Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Difficult Question Time III

Reading this article from a link from Kim's site, I had to ask myself, "What do I think I would do?"

Here is the scenario:

You happen upon a group of ten girls attacking a lone girl. All of the girls, the ten and the one, are between fourteen and seventeen years of age. As part of the attack, they are kicking her on the ground and cutting her face with a broken bottle.


The questions:

What would you do to stop it?
What if stopping them meant certain injury to you?
What if stopping them meant having to seriously injure them?
What if you are in England and stopping them means that you will be injured, you will have to injure at least one of them, and then you will be arrested (you know that you will be prior to intervening) by the British police and jailed by their legal system?


If your answer to the first question is "nothing" I do not wish to know you.

I know how I have reacted in the past. I once happened upon three men jumping another from behind him in a Taco Bell parking lot. I broke the fight. To do so, I jumped in the fray, threw one of the men to the ground and another away from his victim. This was before I was a Marine. I had no intention of hurting any of them.

For my efforts, the intended victim was left mostly unhurt and I received a concussion.

My best friend, who saw one standing behind me hit me in the back of the head, ran out of the restaurant and started to punch that one in the head. His friends attacked mine from behind and kicked him to the ground and then kicked his head leaving some lacerations and contusions.


I like to think that now I would injure the assailants sufficiently to incapacitate them. If, in order to keep a fourteen year old girl from stabbing another in the face with a broken bottle, I had to to gouge her eyes, I would.

I hope I am never in that situation. I do not think that the British have much hope in that regard though.

3 comments:

Weetabix said...

Good question, and one that takes some thought. I'm going to preface this by saying I've never seen that situation, but I can't even imagine doing nothing.

What would you do to stop it?
Given that the bottle is present, I'd probably go for that in a pretty aggressive way. I was going to say "violent," but given my upbringing, I don't know that I could be as unrestrainedly violent against a girl even as this girl seemed to warrant. I'd probably be shoving a lot of them out of the fracas, but I don't know that I could hit them at first. Their subsequent actions could persuade me that it was necessary, though.

What if stopping them meant certain injury to you?
I'd still do it. They're cutting her face with a bottle!

What if stopping them meant having to seriously injure them? More OK than letting them injure me. They're the aggressors, after all. It's the girl thing that slows me down. I just don't think I have it in me to injure a girl first shot out of the chute, but given a compelling reason, I think I could. And stopping that kind of attack would certainly compel.

What if you are in England and stopping them means that you will be injured, you will have to injure at least one of them, and then you will be arrested (you know that you will be prior to intervening) by the British police and jailed by their legal system?

Honestly, that one becomes a much harder proposition. It kind of depends on how much damage I'm saving her from. Scrapes? Loss of an eye? Death? I'm the sole support of a wife & 4 kids, so I owe them a lot already. Since we're omniscient in this instance, I'd jump in to save her life. The others take more thought because of my family. If I were single, I'd probably jump in with little hesitation for all but scrapes. The rest is a bit fuzzier.

What is your answer to the last question?

Shawn McManus said...

This is one of those "what if" situations that I think I would never know for certain what I would do until I was in that exact situation.

The thought of hurting a young girl disgusts me. However, I think that it is better to seriously hurt them than to let them turn into the monsters they surely would.

If I saw them stick the bottle into the other girls face - and there are ten of them - I think I would go for the biggest or most dangerous. I doubt that I would get all of them but like to think that I would have presense of mind to go after the one with the bottle and any wielding weapons first.

Given the number and the violence, action would have to quick. A hard poke into the eyes, preferrably both, accomplishes a good number of things:

1. They likely focus on their own pain and quit their assault.

2. They cannot see to leave and are at the mercy of others to help the leave or the police if they ever show.

3. While very painful, there is a good possibility that there will not be permanent damage.

4. There is a very good possibility they will never attack someone again.

I think I would likely loose any inhibitions for any holding weapons. If I hit them, I might feel bad but not too bad.

I don't mind the risk of injury. "Fools rush in..." and all that may apply. I've been hurt pretty badly before now. If ever in that situation, I only hope I'm not injured too badly.

If in England, depending on how badly I am hurt, I like to think that as soon as the ten were incapacitated, I would render aid and then leave before police arrived. If there was a good likelyhood I would be caught, I may just call short whatever I was in England for and leave the country, perhaps for good.

I doubt that I would be as restrained as the guy writing the article. In all likelihood, I would be more like a brawler than one in control of my facilities handing out punishments.

Weetabix said...

Ooh. I hadn't thought about running away. I thought we knew that we'd be arrested and imprisoned. I was thinking inside the box.

I'd think even the British would have to respect anyone who subdued an enemy and ran away shouting, "Run away! Run away!" ala Monty Python. They'd have to let you go on points for style.