If you saw someone being savagely attacked by an armed psycho, would you intervene?

[Deleted]

Depends what is the weapon and can i surprise him. Also is the attacker some roid raged 140kg bodybuilder(certain death) or 60kg junkie(basically only a warm up). Is there anything around that can be used as a make shift weapon.

And finally, how hard it is to get my phone from the pocket vs. all the other options.

[bmjclark]

What kind of weapon are we talking about here? Either way, i'd call the police, but i likely wouldn't rush into the situation unless i had friends with me.

[apepi]

You view it that way, but I don't.

The fact that a person's age is the factor if you will save them or not is not wrong? What age do you stop trying to protect them?

[Powerogue]

I'll intervene by calling the police and keeping myself safe.

Most likely. I'm unarmed and wimpy as hell. I'd probably do the same even if it was a close family member, at most trying to get the psycho's attention to give them an opportunity to run away.

[Polarthief]

If he had a weapon hell no! If he was unarmed then I would.

This. Not sure what help an unarmed man would do against an armed one, so all I would do is be a corpse on top of another one. Would definitely call the police though.

[spinner981]

Say you're just minding your own business and you see some lunatic armed with a weapon and tormenting someone you don't know, would you risk your life and intervene to save the victim? Or would you just not mind it, or preferably, flee?

This is one of those situations where being legally armed would come in handy. Of course, you could still just call the police, but 'intervening' would be a lot easier if you could just pull out a gun and threaten the guy to stop.

[madmanx]

Not my problem tbh.


It actually is a simple yes/no question.

No it isn't. It is a simple yes/no question when you have all the facts but we have none of them. How crazy and in what way. How strong is he? What weapon? Define savage. Who is the victim? Where is this happening? What other circumstances do we need to know?

Scenario1, A crazed old lady is beating up The Rock with her handbag.

Scenario2, A man you know you could easily defeat is threatening a baby with a blow torch.

Scenario3 A man with machetes and an automatic weapon is attacking his sleazeball drug dealer.

Would you intervene (yes/no) same answer goes for all 3.

[spinner981]

The fact that a person's age is the factor if you will save them or not is not wrong? What age do you stop trying to protect them?

It does matter, because punching a 5 year old and punching a 35 year old has different levels of impact on their body. Like the difference between pushing over a 45 year old and pushing over a 95 year old.

Punching a 35 year old in the gut might wind them, make them cough up a bit of blood, but punching a 5 year old in the gut with the same force could kill them.

[cocoroaria]

Eh, where are all the gun toters who'd just whip out their gun and shoot the psycho? I expected to see more Yes from those types, who usually seem fairly abundant here.

[swaggs]

I would like to say that I would indeed intervene, but if I was being honest the extent of my intervention would most likely be calling the police and maybe trying to get the attackers face on video to help with identification. I'm not altruistic in the least bit. I'd never prioritized a complete stranger's health and wellbeing above my own and by extension, that of my family.

[spinner981]

Eh, where are all the gun toters who'd just whip out their gun and shoot the psycho? I expected to see more Yes from those types, who usually seem fairly abundant here.

Most legal 'gun toters' would pull out their guns and threaten the psycho, and if the psycho continued probably shoot them in the leg. Believe it or not, there do exist people with guns that aren't exactly the same as the handful of people that MMOchamp has had threads about that like shot somebody for knocking on their door. (since any time anything along those lines happens, somebody makes sure to get it on MMOchamp so they can refer to them as just another 'gun owner lunatic')

A gun would stop the psycho dead in his tracks, one way or another, figuratively or literally.

[Asphyxiate9]

too many "if's" on how armed they are, their body build, mental state, and who's being attacked. I'd definitely call the police though.

[apepi]

I already explained it more detail why...you just didn't accept that reason.

You explained why you would do it, not why you think it is right.

It does matter, because punching a 5 year old and punching a 35 year old has different levels of impact on their body. Like the difference between pushing over a 45 year old and pushing over a 95 year old.

We are not talking about that, this situation is a armed individual vs random other person. Whatever weapon this person will use it would harm the random person the same way no matter the age.

[Daws001]

I'll intervene by calling the police and keeping myself safe.

Yeah, this^

If it was someone I loved then I'd be more impulsive, but I have a mighty survival instinct honed over years of evolution. Evading dinosaurs and Vikings and such.

Edit: Now...say if I was driving through a neighborhood and saw this occurring, I could see myself swerving and trying to run the attacker over...I do often have fantasies of running people down with my car so that would be a good excuse.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Call the police in secret and find a way to distract them.

[spinner981]

We are not talking about that, this situation is a armed individual vs random other person. Whatever weapon this person will use it would harm the random person the same way no matter the age.

So we are talking about a situation where the psycho would definitely kill the person? Like, for certain? Because that doesn't seem to be what the OP was talking about. How about instead, we take the average situation, where we don't know what would happen, and what they are currently doing is bodily harm short of killing them. In that case then yes, their age would come into account.

But I don't see how we could definitely know that they would kill them if they hadn't killed them already.

[Deleted]

Because it's a child and I'm more protective over a child than I am a full grown adult that can defend themselves. Children look to adults to protect them - as they should. It's quite normal for a person to intervene when an adult is hurting a child vs. hurting another adult.

If you can't accept my reason, then I'm sorry...but I'm not you.

To me it seems rather pointless to throw away your life to protect an already maimed child from an armed psychopath.

Chances are you'll die pretty damn soon, if not straight away.

While i'd protect a child from an unarmed assailant, an armed one changes everything; I value my own life over that of a stranger, even if they're a child.

[Biggles Worth]

Well, what would he attack with? His feet?

[spinner981]

To me it seems rather pointless to throw away your life to protect an already maimed child from an armed psychopath.

Chances are you'll die pretty damn soon, if not straight away.

While i'd protect a child from an unarmed assailant, an armed one changes everything; I value my own life over that of a stranger, even if they're a child.

Grab the nearest big heavy thing you can find and take advantage of the element of surprise with a bash to the head.

[Calfredd]

I'm too scrawny to be of any help against an armed foe. I'd call the cops at the very least. I'd imagine I'd fair better if he was unarmed though.