Assault and battery - press charges or not?

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Feb 7, 2007
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Imagine a situation, where one foreigner (#1) hits (assaults) another foreigner (#2) (what would be considered battery in the U.S.), the issue being #2 taking and returning three napkins from a street bar/restaurant followed then by a f%^&^ you comment from #2 towards #1 resulting in #1 getting upset and subsequently hitting #2 on multiple occasions, with a resulting damage to accessories worn by #2 and light lesions of #2.

You being the #2, with certain "connections", would you press charges? The issue is not the immediate result (#1 would be arrested) but the future...

DR1 community opinions welcome.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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I wouldn't get the police involved unless it was absolutely necessary but would rather avoid the individual in question instead.
 

Tamborista

hasta la tambora
Apr 4, 2005
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Pay a Dominican friend a few RD Pesos to give (#1) a light beating, just a few light bruises should teach him a lesson not to touch your accessories or sanitary napkins!
 

Givadogahome

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Sep 27, 2011
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If this situation will go away itself without future issues when paths cross then I think I would let it lie, we pick up the odd scrape in life, that is sometimes life. No attention is good attention as far as the police and the likes goes. Connections or not, I think it is always best not to call on those connections if possible, on the off chance the snowball gets out of hand and it opens doors to friends you might prefer to keep at arms length. IMO
 

Conchman

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Imagine a situation, where one foreigner (#1) hits (assaults) another foreigner (#2) (what would be considered battery in the U.S.), the issue being #2 taking and returning three napkins from a street bar/restaurant followed then by a f%^&^ you comment from #2 towards #1 resulting in #1 getting upset and subsequently hitting #2 on multiple occasions, with a resulting damage to accessories worn by #2 and light lesions of #2.

You being the #2, with certain "connections", would you press charges? The issue is not the immediate result (#1 would be arrested) but the future...

DR1 community opinions welcome.

Why would someone get upset if one person 'takes and returns three napkins' from a restaurant? Was the restaurant owned by #1? Why would he get upset if the napkin was returned? I am confused.
 

Givadogahome

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Sep 27, 2011
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It sounds as though he (OP) was having a drink or a meal and a passer by took napkins from the table he was drinking/eating at, wiped himself and then putting them back on the table, he (OP) didn't like this and so told the passer by so in an aggressive manner, which ended in him getting a bit of a kicking which was not expected.
I could be wrong but it isn't clear is it.
 

belmont

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Oct 9, 2009
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Imagine a situation, where one foreigner (#1) hits (assaults) another foreigner (#2) (what would be considered battery in the U.S.), the issue being #2 taking and returning three napkins from a street bar/restaurant followed then by a f%^&^ you comment from #2 towards #1 resulting in #1 getting upset and subsequently hitting #2 on multiple occasions, with a resulting damage to accessories worn by #2 and light lesions of #2.

You being the #2, with certain "connections", would you press charges? The issue is not the immediate result (#1 would be arrested) but the future...

DR1 community opinions welcome.

In this country this as good as throwing the first punch, especially if #1s woman was present.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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OK, to clarify:

The #2 was me.

Took my daughter to school this morning. On the way home I stopped at a gas station to get some gasoline. The pump-man spilled some gasoline, but had no towel to wipe it. So I went inside the adjacent gas station store (which also functions at night lake bar/restaurant...well they have all the beer and liquor ads there), which at the moment I thought was a part of/owned by the gas station, as usually is the case with other gas stations stores and restaurants in the city (e.g. Esso Tiger Mart). Apparently this one was not.

I took 3 paper napkins from a nearby table (unoccupied) by the door. No people in the store. Couple of seconds later the owner comes running out saying I cannot take the napkins without buying something, that his store is not free-paper-napkin-giver. So I asked him whether the store was not part of the gas station that I bought gasoline, he said no. I said sorry, you want tour napkins back ?, Yes!... then, take them... I handed them over. The owner hurriedly grabbed them and nodded with a tremendous satisfied look. He said something like "here we do not give free napkins" or something like that. I turned, started to walk away and said to myself in low voice "unbelievable, **** you" which he apparently overheard. About 3 seconds later I got hit from the back and then from the front. Told him to calm down or it might have consequences. He hit again, now breaking my glasses. I said I would go to police to report him and he hit me again. No time to react and the guy was like 3 times my "cubic volume".

So no alcohol involved, no woman involved, not even a Dominican involved, early morning (8 am) and I have just dropped the kid at school; The case: just 3 stupid napkins from a gas station store to wipe the spilled gasoline.

The owner's name is PETER, he is German, fat and white, and the place name is MONTE's at Texaco Higuey. Please avoid this place, and if you do not buy anything there there no free napkins there.

Update on actions to be taken: after consultation with my lawyer, who strongly suggested I should press charges; a phone conversation with a colonel friend of mine who implied that not much would be done about the case anyway even if the guy got detained (the best case scenario he would get detained for a day max); and consultations with several friends of mine who had various degrees of opinion on action to be taken, I decided not to press the matter further (legally). Obviously, it would be hard to get witnesses who saw everything (e.g. gas station attendant) talking and confirming the case, considering that they work there/nearby, and surely would have fears of persecution if they talked, as they come in contact with this aggressor on every day basis. What I see as doable is a Facebook campaign against this establishment.

