How to Not Get Arrested for Fighting

Well, I guess you could just not fight, but that's not what this is about. Everybody's always like, "Well don't start shit!" My question for them is, "What if you're getting mugged...?" Or even better, "What if you see somebody else getting attacked?"

Yeah, seriously. You could be seeing somebody get the crap beat out of them, or somebody hoping to not get raped, or someone could try breaking into your house and you want to defend yourself.

Did you know that even if a robber just broke into your house, but sustains an injury at your house, you can be charged? Ironically, there's also another law somewhere that states that the robbers are responsible for themselves if they do that stuff... Once a home owner ended up killing somebody (a teenager actually... ouch) and the other teen accomplices were actually been charged with the murder. Yeah, screwed up, right?

You can relatively easily avoid going to jail... It's sort of simple.


1. It depends on the situation, but try NOT striking people.
Striking is illegal, especially if you start it. A lot of martial arts counters involves strikes... It might also be helpful to mention that some martial arts were built to kill people in a war! We're not really in feudal Japan, or part of the Israeli Defense Forces.

However, it's probably okay to strike somebody if they're going to kill you, rape you, have a weapon, or anything else where your life is truly in danger. I reaalllyyy think you should tread lightly on this one.

Learn how to handle people without hitting. Maybe talking, but I'm mainly talking about locks and submissions.

2. Don't be an idiot.
If somebody throws popcorn at you, don't punch them in the face. This actually happened, I just came out of a school dance one time, and I saw this happen.

If you have an opportunity to call the cops, you should probably take it... There are a lot of factors involved, like not seeing something coming, or if it suddenly escalates quickly, or if there's a working phone around. But if there's a really violent situation already happening, and you have a chance to call for help, you probably should.

Those are two pretty big ones, here are some smaller ones I'm too lazy to write about.

• Run away (if there's a gun, run in a zig-zag)
• Pick up a weapon (you don't need to use it, it's just for being more intimidating)
• Don't fight (not always an option, but it helps)
• Do the fighters give their consent? Fighting in a competition, or just for fun is usually okay within reason. (No really bad injuries, or deaths.) It helps... I like to spar for fun, and I practice with nunchucks at school, so I guess I can technically get the cops called on me. *ahem*

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