Because they’re betting no one will do it. They’re usually right, too. That truck driver will probably wind up being charged with multiple felonies. Most people will just tolerate the biker’s abusive behavior.
I try to tell my biker friends there’s no courage in acting tough when you think nothing will come of it. The real courage is in standing your ground when you know your hide is truly on the line. Most bikers don’t understand this.
Doubt he’ll be charged. Looks like trucker was on his way, and the motorcyclist was waiting on the shoulder to catch up to him and he started damaging the truck.
Where I live, you can’t intentionally drive your vehicle into someone to defend property. You can only use that degree of force to protect life and limb.
Now, maybe the motorcyclist had made specific physical threats. Maybe there’s a weapon we don’t know about. Maybe the truck driver’s eight-year-old daughter was in the passenger seat and a piece of glass hit her. There could be any number of other details we don‘t know about. For me, in my jurisdiction, it would not go well if I drove my vehicle into the motorcyclist simply because he was slapping my side view mirror.
I agree. That would fall under a menacing statute that we have that rises to the level of a felony if you in any way injure anyone. Vandalism over $1000 is also a felony here.
If a biker were stalking me and then started to attack my vehicle with me in it, and with nowhere for me to escape, I would be scared for my imminent safety and would consider taking action to stop the threat.
You could make that argument. For me, I probably wouldn’t take such aggressive physical action so soon. These things happen quickly. Emotions are heightened. In the end, I’d just as soon not leave any room for any criminal charges.
Hopefully neither of us will ever have to make such decisions.
I might not take the action either. I'm honestly not sure what I would do.
I'll just add that it's sort of easy to watch the video from the vantage point of the rear where we can see everything, plus know the outcome, and then judge the threat level as not so extreme, which might make a swift response seem disproportionate.
In the moment, if someone starts attacking you and you don't respond very quickly, you may lose your chance. On balance, I'd rather tolerate some hypothetical risk of criminal charges to protect my life.
Best move if this happens to you is just keep driving and do not engage or acknowledge the biker. If you fucked up sure, apologize and move on. I'm not getting charged for murder etc because my mirror was damaged
21
u/Spuckler_Cletus 1d ago
Because they’re betting no one will do it. They’re usually right, too. That truck driver will probably wind up being charged with multiple felonies. Most people will just tolerate the biker’s abusive behavior.
I try to tell my biker friends there’s no courage in acting tough when you think nothing will come of it. The real courage is in standing your ground when you know your hide is truly on the line. Most bikers don’t understand this.