Stranger gets beat up. What would you do?

[lecoquine]

Let's say you have no phone, and you see a teenager getting beat up by a group of thugs. What would you do?

 

1) Should you go there, and say "leave him alone", risk your life and possibly get stabbed while helping him?

 

2) RUN THE HELL AWAY! and feel horribly guilty, especially if you see it on the news the next day ...

 

3) ??

 

And also, how would you answer this question to a child who wants to know what to do?

[kafka]

Try to take in as many details as you can and then get to a phone as quickly as possible. The chances of dissuading a group of thugs in a situation like this are practically nil and you will end up hurt or worse and a dead witness is a useless witness. Try to corral some passersby if possible. Be sure to tell the police to bring an ambulance.

[Fallout]

Well I'd stop some1 on the street and ask for their phone and call the police....and stick around to help the kid when they're done.

 

I can't fight at all so I couldn't do much in that respect...and asking them to stop is ridiculous lol

[Bethany]

As a woman, I would knock doors and hope that they helped me, if they did not want to get involved, I would ask to use the telephone and contact the police.

 

If there were no houses, I would flag down cars, and try the same i.e. ask for help or ask to use the phone so I could contact the police.

 

Also I would try to reason with one of the group who were soberest and standing on the sidelines and hope that I could install some sort of sense into them, and try to talk them into intervening by using a guilt trip by saying that there is a possiblity that the attackers could possibly kill or be killing the victim if this continued. I would definitely do this if there were no houses, cars or telephones.In fact, I have done that in the past.

[Luck of the Irish]

It depends. If it were a woman, child, handicap, I would do anything in my power to stop them. If these "people" had knives, guns, bats I'm not sure I would do anything. I have a family to think about too. If it were someone I knew, I would go grab a gun myself.

[yeawutever]

I would call any cops I see near by. But if I had to choose between entering the fight (also risking my life) and running away. I would go for the second option. At times it's way better to say "Here ran a coward than here was a brave one killed.

[Hope75]

I would go to the nearest payphone and call the police. Get the street location where it happened and a brief description of the attackers and their car if possible.

 

What happened- what did you do?

[Daddy Bear]

i've been in this situation--sort of. i saw a gang of high-schoolers on one kid, flailing away. i rolled down my car window and yelled at the scum (five of 'em, i'd say) to get off the guy. the 'victim' stood up, red-faced, and explained that it was only a mock beating. "oh, ok, then," i said. "i'm sure you can understand why i stopped. hopefully, any of you would have done the same thing."

[tylercdurden2004]

I got invovled in something like this. It was a big guy beating the up a wee girl in the county side of foreign country I was living in. It was automatic after I saw him attack here and I dont even really think I thought about it i jut jumped in and tried to pull him off. This was infront of the whole village and needless to say being an outsider I was worried for a good few weeks whether I'd be paid a visit.

 

Its a tough call because on one hand you want to get invovled to help out. On the other hand you dont get to see the whole picture. Ask any police officer if you should ever get invovled in a domestic between and man an woman and you will get the answer "no". Many times the guy who helped the girl ends up getting charged because she takes the BF side.

 

These situations are very difficult becuase you may get hurt yourself , you may get in trouble with the law and at the end of the day you dont know the whole story.

[Stinkweed]

It depends, yeah... If they have weapons, I'd try to exit the scene as silently as possible then go around yelling "fire! Help me! There's fire!" (I was told that it's statistically proven that people do respond more to "fire!" than to just yelling "help!" I dunno how right that conclusion is, but it's worth a try!). After I get some people's attention, well the rest is contacting the police, etc, etc. If they DON'T have weapons, there's only like two of them, and they haven't seriously hurt their victim, I MIGHT just jump in and help... It'd be pretty much two-on-two, which is more fair. If there's too many of them, I wouldn't risk it, so I'd just do what I said before. I just know that I wouldn't be able to run away and try to forget about it... I'd have to do SOMETHING. I've seen lesser things happen (example: a group of teenagers VERBALLY picking on a lone victim), and I twitch from desire to try to help the victim or at least stop them, even when this "victim" has been "mean" to me before. So yeah, I just know that if it's something as serious as a beating, I'd have to help.

