Is it cowardly to walk away?

[LiiLoSNK]

This damn near EXACT situation you described happened to me the other day at the bars. I'm sitting on a bar stool near a pool table, 1 short guy friend, and 2 girls, so it's not like I have a lot of back up if any shit goes down (besides the bouncers at the bar I guess). I look across the bar and randomly end up making 1 second of eye contact with this 6'0" presumably Jamaican guy. Apparently that set him off. He walks over with his boys and start shouting "why you looking at me wrong, dawg?" which leads to me standing up and taking my flannel off because I don't take shit from no Mathew Perry looking bitches. One of his friends tries to walk him away and calm him down as I would clearly body this kid. At this point a different friend of his comes up close to me and flashes me his gun asking me if I looked at his dude wrong. This being the 3rd time I've had a gun pulled on me, I roll the dice and assume he's bluffing like every other sackless punk. I pick up a pool ball off the table and calmly/quietly explain to the young man that if I see the gun 1 more time, I would swat every tooth out of his mouth. Finally the bouncers show up and separate everyone and I end up getting a few "fingers in the shape of a gun" pointed at me on their way out the door. Bouncers ask if they had a gun. I say IDK cause I'm no snitch. When I leave I expect them to be waiting for me outside, but I guess they left.

SO chances are I will have to wait until they feel like jumping me to answer your question OP. My main plan is to bring a knife and hold the smallest one hostage while backing away. Running is not an option, as their bullets can probably run a lot faster than I can.

[Tradewind]

This damn near EXACT situation you described happened to me the other day at the bars. I'm sitting on a bar stool near a pool table, 1 short guy friend, and 2 girls, so it's not like I have a lot of back up if any shit goes down (besides the bouncers at the bar I guess). I look across the bar and randomly end up making 1 second of eye contact with this 6'0" presumably Jamaican guy. Apparently that set him off. He walks over with his boys and start shouting "why you looking at me wrong, dawg?" which leads to me standing up and taking my flannel off because I don't take shit from no Mathew Perry looking bitches. One of his friends tries to walk him away and calm him down as I would clearly body this kid. At this point a different friend of his comes up close to me and flashes me his gun asking me if I looked at his dude wrong. This being the 3rd time I've had a gun pulled on me, I roll the dice and assume he's bluffing like every other sackless punk. I pick up a pool ball off the table and calmly/quietly explain to the young man that if I see the gun 1 more time, I would swat every tooth out of his mouth. Finally the bouncers show up and separate everyone and I end up getting a few "fingers in the shape of a gun" pointed at me on their way out the door. Bouncers ask if they had a gun. I say IDK cause I'm no snitch. When I leave I expect them to be waiting for me outside, but I guess they left.

SO chances are I will have to wait until they feel like jumping me to answer your question OP. My main plan is to bring a knife and hold the smallest one hostage while backing away. Running is not an option, as their bullets can probably run a lot faster than I can.

Where do you live, Haiti?

[LiiLoSNK]

Where do you live, Haiti?

Oregon. I blame the weather. It's so depressing in the winter.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Guy fighting people trying to subdue him is much different than guys trying to fight him. They aren't moving like they're fighting, they're moving like they're trying to keep him there.

[pimpeddakota]

If you votes "Yes". Please explain what would you do in the situation? (without some macho "I could beat 5 people up at the same time" bullshit)

I carry concealed so first I try to walk away if it comes down to it I'm outnumbered and justified and the world will be better off

[twinkleblur]

I would kick there asses. heres my reasons.

1. my friend got his ass kicked by 3 kids who werent older than 12...he was 20..he tried to walk away...worst part is it was put on youtube..

2. im sorry but in my city? you gotta teach them there place.. no kid is strong enough to fight a fully grown man.

[almaderp]

It really depends on the situation, I'll try to avoid the fight if possible but if I'm forced to fight I will. And thanks to an insanely high pain threshold as well as being rather stubborn, well unless they wanted me dead they'd probably leave me alone. Oh yeah and fuck fighting fair 1v4.

[Deleted]

There's 2 situations where I would act differently:

A. They randomly want to start fighting with me, I wouldn't bother to respond nor fight back.

B. They randomly want to start fighting my friend, I would be in their faces in less than 1 second.

[Taurenburger]

Is it cowardly? Yes. Absolutely. No question about it.

No, it's not cowardly. If random people want to fight with me I'll walk around them untill they hit me, then it's on. This is not because I can't beat some big mouth punks' asses, it's because I don't fight without a good reason.

[obdigore]

I would kick there asses. heres my reasons.

1. my friend got his ass kicked by 3 kids who werent older than 12...he was 20..he tried to walk away...worst part is it was put on youtube..

2. im sorry but in my city? you gotta teach them there place.. no kid is strong enough to fight a fully grown man.

