To Intervene, Or Not To Intervene?

[Melton Fox]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7394481.stm

Do we learn from this, or do we fight it?

So many stories now where people have got involved in the business of others with a view to protect the party being attacked but end up dead. What the **** is this country/world turning in to?

If you walked down the street and saw a person being attacked, what would you do? Calling the Police is the obvious one, but in lots of cases the victim would be dead before the Police got there. Do you risk taking your children's Father/Mother away from by protecting a complete stranger, or do you stand and watch them die while the Police get there?

Or in the example in the link, do you help out in a shop if a customer is being aggressive towards a member of staff?

It never fails to shock me as to how much of a coward I think I'm turning into. It's now at the stage where if I had the choice, I'd probably walk away and let them get on with it.

 

[beaumontfox]

I don't think it's being cowardly at all.

Personally I think that nowadays, these feckwit tossers have less and less respect for people and life in general.

And that being said, they wouldn't think twice about turning on a Good Samaritan, whereas back in the day, standing up for someone in those situation was more likely to result in the tossers running away.

 

[Macky]

I don't think it's being cowardly at all.

Personally I think that nowadays, these feckwit tossers have less and less respect for people and life in general.

And that being said, they wouldn't think twice about turning on a Good Samaritan, whereas back in the day, standing up for someone in those situation was more likely to result in the tossers running away.

Back in what days?
The world always has and always will be a violent place. People have also always reminisced about a non-existent time passed when the world wasn't as violent, it's a myth.

I think it more likely that as you get older you are more aware of the risk involved and are more reluctant to put yourself in danger of being slotted for somebody elses benefit.

 

[beaumontfox]

I mean that further back in time, a lot more people respected law and order. You wouldn't see many kids backchatting coppers when even my uncle was a kid, the last 20 years society has become a more 'me me me' place to live, with incidents of unsocial behaviour becoming more and more common.

Maybe I'm looking at thing slightly through rose-tinted specs, but I do honestly believe that the utter disregard in everday life towards other human beings is spreading like a cancer and I'm not sure what can be done to stop it.

 

[Bezu Fache Fox]

Interesting discussion. Suppose it depends on the seriousness of the situation, the chances of me getting seriously hurt, and whether there are any other people around likely to help me out if I do intervene.

I would like to think I would intervene - however, it's one thing to say that and quite another to actually do it.

 

[Steven]

I mean that further back in time, a lot more people respected law and order. You wouldn't see many kids backchatting coppers when even my uncle was a kid, the last 20 years society has become a more 'me me me' place to live, with incidents of unsocial behaviour becoming more and more common.

Maybe I'm looking at thing slightly through rose-tinted specs, but I do honestly believe that the utter disregard in everday life towards other human beings is spreading like a cancer and I'm not sure what can be done to stop it.

I believe it is because we are less tolerant than ever. I remember reading about a man who bottled someone else on a train causing the man to be killed. He was charged with assault and given three months. This was back in the late Victorian times. :icon_wink

 

[Macky]

I mean that further back in time, a lot more people respected law and order. You wouldn't see many kids backchatting coppers when even my uncle was a kid, the last 20 years society has become a more 'me me me' place to live, with incidents of unsocial behaviour becoming more and more common.

Maybe I'm looking at thing slightly through rose-tinted specs, but I do honestly believe that the utter disregard in everday life towards other human beings is spreading like a cancer and I'm not sure what can be done to stop it.

I know what you're getting at bf, but I'm not convinced there's any truth in it.

The reason that they wouldn't have back-chatted lawmen back then is because they knew for sure they get a slap for their trouble. It doesn't necessarily follow that they had more respect for the law though, they just had to be more circumspect in their disrespect of authority.

There are, and always were, good kids and complete and utter shitbags, and every degree in between, since the year dot.

 

[Leesoh]

I don't think that human nature ever changes. It's just that I guess with the increased media, we hear more about it.

 

[Melton Fox]

D'you reckon there's anyway I can get the blame for the modern world put onto the shoulders of Ian Holloway before tomorrow's meeting?

 

[Siouxsie]

I think the world has changed in so much as more and more youngsters are going out armed. When I was a teenager I think you could intervene in a fight, in most towns, without much chance of them pulling a knife on you. Now I suspect carrying a weapon is the norm in many places.

