I saw a guy get beaten to death and didn't do anything about it

[Harpocrates]

Curious as to *how* you would get a gun? You won't get one through custom's of your own country, let alone smuggling one into a politically and legally corrupt one without flagging yourself as a highly noticable foriegner and being fucked within days of arrival, by either police looking for extra money/someone to pin a crime on, or a gang looking for protection money/extortion. That's not even if you don't piss off one of many highly volatile groups in the area, just itching for someone to pin some blame on/take something out on. Many Arabic Nation's under extremist or recovering form extremist rule just *love* armed Western peeps running round their home with firearms.
People talk so much crap especially on the net sometimes it's unreal.

if i was visiting someone there, which I would never do...I'd have the people I'm visiting get a gun for when I land or else I don't come. There is no point. What you responded to was me not talking crap, it was me saying what I would do. That's it. There would be no alternative choice for me

[Valort]

Your goal and my goal in such a situation are different then. Yours is to stay safe. Mine is to help the innocent. Death or imprisonment for the sake of having a realistic chance of potentially saving an innocent is well worth it. If you have to go to an evil place like where this man was, be ready to defend the innocent or don't go there. To go there and then stand by while the innocent are harmed and killed before your face is to give passive approval or at least no contest to such actions.

What are you, 12?

OT: When in rome...
If you were in your country, your city, your area, you would act different.
If you're abroad, it is always better to be a good old Gorilla Explorer and just keep your distance and try to bother the wild populations as little as possible.

Sometimes trying to help only makes more damage. Also, people die, daily, in random acts of violence. Trying to intervene could either mean two deaths or none, but why risk your life? Not to mention the lives of your cousin and your family in the area.
Unless, of course, you're as delusional as the Don Quixote wannabe I just quoted ;P

[Thodrin]

Being killed in a gun fight with the purpose of having a small yet realistic chance of saving an innocent? I call that a worthy death.

LOL calm down John McClane.

Remember the whole middle east is "literally" in a civil war and or revolting. I for one would do anything to protect my family, and if that meant ignoring those who were beaten or killed by thugs I would do so for my familys sake.

In America, yeah . But over there its a different world.

[zEmini]

If it was a women - especially a pretty browned eyed brunette - I would of probably done something. My brain is just wired like that. I would of probably died.

[Lemons]

Yea, I would have stood there too. Not a lot you could do in that situation as sad as that is. If I had a gun I might have done something about it. Maybe >.>

[Lovestar]

Setting aside the Rambo crowd that wants to imagine themselves performing ninjutsu to save the day, are there any sane responses to such a situation which don't involve just quietly watching someone die?

I mean like... is there any way to intervene and stop something like that playing out so that the brutality ends? Or is the very thought of trying to stop them, or help the victim, sufficient to cause total retaliation against you?

I guess I'm just wondering if you can Red Cross something like that — "Just here to deliver Band-Aids, don't shoot me". But then, even the Red Cross does get shot at often enough, don't they? =/

I have no desire to be an idiotic vigilante picking fights with armed criminals, but in such a hypothetical situation I'd also want to do something more than just sit there and do nothing. Is that simply futile?

[Deleted]

It takes a bigger/better man to walk away from trouble in some situations. Your life or his or even both? you choose

[Auloria]

Setting aside the Rambo crowd that wants to imagine themselves performing ninjutsu to save the day, are there any sane responses to such a situation which don't involve just quietly watching someone die?

I mean like... is there any way to intervene and stop something like that playing out so that the brutality ends? Or is the very thought of trying to stop them, or help the victim, sufficient to cause total retaliation against you?

I guess I'm just wondering if you can Red Cross something like that — "Just here to deliver Band-Aids, don't shoot me". But then, even the Red Cross does get shot at often enough, don't they? =/

I have no desire to be an idiotic vigilante picking fights with armed criminals, but in such a hypothetical situation I'd also want to do something more than just sit there and do nothing. Is that simply futile?

I believe the "proper" response is to call the police, beyond that to yell from a safe distance, and try to defuse the situation. Since people kind of obey mob mentality, if one person is saying "Stop, that's enough" others may snap out of it and it will feel safer to get involved. How far you go to help depends on what kind of support you get from the crowd. In the OP's situation you probably wouldn't be able to do much more than protest, and even that may be dangerous.

[Cirque]

What a horrifying story.. I don't even know what to say. :/ I'm going to try anyway.

