Just broke up a fight!!!

monquixote · August 2013

Drew_fx said:

Aye, like the pub with lots of glass around!

To your point, I think a responsible parent should be walking away with their kids; thus preventing any sort of spill over our collateral damage. Getting involved was needless and risky, and in some contexts can result in your kids being even more fucked up when they have to go to their fathers funeral and then grow up with out him.

I agree, but in these situations you tend to react rather than think (which doesn't make it right)

Things can easily get out of control if you don't intervene. When my wife was pregnant we were at a gig, right at the back in clear space (perhaps we shouldn't have been there, but the tickets were bought before and it was our last pre parenthood gig). A couple of idiots started kicking off in a similar way and ended up going flying across the room fists flailing. If I hadn't seen them and given them a bloody good shove they would have cannoned straight into a heavily pregnant woman. In a less serious vein the same happened at the last gig I played and took out our PA.

If people want to knock lumps out of each other that's none of my business, but if that's going to spill into hurting other people then it's dickishness of the highest order.

digitalscream · August 2013

Drew_fx said:

Aye, like the pub with lots of glass around!

To your point, I think a responsible parent should be walking away with their kids; thus preventing any sort of spill over our collateral damage. Getting involved was needless and risky, and in some contexts can result in your kids being even more fucked up when they have to go to their fathers funeral and then grow up with out him.

So when there are people causing trouble - and kids around who are running about more than an arm's length from their parents in a park and potentially in danger of being hurt by a couple of dicks getting into it - everybody should just walk away and let it be somebody else's problem?

I have absolutely no qualms about leaving a pair of idiots to fight it out; as I said, though, if they're doing it in a public place where their fight can spill out and hurt others who can't necessarily defend themselves, then it becomes everybody's business. Or at least it should.

blueskunk · August 2013

Im with digital scream, well said.

Travisthedog · August 2013

Hell yeah

blueskunk · August 2013

In terms of having a word whilst my kids are presence if have no issues with pre emptive strike on some fakeass gangster yob if i truely felt i was gonna get attacked. Id rather be judged by 12 than carried by six any day of the week.
On that note id just like to wish u all a peaceful weekend

viz · August 2013

Travisthedog said:

I had the same red mist as when I caught 2 cnuts in my house walking out with my telly. I chased those fuckers for 1/2 a mile.

I may not have the details quite right in my mind but that is leaving me with quite a funny image.

Drew_TNBD · August 2013

digitalscream said:

Drew_fx said:

Aye, like the pub with lots of glass around!

To your point, I think a responsible parent should be walking away with their kids; thus preventing any sort of spill over our collateral damage. Getting involved was needless and risky, and in some contexts can result in your kids being even more fucked up when they have to go to their fathers funeral and then grow up with out him.

So when there are people causing trouble - and kids around who are running about more than an arm's length from their parents in a park and potentially in danger of being hurt by a couple of dicks getting into it - everybody should just walk away and let it be somebody else's problem?

I have absolutely no qualms about leaving a pair of idiots to fight it out; as I said, though, if they're doing it in a public place where their fight can spill out and hurt others who can't necessarily defend themselves, then it becomes everybody's business. Or at least it should.

I guess it depends on the context. Not every situation is going to be the same. I just remember one time when I was a kid, someone started a fight with me and I was not the aggressor. But I happened to be "winning" and some jumped up twat did the same thing; pulled me off him and threw me backwards onto the ground.

They had no context and no right to get involved. From his perspective he saw me with this other kid in a headlock. From my perspective I had this kid in a headlock so he'd stop hitting me.

But as I said, every situation is different. But effectively you're giving yourself (and others) carte blanche to get involved in any situation in a public space and I'm not so sure it is a particularly clever idea. It could severely backfire and escalate and land you guys in hot water.

digitalscream · August 2013

Drew_fx said:
I guess it depends on the context. Not every situation is going to be the same. I just remember one time when I was a kid, someone started a fight with me and I was not the aggressor. But I happened to be "winning" and some jumped up twat did the same thing; pulled me off him and threw me backwards onto the ground.

They had no context and no right to get involved. From his perspective he saw me with this other kid in a headlock. From my perspective I had this kid in a headlock so he'd stop hitting me.

But as I said, every situation is different. But effectively you're giving yourself (and others) carte blanche to get involved in any situation in a public space and I'm not so sure it is a particularly clever idea. It could severely backfire and escalate and land you guys in hot water.

No, you're missing the point - I'm not saying it's carte blanche to just wade in at all. I'm saying exactly what you did - it's context-dependent. If the only people around (including the ones going at it) were non-vulnerable adults, and everybody was aware of what's going on, then I'd most likely leave them to it and wait for the coppers to mop up the mess.

Hypothetically, if your fight had carried on, the other kid might've got the upper hand such that you ended up getting a total pasting. Surely it's better that the whole thing was stopped before it could get out of hand?

There are many situations where I would get involved, though, and I think it's a pretty damning indictment on a lot of people that they wouldn't. For example, my brother was getting a kebab one night and a fight kicked off between two guys - he was trying to help the girls he was out with out of the way of it, when one of the guys in the fight smashed him over the head with a bottle from behind and then proceeded to stamp on his head 7 or 8 times, thus putting him in hospital with a severe concussion and 7 stitches in his face...while the crowd filling the street just watched. The police turned up, everybody said they hadn't seen anything...and the guy got away with it completely. My brother, on the other hand, lost two weeks' wages, almost lost his flat because he couldn't pay the rent that month and has a permanent scar on his face where his lip was torn all the way to his nose. All because he was an easy target with his back turned, and in the vicinity of the fight.

So yeah...I'm not a great advocate of people just walking away. If enough people stopped treating it like it was somebody else's problem, this sort of thing wouldn't happen so often. Or, at the very least, it wouldn't have such dire consequences as often happens.

EDIT: I guess what I'm saying is that such events are rare enough (and varied enough in cause) that you can't generalise about them. A blanket "you shouldn't get involved" is simply not sufficient, and neither is "the guy getting the pasting might have deserved it". Especially when there's the potential for significant collateral damage.

Chuffola · August 2013

I applaud Travis but I doubt I'd have done the same. And I'm not even sure its the right thing to do.

However, in and around Belfast (or, effectively, anywhere in NI) there's always the chance that the guy you confront is involved in some sort of paramilitary group and things can get very nasty, very quickly. Sad, but true as I found out once, many years ago. (It's ok, I lived to tell the tale and I'm still negotiating for the film rights)

I'm no coward, but I'd rather walk away than get involved these days.

Noisy wankers outside my house, though? Entirely different matter.

* edit * I would like to point out that 99.9% of us over here ARE NOT involved in gang warfare. But there's always the chance... @Adam_MD and @Dave_Mc, for example. Shifty looking and probably not to be trusted.

<:-P

streethawk · August 2013

Travis, I completely understand your reaction.

Grown men kicking off in front of kids are nobheads.

And talking of nobheads - praise allah for the ignore function!

^:)^

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