Shogun said:
I hear a lot of stories hangin out at the Sheriff's office (I'm an explorer) and most of the stories I hear, the person who receives the most amount of damage is the victim, even if the were the initial attacker.
Because so many incidents start out with two young studs yelling at each other and puffing their chests up before
somebody throws the first blow. Both sides say the other side did, and the witnesses are not sure and give conflicting stories. In this case, the police seem to assume that the guy who is still standing is that way because he sucker punched first and thus got the advantage. The thing is, most of the time they are right.
In the above situation, one side may have thrown the first blow, but neither side was showing a willingness to get away or avoid the fight. So, throw the guy with the least damage into jail.
Take a look at
this thread about hoko no kamae for some ideas about how to avoid this type of situation. I especially like the story by Tengu6 about how Butch Johnson used Hoko to defend himself and beat the other guy into the ground and not be hauled away after the fight.
Think about this. What if someone at a fast food place starts the screaming and puffing up chest dance. You step back into Hoko and start saying very loudly, "I don't want any of this macho bovine feces." The other guys takes a step towards you and you use tobijutsu to bounce away toward the door. Now the entire restraunt has seen you state you don't want a fight, try to get away and the other guy chasing you before the fight starts.
If he is the guy that goes to the emergency room, do you think your chances of getting off are a lot better now?
Of course, it helps if you don't try to tough it out and ask for medical care for any injuries the other guy did to you. And you find people who saw what was going on and ask them to stick around to tell the cops. If the only guys still there when the police show up are his friends you are in deep doo doo.
The core tenent of ninjutsu is not beating the other guy into mulch, but to get home alive. If you make a good effort to get away from the other guy before the fight starts, your chances of not getting into legal trouble are better.