Fight at DC Chick-fil-A

Based on the written account it looks like the employee started out by defending himself from a criminal assault. But the video shows that he might have continued the fight longer than necessary. The right to self defense is commonly said to only extend to doing what is necessary to defend against a criminal assault; anything beyond that is supposed to be left to the authorities.

It looks to me like the management decided that the employee went beyond that threshold. But if the police didn't see a reason to charge the guy I would have given him the benefit of the doubt if the decision had been up to me. Not having seen the whole thing or talked to witnesses it's hard to say for sure, but I assume the police did a reasonably thorough investigation, and if they didn't see a reason to charge the guy with anything then there should not have been a reason to fire him either. That's my take on it.

I think we have gone too far in restraining those who act in self defense, and the effect of that is to embolden bullies and trouble-makers. People are less likely to start a fight if they know there's a good chance they'll get their butt kicked. And once a fight starts, your fighting instinct takes over and it isn't always so easy to know exactly when to stop. So I think the current mentality on this puts too great a burden on the defender.

I would say most people who saw the whole thing probably saw the younger man as a hero, because their instinct told them he was defending all of them from an aggressor, and it's ok if the aggressor got hit a few more times than necessary.

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Fight at DC Chick-fil-A