Referring to this post here:  
[https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/comments/ag4130/group\_of\_girls\_harass\_guy\_and\_his\_family\_and\_one/?sort=controversial](https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/comments/ag4130/group_of_girls_harass_guy_and_his_family_and_one/?sort=controversial)

If you can't open the link, a guy and his family are basically being harassed by a group of girls. One girl (who was apparently 11) gets close to the guy and gets shoved back. She comes at him again, and the guy punches her to the ground. The guy would later be arrested and charged with assault. 

Now, I'm not gonna defend the girls. They seemed like rowdy ruffians who weren't going to relent in harassing the guy, and *something* had to be done to get them to back off. I also don't think it was fair that the guy was charged but the girls, to my knowledge, got off scot-free, when they were clearly partaking in some sort of harassment.

That being said, I somewhat feel that the guy's punch was somewhat disproportionate to the situation. As someone pointed out in the comments, the guy's original shove did a relatively good job of pushing the girl back, and I feel like the guy could have just stuck to that strategy. From what I understand, punches have the potential to be devastating, causing injuries, brain damage, and so on. The fact that this guy (who by virtue of biology is likely stronger than the girls here) punched out an eleven year old just seems a little excessive. 

Now, I get that people do things in the heat of the moment. If my loved ones were being harassed, I'd probably wind up doing something similar. But people seem to be entirely justifying the man's actions, with some going as far to say that he did absolutely no wrong and cracking jokes about the punch, and I disagree with that. If the consensus was "The man did something excessive to protect his family, and that's understandable in the heat of the moment," then I think I'd be in more agreement, but the consensus seems to be that the guy was completely justified. 

I've been discussing this with one or two people and have been told that by thinking the guy's actions may have been excessive, I am enabling and defending harassment. I disagree with that, but the group consensus seems to disagree with me. Am I being the asshole here, by thinking this guy went a little far in the heat of the moment? 