[annie24]

yeah, I'm a female (duh!) so i wouldn't feel comfortable barging in, even though I always carry pepper spray.

 

I'd run to the nearest house/business/pay phone and call 911.

[MythicDawn]

I'm not someone who should be getting into fights... I'm small... But if I were seeing someone getting pounded on by one or more people, I would run to find him help then return and make sure once they leave that the guy is ok...

[New_Horizons]

Actually, you might have better chances barging in if you're a female. If you're a man against a gang, you just get bashed up along with the victim. Of course a woman would usually get bashed up too but slightly less often. Either way, it's not a good idea.

 

I always carry my cellphone whenever I go wandering out at night. You just never know.

[Aurian]

Awhile back, a guy stopped another guy from beating up a girl and got badly beaten for his troubles (broken nose, fractured skull, etc). And that was against one guy. Another guy asked a pack of teenagers to quiet down and got beaten up with a bat or crowbar (forget which).

 

Its too dangerous. I might try step in if it was one-on-one, but a group? I would be able to do nothing in a fight like that. I would also feel wrong to leave. Instead, I would probably keep my distance, but scream and raise holy hell. Try flag cars, scream call 911, etc.

[schmandy]

It's funny how you think you would react and how you actually do react.

 

A couple of years ago we were on a subway car in NYC. A girl IN OUR CAR was shot. It was a full car. Everyone heard the "pop" - although it sounded like a firecracker. I had just bought a bunch of knock-off purses from Canal street and immediately hid them behind my back because I thought we were getting robbed. Everyone on the car was frozen. Then, a lady on the other end stands up and starts walking around saying, "oh my God, what just happened..." People started exiting the car onto other cars - the train was still moving. After a minute I got up to go see if the girl needed help. I'm a nurse and it was my instinct to help. My husband grabbed me and said, "someones probably got a gun - you don't know if it's safe." Then the hysteria set in. EVERYONE in the car starting running onto other cars. The train came to the next station and practically everyone was running wildly. We got up and ran too.

 

We told the conductor as we ran by and we told the police outside once we exited the station. But we both felt so guilty afterwards for not having helped the girl.

 

We followed the story through the papers. She ended up being alright - the bullet went into her chest and exited her arm (or something). My husband even called the NYC police and told them what he had seen. It really appeared as if someone standing accross from her had a gun in their pocket that had gone off by accident.

 

Most of the time I'm very stupid in a crisis situation. I immediately want to help, but don't think of the safety issues. I'll often times think I'm capable of doing things that I'm much too small to do. I still have some belief that if I scream, people will stop or help.

 

If I were to try to tell a child what to do, I would suggest they first do what would be safe. But also to be responsible and help as much as they could.

 

In the situation you described, I would probably yell (from a distance) to stop and start yelling for help from other people nearby. I would make a screaming scene to try to scare the offenders off.

 

I have been the victim of much lesser offenses, where other people made it a very strong point to not get too involved. If every offender knew that no one would let people get away with what they were doing, there would probably be a lot less crime.

[New_Horizons]

 

I have been the victim of much lesser offenses, where other people made it a very strong point to not get too involved. If every offender knew that no one would let people get away with what they were doing, there would probably be a lot less crime.

 

Same here. When I was 12, I was attacked in a busy public park by two youths who were riding their bikes and got pissed at me for riding in their way. They kicked and punched me and people just watched. I went home and told my dad but they were never seen again.

[Aurian]

There is actually a psychological reason for this. I forget the name (perhaps someone remembers), but often when someone is calling for help, people don't do anything. Why? Because they assume someone else will help. Because its too dangerous. Because they talk themselves out of it (its just kids fooling around, etc).

