Lesson 13: Don’t assume an aggressor is rational.

Not every perceived aggressor will be thinking clearly. An attacker might be drunk, high, injured, disoriented, mentally ill, or acting irrationally for reasons you don’t know. If you expect logical behavior, you may misread the danger and escalate a situation that could have been defused. A confused stranger in distress might appear subjectively threatening to you, but your response must still be objectively reasonable under the law.