“Yah,wisdom would demand that they let the police handle the situation.”
I read the story and watched the video of the Marine going after the kid that hit him and said to myself “That was stupid”. Then I remembered being in a very similar situation and doing the same thing. I was about 16 and riding the subway with a friend of mine. We were the only 2 whites in the car along with about 6 or 7 other older adults. A group of about 7 early teen or preteen urban yoots got on an one of them decided to harass the “white boys”. He was asking for money, being insulting, standing over us etc. At one point I had enough of this little prik and stood up. I was like a head taller than him. The some of his friends started to stand up. The kid was saying “whatchu gon do, whatchu gon do”? An older man was trying to calm things down and diffuse the situation. Luckily ours was the next stop and my friend and I got off. As we were at the top of the stairs leaving the station the little prik ran up, hit me in the back and ran back down. I saw red and started to chase him and my much smarter and level headed friend grabbed me and we went to our destination. No doubt there was a beating or worse waiting at the bottom of those stairs.
That kind of mob can administer life-changing injuries.