Striking an aggressor preemptively is legally permissible* in many jurisdictions across the world in order to protect yourself, third parties or property.
The principles of having a genuine belief that you need to defend yourself or people or property in your care or having a fear for your safety is central to any self defence claim if your have to strike first, before the aggressor has initiated any actual physical action.
To protect yourself legally, it is paramount that you can demonstrate four key principles in order to have a legitimate claim of self defence.
We’ve previously referenced these as the IMOP acronym. IMOP is an abbreviation of INTENT, MEANS, OPPORTUNITY and PRECLUSION.
This acronym is a very useful model to first assess and later explain why you took a preemptive self defence action and became violent against another person.
Simply, the IMOP act as your model to explain and rationalise to the authorities afterwards why you had to take the action you did.
The INTENT to hurt you must be shown by the aggressor, for example through their verbal statements, body language or physical movement or manoeuvring. You must be able to explain how you saw this intent and why it was fearful to you.
The MEANS to hurt you must be in place. If an angry old lady with limited mobility and power threatens to beat you up, the angry intent may be present but the means are not legitimate for you to hit back. The greater the means, for example through size, skills, numbers (of attackers) or weapons, the more elevated your force response can be. You must formulate how you assessed this after the attack to the Police.
The OPPORTUNITY to hurt you must be present. If someone has the intent and means to attack you, but are ‘only’ verbally threatening you from across the room or the street, they don’t have the opportunity to hurt you. If you proceed to close the distance to enable this opportunity to strike you then this may seriously damage any later claim you have to self defence. You cannot claim that your had a genuine fear for your safety based on the aggressor’s intent and means if you decide to move close to them so they have the opportunity to reach you. Makes sense?
The PRECLUSION to violence, or the ability for you to prevent something from happening, should be fulfilled. If willingly and voluntarily staying put in a dangerous or volatile situation and not extracting yourself from it, claiming self defence from fear for your personal safety if it turns physical will become more difficult or at least questionable later.
Always remember the IMOP principles. Before preemptively striking, you should actively try to make sure - especially to witnesses you may later rely on if possible - that the four components are covered.
Saying ‘Stay back, go back, don’t hurt me” (loudly, clearly, more than once and avoiding ‘back off’ as it can be easily misconstrued as ‘f*** off’) whilst moving away to a position where the aggressor must change direction to reach you will reveal that you consider the intent, means and opportunity to be such that you fear for your personal safety.
The words and movement covers all three elements. This simple action is helpful in your rationale to strike first and explain why later. ‘I told him (or her) to stay away as I was fearful (BECAUSE OF THEIR INTENT AND MEANS], but they pursued me, even changing direction to do so. I had no option but to hit first when they got close [THEY HAD OPPORTUNITY TO HURT ME] as I had no way of running away [PRECLUSION, maybe because the exit was blocked, the area was confined or I was with third parties I could not reasonably leave behind].
If you have no way of removing yourself from the situation, you are now set to strike preemptively, maintaining an explainable legal argument as to why.
The person striking first has the clear advantage as action beats reaction and you can now start to control the striking and making your opponent‘s brain prioritises pain, sensory disturbances (such as attack to the eyes] or body mechanical priorities [attacks to throat/breathing or getting them off balance) rather than offensive actions.
To put yourself in that position, always make sure you are legally covered to do so. Use the IMOP principle to assess if you should and as your explanation later.
*Always check local self defence law where you live, travel, study and work.
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