If you have a gun and the other guy doesn't . . .

[anomiep]

214. Also -

You should be really, really sure the guy is a stalker in the first place.

This is purely hypothetical and statistically unlikely, and I'm really just stating it for the purpose of something to think about, but -

Let's suppose we take your hypothetical situation. You think a guy is following you, he's talking on his phone and you're hearing him yell obscenities into it (I am assuming here that you meant he was on the phone and saying stuff about you in it - if you meant that he literally called you and started yelling stuff, while he's also following you - just go with me for a minute for the purpose of illustration).

You pull out your collapsible baton and start swinging. And whatever happens, whether you stopped when he stopped or not, you later find out that he lived down the street, it was just coincidence that he was "following you" because he was just walking home, he was on the phone with a friend of his, and he had Tourette's.

Like I said - purely hypothetical and statistically unlikely. But whenever there's a use of force, there's a possibility that what either side, and possibly both sides, think is going on is not what is actually going on. (I say that as 'whenever there's a use of force' but actually, I think this is just generally true in any interaction between two or more people).