Would you intervene?

[Rum]

You are walking down the road after an evening in the pub, and noticing a commotion you see down a fairly dark side street a large guy assaulting a woman. She is screaming and there is a lot of noise.

What would you do?

Also, let's expand a bit on the theme. What would it take for you to get involved in an 'issue' you see happening on the street? What are the pros and cons?

[virphen]

I would, and have done in the past.

[rachelbean]

Who would not get involved? How involved I got would depend on if I was alone or not (I doubt I'd be much of a help physically), but the very least I would be yelling and calling the cops, if I had pepper spray with me that'd probably be used too.

I've been involved with similar situations and strangely enough just yelling and letting someone know you are there is usually enough to send them running.

[Kristie]

I'd at least call the cops.

[Rum]

OK, let's narrow it down. Would you intervene directly, by approaching the fracas?

[floppit]

I'd at least call the cops.

that.

Also if I was near the pub I might run back for reinforcements - I think people are more inclined to help when they're not alone.

[virphen]

OK, let's narrow it down. Would you intervene directly, by approaching the fracas?

That's the question I thought I was answering the first time.

[AshtonBlack]

Assess the situation. Do I see what I THINK I see?
If confirmed phone 999.

Is the woman in physical danger?
My reaction and cautiousness would be inversely proportional to that.

Worse case, I shout and but advance on the chap and attempt to disable and restrain as quickly as possible.
If I can't or he is trained, then I hope I give her enough time to leg it.

[Feck]

I know someone who intervened in a public, loud, and violent domestic ....... The police got a good print of the soles of Her shoes from the pictures they took of his face in the hospital ..

Making it known that there is a witness and physically stopping someone beating on an unconscious person I will do ...but I am proud of my cowardice .

[RuleBritannia]

I would grab a weapon, shout out, then run towards them screaming. People don't like crazy guys coming at them with weapons, even rapists.

[FedUpWithFaith]

You are walking down the road after an evening in the pub, and noticing a commotion you see down a fairly dark side street a large guy assaulting a woman. She is screaming and there is a lot of noise.

What would you do?

Also, let's expand a bit on the theme. What would it take for you to get involved in an 'issue' you see happening on the street? What are the pros and cons?

I'd go to the source of the commotion and ask the man if the woman was his wife. If the answer was yes, I'd tell him I understood and apologize for the interruption and leave. If the answer was no, I wouldn't apologize but I'd still move on. Fuckin' women. We all know how they can get on a man's nerves.

[owtth]

Something like this happened to me last week. I was taking a stroll with Mrs Owtth through a nearby neighbourhood when we came across a couple where the man seemed to be trying to drag a woman in our direction. We kept walking towards them and I told the man in my halting Spanish to stop with that silly nonsense. The couple where, I think, Chinese and it was obvious he had no clue what I was saying, She did however and immediately tried to diffuse the situation by saying she needed no help and that everything was ok. This gave me pause. They both moved off but within ten meters he was dragging her again. I moved to intercept, but I realised that I could hardly start smacking him about the head because the woman would probably not welcome it and may well have received a retaliatory beating when I wasn't around. She was obviously in extreme discomfort at the situation and at being manhandled so I asked her to explain to her companion that he wasn't going to continue dragging her down the street regardless of how acceptable he thought it to be, and if he kept it up we would get the police involved. This seemed to diffuse the situation and they moved off in a normal fashion. I waited till they rounded a corner and then followed to make sure he wasn't just waiting until he was out of sight, but they continued to the next corner without incident.
Since then I have been plagued by worry that I should have called the police, (but what would they have done?) or perhaps given him a slap in the ear (but would he have taken revenge on her?).
To cut a long story short, I intervened but I have no idea if I helped, made matters worse or just soothed my own need to be a do-gooder.

[Pappa]

I'd call the police and if I thought it was safe to do so, I'd intervene. As I've been in a situation like this situation, I can also say that I'd stall for quite a while before intervening while wondering if it was a safe/sensible thing to do.

[tattuchu]

Depends if I'd taken my happy pills recently. If not, I have a quick and violent temper that turns on like the flip of a switch. If I saw something like this, I'd probably kill the guy. And then hurt him very badly. But fortunately I never go out, so a situation such as this has never presented itself to me

[Comte de Saint-Germain]

If the situation was clearly one in which the woman was being threatened by the man, then I would intervene. However, I would first ascertain whether this was actually the case. I wouldn't call the police. That's not the sort of thing that crosses my mind, to be quite honest. The woman needs help, not a police officer asking her questions.

And yes, having studied quite a lot of martial arts I know exactly how likely it is such an encounter if turned to the violent would turn out bad for me, but that's more reason to try to prevent such a violent situation - not avoid it.