Citizens Seem Primed to Retaliate Against Memphis Teen Mobs

Claiborne Ferguson says that driving through a rampaging mob would likely be illegal... but admits he'd do it anyway to save his kids.

Recent mob attacks by African-American teens on innocent people has left Memphis, Tennessee on edge.

In the first attack, the mob attacked a man walking into a Kroger and two young employees that attempted to come to his aid, beating them unconscious.

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In the second incident, they attacked a woman in her car, leaving her to issue the ominous warning that if the mobs weren’t brought under control soon, that, “Memphis is going to burn.”

Memphis’s NewsChannel 3 seems intent on trying to deescalate the situation by telling citizens that there isn’t much you can do, legally, in terms of self-defense:

For the second time this month, a mob of teenagers has attacked innocent victims on city streets.

One man was still in the hospital Monday night, while city leaders and law enforcement still struggle to figure out how to keep teens from striking again.

If you face a mob, do you pull a gun? Hit them with your car? Lawyers say both of those could land you behind bars.

Good luck selling that argument, WREG.  It is certainly possible that using a firearm or vehicle as a self-defense weapon against a mob can land you in jail.

But rational people can also intuit that a mob can easily turn deadly.

In the video above, attorney Claiborne Ferguson suggests that using your car as a weapon in self defense to drive through an attacking mob could leave you facing criminal charges…

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Claiborne Ferguson says that driving through a rampaging mob would likely be illegal... but admits he'd do it anyway to save his kids.
Claiborne Ferguson says that driving through a rampaging mob would likely be illegal… but admits he’d do it anyway to save his kids.

… and then admits, “If my kids were in the car, I would have floored it.”

No one wants to use lethal force against teens who are merely committing acts of vandalism.

These teens needs to understand, however, that citizens have every right to assume that a large and lawless mob using makeshift weapons or even simply fists and feet can reasonably be considered a lethal force threat when they gang up on victims or vehicles.

It is very unlikely that a jury is going to convict a person who has a reasonable suspicion that they are just seconds away from becoming the next Reginald Denny.

The parents of these young criminals need to rein them in, before someone winds up in the hospital, or in a dark metal drawer in the morgue.

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