The way I understood the story is that OP loudly discussed his disgust with the fatty's behavior with the person he was with.  And the ham overheard him, came over, and initiated the confrontation.    I wouldn't consider it "mocking" a child.  OP said that he believes making a child fat is child abuse, to someone else.  No matter what anyone's opinion of OP is, the ham certainly instigated when it could have ignored/walked away.  Instead, the ham invaded OP's personal space and threw the first punch...  If we're talking about the legalities, this played out correctly.    OP could have not said anything within earshot of the ham to begin with, or even decided to shop there at a different time.  There's a million ways the confrontation could have been prevented by OP, but objectively looking at the information given a reasonable person can deduce the ham had more of an obligation/opportunity to prevent the confrontation than OP.  You can't reasonably expect everyone everywhere to have nothing but nice things to say in a country with freedom of speech.    The story is believable in my opinion.     Men are stronger than women and should restrain them if necessary not throat punch them in front of their kids after talking shit   I really dislike the above statement - it's very sexist and unfair to assume men have more of an obligation than women to practice restraint, etc.  In a way, you are implying that men are superior to women and thus should treat women with "kid gloves".  I'd rather everyone be treated as humans (well, I personally believe fats don't deserve to be treated as normal humans, but I'm speaking from the viewpoint of a third party).