Should I have stopped?

[Easytigers]

Cycling through a local village a couple of evenings ago and heard it before I saw it...lots of shouting and banging.

As I approached the father and son who run the chippy were attacking/being attacked 4 or 5 teenagers (17/18 yr olds I'd guess). The son had a baseball bat and was whalloping one of them and the kid/man was trying to have a go back.

I slowed down but to my shame, nipped past and kept going. I've felt guilty ever since as I probably should have stopped/called the police etc :-(

I've been trying to justify it with the fact that there was quite a crowd anyway and that someone probably helped or reported it but tbh I was just a bit scared and was being selfish.

Should I have stopped? Would you have?

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Wandering back to halls of residence on the edge of Hulme (Manchester - mid 80's not the nicest of areas), I dived in when there was a really big guy had a girl pinned against a wall by her throat, with another girl pulling and shouting at him on her behalf, lots of shouting and screaming going on all round, It never occurred to impetuous me not to join in! my mate with me was far slower at moving.

As soon as I got near, this guy dropped the girl, his hand went into his jacket pocket and I could see it balling into a fist or around something and he backed off staring me down as I just stood there, his eyes were very dilated and he didn't look *right*.

The girl and her pal were casually wandering off in the other direction and as soon as I looked and called out to them the big guy turned and legged it - the girls were not interested at all and were totally dismissive of my and mates concern.

With hindsight I figured I'd run into a drug deal going bad or some sort of pimp/girl dispute and got away very lightly for my trouble. Nowadays, I don't know I'd be as quick to dive in.

 

[gbb]

Cycling through a local village a couple of evenings ago and heard it before I saw it...lots of shouting and banging.

As I approached the father and son who run the chippy were attacking/being attacked 4 or 5 teenagers (17/18 yr olds I'd guess). The son had a baseball bat and was whalloping one of them and the kid/man was trying to have a go back.

I slowed down but to my shame, nipped past and kept going. I've felt guilty ever since as I probably should have stopped/called the police etc :-(

I've been trying to justify it with the fact that there was quite a crowd anyway and that someone probably helped or reported it but tbh I was just a bit scared and was being selfish.

Should I have stopped? Would you have?

If there was already a crowd, I wouldnt have stopped...but if it were just the 6 or 7..I still wouldnt have stopped. Why ?, because you dont know who is actually the aggressor, you might wade in and get it all wrong. What you saw and what actually prompted it all may be completely different to what you thought.
TBF, id have got round the corner and rung the Police..

 

[Dragonwight]

I had a similar incident a few weeks ago this guy had stopped his car at the lights got out and was having a slanging match with this women who had a pram but no baby, he had the baby and this poor women who was clearly the mother was hurriedly walking away pushing this empty pram while he stood there in the middle of day shouting every obscenity under the sun at her while holding up all the traffic. He eventually got back in his car flung the child in the front and drove of like a total tw*t. I called plod for the simple reason he was clearly out of control with a very young baby in the front unrestrained. Turned out I wasn't the only one who did. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had in your incident too. If you feel that bad you could probably still tell them what you saw they may have something ongoing with it.

 

[Crackle]

If they had a baseball bat behind the counter, you have to question their approach to customer service.

 

[Easytigers]

If they had a baseball bat behind the counter, you have to question their approach to customer service.

It's a really quiet village as well so was v surprised!

 

[jarlrmai]

Maybe they were really into playing baseball.

 

[Crackle]

It's a really quiet village as well so was v surprised!

Hmmm, my experience of quiet villages is there are probably more feuds per square inch than in cities.

 

[Crankarm]

If they had a baseball bat behind the counter, you have to question their approach to customer service.

Or the type of customers that liked to frequent the chippy ……………….

 

[Crankarm]

Hmmm, my experience of quiet villages is there are probably more feuds per square inch than in cities.

You've only got to watch Midsummer Murders to see corpses everywhere in small quiet leafy villages in deepest Englandshire.

 

[Crankarm]

If they had a baseball bat behind the counter, you have to question their approach to customer service.

Yeah you can see it now, up before the beak for giving a battering to a cod and sausage.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Cycling through a local village a couple of evenings ago and heard it before I saw it...lots of shouting and banging.

As I approached the father and son who run the chippy were attacking/being attacked 4 or 5 teenagers (17/18 yr olds I'd guess). The son had a baseball bat and was whalloping one of them and the kid/man was trying to have a go back.

I slowed down but to my shame, nipped past and kept going. I've felt guilty ever since as I probably should have stopped/called the police etc :-(

I've been trying to justify it with the fact that there was quite a crowd anyway and that someone probably helped or reported it but tbh I was just a bit scared and was being selfish.

Should I have stopped? Would you have?

I think the only way to react is immediately. I don't know how I will react to similar situations - I've walked past some nasties, and I've reversed back to intervene in armed robberies, and stopped a guy beating up his partner - but, for me at least - the key element is the first reaction. For me, if an inner voice says ''I'm not having that'' I'm a foolish hero, if I don't hear it, I go home and examine my conscience.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Yeah you can see it now, up before the beak for giving a battering to a cod and sausage.

Damn i was going to use that joke!

 

[Crankarm]

Damn i was going to use that joke!

But too tight to like it though!

 

[Tin Pot]

Do you have kids?

I have to check myself from wading into any of that crap these days - good job because I always came out the worse for wear when I was younger.

I would stop at a distance and call the police, if it ends in front of you, offer help to those left injured.

Your feeling of guilt is perfectly natural, but in all honesty with those numbers you couldn't have "saved" anyone, realistically.