Quote:
A few years ago, my father was badly injured in a crash caused when a young idiot in a Mustang forced his way from an on-ramp into busy interstate traffic, then cut across three lanes to try and go fast. He ran my dad into the median. My dad's car spun out of control, ending up in the oncoming lanes, and in an offset headon with a Jeep. The Jeep driver was hurt even worse than my father was.
The Mustang took off. Several witnesses in other cars followed the Mustang, giving running reports via cell phone to 911.
Theoretical: What if the Mustang driver had attempted to run those witnesses off the road (assault with a deadly weapon: vehicle) or had pulled a gun on the other drivers? Would it have been the fault of the other drivers for "escalating?"
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Wow, Bad situation, good question. I will assume we are trying to contrast these two incidents, in the burglary, the BG saw the residence was occupied, and fled, thus basically ending the threat himself. Had the brothers not chased him, called the 5-0 and reported this guy they
knew, that would likely have ended in an arrest of the BG, and end of story.
In the case of your Dad, this was a crime that had the
potential to
continue. had the guy kept driving, and good witnesses continued to go their merry way while providing intel to police, resulting in an arrest, that is the best outcome. Had the H&R driver started running people off the road, or pulled a weapon, that would be a crime that was
continuing, and would be
dynamic until he was arrested or bit the dust himself. Driving down the road and passing info to police is not
aggressive,
chasing a wanna-be burglar, and
confronting him yourself
is. (IMHO)