Sarcastic towards the standard "he's a good boy" schpiel...yes. I spent enough time in courts and schools watching thugs get described by delusional parents as mommy's little angel.

I'm not being sarcastic about the message I'm trying to get across. I hear people say "I'm allowed to defend myself" all of the time, and they have no idea what they're talking about. Lambo is exactly right...the law is intentionally ambiguous and it's designed to let reasonable people decide if your actions were justified. The problem there is that not all juries are reasonable and not all police and/or prosecutors are reasonable. Also, the standard of what is a reasonable action can change depending on the neighborhood you're in. In the suburb that my dad is in, predominantly white and middle/upper class, a typical jury is going to be more sympathetic to a self defense claim. In Philadelphia...you're more likely to get a less well off person more sympathetic to the person who was injured.