Spat on while running - what would you do?

You engaged with them so put yourself into the situation. I would have ignored them and kept comments to myself. If I did nothing and this happened, I would have wiped the ground with the person.

In the time of COVID I would dial 911 and get them charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

You should get a CCW and start carrying while running. With the pandemic, what he did is considered attempted murder.

A male runner is nearly as vulnerable as a female. Females know better than to escalate. You told a car full of rough gents to go get a job. You brought your situation upon yourself. You were acting like a bad ass. Now you know you are not. Posters are telling you to contact law enforcement. You cannot escalate a situation, get a punch in the eye, now you want to go cry to the cops as if. If you go to cops, you are as feminine as those fellas said you are. You are going to have to testify in court. As of now, the gents do not know your name. If you make this a criminal matter, they will know your name. Do not start sh!t in the future with a car full of rough guys.

your errors wrote:

A male runner is nearly as vulnerable as a female. Females know better than to escalate. You told a car full of rough gents to go get a job. You brought your situation upon yourself. You were acting like a bad ass. Now you know you are not. Posters are telling you to contact law enforcement. You cannot escalate a situation, get a punch in the eye, now you want to go cry to the cops as if. If you go to cops, you are as feminine as those fellas said you are. You are going to have to testify in court. As of now, the gents do not know your name. If you make this a criminal matter, they will know your name. Do not start sh!t in the future with a car full of rough guys.

He brought it upon himself? You're nuts.

Here's how that situation goes/is supposed to go with normal a-hole humans.

Truck idiots: blah blah blah shorts womp womp shoe size

LR Poster: kick rocks, get a rob

Truck idiots: eff you b!tch, wanna go

LR Poster: (acts tough from a distance)

Truck idiots: (continue to talk, then inevitably pull off, shouting out a window implying threats that they had no intention carrying out)

LR Poster: (continues run w/ elevated heart rate, then comes home and brags about how he put rednecks in their place; no one believes him. life goes on)

He didn't invite getting spat upon, and while I would normally think this would call for just (at least an attempt) at an ass-kicking, in times on the virus, this becomes way more serious.

In non-pandemic times, I think we're often too quick to involve LE over trivial stuff, and certainly shamefully over-litigious, so don't come at me with the "snowflake" BS.

I think he is well within both his legal rights and his "reasonable person" rights to pursue legal action.

***I can't edit the post, so before the spelling bee champs assemble a mob and pick up their torches, I obviously meant "get a 'JOB'" as opposed to a "rob"

Depends on the length of your shorts and the size of the guys.

If your shorts were too short you had it coming.

If the dudes were bigger than you then probably shouldn't have said anything.

If you were bigger than them you should have fought them.

It also may be time to move/run somewhere else.

East Side wrote:

You should get a CCW and start carrying while running. With the pandemic, what he did is considered attempted murder.

It's disgusting behavior, but c'mon. Let's not lose our heads here. Spitting at someone should not be in the same category as firing a gun at them.

If O.P. takes your advice, O.P.'s first & last name will be known by perps. If perps are arrested, if they cannot bail out, they will sit in jail for 60-120 days, get to court and told by judge, TIME SERVED. If they cannot bail out, they will have lost their jobs and evicted from their apartments. Now perps are highly motivated to hunt O.P. down. Legal rights? Wake up and grow up.

your errors wrote:

A male runner is nearly as vulnerable as a female. Females know better than to escalate. You told a car full of rough gents to go get a job. You brought your situation upon yourself. You were acting like a bad ass. Now you know you are not. Posters are telling you to contact law enforcement. You cannot escalate a situation, get a punch in the eye, now you want to go cry to the cops as if. If you go to cops, you are as feminine as those fellas said you are. You are going to have to testify in court. As of now, the gents do not know your name. If you make this a criminal matter, they will know your name. Do not start sh!t in the future with a car full of rough guys.

Wow, talk about blaming the victim.

No, OP, telling someone to get a job does not give them the right to spit on you, but it wasn't a smart move either. The best move is always just de-escalate and live well. Bullying some random guy is probably going to be the highlight of their day, which is pretty sad and pathetic, so you've already got the upper hand when you think about it. The best course of action was to just ignore them and not let your pride get the best of you, and if they take your ignoring as a sign of escalation, then you de-escalate. Jocko Willink (former navy seal) did a really good video on this exact topic.

If things like this really bother you, that's a sign your confidence is not what it should be, and I suggest you take up martial arts, particularly MMA (boxing/kickboxing/jiu jitsu/wrestling).

Spit back. Bullies need to be bullied. Then lawyer up and take them to the cleaners.

I've been running on the road from age 12. I'm 56. I've encountered situations. One always has to think like a chess player. It made O.P. feel good for a few seconds to insult those gents. O.P. was not psychologically prepared for what came next. I've had encounters worse than O.P.'s. I type from experience.

Given the area this guy is talking about, this could have gone a lot worse than being spat on. Don't run your mouth to people who may very well have nothing to lose.

All depends how tough you are. My assumption is that any type of confrontation will lead to hands being thrown. If you are down for that then by all means do whatever you want. If not keep your mouth shut.

If recommend running around, rather than through East Cleveland.

Not worth it. I wouldn’t have said anything. Even if you could take them all on, you never know who’s got a gun. I’m sure your life is better than theirs.

Best to respond, because usually the guys who say something to you will not answer back if you say something, but there's no sense in using fighting words because you don't necessarily know either their intention or whether they have weapons or are spoiling for a fight. Maybe there are multiple people in the car. You don't need to give them the finger every time, because that can backfire on you; it's unpredictable how they'll react; and the comment might not have been intended to be negative in the first place. Moreover, you let them win by showing them that the comment upset you. If you say something like, yes, I am running slowly; I should run faster; I beat Lance Armstrong; I ran 119 miles last week; or whatever that defends yourself or recognizes you're running badly, they're not likely to respond and almost never do.

For starters, don't wear your police costume while jogging in a liberal city. Your welcome.

zxczxcv wrote:

Best to respond, because usually the guys who say something to you will not answer back if you say something, but there's no sense in using fighting words because you don't necessarily know either their intention or whether they have weapons or are spoiling for a fight. Maybe there are multiple people in the car. You don't need to give them the finger every time, because that can backfire on you; it's unpredictable how they'll react; and the comment might not have been intended to be negative in the first place. Moreover, you let them win by showing them that the comment upset you. If you say something like, yes, I am running slowly; I should run faster; I beat Lance Armstrong; I ran 119 miles last week; or whatever that defends yourself or recognizes you're running badly, they're not likely to respond and almost never do.

Did you even read the OP?

You said he should respond because the other guy usually won’t? He is on here because they responded.

OP never said there was a car, just said intersection.

OP said they were making fun of shorts and shoes, didn’t say anything about running pace or effort.