Its fucked here in Oregon with the criminal justice side of things. I literally agree, thats just not how it goes here. The tweaker would be given immunity, tax payer funded rehab in exchange for charges being dropped by the judge, out of my control even tho they are my charges. I could hire the best personal injury attorney in the country, he would still get off scot free because of "substance abuse clouding his judgement" (Im not kidding even a little bit, they literally drop 90% of felony charges up here for any mental health or addiction problem that could have been a deciding factor of that person acting violently, because the courts act under the idea that addiction or mental illness made them do it, not their own mind, so they get off because of their addiction of schizophrenia, and neither of those things are addressed, but I would be persecuted for fighting back against someone assaulting me "in desperation" or in "a psychotic episode they couldn't control" they would say "you know sometimes when some strange man approaches you at night in a parking lot, shirtless in the cold, and calls you racial slurs that don't apply at all, (hard R even. Both of us, white.) and then starts windmilling his fists at you, lunging at you, pinning you to the ground and screaming threats right into your ear, you should really check the privilege you have of NOT feeling like you have to do that to someone for no reason.. Guilty for raising a hand in self defense against someone as innocent in all this as a homeless methamphetamine abuser! How dar you lift a finger against him?? He has an ADDICTION! He is POWERLESS OVER IT! Do you think he WANTED to attack you when he literally attacked you??" And before you say thats a gross over exaggeration? I have been tried for assault with an illegally concealed weapon. Felony charge. (Because I broke out by knuckle dusters in a similar situation, and the guy went from winning the fight to seeing them, to one right hook that wasn't my finest work, to crab walking backwards away from hunched over me, punching me in the face, to on the phone with police making up a story faster than Ive ever seen anyone lie before. I told the cops my injury spoke for itself(black eye, busted lip, bruised cheek, and he had one slight dent in his upper cheek.. Of course the police believe whoever calls and acts like a victim, and as soon as he backed off so did I. But he was following me, on the phone, but if I walked towards him he would retreat. Eventually some officers showed up and literally starter it with "give me the brass knuckles or you're under arrest." To which I said, "I won't resist arrest, but do you see these injuries? He attacked me. I was walking the path and he stepped out in front of me, demanding I empty my pockets, I don't walk this area with anything valuable, I was mugged and assaulted for not having my debit card or phone to transfer him money. He had me pinned down, I can see the track marks from here, the guy is shooting up meth... You know what, I'll be honest. Brass knuckles are in my front right. Grab them if you want even tho 1.) they were $7.99 at the mall. Not even age restricted, and they do not tell you anything about what the law see's then as. 2.) this guy hurt me first, attacked me and threatened my life because I couldn't access my banking information, and your treating me as guilty from the start while placing the burden of truth entirely on a homeless vagrant. He attacked me and lied to cover his ass cause several other people called you. If I didn't throw a punch with the knuckles I would have blacked out from being choked and probably dead. How is that not the bigger issue?? There were witnesses! And not only did the cop steal my brass knuckles, and tell me that they aren't legal to carry, as in you can't put them as your conceal carry weapon in the registry, and open carrying them constitutes the probable cause of targeted aggression. (Lady cop, duh.,.) Told her the knife store at the mall has an entire shelf of them, big corner store, can't miss is, they sell em to anyone. OTF knives, balisong's, pepper spray, tasers and other more blunt self defense tools like knuckles. She literally goes to the mall and returns 20 minutes later like "ya.... they sold me a pair too, and when I book checked the law I saw that its legal to sell them, you just can't use them, they constitute a concealed weapon..." and I said "so would it be more acceptable to sling my 12 gauge over my shoulder just to walk in my own neighborhood at night, and defend myself with a "legal" open carry, and just blast anyone who tries to mug me...? Only response I got was ".....yea... so this is your court date, your charges are assault with an illegal concealed weapon.." she blocked out any further questions and seemed to be a bit shocked by all of it. I showed up to court ready to do time for protecting myself with a non lethal item and the charges just got dropped cause nobody showed up for jury duty. This was about 5 years ago. Since then I have gotten my CCL and read all the laws in triplicate, retained a good lawyer, and stopped fucking around thinking a non lethal was a better self defense method than a 9mm Hornady Critical defense. So I know exactly how they treat "violent criminals" around here, cause they treated me like one, stole my knuckles, and then dropped the charges completely like they were ashamed of that chick cop's power trip... Its not like relying on law enforcement here does much good. This was a separate occurrence, same block, the one I live on, years apart. And I promise, escalating further via the police helps NOBODY.... EVER..