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It's just unbelievable what the world is like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvGIwLcIuw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac&feature=related

What would you do?

Beardy wrote:What would you do?

KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!

It's an interesting phenomenon I remember the first time I heard about it (And I have no way of knowing if it's true) was a newspaper story of a woman who was raped on a train by two men while the people around kept their heads down, only asking if she was alright after they left. I've also experienced it first hand when I was on a bus and a kid from my school jumped on and started beating the s*** out of me, no one helped. I asked people after it was over if I could get anyone as a witness, amazingly even the people sitting next to me claimed they saw nothing. Another time was when I was at school, I was on the floor and three other kids were repeatedly kicking me, and a teacher the head of our bloody year practically stepped over me and kept on walking.
Because of these cases I'm proud to say I've always gotten involved, Most times it has just been friends playing about and I've left feeling like a pratt on some occasions I and a few others have actually been a help which is always a good feeling.

However I'm also aware that I have passed by many people I assumed were homeless. I once stopped for a woman who was crying and saying 'help me', who then asked for money for medecine which I refused her. (She struck me as a drunk pulling a con, and I couldn't afford to give money away for a tramp to spend on drugs I had drug habits of my own to support). Money is nearly always tight for me but I still have money to spend on booze or junk food that I could give to someone living on the street or even send it to children in a third world country but I priorities spending my money on luxuries for me rather than necessitates for others. I'd like to think in each of those situations I'd help, but you never know till it actually happens. Hell why don't I open my house up for people with no homes of their own? I may get robbed almost certainly but isn't human life more valuable than stuff?

I've noticed that when there is fighting in public, people tend to want to keep their nose out of it, unless they know one of the parties involved.

I had a similar experience to Jean Eugene Roberts in my youth, I was kicking a sreaming as these two bullies threw me off a bridge into a shough.

It seems funny now though. Can you explain that?

Justin

tragic+time=comedy

That was pretty astonishing that only those few guys leapt to her rescue. Even the guy with his own son walked by, i bet it would be a different story if it was his son!

But i think it is different with street fight, think how many countless times innocent bystanders have been stabbed trying to break up a fight...

Beardy wrote:What would you do?

I was in that exact position a few months ago and I'm proud to say, my wife and I stopped to help. We drove past an old lady who was lying on the pavement behind a gate on a quiet street. We stopped and got out the car to help her immediately. She'd fallen and couldn't manage to get up again, although she turned out to be physically unhurt.

I'm not bragging about doing that, but I have to say I would lie awake at night if I walked past someone in obvious distress and didn't make an effort to help.

I doubt very much I'd get directly involved in someone fighting though. I'd happily call the police, but that's as far as I'd go. Not worth getting stabbed.

Well this is likely to annoy a few people.

I would have hesitated to help the little girl at first, because the situation seemed very fake to me. I highly doubt a child of that age would begin to yell "you're not my dad" the very second they feel physical contact from someone. The first instinct would be to scream, simply scream. Fear would allow that much to take place, not the process of weighing up the situation, formulating the facts into words, then over riding the fear and urge to simply scream. Also, she didn't actually sound very afraid, she seemed loud but quite calm, and was adressing the man himself, which might make people think they do actually know each other. "You're not my dad" is a statement to the man, who could be a step father and she simply is being belligerant, however if she was yelling out to the other people, "Help, he's not my dad, help" then that is more likely to say to someone, "that should not be taking place" These things might have caused people to hesitate, because somethign just felt off to them.

As highlighted in the second video, people don't want to get involved on their own, by and large. It's not until they know that others are on their side that they actually take action. I used to teach this as part of self defence classes, the first thing you do when seeing something like this, or a mugging etc is yell so as many people can hear "hey, stop that guy" as you make your way towards the situation if you can. This way people know they are not going into something alone, they have a "team" with them. Which helos re-inforce for yourself, that they are joining you, and you have a team helping you, giving you the confidence to help out.

Ruth looked like she was taking a nap and thought the steps looked like a nice place.