Obviously this case is slightly different as he seems to have been killed by some glass.

I'd like to think I'd try but being female and quite small I'm not sure I would.

Oh I did once trying to help a woman (fairly drunk) who was being beaten up by a bloke. They both stopped fighting and SHE laid in to me - verbally only luckily - told me to mind my own business

 

[spionfox]

Back in what days?
The world always has and always will be a violent place. People have also always reminisced about a non-existent time passed when the world wasn't as violent, it's a myth.

When I went to school there were no knives or drugs or guns or suchlike. Are you suggesting that it is just that it is reported nowadays?

 

[Macky]

When I went to school there were no knives or drugs or guns or suchlike. Are you suggesting that it is just that it is reported nowadays?

Not exactly, it has always been reported.

I don't know what age you are spion but it really doesn't matter, just because you personally weren't exposed to such things doesn't mean that they didn't exist, I guarantee that they were.
When you were at school people of the older generation were also decrying the youth of that day and harking back to the days of their youth when such things didn't exist, when in fact they did and always have done.

 

[cleefox]

Oh I did once trying to help a woman (fairly drunk) who was being beaten up by a bloke. They both stopped fighting and SHE laid in to me - verbally only luckily - told me to mind my own business

Exactly the same thing happened to my mate quite a few years ago, except the woman belted him one and left him with a black eye. As he sat on the floor, they started to walk off and the bloke turned round and shouted, "Now you see what shes like". :icon_conf

 

[Hazzman]

I'll be honest and I'll say that I stereotypically judge the attacker before making my next move. In my own little bubble of my world, I judge the person as the stereotype they possibly fit and then I draw from my own experience to think whether they are a danger to myself.

 

[Chuck T Masala]

Macky's right to significant extent, there has always been those individuals predesposed to violence, back in the thirties knife and razor gangs were common on the slums of our cities.

Today I see two major differences now, one is the 24 hour on the spot reporting that brings these incidents directly in to our homes within minutes of them happening. before the advent of the todays technology news took days to reach some places and never reached some places at all.

The other is the availability of alcohol to anyone who wants it. Its available all day in pubs, supermarkets, corner shops, etc. Open all day and its readily avilable to anyone who looks eighteen, although it might not be actually cheaper, some people find more of their disposable income to buy more of it. I know booze has always been around, but never in the variety and with the availability of today.

Perhaps to a lesser degree theis much is less fear of the consequences of violence and crime. Not just from the criminal justice system, but my parents dished out their own corporal punishments if I strayed from the straight and narrow, and the teachers at my school were every bit as hard and quick with their hands as the kids.

 

[homer]

I remember when it was all fields round here, and you could leave your front door on the latch without getting burgled

 

[Chuck T Masala]

That's cos we had nowt worth pinching and me dad would rzaor the fecker that did it!:icon_wink

 

[FIF]

My wife would certainly get involved, 100% sure, she has many times. If I was with her, I wouldn't be able to stop her, therefore I would be there as back up and then if things didn't stop (which they usually do in fact) I'd have to get involved.

If I was on my own, then I'm not so sure, without being in the situation it's hard to say. However if it was violence inside a shop I'd probably have to. I wouldn't want to but I'd have to.

 

[spionfox]

Not exactly, it has always been reported.

I don't know what age you are spion but it really doesn't matter, just because you personally weren't exposed to such things doesn't mean that they didn't exist, I guarantee that they were.

I'm mid 40's and went to an inner city school first and then ones out in the suburbs.

Maybe I was lucky. And maybe all of my friends and acquaintances from that time were lucky too.

 

[spionfox]

Perhaps to a lesser degree theis much is less fear of the consequences of violence and crime. Not just from the criminal justice system, but my parents dished out their own corporal punishments if I strayed from the straight and narrow, and the teachers at my school were every bit as hard and quick with their hands as the kids.

Now that I agree with. All the little tossers know their 'rights' these days and the Police, Teachers, parents etc are like headless chickens wondering what to do to instil some sort of order.

And before a certain someone comes on sprouting about good parenting, yes, I know that there seems to be far more bad parents around these days but IMO that is another symptom of the 'blame everyone but yourself' culture we live in these days.