So your friend got his ass kicked by 3 kids... but you would fight them because no kid is strong enough to fight a fully grown man? One of those two can't be correct.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

This damn near EXACT situation you described happened to me the other day at the bars. I'm sitting on a bar stool near a pool table, 1 short guy friend, and 2 girls, so it's not like I have a lot of back up if any shit goes down (besides the bouncers at the bar I guess). I look across the bar and randomly end up making 1 second of eye contact with this 6'0" presumably Jamaican guy. Apparently that set him off. He walks over with his boys and start shouting "why you looking at me wrong, dawg?" which leads to me standing up and taking my flannel off because I don't take shit from no Mathew Perry looking bitches. One of his friends tries to walk him away and calm him down as I would clearly body this kid. At this point a different friend of his comes up close to me and flashes me his gun asking me if I looked at his dude wrong. This being the 3rd time I've had a gun pulled on me, I roll the dice and assume he's bluffing like every other sackless punk. I pick up a pool ball off the table and calmly/quietly explain to the young man that if I see the gun 1 more time, I would swat every tooth out of his mouth. Finally the bouncers show up and separate everyone and I end up getting a few "fingers in the shape of a gun" pointed at me on their way out the door. Bouncers ask if they had a gun. I say IDK cause I'm no snitch. When I leave I expect them to be waiting for me outside, but I guess they left.

SO chances are I will have to wait until they feel like jumping me to answer your question OP. My main plan is to bring a knife and hold the smallest one hostage while backing away. Running is not an option, as their bullets can probably run a lot faster than I can.

Are you proud about doing something profoundly stupid and then compounding it further?

---------- Post added 2013-01-22 at 07:14 AM ----------

I don't know if this is relevant or not but I'll share a situation I was in.


I took a mechanical class in high school, wasn't auto shop but covered engines and such.

There was a bully ring leader in the class, he was a year younger then me, and a few of his hangers on. The class was loose format with the students kinda doing whatever we wanted across a few different rooms as we needed so it wasn't unusual to be out of line of sight of the teacher for long periods of time.

Well, one day I was working in the back of the classroom on a small engine I had procured off a lawn mower, and this kid happens to be in the back of the room goofing off with his friends, as per normal. Well, I don't even know how it started, but he apparently got bored and decided to 'rastle' with me a bit. It wasn't full contact rolling around on the ground or anything, but he was definitely making contact trying to egg me on. This kid got in fights REGULARLY, and bore the injuries to prove it. The dumbass was from a super rich family, dad bout him a new BMW every year, that sort of thing. No idea why he felt the need to get beat on all the time but that's how it was. Well, he ended up pushing me backwards into the table i was working at, so i just sat on it ( im tall so the table was actually sitting down, im like a head taller then this kid ) but when I put my hand back behind me.....it landed on the torque wrench. Now, I don't know if folks here know what a half inch drive torque wrench looks like, but its a serious piece of metal. So now I've got what amounts to a 2 foot long, 5 pound metal rod in my hand, already wound up behind me to knock this fuckers head off. At that very moment the teacher walked into the room and this kid stepped back and acted like we were just 'foolin around' laughing and everything. Then I see his eyes find the wrench in my hand and he realized how close he came to getting really really messed up.

I cannot tell you how much self control I had to exert to NOT swing that wrench. I'm glad I didn't, because I would likely have sent him to the hospital, I have this history of being unable to stop once I start in situations like that. In the end that few moments of control saved me a LOT of grief.


To give the story context, we had a decent amount of violence at my school. It wasn't some crazy ghetto school, was actually the best school in the area, we just had some real issues. I personally knew 2 kids who were beaten to bloody pulps on campus during school hours. One with brass knuckles, the other had his head repeatedly kicked into a metal cabinet. The second kid was retarded for life afterwards.

Sounds to me like you attend a pretty ghetto school. Maybe not, but it sounds like it given that poor areas are usually more violent.

[Furtim]

'Back when I were a lad', just under 30 years ago now (oh dear!), I was always pretty nerdy, but ended up taking some Karate lessons when I was around 16; not that many because frankly I sucked at it, but for perhaps 4-5 weeks. I basically learnt a few stances, basic Kata etc.

Around the same time I was walking through town on my lunch break from my Saturday job, and pretty much ran into the chavs of the day who started hurling verbal abuse, so I just kept on walking, as usual. As I was walking away, one of them shouted something that made me turn around just in time to connect with the fist one of them was throwing, and bam, there went my nose, blood everywhere.

For some reason I still don't know to this day, I automatically adopted some form of sideways fighting stance and advanced towards the guy who'd just re-arranged my face, but it was at that point I came to my senses and decided I did not know what the hell I would do next and was actually in a bit of a pickle. More in panic than anything else, I said "You're not worth it", turned around and just walked away (as fast as I could, without running), not looking back until I was out of sight.

All I can say is I must of come across as a hard as nails ninja, standing there bruce lee style (Yes I know that's kung-fu), blood streaming from my nose, but ready to lay then all out, just to be the bigger man and walk away. They never did bother me again, ever and I never threw a single punch.

