I saw a guy beating up his girlfriend ...

[MyUserName]

... so I ran/hobbled (due to a sprained ankle) over to intervene.

He was moderately big fella (slightly bigger than me but not much) and turned his rage on me and as we exchanged pleasantries I was blindsided by one of his friends whom I had not noticed and got kicked in the head a couple of times before I got back up. By then some of my friends had got there and they resorted to shouting abuse before walking away (apparently, beating up a defenceless, hysterical 8 stone girl and hitting a middle aged father of two in the back of the head requires a different sort of courage to fighting 3 adult males who are prepared to fight back).

I cannot help being a little disappointed at how many people just seemed to be standing there doing nothing. A guy even came over to shake my hand and tell me how much he admired me after they had gone. I smiled and thanked him and privately thought "Where were you when I was on the floor being kicked by those two guys?".

Obviously, not everyone is quite as stupid as I am to actually physically intervene but they could at least shout, claim they were calling the police etc. Anything to distract the chav from using her as a punch bag whilst holding her throat.

[vetran]

Sadly it happens, surprising how few people intervene.

[woohoo]

It takes a lot of guts to get involved the way you did, not sure how many people have those same kind of guts.

[tarbera]

a square go

are things of the past, most neds need a 3/1 advantage and a blade or weapon of some kind.

Why did you not give them a pasting.?

[Bunk]

I haven't seen anything like that in years, since I moved to London. Used to see it sometimes in Edinburgh and invariably when someone stepped in to stop it, the girl would turn on them and they'd end up getting attacked by the couple who suddenly forgot their differences.

[OwlHoot]

I haven't seen anything like that in years, since I moved to London. Used to see it sometimes in Edinburgh and invariably when someone stepped in to stop it, the girl would turn on them and they'd end up getting attacked by the couple who suddenly forgot their differences.

Happens most times, sadly. That's the main reason I wouldn't try and wade in.

[doodab]

Fair play to you for having the balls to intervene. As others have said most wouldn't, I personally am a bit of a coward in that regard so I might call the police when I'd got round the corner but I'd probably not confront the guy unless he was much smaller than me, plus as others have said the "battered woman" often turns out to be just as bad as her tormentor if you try and help them out. I learnt that to my chagrin the one and only time I did get involved in something like this (I was a lot younger and cockier in those days)

Doodab "why don't you pick on someone your own size"
"Battered" (shoved, really) woman "why don't you **** off"

was the gist of it.

[original PM]

Happens most times, sadly. That's the main reason I wouldn't try and wade in.

Thats true - very very few men would ever consider violence against a woman so you have to say some women must be complete fu<kers for a bloke to want to punch them...

and yes often after woman has been saved she then tries to press charges on bloke who beat up her attacker...

:sigh:

[MarillionFan]

I tend to go wading straight into the middle of it, my invincibility cloak goes on and I'll jump stright into the middle of a ruck. Last time, two guys started slugging it out in my local in the other bar. A load of shouts and a scream from the barmain and I was off. Ran from one bar to the other and grabbed one of the blokes / pushing the other back.

A mate who was a copper had also followed me in and was standing in the middle telling them to back off. One got thrown out, the other stayed, all in all a little bit of excitement.

Now it transpired, I thought that we had both set off at the same time, but alas no. My mate told me how annoyed he was I had got involved and had actually planned to leave by the other door, but seeing as I'd waded into the middle of it, he felt duty bound to come around.

[speling bee]

Well done.

The only time I ever intervened was when a drunk Celtic fan started beating up and racially abusing an Asian couple (aged about 17 and both very small) who were sat down on a busy tube carriage. His mates were standing behind him but not throwing the punches. I stood in the way and told him he was behaving like a Rangers fan, and after a few hairy moments he backed off enough for the couple and me to scarper at the next tube stop. Obviously everyone else in the carriage looked the other way.