A Minor Has Said That He Wants to Fight Me

[Steve Newell]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: New Hampshire
I'm 18 years old and a 17 year old kid that I've never met before told me over facebook that he was going to fight me. He basically just wants to fight because he doesn't like me or my music preference. Yeah, he's an immature loser that needs to get a life... . so what I told him was "I'm not agreeing to fight you, but if you assault me i WILL defend myself". I'm really scared that if this did happen that i could end up in jail. I know for a fact that I would win in a fight, im just terrified of going to jail for a year.. i love my job and my life is going well for me right now. I have a year suspended sentence from a little over a year ago, so if i did get charged I'd be SCREWED. I need advice.

[LawResearcherMissy]

What advice could you possibly need other than "Ignore this kid and stay away from him"?

Block him on FB, block his email address, and leave him be. How hard is this?

[Steve Newell]

He lives one town over and goes to school in my town.. I'm sure he will run into me eventually. it's legal to defend yourself in NH, but he's technically a minor right?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Your point being what?

If you can avoid him, avoid him. If you are in a context in which you can't avoid him and you feel genuinely threatened, call 911.

You seem to be angling for us to tell you that, because he made a threat against you, it's okay for you to beat him up if you meet him in the street. That's not the way it works.

[Steve Newell]

im really not trying to beat him up. id like the avoid any confrontation if possible, but if i run into him somewhere and he attacks me, do i just let him beat me up for 20 minutes until the police arrive?

[Mr. Knowitall]

I'm not going to get into a game of absurd hypothetical situations and what you might do. You're a grown-up and, legally speaking, he's still a child. Use your common sense.

[jk]

You're a grown-up .

OP appears to be proving that is based only on the actual number and has nothing to do with the maturity level presumed to be associated with that number.


steve; it's pretty simple:

avoid a confrontation. Avoid any contact you can avoid. If you are actually attacked, do what you have to to defend yourself. Realize that agitating the kid into attacking you and then claiming you are defending yourself is not a good idea. There is a guy in Texas right now facing life imprisonment for doing exactly that. There are two neighbors dead because of that.

[PandorasBox]

It's this simple. You try to avoid the confrontation. Don't go looking for him.

If he confronts you, try to make everything happen in a very public place. Let those random witnesses on the street see that you tried to walk away, called 911, and this guy still threw the first punch.

Two girls in Florida were arguing over a man. One girl threatened the other, then went off looking for her one night. The one threatened had a kitchen knife. One girl is dead. The other in prison for 27 years.

Ask yourself if it is worth it.....

[Steve Newell]

It's this simple. You try to avoid the confrontation. Don't go looking for him.

If he confronts you, try to make everything happen in a very public place. Let those random witnesses on the street see that you tried to walk away, called 911, and this guy still threw the first punch.

Two girls in Florida were arguing over a man. One girl threatened the other, then went off looking for her one night. The one threatened had a kitchen knife. One girl is dead. The other in prison for 27 years.

Ask yourself if it is worth it.....

Thanks for being the only one with a helpful response.

- - - Updated - - -

OP appears to be proving that is based only on the actual number and has nothing to do with the maturity level presumed to be associated with that number.


steve; it's pretty simple:

avoid a confrontation. Avoid any contact you can avoid. If you are actually attacked, do what you have to to defend yourself. Realize that agitating the kid into attacking you and then claiming you are defending yourself is not a good idea. There is a guy in Texas right now facing life imprisonment for doing exactly that. There are two neighbors dead because of that.

I didnt agitate anyone. the only reason he is agitated is because i told him his insults weren't hurting my feelings.

[Dogmatique]

The mature response would have been...

...no response at all.

Seriously - if it wasn't affecting you, you wouldn't have bothered telling him that his insults weren't hurting you.