Re:Gaspard, the anti-assault accessory: never be alone again
by dragonwriter on Friday October 03, 2014 @11:48AM
(#8406025)
> Which is critical not only as a matter of morals, but because it's illegal to intervene on the side of an aggressor.
Which includes intervening, in many ways, where there is no aggressor (as then you become the aggressor, not merely someone intervening on the side of the aggressor) -- a possibility which it is quite likely that the would-be vigilantes who would have the greatest inclination to sign-on to such a system are likely to not consider when responding to a call.
Which is critical not only as a matter of morals, but because it's illegal to intervene on the side of an aggressor. And there can be two stages of that, the first to threaten or use physical force, and the first to threaten or use lethal force. The definition of the latter is complicated, not to mention controversial and subject to second guessing etc., especially when the other person doesn't have a weapon.
The general advice is don't, or as Massad Ayoob puts it, if you were in a hospital and saw a random person needing low 6 figures of medical care, would you give him a check for it? Because that's what it takes to adequately defend yourself against a serious criminal charge.