All that said, I still made up some crap about walking into a plank of wood when I went back to work to explain the mess on my face and shirt, so probably not the best thing to do, but *I* felt guilty at the time. It's only with the benefit of hindsight that you realise that most 'bullies' really are not all that tough, and really can't cope with people standing up for themselves (but not on the bullies terms - ie. don't lower yourself to their level). Once you do that, you're no longer interesting to them.

[Rorillane]

If a group of 4-5 people approached me, I would be on my senses and evaluating each and every one of them before I decide weather to fight or not.
Details are of all importance. I, 'you', can generally assess peoples threat levels in a few ways. The way they hold themselves, their footing, if they're the look/kind to carry weapons, size/overall appearance of fitness and some other factors.
Walking away from a fight you cannot win, in which you have an option, is not cowardly. I'm 18, I do street fighting in Portland Oregon here and as a general rule of thumb you don't engage if you have the option not to.
I would keep walking until they physically become a threat to me. If my pathway to my destination is blocked, if you've circled me, or are backing me into a corner would obviously result in action. If weapons are present and I cannot disarm them because of range or number of weapons involved, you either take whats coming or find a way to downplay it and run/walk away.
If you are to fight because you have no option, you should not let them know what you are capable of. Trained fighter or not, if you've got to get at 4-5 people and away, you have to do it quick and exert a lot of force.
But honestly, most teeney kids throwing signs up and getting in your cool aid for looking at them bare no fighting skills. If you target one person, put forth enough force to take them out, the rest will peel away or most likely try to get on you aswell. A group of 4 people fighting at once cannot defend and offensively attack as well as a fighter in a one on one situation could. They are going to withhold punches and kicks and you WILL have opportunities to counter if you know what you're doing.
Its like in the movies when you see one guy fighting 4 people, they arent going to all 4v1 you, you're going to get a few seconds of 1v1 and thats where youll get the break you need.

Street fighting is never clean. Gouging, genitals, eyes, are all viable targets. You should take classes or look up youtube videos of routines and openers and flows that you could use in these situations. Eye gouges and fists to the throat will take people out for a long while. If you bounce back from them because you have room, fighting 4 untrained bafoons can be not that difficult.


People personally provoke me all the time. When im walking around Portland alone, people will always yell shit at me. Theyll taunt me and say offending things. If they spit on my shoes, I let them. The minute a hand is layed on you or in your direction, this isnt a UFC match. There are no rules, its me or you thats making it home tonight.

Edit: You shouldn't ever dare to walk away if people come straight up to you. Turning your back on someone is throwing the white flag in. Not only is it basically saying "I don't want to fight" But you're putting yourself in a completely undefended posture and the back of your skull and spine are easy targets, as are other unprotected areas. People can withhold your arms and all that kind of stuff far too easily if you turn your back. If you are to walk away, you should clear a good amount of distance from them first, and then proceed to run.

Edit: the turkish guy fighting a mob is how you should do it. Thats what I mean by "bouncing back if you have room" If you can draw them in and strike out, then do so. Im sure theres some cliche boxer/martial arts saying about that strategy but its evading my mind right now.

[Powerogue]

Not cowardly in the slightest!

All fighting them would show is your pitiful lack of self control and superior muscles. It might be justifiable, but is certainly not the best option.

Especially given your example. Sticks and stones, and whatnot. They sound harmless enough. Obnoxious, but not that violent unless provoked.

[LiiLoSNK]

Are you proud about doing something profoundly stupid and then compounding it further?

Yes. I'd rather die with pride than live as a pussy. I hold nothing against you for having the opposite train of thought.

[panzerfar]

I've been training Kickboxing and Muay Thai for 4 years and still am doing it, and I could probably give them a rock solid beating they never would forget, BUT I would ,whenever its possible, allways walk away instead of fighting. I love fighting when training, but 1-shotting some braindead bullies just because I need to flex my epeen, is just too damn lame.

[Lora]

Yes. I'd rather die with pride than live as a pussy. I hold nothing against you for having the opposite train of thought.

If you have nothing against them then you might not want to insinuate that one is a "pussy" for thinking rationally. There is nothing "cowardly" from walking away. Nine times out of ten it is the best answer. Certain situations may require violence but it should never be the first and foremost method of solving a situation.

[Black Cascade]

I would first try to just keep on walking at the same pace. If they keep bothering me I'll stand my ground. And if they then start to attack me, they will find the survival knife I keep in my pocket at all times between their ribs. I'm not tall or wide, don't have much of a physical presence and am not able to exert much physical force. So as a rule I don't fight fair. If you want to fight me, be prepaired to pay the ultimate price. It may sound like the macho attitude described in the original post but until now I have never been forced to put this into practice, thankfully.

[Zogarth]

I would just casually walk on. I see no reason to lower myself to their level.

[Nest]

Depends, if they look like a threat I might just run away, cowardly or not I'd rather not take a stab wound.
If there is more than 2 I'd rather not try my chances.