Vehicular situations and use of force

[Clusterfrack]

Here's a scenario from last night to start this thread off:

Mrs. CF's friend's college-age son and his girlfriend were parked in a car at a park around 10 PM near our house. Another car pulled up in front of them, a guy got out, shined a flashlight into their window and ordered them to get out. They didn't comply, and tried to drive away, but the guy (or his accomplice) drove to cut them off and forced them off the road. They bailed out of the car, ran away, managed to get help at a nearby house, and called the police. When they returned with LE, the car was ransacked.

Thoughts about how an armed citizen deals with this situation?

@Mas
@BehindBlueI's

[Wise_A]

Don't be in the park is an obvious answer. But we all know that's not an option. I'd not have bailed out--get in reverse, keep the car moving, call for help. Don't drive to the local police station, drive directly for the biggest, busiest road in the area. It will discourage pursuit and stand a better chance of driving in the direction of a working police officer.

Mrs CF's friend should consider the advantages of tolerating her son's social activities.

[Trooper224]

I'd say they did everything right, except hanging out in the park after dark, until they were run off the road. At that point the aggressors were using their vehicle/vehicles as weapons. I'm not saying they were wrong to run, but at that point deadly force may have been an articulateable response. This is presuming your people are armed. I have no knowledge of the legal minutiae of your area, but it would have been in mine.

[BN]

Hook up Apple Car Play in your vehicle. Have Siri call 911 and then drive the best possible?

[BehindBlueI's]

My state is VERY accommodating for self defense against assault on an occupied vehicle.

[Flamingo]

These things are all situational and there may have been other things that they could have done, but in the end they survived the encounter so that is a huge win in my book. While the use of deadly force may have been justified in that situation, in the end, it was just property that was damaged/stolen. While that sucks and being a victim sucks, it could have gone bad... really bad if they fought.

I am pretty confident in my fighting and shooting capabilities, but Mrs Flamingo is fairly "soft" (physically... she is way stronger than I am mentally) due to health issues and if I thought we could escape I would. If I thought that she was trapped or was going to be harmed I would have likely engaged them.

[ccmdfd]

Is running over one of the perps a viable option?

That's a serious question.

I forget who it was but many years ago one of the self-defense gurus was doing a spot on TV talking about how to handle someone approaching you while you're at the ATM. He mentioned that he had several 230 grain, 45 Caliber hollow points in his gun, but that paled in comparison to the XYZ pounds of his car.

[Trooper224]

Is running over one of the perps a viable option?

That's a serious question.

I forget who it was but many years ago one of the self-defense gurus was doing a spot on TV talking about how to handle someone approaching you while you're at the ATM. He mentioned that he had several 230 grain, 45 Caliber hollow points in his gun, but that paled in comparison to the XYZ pounds of his car.

Since Clusterfrack hasn't stated the aggressors (perps?, WTF if this Law and Order-forum.com?) were armed, we'll assume they weren't, or at least the occupants couldn't see any weapons. Being in their car, which we're assuming was locked, there was no immediate presumption of imminent danger. Therefore, if driving away was an option, which it seemed to be since that's what they did, that was the better choice than arbitrarily running over someone. As soon as the suspects escalated by using their vehicle to run them off the road and introducing it as a weapon, than all bets were off.

Again, not knowing the legal framework of the area and given only a very simple description has been provided, much of this is pure speculation.

[Wise_A]

Hook up Apple Car Play in your vehicle. Have Siri call 911 and then drive the best possible?

I'm the guy on the other end of that call. Please God don't. Car audio is absolute dogshit in nonemergency situations, and can be completely unintelligible in an emergency. They're also not that user-friendly for most people in a hurry. If the operator can't hear what's going on, the dispatch options for you are not great, ranging from a no-dispatch to, at best, a let's-mosey-over-there sort of lights-and-sirens, depending on what the local policy and technology level is.

Best would be teamwork--one drives, the other talks. Realistically, that's probably not going to be possible. Do the best you can, try if at all possible to keep communication open so dispatch knows where you are, what's going on, and where you're going. Trying to hit a moving target is bloody hard.

[MickAK]

I'm all for fleeing and there's a lot of thought that has to go into how to flee in a vehicle in different situations. Going 5 feet and getting the car stuck is not helpful, nor is running over a bystander by mistake. But a determined gas pedal solves a lot of problems. I have a really good seated draw but it still presents a lot of problems in a vehicle.

If I'm forced to leave the vehicle I'm leaving offensively. I'd rather flee but that's a really vulnerable position.