> I believe that it is the mercy of the victim that determines if an attacker is allowed to live. Precisely- **when someone attacks you, even if it's just to grab your purse, they are initiating a potentially lethal encounter.** What if you trip, fall and bust your skull open on something while they're trying to pull the phone out of your hand? Dead, and why? Because someone decided to put their hands on you. Solution? When someone assaults you, the victim should be allowed to *kill* their attacker if they feel it's necessary- or as you said, if they're merciful or depending on the circumstances, beat the ever-loving shit out of their attacker and hold them down until the police arrive, and the victim faces no consequences. Offenders have gradually been sort of absorbing the rights of victims for decades with the help of the Jewdicial system. We live in a world where a thief can sue a homeowner because he tripped on something while trying to break in. I always forget the name of the man, but there was a story several years back where this old man kept getting his house broken into. He did the "right thing" and went to the cops, over and over, and the cops didn't do a damned thing. This went on for a long time, until finally the man had enough. He parked his car behind his house so it appeared he was not home, went into his basement, laid down a tarp, and sat down with an audio recorder on. He began to read a book, carbine across his lap, as he awaited the inevitable break-in. Sure enough, soon you can hear movement upstairs. Someone broke in, and then you hear the basement door open. The homeowner gets up from his chair, and fires a shot at the 17 year old who had broken in. The bullet struck him, and he fell down the stairs, being shot a few more times on the way down. The homeowner dragged his body into the other half of the basement, when suddenly you hear more movement at the top of the stairs, and a girl's voice calls out- the second burglar. The homeowner jumps out and shoots her with the carbine, and she falls down the stairs. He tries to shoot her again, but the carbine jams, so he pulls out his pistol and shoots her again. Then he walks up to her as she lays maimed, crying, and he says "Real fuckin' cute, bet you thought you were a real pro. Sorry about the jam, here:" He then places the pistol under her chin, and fires, executing her. Here's where he fucked up- he didn't immediately report this. For some reason, probably because he'd been driven insane by all of this shit, he kept the bodies wrapped in tarps for a few days. He was then charged and convicted of FIRST DEGREE MURDER. The prosecutors claimed that he laid an ambush for these two fuckers who broke into his house around a dozen times. **LAYING AN AMBUSH IN YOUR OWN HOUSE, FOR SOMEONE YOU DIDN'T INVITE?!** What?! It's not like he called these kids and said "Hey come on over, I'll be in the basement". No, these fucking delinquents were there to steal *more* of this man's stuff. The police didn't do a damned thing, except "file reports". They finally sprung into action *after* the poor, innocent *thieves* were killed, though- police were all over that. **If only they had acted earlier, and put those fucking punks in prison, perhaps that poor man wouldn't have been driven to the point where he felt so unsafe in his home that he had to kill the people who kept breaking in?!**