QUESTION
If someone gets in my face w aggressive demeanor can I defend myself without catching a case
Asked on May 13th, 2021 on Criminal Law - Utah
More details to this question:
I was walking on the sidewalk and some stranger got in my face and was cussing at me and behaving aggressive and apprehensivly. Ifelt my personal space and wellbeing and safety where threatened, I walked away. But my first instinct was to defend my safety and we'll being if I acted up such instinct and defended myself from that incoherently aggressive stranger who I felt like was attempting to instigate a physically violent altercation would the local law recognize I would have been acting out of self defense for my wellbeing and safety?
1 ANSWER
Yes you can. If you feel threatened you (words alone are usually not enough, they have to be threatening to do something or acting like they may come after you) can respond with reasonable force. Meaning if they push you then you can push back or throw a punch. What you can't do is respond with unreasonable force. (i.e. you can hit them with a bat if the push you). If you're in a place that you have every right to be (essentially any public place) you do not have a duty to retreat. Just remember that you do not have a self-defense argument if you're the aggressor.
Answered on May 17th, 2021 at 6:48 PM