Unfortunately, legal system is not one of the DR strongholds, so had this been the Western world actions could be pursued further. Not in the DR though, on such small scale battery assault.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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Depends on which neighborhood you're from. Open your mouth at your own risk. Seems like he got off easy with "light lesions". He could be going home in a box.

Funny...NOT ... as I can now see this German is well known to be aggressive and as I was told "abusador y desgraciado". I am a tranquil person and quite "pacific". I do not look for problems but this stupid a$$ has IQ and EQ of an ebony pony. I look at it like this: You're part of a gas station? Sorry then, but expect that people will walk in after they buy gas, to go to restroom, or take a napkin or something.
 

belmont

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Oct 9, 2009
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OK, to clarify:

The #2 was me.

Took my daughter to school this morning. On the way home I stopped at a gas station to get some gasoline. The pump-man spilled some gasoline, but had no towel to wipe it. So I went inside the adjacent gas station store (which also functions at night lake bar/restaurant...well they have all the beer and liquor ads there), which at the moment I thought was a part of/owned by the gas station, as usually is the case with other gas stations stores and restaurants in the city (e.g. Esso Tiger Mart). Apparently this one was not.

I took 3 paper napkins from a nearby table (unoccupied) by the door. No people in the store. Couple of seconds later the owner comes running out saying I cannot take the napkins without buying something, that his store is not free-paper-napkin-giver. So I asked him whether the store was not part of the gas station that I bought gasoline, he said no. I said sorry, you want tour napkins back ?, Yes!... then, take them... I handed them over. The owner hurriedly grabbed them and nodded with a tremendous satisfied look. He said something like "here we do not give free napkins" or something like that. I turned, started to walk away and said to myself in low voice "unbelievable, **** you" which he apparently overheard. About 3 seconds later I got hit from the back and then from the front. Told him to calm down or it might have consequences. He hit again, now breaking my glasses. I said I would go to police to report him and he hit me again. No time to react and the guy was like 3 times my "cubic volume".

So no alcohol involved, no woman involved, not even a Dominican involved, early morning (8 am) and I have just dropped the kid at school; The case: just 3 stupid napkins from a gas station store to wipe the spilled gasoline.

The owner's name is PETER, he is German, fat and white, and the place name is MONTE's at Texaco Higuey. Please avoid this place, and if you do not buy anything there there no free napkins there.

Update on actions to be taken: after consultation with my lawyer, who strongly suggested I should press charges; a phone conversation with a colonel friend of mine who implied that not much would be done about the case anyway even if the guy got detained (the best case scenario he would get detained for a day max); and consultations with several friends of mine who had various degrees of opinion on action to be taken, I decided not to press the matter further (legally). Obviously, it would be hard to get witnesses who saw everything (e.g. gas station attendant) talking and confirming the case, considering that they work there/nearby, and surely would have fears of persecution if they talked, as they come in contact with this aggressor on every day basis. What I see as doable is a Facebook campaign against this establishment.

Unfortunately, legal system is not one of the DR strongholds, so had this been the Western world actions could be pursued further. Not in the DR though, on such small scale battery assault.

You just confirmed
#2 mouth wrote a check his a@% couldn't cash.

And should learn

Depends on which neighborhood you're from. Open your mouth at your own risk. Seems like he got off easy with "light lesions". He could be going home in a box.
And no, I'm not being funny. Even the baddest of the bad learn to say "excuse me" rather than disrespect someone.
 

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
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Funny...NOT ... as I can now see this German is well known to be aggressive and as I was told "abusador y desgraciado". I am a tranquil person and quite "pacific". I do not look for problems but this stupid a$$ has IQ and EQ of an ebony pony. I look at it like this: You're part of a gas station? Sorry then, but expect that people will walk in after they buy gas, to go to restroom, or take a napkin or something.
If you were truly "pacific", you would have responded "excuse me or pardon me", instead you responded "******you". Just saying that I've seen lots of people get cut up because they ran their mouths.
 

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
4,397
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Seems he over reacted, but like has been mentioned, you did not need to say what you did and kind of asked for it. As the place was not part of the station he was within his rights to request his property back, he did not come out punching from the off, by all counts from your description he seemed quite content to have received his property back, you had no right to abuse him or become offensive really.
You get many bars next to each other, one does not allow people to drink in the other and use the napkins, eat the nuts, use the toilets of the other, it's business. I also expect it is not the first time he has dealt with this mistake, probably an irritable issue with him.

If he is a business owner in such a central area then chances are he has contacts also, possibly even better and so I think you are doing the right thing.
 

PICHARDO

One Dominican at a time, please!
May 15, 2003
13,280
893
113
Santiago de Los 30 Caballeros
Never, never, utter words your fists can't back up or confirm...

The Law of the land is the same as the Law on the road, if it's bigger than you, move aside and keep quiet...

Else tell our dear DR1 PUCMM resident here to link you to their Taekwondo dojang... And get your fists armored...


I started Aikido when I was very, very young after watching a friend get his as* handed over to him by a broomstick of a kiddo named Chris... Then I moved to the fast paced TK2, making some inroads to MMA as much as I could when time was an issue to get to practice or location.

I made sure that all my kids, nephews and nieces followed my path, and today some are even part of the Dominican national team on their categories. But one thing for certain is that they won't be #2 anytime soon come a #1 to confront them...

You're never too old to learn martial arts my friend!
 
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