It's all in how you approach people. If you approach people in an aggressive manner then they are more likely to be aggressive with you. I do not condone the violence but I do feel like it was provoked. I can almost guarantee that if you approach them with some degree of diplomacy you will get the same in return.
2 Corinthians 11:23-26 (KJV)
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;