Protective orders offer some legal protection. If you have to use force, using it against someone who had a restraining order against them makes it more likely for the authorities and/or a jury to find you to be justified.
Having lived through a noxious period of time being constantly harassed and threatened with physical assault by a deranged man who was displeased when I ended our extremely short relationship...and having followed all the supposedly sane and legal routes to stop it, I can state one true thing to anyone who encounters a maniac like the one I had to deal with (who had several “ins” with the court system)
Arm yourself, and discretely explain the situation to your own private network of good ole bad boys.
Then follow the ancient and basic, tried and true, 100% effective, SSS formula.
The primary problem with restraining orders, is that they are counterproductive. If they work to deter the threat, they were not really needed in the first place.
They rarely work when the threat is real and imminent.
IMNSHO.
whip it, whip it good.