 

A murder happened in my area about a year or two ago. A woman was being raped and murdered. She screamed for help. Nobody responded, despite people admitting the next day that they heard her.

[itsallgrand]

I'd scream and make one bleep of a commotion. Anyone who attacks one person in a group is a coward: they only respond to fear. Rushing in wouldn't help in that case, but I'd be real sure they knew I was there and doing something about it. Getting a bigger group against em.

 

What to tell a child if they were to be faced with a situation like that?

Go get help.

[DN]

Depending on the circumstances and where an attack takes place it is usually better to yell "fire!" rather than "help!". People who are unable to see what is happening are much more likely to dial 911 if they think a fire is occurring than any other emegency.

[annie24]

that's right dn! I think I've heard that also!

 

If I heard some kind of screaming, I might think it's just some drunk kids messing around. but who yells fire if there isn't one? that's a good thing to yell to get attention.

[southerngirl]

I once was driving through the parking lot of a local movie theature.

 

I saw a man hitting and yelling at a woman. Oh sure he could have attacked me but I pulled up beside them and opened my window and yelled to her did she need help and told him to back the off!...

 

She ran to the car him chasing, she didnt even have shoes on. What if she had mugged me? I didnt think of that I let her in the car and we sped away.

 

She told me he was mad at her because she wanted to break up and he wouldnt give her shoes back and wouldnt let her leave in her own car! She didnt even have her keys.... I dropped her off at a police station parking lot.

 

I could have saved her life. I dont know what happened to her, but I think I was her angel that day. Sometimes you just have to do whats right no matter what can possibly happen. I only hope that if thats me getting beat up one day that someone will stop to see how they can help instead of turning away.

[Beyondthesea]

The technical term for what everyone is talking about is the bystander effect...the more people are witnessing an incident, the LESS likely you will be helped.

 

I know everyone here says that they would run away...remember that it could be you. Would you want people to pass by and abandon you or your loved ones, children, friends?

 

I would stand there screaming bloody murder. Always, I repeat...ALWAYS yell FIRE! if someone is attacking you, if you're in trouble, etc. For whatever reason, the word fire instigates a large emotional reaction in people, much more so than 'help' or even 'rape.'

 

Certainly you should avoid danger, but I would at least start screaming and try to scare them off before bolting myself.

[Stinkweed]

Depending on the circumstances and where an attack takes place it is usually better to yell "fire!" rather than "help!". People who are unable to see what is happening are much more likely to dial 911 if they think a fire is occurring than any other emegency.

 

Yeah, that's what I said I heard earlier... So if it happens in a back-alley type of environment, and it's just like 10 people beating on maybe one or just 2 victims, then I'd definitively exit the scene and yell "fire!". If it's like 10 against 10, or 5 against 5 I definitively wouldn't get myself involved. I mean, no way... Not only is that a LOT of people, but it could be just gangs or something, and nobody wants to get involved in that. I mean, calling the ambulance and the police is still appropiate, of course, but for the rest, but I don't give a hoot who wins in that case.

[PrincessJOA]

It depends. If I'm alone, I'll ring for help if theres more than 2. If theres a group of us, we'll try to get the victim out from the beating. If theres only me and less than 2 of them, I'll ask for help then I'll try to stop them providing I'm sure there are people around that can see us.

[NKP]

I would risk my life, i wouldnt be able to just stand there and watch someone get bashed and killed. If i didnt help and he/she died i would hate myself for the rest of mylife and will always wounder what if?

 

Going to get a phone to ring the police in that time the person could be killed and the gang would be gone outta site and they would of got away of murder.

 

For yous who think i am stupid well i dont care, but i would gardly give my life to anyone, its just who i am and thats how i hae been brought up. If my brother was in a fight or anything i would always stick up for him no matter what he always look up to me, he knows i would be there for him no matter what