And you think that Mixon had no reason to fear for his safety? You realize that pushing her away is the thing that a few bright bulbs in this thread suggested Mixon was SUPPOSED to do? And I'm sure restraining her against her will wouldn't have been seen as "violence against women" either. And leaving himself completely vunlerable to the guy who'd been fully involved in the encounter in the parking lot was obviously a fine idea as well.
I hate to use the term, because it gets used far more than it should and it puts me in a position where it's easy to put me in a box, but the white knighting in this thread is getting a little silly. There is an appropriate time to use the term and it seems to apply here. When white knights get going, they don't do half measures. A large minority of people at the very least would have condemned Mixon for doing anything other than nothing no matter who was actually responsible for what happened. Personally I resent the concept, people are assuming the person who started the fight is some kind of delicate flower that needs protecting, and that's just objectively wrong and unjust in a way I wish I was better at putting words to.
You don't put hands on another human being and expect them to just stand there and take it. That's too high a standard of behavior to ask. I'm not saying a right cross to the chops was an appropriate response, but putting all the onus on Mixon when he wasn't the first one to cross the line and resort to violence is ridiculous. Molitor needs to be held responsible for her own role in the fracas, the fact that he's a black man filling a certain stereotype of young black men, and she's a physically attractive blonde white female, notwithstanding.
And yes, putting my cards on the table, I am in fact fully convinced that various racial and gender biases are in play with just how quickly certain of us have put Mixon in a box for this one incident and how presumptively some of us are rushing to Molitor's defense. I mean how could they not be? An attractive white female starts a physical altercation with a young black man who resorts to violence in response and catches 100% of the blame? This is a perfect case study of the race and gender divide in this country.
The fact is that Mixon was in a situation where he couldn't win the moment he was dumb enough to come when Molitor called him to the table. He handled it particularly poorly, but with the toxic state of race and gender relations in this country, I'm not entirely sure there was a winning solution on the table for Mixon in the first place.
