I have a friend who served 5 years for some chronic reckless DUIs before he got sober. He is, quite literally, one of the most gentle souls I've ever met. He's

I have a friend who served 5 years for some chronic reckless DUIs before he got sober. He is, quite literally, one of the most gentle souls I've ever met. He's a pretty small guy, but tough as nails (still works 12+ hours a day running his own construction company doing manual labor) After about 30 days in, he was on the phone when a guy come up to him and started poking him in the back, "Come on man, get off the phone." And started to get more aggressive, "Fuck you, fucker, get off the fucking phone", tapping him more insistently, spitting on him, etc. He turned around and realized about 30 people were watching the interaction. He calmly said, "Don't ever fucking touch me while I'm on the phone" and then proceeded to crack open the guy's head with the phone receiver and break his jaw with it. Got some time added to his sentence, but no one ever fucked with him from that day forward. He said that he regrets greatly that he had to hurt the guy so bad, but he is 100% convinced that if he let such behavior pass without violent retaliation, his life would have been made a living hell from that day on. His advice, paraphrased, "No matter what you do there will be a moment where you have to show weakness or strength. If you show weakness, you will be tagged as weak and nothing you do from then out will change that. It will be a terrible moment, but if you show overwhelming force and violence in that moment, the rest of your days will be able to be peaceful." Prison is terrifying (and unneccesary).