay for his actions or at the least made accountable.

You never know the cops might know something about this guy and are just hoping someone will step up and get him in front of a judge. We can't complain about the cops unless we help them with jerks like this.