“FWIW, it’s illegal to initiate force simply because someone is yelling at you.”
Not completely. If they place you in fear of an immediate battery, you may lash out first. The felony example is if the bad guy has a gun, you are under no obligation to let him fire first.
If the totality of the persons behavior would convince a reasonable person that you are about to be hit, you can defend yourself with enough force to stop them.
Its all how it is articulated. Are they clenching a fist? Do they say anything indicating an intent? Menacing body posture? Lawyers have a lot of ways to defend that successfully.
If they are standing there reading a manifesto and it looks like a school play, then no. If it looks like you are in danger, sometimes yes.
I think the diners should have all started chanting GET THE F*** OUT GET THE F*** OUT
That’s what I would have done.
They are disturbing the peace on private property. They are taking away, or at least limiting, the store owner’s legitimate income. They are harassing private citizens who have done nothing to provoke it. They are bullying the waiters and waitresses, preventing them from
doing their jobs.
Surely somewhere in there, legal lines have been crossed. These perps need to be arrested.