quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I haven’t been name calling. Serious chip on your shoulder bud.

It baffles me to no end how he could have an incident on the road

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I haven’t been name calling. Serious chip on your shoulder bud.

Wow man. Ok, I get it. You don’t like me. I’m sorry for whatever I did to you to cause this. At this point I think it’s best we just ignore each other. Be well.

quote:

Doesn't really matter though. I got some good advice and appreciate it. Frankly, it changed what I was going to do and I think it's a better decision, so I got the help I was looking for.

You're welcome!
The collective wealth of knowledge, wit and wisdom here is amazing.
Sometimes you will get great advice. Sometimes free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.
At any rate..., relax and have a great weekend!

Well have you followed up yet OP? I would at least follow up with them to find out what they did. I see that type of driver every other day on the interstate. There's always an asshole who is too f'ing stupid to realize he should just sit back and wait in line. Road rage stupidity aside (you guys are full of crap if you claim to never have gotten close to someone's bumper in your life), brandishing your handgun like that is at the top of the "things complete dipshit morons would do" list.

I don't think most of us that have a problem with you are criticizing you much for the actual incident. We are all human and have moments of weakness.

Hell, I did pretty much the same thing last night on the way home from work. The difference is that after it was over I said to myself, "Damn, that was stupid. I need to get a grip on myself and do better in the future."

You, on the other hand, have doubled down on your behavior and stated your intent to do it again if faced with a similar situation. As some one on here likes to say, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

quote:

Originally posted by RichN:
I don't think most of us that have a problem with you are criticizing you much for the actual incident. We are all human and have moments of weakness.

Hell, I did pretty much the same thing last night on the way home from work. The difference is that after it was over I said to myself, "Damn, that was stupid. I need to get a grip on myself and do better in the future."

You, on the other hand, have doubled down on your behavior and stated your intent to do it again if faced with a similar situation. As some one on here likes to say, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

Exactly this

Just an FYI, calling 911 is not “filing a report” all it does is make the dispatcher send a cop to investigate it....maybe. Depending on situation, some things don’t even get a second look. Ie the cop gets the report ten minutes after it was called in, tag was not correct and there is no way to follow up on it, or it happened in another jurisdiction than the 911 center is in (like it happened in the county and a trooper should get it, but it was dispatched over the city’s channel, so that cop ain’t gonna do anything)
Sometimes the 911 guys get it wrong or sometimes the caller gets it wrong.

But, in the future I’d call something like it in to 911, give my info if the cops need me, not do anything to aggravate the situation and then not worry about it.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
he's the kind of dipshit who... shouldn't have a gun.

I believe you made an error in judgement by tailgating the asshole. I do believe you did the right thing by reporting the incident. I would not press the issue any further.

Thanks mike, that’s what I was wondering.

And yeah Rich, I hear you. My comment about doing it again was to let the folks who were making this into something it wasn’t that I wasn’t interested.

I was there, I know what it was and it wasn’t. People are saying I was raging and all other things it wasn’t. I was looking for advice on how to handle the complaint. People built this into something it wasn’t in their heads. If they think me staying where he put me for a couple seconds was road rage and irresponsibile, I said ok, but I think it was fine. Now what? Insult me for not agreeing with them. That’s nuts. Who can’t take criticism here?

I’ve been accused of not being calm and people saying my conduct here shows I’m hot headed or argumentative, or whatever they’re trying to heap on me.

Frankly I think I’ve been nothing but calm in the face of people who could probably use a bit of a smack down, but I’m just not into it...sooooooo much irony imo. I just chalk it up to some folks just can’t help but preach even when they weren’t invited to. Hell i apologized to a guy who called me angry and stubborn, but I’m the problem? Ok I guess.

esdunbar,

Do you have your CCW in Ohio? If so, when you went to you your class for your license, do you remember the part where one of the criteria for using your ccw was not escalating the situation?

I know you didn't pull a gun, but you sure did escalate by tailgating him and if you had to pull a gun would have been just as liable as the other guy.

quote:

Originally posted by remsig:
esdunbar,

Do you have your CCW in Ohio? If so, when you went to you your class for your license, do you remember the part where one of the criteria for using your ccw was not escalating the situation?

I know you didn't pull a gun, but you sure did escalate by tailgating him and if you had to pull a gun would have been just as liable as the other guy.

I was actually a criminal defense attorney for my first 4 years out of law school. I know the law very well still. And no, I did not do anything that would prevent me from using deadly force if he shot at me or took it any further than he did. I’m very confident in that from a legal perspective.

You are correct though, one can loose the right to defend themselves with deadly force. I didn’t actually do anything. I stayed where I was....and that’s not the type of thing that negates the right to deadly force anyways.

quote:

So he's a family guy...

Why in the world would this matter?

This is a perfect example of why two men should be able to engage in single combat with one another without any legal fall out.

Anyone else reading through this thread and thinking to himself "yeah, I really do need to do a better job to avoid tailgating and reactive driving"?

I've been guilty of jamming on my brakes, moving across lanes, etc. The older I get, the less I can justify it, so (generally) the less I do it.

Note to self: let it go.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS. Just let it go, and learn from the situation.

Wow. Being stubborn to a certain point is admirable. Your well past that OP. If you want to argue with everyone, you should have just said so. A humble man would have taken some advice here & been smarter next time. Doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen for you.

It’d be funny as hell if you followed up on this & caught some charges yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
Wow. Being stubborn to a certain point is admirable. Your well past that OP. If you want to argue with everyone, you should have just said so. A humble man would have taken some advice here & been smarter next time. Doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen for you.

