What would you do if a man was to punch your wife in the face

As a guy, what would you do if a woman punched you in the face and then walked away?

This happened to me. I was young and drunk and at a party. Somebody convinced me to take a Quaalude on top of all the beer I had so things got even more fuzzy for me.

I should say up front, I’ve never hit a woman intentionally and I’ve been a protector of women all my life even risking my life in college to stop a rape in progress. So punching women is not my thing. It only happened once.

There was a girl at the party and she was a bad ass and not too many people messed with her. I’ve always been pretty well built with a lot of muscles, so other guys and sometimes girls like her tended to challenge me to test out their own prowess or strength.

From what I was told, she sparked up a conversation with me and then for some reason said that her boyfriend could kick my ass. I apparently replied with something derogatory about his privates and she slugged me in the jaw with a left hook outta nowhere.

Remember, I was feeling no pain and everything in front of me and around me was a blur. Either way, she never had time to just “walk away” because I apparently reacted with an involuntary right hook and she went flying across the room. I had no idea I had landed such a solid punch until my friends told me the next day.

I was lucky to have most of the crowd on my side because everybody cheered when she went flying. So whatever the argument was about, I guess I won.

If someone punches your friend in the face do you have the legal right to punch them in the face?

As others have stated, no you don’t. But I wouldn’t think about the legal implications as much. Instead, find the moral ground. Do the right thing, not the legal thing.

If you’re out eating chicken nuggets with your friend and a Slitheryn gang from school start making trouble, the leader taking one of the nuggets and calling your friend something bad, I’d grab a chair and whack his teeth out to set an example. It would be the morally right, not legally right thing.

If you’re being obnoxious with your friend, loudly listening to K-Pop on your phone in a public place and someone gets pissed, tells your friend to turn the shit down, your friend replies with “fuck off, wanker” and gets hit as a result, just get in between, apologize to the guy, tell your friend not to provoke fights and be chill. Hitting him would be legally acceptable (grey area) but it would be the morally wrong thing to do.

If you’re hanging out with your friend and a guy you both know walks past you, who’s been a pain in the ass for some time, always telling on you and never sharing anything, so you decide to stalk him up an alley where he feels threatened and throws the first punch, after which you hospitalize him, you’d be both legally and morally wrong, even though the guy hit first.

In all of this, you need to find the path you’ll be comfortable with in life. If jailtime is a consequence of that path but in hindsight you did the best you could, I recommend you don’t hold back out of fear. But always ask yourself if a later you will be proud of it. There have been times when I decided to lash out because of insecurity or fear and I ended up being a big bully towards some small kid who just tagged along in order to fit in. Even if your criminal record will prove that you’re an upstanding citizen with a pristine white collar, you might be ashamed of what you did and that’s a consequence you’ll find more problematic than pain or legal trouble. So don’t give in to fury. Check if you can just walk away with your friend, if the attacker can be calmed down and reasoned with, because sometimes, they’re like you, they feel insulted and they want to make things right. If you show them they’re in the wrong, they’ll likely apologize.

If I see a man punch a woman and I beat the guy up, will I go to jail?

It really depends on a number of issues.

Defense of others is a legal defense to battery   (which is the legal term for "beating up")  . Here is a legal article explaining both battery and defense of others as a defense. Assault and Battery Lawyers  .

I will give three examples one where you would likely not go to jail, one where you might and one where you likely would not.  and one where you would.

Hypo #1 Likely No Jail

A 220 pound guy has a 110 pound woman on pinned to the floor and is punching her. If you came in and punched him while he was not looking then subdued him and waiting for the cops to arrive. Likley no jail.

However, if you continued to punch him after he was defenseless and he subsequently died or suffered more damages you would then have exceed reasonable force, but in all likelihood in that scenario jail is unlikely.

Hypo #2 Maybe Jail

If you see a man and woman arguing and the guy pushes the woman (unclear how hard), but the woman stumbles and you assume he is going to attack her, but you really don't know.  If you jump in and start beating the guy up, you might go to jail for that? It may be unreasonable force you don't know how hard he pushed her, you don't know if he was going to attack her, so in that scenario it could go either way.

Hypo #3 Likely Jail

If you hear a man and woman talking loudly, but you assume it is an argument. Man playfully punches woman on the arm and then you sucker punch the guy. Then your probably going to jail.

The simple fact is that a totality of circumstances test would be used.  There is no black and white answer. I could go on with a million different scenarios, but if you attack someone whether it is to defend them or not you take a legal and physical risk. You might think you are doing something great by interfering in what is a typical loud argument between a couple that is not threatening at all and if you are interfere there your the bad guy.

Or you may interfere and save a woman from being murdered.

These are the kinds of interactions police face all the time and there is never a clear answer, particularly the heat of the moment.

So in typical lawyer fashion the answer to your question is it depends.

What do you call a man in a hole?

Phil.

This is part of a series of “quadraplegic jokes” where a hapless man with no arms or legs is given a series of funny names and occupations.

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in the swimming pool? - Bob

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs at the bottom of the swimming pool? - Rock

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in front of your door? - Matt

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on the wall? - Art

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in the mailbox? - Bill

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a pile of leaves? - Russell

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on the stage? - Mike

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on the hibachi with his wife? - Frank and Patti

And then you start to get to the real punch lines…

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in the ocean? - Fucked!

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a wheelchair? - My UNCLE! He was in VIETNAM! See? It’s not so funny anymore, is it?

And then you follow up with the conclusion: What do you say to a one legged hitch-hiker? - Hop in!

What do you call a guy with a shovel in his head? - Doug

What do you calla guy WITHOUT a shovel in his head? - Douglass

And by then, if you still have a single person listening, you follow up with the “Leper jokes”:

Why did the leper crash his car? - He left his foot on the gas.

Why did the leper leave the poker game? - Someone threw in his hand.

Why did the leper leave the hockey game? - There was a face-off in the corner.

Why did the leper leave the party? - They kept using his back for dip.

What did the leper say to the prostitute? - Keep the tip!

You have to do these joke rapid-fire before they sink in too much. It’s like a routine.

What are the consequences of punching someone in the face after you were deliberately provoked?

I normally answer these questions from my current point of view as a legal practitioner. But, as I have personal experience with this particular scenario, I’ll give you this info as a former/reformed hothead.

I personally have had someone provoke me; and, I punched him right in the nose. It was a gratifying crunch and he dropped, crying about how sorry he was; but, only for a few minutes.

As soon as I walked away he called 911 and the coops showed up to arrest me for battery. So, I went to jail.

As that was not my first arrest for such asinine behavior the magistrate decided I could spend the remainder of the weekend in jail until I saw the judge on Monday.

The judge agreed with the magistrate and denied me bail, setting the trial for a month away.

A couple of weeks later I was finally assigned a public defender who told me about a deal being offered by the prosecutor. I pled no contest to simple assault, they dropped the felony, and, after 20 days in jail I got a quick hearing where the judge released me to my new buddy for the following three years - a probation officer. I ended up paying nearly $18,000 in damages (medical bills), fines and court costs and was chained to a PO for those three years where I had to take time off work (costing me more money each time; and a couple of jobs during those years) to go take drug tests or just come in for meetings. Plus, I got to spend a couple more weeks in jail until the court figured out I wasn’t the one who beat that same guy to a pulp outside of a bar one night.

So, if you’ve already done this, good luck (honestly, I got off easy, your sentence is likely to be much worse). If you haven’t punches this moron yet; don’t do it.

I’ll leave you with the words that judge spoke to me all those years ago- “Son, there is absolutely no word in the English language anyone can say to you that gives you the right to put your hands on them!”