There's no blame on you. Ignore whatever superheroes are bound to be attracted by this thread. They have no idea. As someone said, it's easy to be a hero in your own head. The instinct to self-preservation is something they probably never experienced. Take care man.

[Terridon]

That's some shitty situation.
I probably wouldn't have done anything either. I hope at least. Doesn't sound like they would care about bringing harm to others.
An ex of mine would run in, in the middle of a group beating some guy, and begin to tell them all off, and make them stop. Well.. at least it worked for her. Might not have with that group. Can't say i was overly happy with her coming home and telling that she brought herself in danger like that :P
I'm pretty sure your friends and family is fine with you not running in there, and maybe get killed too.

Should talk with those close to you, if you havn't. It can help a lot.

---------- Post added 2012-12-12 at 01:20 AM ----------

What a horrifying story.. I don't even know what to say. :/ I'm going to try anyway.

There's no blame on you. Ignore whatever superheroes are bound to be attracted by this thread. They have no idea. As someone said, it's easy to be a hero in your own head. The instinct to self-preservation is something they probably never experienced. Take care man.

Yeah. I've been "a hero" with small groups, but also been the bystander with a large group.
Selfpreservation is kicking pretty strong in reality, despite the romantic dreams some have.

[Auloria]

That's some shitty situation.
I probably wouldn't have done anything either. I hope at least. Doesn't sound like they would care about bringing harm to others.
An ex of mine would run in, in the middle of a group beating some guy, and begin to tell them all off, and make them stop. Well.. at least it worked for her. Might not have with that group. Can't say i was overly happy with her coming home and telling that she brought herself in danger like that :P
I'm pretty sure your friends and family is fine with you not running in there, and maybe get killed too.

Sure, being a "harmless" woman helps in some situations. I can calm people down with a gentle voice faster than my Marine boyfriend can intimidate them down. However, you take a big risk by getting involved, no matter your approach.

[Last Starfighter]

Being killed in a gun fight with the purpose of having a small yet realistic chance of saving an innocent? I call that a worthy death.

Look out guys! Billy bad ass over here! You're talking out of your ass. "Yours it to protect the innocent.". You aren't a vigilante, and you aren't a super hero. And it's easy to say "Being killed in a gun fight with the small chance of saving an innocent" from the safety of being behind your keyboard. But it's just talk. You don't know how you would react in a situation like that. You may shit your pants and jump in front of a truck in a moment of panic. Even people who put their lives on the line daily don't run their mouth with such white knighting bs.

[Silhouette of Seraphim]

Anyone who says they would have jumped into the middle of that either has never been in a fight in their life, watches too many movies, plays too many video games, or some combination of the aforementioned.

I say we all go ahead and congratulate the OP on not being born stupid, and move on.

It probably helped him to talk about about.

[Jayburner]

I kissed a girl and i liked it keeps popping in my head everytime I see this thread.

[Terridon]

Sure, being a "harmless" woman helps in some situations. I can calm people down with a gentle voice faster than my Marine boyfriend can intimidate them down. However, you take a big risk by getting involved, no matter your approach.

Yeah exactly. It feels less intrusive with a girl talking about stopping, than a guy, that they often just see as an opponent siding with the one they're beating up/want to beat up
I would find it overly charming with a place having a female door-man. Not sure it would work in reality though <.<

[Ovacor]

An example of fight or flight - you could have defended the man and likely gotten yourself seriously injured or killed; or you could have ignored it and continued with your day. You decided to flee. You have nothing to be ashamed of, most of the world's population would have done the same. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit, until you are put in that situation you have absolutely NO idea what you would do. You may be a coward, you may not be heroic, but at least you are alive I suppose.

[Mavecryst]

I kissed a girl and i liked it keeps popping in my head everytime I see this thread.

......now you've gone and done that for me, too.

OT: Not your fault, though it's perfectly normal to feel guilty. Just do your best to get over it, remember there was truly nothing you could do that would have been a better choice than what you did.

[SloveenEfsei]

if you cannot trust the authorities to defend the people, how the hell would you expect a simple citizen to do heroic acts of deeds alone?
if you interfered with that, you and your relatives might have ended up dead too. you did what everyone would've done in that particular situation. do some stuff with friends. let yourself be surrounded by them to take your might off that incident. hopefully you'll be able to recover from the damage this has done to you.