It’d be funny as hell if you followed up on this & caught some charges yourself.

Not humble and not smart...let’s add that to the list.

What, pray tell, charges do you suppose would be brought against me? Since I can’t think of any and I’m a trained litigator, I’m dying to hear what you’ve got! Especially since you weren’t there. And you’d find it amusing if a member had charges brought against them...again, but I’m the problem? Hmmmmm.

I haven’t argued with everyone. I’ve taken issue only with people who have came into an otherwise helpful discussion with unnecessary personal attacks. Of all the people who’ve posted here, I’ve named the four I am dissenting with. Surprise, you are one of them. I believe you called me an asshole early on. That was super helpful and necessary.

You then went on to say I was camped in the left lane and should have gotten over. Remember that? Remember how that assumption was blatantly incorrect? I remember that, good times you and I.

I was on the ground. You weren’t. I’m perfectly capable of determining the level of danger involved. I’m perfectly capable of saying if it was over the top or not. I said I was comfortable with how it went down. That some people can’t accept that is the issue. You want to tell me what this situation was and wasn’t despite you not being there. Some have made up a scenario in their head that didn’t exist. I can’t help that, all I can continue to say is that I was there and you weren’t. Thinking you had a better eyeball on this than me is silly. Insulting a person because they won’t let you make this situation into some giant case of road rage that it wasn’t is my objection.

So let me say this again for some. I’m an adult. I’m a professional. Hell I was a criminal defense attorney. I’m a father of 3. I’ve never been in a fist fight or other physical altercation. I’m not a screamer or yeller. I’m a practicing Catholic who attends church weekly. I’m a husband. Are we getting the picture? Im a normal person who I don’t think has given folks here too much trouble. If I say it was ok, can some you accept that? Can I get the benefit of doubt since you weren’t there? Or will you still insist to tell me what this situation that you didn’t see was? I’ve told you it was ok and not road rage. If you’d like to advise me on my question, that would be great. If you’d like to call me stubborn, I’d ask you to consider the above. Why must you insist on a line of thinking when a member in good standing has said, ‘no guys, it wasn’t what you’re thinking, I’m ok with the situation, that’s not the issue here.’

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
It’d be funny as hell if you followed up on this & caught some charges yourself.

What charge could the OP possibly catch here? What law did he break?

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
It’d be funny as hell if you followed up on this & caught some charges yourself.

What charge could the OP possibly catch here? What law did he break?

Reckless driving here or aggressive driving.. His laws may be different though.

So if someone cuts you off and a cop cites you for tailgating, you think it’s reasonable? No, we all know that’s not reasonable and it’s not gonna happen.

I realize the whole opininons=assholes thing...


If I understand what you say happened, (and it is da troof) being:

1. Guy is tailgating.
2. He zooms around.
3. Pulls in a very tight space in front of you.
4. You hold your speed for a moment.
5. He "shows you his", then shows it nekked.
7. You call 911.

And somewhere between 4 and 7, you backed off, then the only two things I would have seen that could be done differently would be,

A. Move to the right when he was on your ass, but you do not have to if it was either unsafe or no place to move to the right. (however, if he "zoomed" around, there needed to be space on the right for him to do so).

B. As soon as he pulled in front, or as soon as he moved to the right to "zoom", you could have dropped back.

With only what you have said in the thread, those two options may have de-escalated, and maybe they would have done nothing, as the other guy could have cut to the right in front of you, or dropped speed with you. I have seen both types of behavior from asshats on the road.

All that said, things happen quickly on the road at those speeds.

And to add more assholery/opinion, the fact that you posted this is much like the ND threads, I think many of us may think/believe we are never "the asshole driver", and sometimes we make an untended bad move, and all is subject to interpretation by other drivers.

And anyone who has done more than drive real slow on the driveway on Saturday, has encountered the morons who think the entire driving experience is their's not to share, and will engage and continue to "rage" even after the other person takes action to avoid them after "first contact".

And lastly, with the opinion, I think some are being a little hard on the Beaver, and doing exactly what the road ragers would do, feeling justified in continuing, no matter what the "other guy" is doing.

Or I might owe someone(s), and apology...


I have been guilty of reacting when I should not have. It is in my nature and "upbringing" to defend and fight back, I really have to mind myself to not go on the offensive and try to not allow myself to be baited.

Everyone has their limits and that "redline" can swing with the variables in one's life. Anyone who claims that they are immune to such things, or that all things are a "choice to react to outside stimuli" and all withing one's self control, live in a fantasy.

Everyone can be pushed to react "out of character". All else are liars.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
So if someone cuts you off and a cop cites you for tailgating, you think it’s reasonable? No, we all know that’s not reasonable and it’s not gonna happen.

Again your laws may vary. If you let off gas or tapped the brakes and/or didn't escalate the situation bwith the hand gesturing then likely not.

The prudent thing to do in this scenario is to stay away assholes, either pull into Lane to right and let him pass or lift your foot off accelerator for a very brief moment.

I promise you this, you did not teach him a lesson by "let(ting) him get a good look at my front bumper."
I can also guarantee that it won't change his behavior in the future.

So what exactly is gained by returning the favor to him? Nothing. It only makes everyone around you and your commute slightly less safe.

Just be cool man. No good can come of engaging in this guys childish games. As I said earlier I'm not perfect, but 98% I just get out of dicks ways and worry about me being safe. If I do engage, I don't tailgate, just a honk and the bird.

Be safe out there guys, it ain't worth it.

Edit. Monkey said what I was trying to say, but a bit better.