somebody getting assaulted...what would you do?

baza52

ukjoel wrote: »

Think getting your phone out and recording it is best option.
Once they are on camera its a lot harder for them to claim they werent doing anything wrong.

Problem is you dont know what happened 2 minutes earlier ie has group A nicked something from group B?

As previous posters have said sods law you will get blamed or done for assault and if in doubt the police will just arrest anyone and then you are at risk of being charged with assault.

You wont be able to fight off 12 of them but the minute they realise they are on camera they wont hang around. There is a risk they will try and nab your camera phone but by then lots of people will probably be recording and also you then have a much stronger case for defending yourself than just wading in to a fight.

LOL so your saying that if someone is being beaten up everyone should video the assault on their phones...
Oh, its ok mate, i know your getting hurt and possibly killed but at least weve got evidence

scheming_gypsy

This report on the 'Big Man' story says it all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2077761/Charging-heroic-big-man-assault-deter-people-doing-know-right.html

People are split on whether he should have been charged or not, but that's irrelevant to the issue. Remove them from the train and somebody not buying a ticket but put them in front of M&S on a Saturday afternoon; the ticket evader is threatening somebody and Big Man does the right thing and steps in, pushing the abusive toad away to protect the victim. While he's doing that somebody else is filming it to show to the police if they turn up; but the person who steps in is arrested.
and that's the problem we have today, you can't do what's right because we're not allowed to without risking arrest

Sequeena

My step brother was stabbed to death for stepping in on a fight between a man and a woman. I used to be of the opinion that I too would step in and !!!!!! the consequences, I couldn't stand back and see someone get hurt... but now I have a son. I would want to help, but at the same time I wouldn't want to jeopardise my safety or my son's if he was with me (very likely as I haven't left him with anyone yet).

I feel bad for writing this. I think I would phone the police and try to record what was happening (in case they ran off before the police arrived).

Gavin83

Honestly you'd be stupid to attempt to stop that fight, there's nothing brave about it at all. It doesn't matter if your the hardest guy in the World with a lifetime of fighting experience if 12 guys start fighting back you'll stand no chance. Also 12 guys sounds like a gang fight to me so there's a good probability you'll end up dead from several stab wounds to the chest.

I think like most things you need to weigh up the situation at the time but that is one I'd stay out of. I value my life and the lives of my family to interfere. The police should be called though.

Gavin83

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

This report on the 'Big Man' story says it all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2077761/Charging-heroic-big-man-assault-deter-people-doing-know-right.html

People are split on whether he should have been charged or not, but that's irrelevant to the issue. Remove them from the train and somebody not buying a ticket but put them in front of M&S on a Saturday afternoon; the ticket evader is threatening somebody and Big Man does the right thing and steps in, pushing the abusive toad away to protect the victim. While he's doing that somebody else is filming it to show to the police if they turn up; but the person who steps in is arrested.
and that's the problem we have today, you can't do what's right because we're not allowed to without risking arrest

Despite what you think of this its a completely different situation.

scheming_gypsy

Gavin83 wrote: »

Despite what you think of this its a completely different situation.

go on, tell me what i think? seeing as i said it was irrelevant. It's the article I was posting, the fact and the title, that it stops people doing what they know is right because they might get charged.

So go on, what do i think?

Gavin83

Your suggesting that the situation in the story you posted would put people off getting involved in the situation the OP posted. I was pointing out that the situations were completely different which they are. Frankly I don't really care what your opinion is of the guy being charged, that's for a completely different topic.

scheming_gypsy

exactly, which is why i said it was irrelevant. But I'm not suggesting, I'm saying that the story is right (whether it was the train, an old woman getting mugged or people fighting), that people will be put off getting involved because of consequences.

Gavin83

I must apologise, I didn't actually read the article you posted as I presumed it was a link to the original story, but I've now taken a look and have to say on the most part I disagree with the article. I think the problem was that the 'big man' was the first to resort to violence and it was disproportionate to the crime, had the youth attacked the conductor and he'd stepped in I think the outcome would have been different.

In the OP story the violence was already taking place, I think if you stepped in and used reasonable force to restrain the attackers you could do so without much fear of the law.

persa

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

what would you expect the security guard to do that you couldn't? they don't have any special 'police like' powers or immunity from assault charges, they're just there to make sure somebody doesn't shoplift from the place that employs them.
They also probably can't leave their post to go and break up fights in the street.

I'm a tiny feeble girl. Round here, the security guards are well built and are SIA licensed, so trained in dealing with conflict and big enough to use those skills. I would always either call the police myself first or ask someone else to call the police, but realistically, they aren't going to appear out of nowhere, so someone else intervening may be necessary to save a victim's life. Stopping an attacker a couple of minutes earlier may be the difference between nasty bruising and brain damage.

I know my own limitations and as much as I would love to be able to help in this scenario, I couldn't take on 12 big strong guys. All I could do would be to alert others to the situation in case they could help instead.