Friday night fight

[TongPo]

Hi. Right I'm just in from a friday night in a nightclub. On the way home, my friend and I witnessed 3 guys who seemed to be together starting trouble.

I saw 2 guys chasing 1 guy, the 1 guy seemed to knock one guy to the ground with a punch to the face, and then I lost track.

Then one guy whacked a girl who went down. I wasn't sure he'd hit her, as it sounded like he hit a car, but to my surprise I reckon he'd hit her. Then a guy came to her aid, and was on his knees talking to her, when the attacker kicked this guy somewhere, but hard enough that we could hear the impact. They got up and made away.

Anyway so now there's 3 guilty looking guys standing around, and around 10+ innocent bystanders. I dont know who's with who. The police arrive (one man one woman) and the guilty looking lot RUN like hell. They probably got away with it.

In self defence of the poor girl, and guy on his knees, would you step over and challenge this guy in a "If you are coming over here to hurt us more after attacking this girl, you will have to come through me"?

I feel I should have stepped in, and knocked a couple of these people out cold. Of course, I realise my fear was in the way, I'm not trying to make out I'm rambo. But even after the **** hit the fan, I think I would have still been in a sticky situation with the law.

Grrr. Fu*king punks, hitting a girl and a guy who was on his knees... It just makes me realise, that could have been my friends, or my girl, or my brother, that got innocently battered by some thug for no reason. And the police are completely useless, they didnt even chase them.

I think society is really letting us down, these thugs get away with it, they should be shot, anyone running over 4mph at night should just be instantly shot in the head.

Does anyone fear, after starting MA innocently, that after getting good at it, they might become Batman? or something?

Sorry Im rambling on... please give me your thoughts... is this a usual occurance where you live? I'm in England, and it's supposed to be peaceful around this area.

x

[bjbrent]

Ya man, I'm always worried about turning into batman every night, running around in that sweet black cape and badass rubber panties on the outside. I wear my robin pj's every night just to stave it off.

Seriously though, it's the cops job to investigate and deterr crime, they can't be around enough to prevent it as it happens.

Nothing bad happened this time, so don't be too hard on yourself, you probably woulda stepped in and all had it have gotten bad.

That said, this stuff doesn't happen so much where I live, cause people aren't so sure that bystanders will just stand nicely around.

Next time, drop them, and they won't beat on women next time. Martial artists look just like everyone else (but buffer). If martial artists are ready to step up to teh plate, then muggers and thugs will say 'hmm, I might not wanna attack this random law abiding citizen, he might lay me out.'

[Apotheosis]

I try to stay out of fights, for all I know the guy I see getting jumped by two other guys raped their mother or sister, I dont want to go to bat for someone who deserves a beating. If I saw a fight I would call the cops though, let them sort it out, but if I see a kid, or woman get attacked by a man I will do my best to break it up.

[|MT|omar]

Me and my mates were driving down the street once (one of those populated streets with plenty of people and restaraunts) and we saw a guy and his girl were about to be attacked by 5 guys.

One of the bad guys hit the man, we stopped the car and jumped in... turns out later that my mate knew the girl that was with the man being attacked. But yeah, i hate seing unfair fights, it's never 1-1 these days, so we had to jump in

[MajesticB]

Most, if not all the fights around where I live (not to say I see many, but once a month maybe) are usually being fought by a couple of street punks with nothing better to do. I always just call the cops, and while waiting (from a safe distance of course) I watch them beat the snot out of each other. And for the most part, they dont even do much damage. The just go at each other with fists flying awkwardly all over the place.

[Lanakin]

The only fights I see are at school, but you don't realize that fear gets in the way of stepping in. You start to make excuses, even when the fight is going on, as to why you didn't step in, like "I wouldn't have had a good angle," or "It ended too quickly." It's all fear. One way to get rid of fear is to enter mushin or "mind-no-mind state". This gets rid of fear in a hurry. But, for now, I think the best way to overcome this fear is to just go in without thinking about it. Otherwise, you won't.

