Civil courage. Helping assault victims

[metamorph]

If someone gets beaten up on the street, how do you react?
When I read about incidents like a couple of teenagers beating a homeless man to death or almost killing another teenager, there almost always seems to be plenty of people, who just stare and watch; others walk away. The one or few people, who try to interfere or stop the assault nearly always draw the short end on the stick. Some end in a coma or worse. I have a few friends who lost some teeth just trying to defuse a verbal argument between people.

I wonder what your personal experiences and stories are. How did you react? Did you get beaten up? How should one react? Should you only call the fuzz, and wait?

[SnerpGoodWord]

I'm usually willing to wade in if it's clear that one side is a victim, and there are no weapons. Being badly outnumbered would also give me pause. Thus far it's never gotten me seriously injured.

[metamorph]

Originally Posted by SnerpGoodWord

I'm usually willing to wade in if it's clear that one side is a victim, and there are no weapons. Being badly outnumbered would also give me pause. Thus far it's never gotten me seriously injured.

How often did this happen? How often did you get into a fight? What do you call badly outnumbered?

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by metamorph

How often did this happen? How often did you get into a fight? What do you call badly outnumbered?

It's happened maybe 5 or 6 times depending on what you count. I'm a pretty good sized guy (6'5" 250 or so) and a competent fighter so if need be I can sometimes intimidate people into backing down. It lead to a fight twice. I would consider two people who appear to actually be motivated to fight (as opposed to watch) as "outnumbered" but I'd risk it if I didn't think much of them. 3+ is really dicey.

[KaleidoskopicVision]

I'm not a big guy like Snerp, I'm only 5'8" and 140lbs. I do have training in martial arts but as a rule I do not physically intervene in fights unless it's a last resort. Even when you don't see a weapon, it could be concealed and there's no reason to escalate the situation by physically involving yourself prematurely (meaning, before there is any serious threat to someone's life like someone being beaten to death and my physical intervention would likely prevent that).

Call the police when you witness a violent confrontation. You never know when deadly force could be involved or when the dispute is over something likely to lead to some serious violence.

Don't try to be a hero. If you think you can, talk the aggressors out of fighting. Try to avoid criticizing them for fighting or directly addressing their confrontation lest you become involved in it too.

[Weena]

Originally Posted by KaleidoskopicVision

Call the police when you witness a violent confrontation.

Yeah... personal story: was on the ground being kicked in the ribs by my then boyfriend who had had a few too many drinks, a car stopped by and I heard "do you need some help miss?" I said "yes please call the police", the then boyfriend yelled at them to f88k off, and so they did, and judging by the absence of police car ensuing, they did not even bother reporting anything. I also was in a car accident when I was ten, with my 30 year old cousin, her face full of blood from the impact on the steering wheel, my 9 year old sister and the baby of my cousin, all crying and trying to get help, and not a single car stopped to help a woman with two kids and a baby who had just smashed their car on a bridge. We had to walk (sprained ankle for me, broken foot for my cousin) until we found a pub with a phone to call the ambulance.

The only people I've seen being actually empathic towards their peers are the Australians (several time people stopped to ask us if we needed help if they saw we were parked on the side of the road). Europe: nada.

I would definitely call the police if i saw something very dodgy.

[metamorph]

Originally Posted by Weena

Yeah... personal story: was on the ground being kicked in the ribs by my then boyfriend....

I would definitely call the police if i saw something very dodgy.

I don't see how calling the police will help someone, who is on the ground and being kicked. If they come, it will at least take 10 minutes or so. So if they are lucky they can arrest the aggressor, but this does not reduce hospitalisation time or prognosis for the person beaten up....

[Weena]

Well I reckon it helps. Last year there was a teenage mum in the mall who was not being careful and burned her toddler in the face with her cigarette whilst chatting with a friend, the bub cried so she gave him a massive slap accross the face (can you imagine this? bruning him then slapping him because he cries from the burn?). A guard at one of the shop called the police and someone we know (who told my husband the story) stayed there until the police arrived to make sure the girl did not run away.

Now if I was alone (not with my kids around) and saw that, it's possible I'd do something physical such as trying to immobilise the woman and ask someone to call the cops whilst I do so. However i'm a woman and not a huge one at that, so if I saw a massive man going off I would probably use my common sense and not try for a physical interaction, but call people who actually can get him under control (e.g: policemen).