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mcityI'd like to recant my earlier post; if you are not trained, you absolutely should not intervene in a fight.
This comic is what changed my mind.
I know we'd all like to think we'd be the hero when someone's getting beat down, but let's face it; the guy on the ground isn't going to be any help, and unlike in the movies, taking on multiple opponents is actually really dangerous. Heck, taking on one guy is pretty dangerous, especially if he's hopped up on adrenaline. You might draw them off, but two people with internal injuries is objectively worse than one with internal injuries.
The first thing most martial arts experts tell you is to avoid the fight in the first place. This is because anyone can roll a Nat 20, so to speak. If you put a 15-year old kid up agains Bruce Lee, he can always get a lucky punch in. When some guy with muscles the size of my torso tells me to stay out of trouble, I listen.
Besides martial arts users have a name for the type of guy who learns to fight so he can go out and court trouble. It's about two syllables long.
Observe and report. Contrary to popular belief, whipping out your cell phone is useful; Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable in court, and a camera is a lot more objective. This assumes, of course, that you've already called the police or appropriate authorities.
Also, people tend to get tunnel vision in combat. If they look up, they think of the people gathering as a crowd. You can't fight crowds, and someone in it might've called the cops. Seperate yourself from the crowd, and you're just one fool steppin' to them.
As for the linked comic itself, what's so wrong about not rushing into a dangerous heap of tangled metal, oil, gas and bodies? Trained emergency personnel are often leery about such incidents, much less Johnny Citizen. And Mr. Citizen is a lot more likely to get himself killed.
It's like those commercials for charities dedicated to starving kids in third-world countries; I've seen people ask "why aren't they doing anything to help them"? "They" did. They started a charity. The rest is up to you.
This comic is what changed my mind.
I know we'd all like to think we'd be the hero when someone's getting beat down, but let's face it; the guy on the ground isn't going to be any help, and unlike in the movies, taking on multiple opponents is actually really dangerous. Heck, taking on one guy is pretty dangerous, especially if he's hopped up on adrenaline. You might draw them off, but two people with internal injuries is objectively worse than one with internal injuries.
The first thing most martial arts experts tell you is to avoid the fight in the first place. This is because anyone can roll a Nat 20, so to speak. If you put a 15-year old kid up agains Bruce Lee, he can always get a lucky punch in. When some guy with muscles the size of my torso tells me to stay out of trouble, I listen.
Besides martial arts users have a name for the type of guy who learns to fight so he can go out and court trouble. It's about two syllables long.
Observe and report. Contrary to popular belief, whipping out your cell phone is useful; Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable in court, and a camera is a lot more objective. This assumes, of course, that you've already called the police or appropriate authorities.
Also, people tend to get tunnel vision in combat. If they look up, they think of the people gathering as a crowd. You can't fight crowds, and someone in it might've called the cops. Seperate yourself from the crowd, and you're just one fool steppin' to them.
As for the linked comic itself, what's so wrong about not rushing into a dangerous heap of tangled metal, oil, gas and bodies? Trained emergency personnel are often leery about such incidents, much less Johnny Citizen. And Mr. Citizen is a lot more likely to get himself killed.
It's like those commercials for charities dedicated to starving kids in third-world countries; I've seen people ask "why aren't they doing anything to help them"? "They" did. They started a charity. The rest is up to you.