:woo:

[Matt_Bernius]

Your first responsibility is to keeping yourself safe. After that, if possible, you should try and protect others. Now that doesn't mean proactively attacking the aggressors. But stepping in between is an option and stating clearly that it's time this stops.

Now if the odds are 10 to one against you, then you do need to consider your own safety and how that relates to your loved ones.

Now as far as regret about not doing anything, very few people are prepared to react when extreme events happen. Heck, emergency workers train to perform under this sort of stress. Don't beat yourself up about not reacting. Meditate (ie think about) the events and perhaps you'll be in a better position to do something the next time.

- Matt

[MarioBro]

If you were actually the guy in your avatar then I would say 'Why did you not step in you wuss!?'.

But since I doubt you look anywhere near that scary...I suspect you did well not to step in the middle, but you could have perhaps tried to find a phone, tried to muster support from others to step in, or somethign along that nature.

If you were with a group of guys and felt you could handle yourselves, then I think it is certainly our responsability as MAers and as citizens of this earth to help those who are unfairly attacked whenever we are able to do so.

[Lanakin]

So far, we've learned 2>1. What's your point?

:woo:

[tekkengod]

i don't know what ur point is, but if ur asking do i feel the need to stick my nose in other peoples business? no, i mean if i saw a girl getting beaten on then i'd probably do something, but other than that, i try to steer clear cause u don't know what the situation is, might involve money or sex.

[MarioBro]

So far, we've learned 2>1. What's your point?

:woo:

I guess all we really learned is that surprisingly you know that 2 is greater than 1. Who knew... :eek: ;)

[Fighter4Higher]

We all have our moments of weakness. There have been times when I should have stepped in, should have did something.. but didn't. *Sigh* Hope this training will give me the confidence to do so if I find myself in situations like these again.

[soryu fisherman]

A very scary situation. I stepped in between a man and a woman on a 2nd floor balcony. No voilence insued. I think just the fact that he knew I was willing to hit him should he touch her changed his mind. He left that night I have not seen him since. That was 15 yrs ago. He was a big sucker too and threatened to throw me off the balcony.
I say that a man that hit's a woman needs to feel what it's like to be hit by another man that means it.

[shaolintintin]

anyone running over 4mph at night should just be instantly shot in the head.
x

erm... I go running at night , please don't shoot ME! :eek:


You have to asses the situation yourself. What else can you do?

It all depends on how much you REALLY care and whether or not you're willing to do something about it if you do care.

Your fear is only looking out for YOUR safety. Oh, someone already said that?


peace :D

[Yohan]

Um I think that in general, I wouldn't jump in to a beatdown where some guy is on the receiving end of a butt-whopping. I'd just call the cops.

However, if I was witness to a guy getting physical to a girl, I would hurt him as bad as I possibly could. That just isn't right.

[Oversoul]

The only fights I see are at school, but you don't realize that fear gets in the way of stepping in. You start to make excuses, even when the fight is going on, as to why you didn't step in, like "I wouldn't have had a good angle," or "It ended too quickly." It's all fear. One way to get rid of fear is to enter mushin or "mind-no-mind state". This gets rid of fear in a hurry. But, for now, I think the best way to overcome this fear is to just go in without thinking about it. Otherwise, you won't.

When I was in high school, we had an incident where one guy attacked another guy from behind and stomped repeatedly on his head. Apparently there were other students all around them, but none of them tried to stop it. The kid ended up surviving, but had severe damage done to his face and brain.

I arrived at school less than five minutes after this. At the time, I was surprised to learn that none of the other students stepped in. Many of them considered this a "fight." They didn't want to get involved. Plus many of them were scared of the attacker, even though it was clear that as a group, they could easily have overpowered him.

Despite this, I tend to agree with the sentiment that if it's none of my business, I'll stay out of it, although it depends on the situation (one guy being ganged up on by three, one guy stomping on an unconscious guy's head, etcetera).