When They Come for You in the Street
The air in California is supposed to feel different. It’s supposed to feel like freedom. Then one day, it doesn’t. You’re walking in a park, on a public street, a place you own as much as anyone. Your family is with you. Suddenly, they appear. A group of men, walking like they own the ground beneath your feet. They are clad in black tactical gear, their faces hidden behind masks.
They carry weapons openly. There are no badges, no names, nothing to identify them as police or any legitimate authority. Their presence is a cold wave of intimidation. They yell at you. They tell you to move. They reach. And in that moment, the world shrinks to the space between them and the people you love standing behind you.
This is not normal. This is not okay. This is a tactic of fear designed to make you feel small, to make you question your own rights on your own soil. We are seeing things that test the very foundations of our democracy. We are living in a time when the normalization of intimidation is a threat to every single one of us.
Before we get into the heart of this, I need to make one thing crystal clear. Your personal safety, and the safety of your family, is the highest priority. Walking away from a potential conflict is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of wisdom and strength. Getting home safely is always the right answer. You should always seek to de-escalate and remove yourself from harm’s way if a path to do so exists.
This article is written for the hard reality of when that path does not exist. This is about what you do in California when you cannot walk away. This is about your right to exist, safely and freely, in public.
Your Rights in California When Facing Unknown Armed Men
Let's be perfectly clear. Unidentified, armed, masked men on a public street are not, by default, law enforcement in the eyes of the law as it pertains to your immediate safety. They are armed strangers. They have no more inherent authority over you than any other person on the street.
You are not legally required to obey the shouted orders of an anonymous, menacing group. Your first instinct, your concern about being assaulted or robbed, is a legitimate and reasonable fear. The law recognizes this. Their anonymity strips them of the presumption of authority. Without identification, they are projecting a threat, and you are entitled to perceive them as one.
Your Right to Defend Yourself and Others
In California, you have a fundamental right to defend yourself. This is not a complicated legal theory. It is a core human right enshrined in our laws. If you have a reasonable belief that you are in imminent danger of being harmed, you have the right to use a proportional amount of force to protect yourself. See Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instruction 3470 (2025 edition).
The key word is reasonable. Would a reasonable person in your exact situation, seeing what you see and hearing what you hear, believe they were about to be attacked? A group of masked, armed, unidentified men moving aggressively towards you and your family would likely meet that standard for any reasonable person.
When Standing Your Ground Is the Right Thing to Do
California law is clear on another point. You have no duty to retreat. If you are in a public place where you have a right to be, and you are not the one who started the conflict, you do not have to run. You can stand your ground and defend yourself. The scenario we painted is the moment this legal principle becomes a profound moral choice.
When you step between the threat and your family, you are not an aggressor. You are a protector. When they reach for you, when they physically assault you after you’ve been lawfully filming or simply walking, the decision to use force to stop that attack is not just permissible. It is a righteous defense of your own body and the safety of your loved ones. Standing your ground becomes a statement that you will not be erased from the public square.
What to Do If You Are Attacked or Wrongfully Charged
In the chaos, if you are forced to defend yourself and are then wrongfully detained or arrested, your actions from that moment forward are critical. The first and most important thing to do is to invoke your rights. You must say these words clearly and repeatedly to anyone who tries to question you: “I will remain silent. I want a lawyer.” Do not explain yourself. Do not justify your actions. Do not try to tell your side of the story. The time for that will come, with your lawyer present.
If you are assaulted by these unmarked individuals, you have legal recourse. You can bring a civil lawsuit for damages. The causes of action could include assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. If it can be proven these individuals were acting as government agents, a powerful federal civil rights lawsuit can be brought for violating your constitutional rights under the color of law.
If you are wrongfully charged with a crime like interfering with an investigation or assaulting an officer, your primary legal defense is the truth. You will have what are known as affirmative defenses. You will assert that you were acting in lawful self defense or defense of others. Your attorney will argue that your actions were a legally justified response to an unlawful assault by unidentified aggressors. The story you tell will be one of a citizen protecting their family from a credible threat.
Your Power in This Moment
Know this. Your rights are real. They are not abstract ideas in a book. They are your shield in moments of crisis. The current climate seeks to make us feel powerless, to make us believe that we must accept intimidation as the new normal. We do not.
The power we have is in our knowledge and our courage. Understanding your right to protect yourself is the first step. The next is having the courage to stand up for those rights when they are threatened.
This is more than a legal discussion. It is a conversation about the kind of country we want to live in. It is about whether we will allow fear to govern our public spaces. Your safety, and the safety of your family, is paramount. Avoid conflict when you can. When you cannot, know that the law and your own conscience can be on your side.
Mitch Jackson, Esq. | links
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First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
This quote is attributed to the prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a poem.
After World War II, Niemöller openly spoke about his own early complicity in Nazism and his eventual change of heart. His powerful words about guilt and responsibility still resonate today.
Niemöller’s Quote at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The quote “First they came for…” has been part of the permanent exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since its opening in 1993. Initially, Niemöller's words were part of a text panel. Today, they are prominently featured on a wall as the final words of the exhibition. They serve as an indictment of passivity and indifference during the Holocaust.
A good friend and talented artist recently informed that she is moving back to England. She is married to an American citizen and has a green card, but the thought of appearing in court to extend her green card fills her with terror. She said she is moving back because America is now a scary country and she doesn't want to live with the stress. It appalls me that other country might look at us in fear and advise their citizens not to go to America because it is not safe. Being an isolationist means keeping people out. Well, say good bye to tourism, which is down substantially. I wonder how much reporting is done on the $29m loss in tourist dollars. Is really what Republicans voted? I would like to think we are all capable of empathy, but it is hard to do that when I hear of Republicans who like deportations. And that includes imprisoning people in the Everglades with no showers and food with maggots. People will die in those conditions and I am sure that Trump does not believing in providing living conditions for that evil people.