On Tue, 22 Jul 2008, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
When there is a brawl in a bar, and the police walk in, they do not attempt to figure out who caused it, whose fault it is, who is to blame, etc. They tell everyone to stop. Now. And if *anyone* doesn't stop, they arrest that person (or worse.) How often that person, being dragged off, is screaming, "But he started it!"
But if one person is participating in the brawl because they had to defend themselves and they'd rather it be a brawl than a beating, they could file charges against the other one. The legal system doesn't say "you're equally punished, now go away"; if one person's at fault, and the system works properly, the system will figure that out and later punish only him.
And if someone makes a police report about a burglar, the police don't respond by arresting both them and the burglar.