Thanks everyone. And yeah, it really sucks that you're not allowed to defend yourself from attack in New York and other big cities crawling with deranged thugs. Of course the powers that be have armed bodyguards, so thank God they're OK
I'm not a gun person and never have been, but at the moment at which I was struggling to get up and the a-hole was leaping out of his car to threaten me some more, I would have quite happily shot him in the face and would have felt 100% justified in doing so.
And it's not just the self defense laws which are all screwed up in NYC. We have so-called "progressive" (i.e. stuck in the 1960's) judges showing leniency to dangerous psychopaths who then go on to kill innocent people. The cop I spoke to in the cruiser told me that the most frustrating part of their job is when they risk their lives arresting violent criminals with long histories of violent crime, only to see them released straight back out on the streets by judges who probably lie awake at night worrying about whether or not they've been too harsh on murdering gang bangers. Of course like the lawmakers, those judges often have armed protection, are able to get gun licenses themselves, and they live in high security doorman buildings and gated communities miles away from the neighborhoods which are terrorized by the thugs they show leniency to. Oh and they don't have to encounter them on public transport either since they're driven everywhere in cars with bulletproof glass.