TexasCHLforum.com

Captain Matt wrote: [*]You can wait in the parking lot until he leaves and get his license plate and a description of the car and call the police to report a drunk driver.[/list]
There are a lot of things you can do outside the law to deal with bullies.

Although I'm 99% sure that the officer would tell me there's not enough evidence for a case if I tried your first two suggestions, the third one is a really good idea. As long as he was actually driving instead of riding with friends, and if they didn't notice me tailing them (which I bet I could pull off). Wish I'd thought about that... thanks, now I know.

To everyone else who replied, thank you. I never really cared for group therapy sessions, but I have to say this helped a lot.

...and I didn't want to hi-jack this thread...

I've met some really good friends from something as simple as, "Hey is that a Blackberry?" here in San Marcos. I guess the overwhelmingly positive contacts with strangers on the Square (mostly Texas State students) has made me a lot less weary of such requests.

I'm usually pretty good at letting things go without a second thought, even having someone pour beer on me on purpose didn't bother me (I was going to go home and shower anyway... ), but this just caught me so off guard. I just recently bought the phone too, and money's a bit tight around Christmas as it is. This really is the first time I can remember where I looked at someone and actually weighed my options as far as causing them physical harm. As dewayneward said, martial arts training is a double-edged sword. I'm usually very forgiving and like to assume the best in everyone.

Just to give you an idea, my first thought upon noticing what he did was, "Oh it's no big deal, it won't damage the glass." Then I looked closer and realized it was plastic.

In the end it's only going to cost me $50. Not nearly worth the loss of my CHL or court fees. Based on my experience in this life, sooner or later he'll reap what he sows, and hopefully I'll get to read the newspaper article.

I actually just held it up for him to look at when he did what he did. I was partially in another conversation and the phone was between my line of sight and his other hand. I realized what was happening when I felt the ash on my hand as it broke off from being pressed against my phone.

I live in San Marcos, we don't really have higher class establishments.

I'm not sure that being at a non-51% establishment would have been a good thing. Although I know I wouldn't have even thought about shooting, I may have been tempted to "brandish" as a way of trying to help the guy make the right choice as far as paying me for damages. A horrible idea, I know, but man was I furious.

The thought did cross my mind to stalk him to his car, grab the plates, locate his place of residence, then wait til he's not home... but then again, I'd hate to be a bad CHL stat. I also daydream of fighting ninja's and single handedly winning the war in Iraq with nothing but a Katana and my lightning-fast reflexes, so don't take this too seriously.

I guess it helps to hear that I acted about as well as I could.

Wouldn't using your car be just as dangerous (legally) for you?

I am really interested on the whole protecting property thing though. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think this falls in closely enough that it can be answered along with the "protecting your car/other property" thing:

I was recently in a bar (obviously not carrying) and a guy asked if he could see my phone. It's a common request, so I thought nothing of it and showed it to him. He put his ciggerette out on it, melting the plastic screen a little. He laughed and thought it was funny.

No one else noticed it happening, his friends acted like I was being belligerent when I asked him if he was planning on replacing the damaged phone, and when other people became involved he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. Now I know from personal experience that a LEO would tell me that there's not enough evidence for a case. I thought about pounding his face in, but I've never started a fight even though I have a pretty decent martial arts background, I know that I don't want to risk my CHL over a stupid phone. The guy was just being a drunk jerk, but I hated having to stand there with him telling me to "walk off" after he did that to my phone. So yeah, I did just that and walked off.

Is there anything I could have done to right that wrong legally? Is it the law-abiding citizen's lot in life to bend over and take it in situations like this? I have to go replace my phone soon, every time I look at the screen it just makes me mad all over again.