My friend N. was driving down a Brooklyn Street with her bf, R. The traffic knotted and after a moment they saw 3 individuals being brutally beaten by a tag-teaming group of 9? 12? 14? adult women. N. called 911 immediately. The 3 victims were: a girl about 11 years old, an older adolescent or young adult female, and a grown woman. The crowd was enjoying the show, ignoring the fact that the adult woman's head had been wedged under a car tire and she was being beaten unconscious and unrecognizable. R. jumped out of the car and tried to pull the perpetrators off the little girl, but the tag-teaming was too much.
Much credit to N. and R. They did all they could. Even after eight to ten minutes, the police never showed. It's unknown of they ever showed. The attack didn't make the papers.
My question to myself is this: as a martial artist, as someone who has some amount of training in self-defense, what could I do? If I encounter something like this, what do I do? I mean, I know to tell 911 that a cop is being beaten by someone with a gun, and that might encourage them to show. But more than that, do I jump in? Do I grab the most viscious attacker and take her down swiftly and completely - because there is no other way. Its all or nothing. Clearly those perpetrators had no fear of defenseless victims, but would they fear someone who took down their leader? Do I accept the possibility that I would die trying? Its not the movies, attackers don't wait in line for their turn at you, you gotta fight them all at once, so you have to go for the most disabling move possible in order to save 3 lives. What on earth would I do? What would you do?
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To answer your question, you don't have any responsibility. You don't really have to do anything. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to do nothing. But I think a lot of people would feel guilty if they didn't do something. Calling 911 is more than what most people would do, so kudos to your friends for doing so. And it's not their fault that the police might have never shown up, so I hope they don't feel guilty for not doing more. Did they report the incident to police afterwards? It might be a good idea for your friends to go to the local precinct and tell a cop in person.
If you think you could take someone on, then go for it. If I knew martial arts or was an off-duty cop, I'd intervene. But if you think it's not safe for you to get involved, then just call the cops. You could even drive or walk to the nearest building or house and tell everyone there about what's happening and to call 911. If the cops get a lot of calls, they're more likely to show up.
When we recently called the cops because of a much smaller fight, they thanked us for not intervening directly and letting them do it. It is very upsetting the police didn't come. I think it would be very hard to see people in mortal danger like that. You did what you were supposed to do in an absolutely horrible situation. Have you thought about talking to a counselor or calling a crisis hotline to talk about what you experienced? It sounds like you are experiencing a lot of guilt and trauma from the experience, very understandably. If you need help finding someone to talk to, I would be happy to help.
Bottom line, you did what you could, you are not at fault, nor are you to blame.
I agree that calling 911 is the best choice. Especially with a group that large, if you intervene it's possible that all that will accomplish is adding one more victim. The only other thing I can think of is to lay on the horn so they know someone is there, with a lot of criminals that's enough to make them scatter.
It sucks that the police didn't come. Mind if I ask what street/neighborhood this was? I live in Brooklyn and don't recall seeing anything about it anywhere.
Hey MamaMia - Thanks for your generous offer! But as you can see, I *did not* experience this personally at all. It was my friend, N. So, nope, no guilt and/or trauma here. More to the point, as a martial artist - as someone who trains (pretty seriously) in karate, I struggle with the larger implications and my level of responsibility in a violent world.
Unfunny and Profound - Yeah, thanks. Agreed - no point in adding another victim. It happened on Marcy Ave in BedSty. I know - NO media coverage and from what I hear, the cops never, ever showed.
Has anyone here thought to place themselves in the shoes of the victims? Would any of us want bystanders to just sit and watch, or would we hope that they would come to help us? I would never want someone else to say, "it's not my problem, I'll just let the police handle it 15 minutes from now or whenever they can get here," therefore I don't consider that an acceptable thing for me to say.
no point in adding another victim.
Adding another victim can mean the difference between life and death for the victims who are already there, especially if that new victim has the element of surprise and shows up screaming "The cops are coming, you'd better get the hell out of here!"
If all can do is be another human punching bag and thus, reduce the number of blows being received by all victims involved, you can save a life, and I see no ethical or moral reason not to do that. What I do see is a cultural idea that all citizens should always "stay out" of situations that should be handled by cops, even if cops won't get there until it's too late.
Now, there's a big, big difference between finding yourself paralyzed with fear in the actual moment (which I wouldn't fault someone for) and sitting in safety, considering a hypothetical and saying, "No, I wouldn't have to try to help." The fact that we all seem to think that it's okay to do the latter is, I'm sorry, frankly disgusting to me.
As a fellow student of the martial arts, I have to say I can't disagree more strongly with the comments above. You say that you study pretty seriously; if that is so, there is a level of responsibility that comes along with that training. Now, I would never condemn anyone for failing to get involved in that sort of a situation beyond calling the authorities if that person was not trained to fight, but dedicated training at a legitimate school changes the situation completely.
Now, your friends did all they could, except perhaps shouting "the police are on their way!" to the attackers. But serious, traditional study of the martial arts includes both training to fight multiple attackers and the mandate to defend those who cannot defend themselves. For a martial artist to do nothing to halt the attack (on an 11-year-old girl!?) would be nothing short of a savage dishonor toward their school and their training, and a shameful display of cowardice. The chances are, that group of attackers were untrained and generally unused to real combat, and if the situation is as you describe, they were trying to kill their victims. Any martial artist of even marginal skill would have an obligation to intervene.
We live today in a society of pacifism, a society that says the only acceptable violence is that done by the police, and that "normal people" shouldn't intervene. Well, fights "shouldn't" happen either. Neither "should" murders. But they do, and often the only person poised to intervene in time is the bystander. Again, I will never denigrate an untrained individual for not fighting (though I will for not at least calling 911), but if, as a martial artist, you found yourself unwilling to put your own personal safety on the line to save the lives of innocent victims, I would call you a worthless coward.
As for me? I have no doubt that I would get myself beaten to a pulp intervening in that fight. I can't beat 9-14 people at once by myself. But I can sure as hell take those hits better than your average 11-year-old, or even adult, and I would limp back to my teacher with pride knowing I had done the right thing. I sincerely hope you find the same about yourself.