If you would so a stranger just getting beat up by a couple of people would you help him and what will the police do if you happen to injure someone for protecting a stranger? i would try to break up the fight myself but if they keep going you know ...
I would but only after assessing the situation i.e. surroundings, people around ect. I would call from a distance if they need assistance first and mention that I will call the police. If they are getting badly beaten althrough bad practice from a self protection point of view I would feel morally obligated to intervene. I would try verbally first to defuse the situation and possibly gain help from others to break it up. If it goes physical from there I will escalate as needed until the threat is defused or over. Also dependant on who is with me ie. my family as their safety is firstly paramount
I have done this. A few guys i know in passing were beating up a guy in a particularly nasty pub one night. I intervened politely, negotiated the guys safety and escorted him to a taxi rank. From what i was told he was in the wrong but there was about four laying into him. I couldn't watch that. Baza
By definition no i.e. others and not yourself and you are putting yourself on the firing line. Geoff Thompson talks about this abit in his self protection book Dead or Alive. Personally I see it as a nobel thing to do but you need to think and assess the situation and your options first.
I have done this. An attacher was laying in to someone on the floor. I was about 20 feet away. I shouted at the attacker to stop and he did. I didn't think that this would work but it did. Some important things to remember are Fights are not rational situations. It is possible that one or all of those concerned might attack you. You are most likely not trained for this situation. You are not a police man. You have no obligation to help.
Assuming you're in the UK it's legally protected in the same way as self defence, i.e. assuming you only use as much force as is necessary you aren't committing any crime.
As PointyShinyBurn said, in the UK it's legal (under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967).
Use of Force with regards to protection of others is the same legally as it is to defense of the self - Reasonable and necessary in the circumstances. This appears to be global from my experience, but as always check the law in the jurisdiction you occupy Bear in mind that if it is one on one and you intervene you have now made this a two on one in favor of the initial victim and so the threshold for reasonable will probably change. Also it is not uncommon for the two parties to turn against the "new enemy", particularly in domestic scenarios Best advice is to be a good witness and call the police ASAP and only intervene if you have to. Sometimes a good "OI!" shouted liudly can dissaude some..others less so
