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If someone was being assaulted, would you intervene?
Giggles_Funsworth
Blight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
Blight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
Just now, our neighbor was screaming quite literally, bloody murder. Thought it was a dog at first, as soon as I realized it was human I had my girlfriend dial 911, threw on my clothes, grabbed my knife, and was halfway out the door when she told me the dispatcher had already received a call about someone having a seizure. Now I'm sitting here, loaded with adrenaline, trying to wind down for bed with a beer, and we had a little bit of an argument over whether or not this was the right course of action.
I'm not advocating vigilante justice or anything, and I have no special training that equips me for a violent confrontation other than having been in more than my share of fights when I was a kid, and having used my knife once, successfully, in self defense when I was a lot poorer and a lot more desperate; but if someone that was in my immediate vicinity could have been saved by my response, I'm not sure I could live with the consequences of not responding. I am fully cognizant that this is likely to put me in danger, quite possibly to the point of death, but this is still how I feel I should react. I understand why my girlfriend isn't thrilled with me willing to put myself in harm's way at the drop of a hat, but that's just the way I am.
My question to you, D&D, is, do you think this is an appropriate way to react to seeing a person in harm, and would you do it, knowing that it's a stupid, possibly futile course of action?
I'm not advocating vigilante justice or anything, and I have no special training that equips me for a violent confrontation other than having been in more than my share of fights when I was a kid, and having used my knife once, successfully, in self defense when I was a lot poorer and a lot more desperate; but if someone that was in my immediate vicinity could have been saved by my response, I'm not sure I could live with the consequences of not responding. I am fully cognizant that this is likely to put me in danger, quite possibly to the point of death, but this is still how I feel I should react. I understand why my girlfriend isn't thrilled with me willing to put myself in harm's way at the drop of a hat, but that's just the way I am.
My question to you, D&D, is, do you think this is an appropriate way to react to seeing a person in harm, and would you do it, knowing that it's a stupid, possibly futile course of action?
Giggles_Funsworth on
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have in similar situations
in a personal capacity
in a professional capacity such intervention is sort of
y'know
my fuckin' job
so
edit: Although I wouldn't bring a knife, that's fuckin' dumb man and you are lucky it was nothing.
So. Nope?
What do you do for a living Pony? Intl Badass?
jesus christ
dude
dude
look do you want some advice on how you should handle this sort of thing because holy fuck
Assuming you are police. Why not a knife? Better than nothing, my opinion, don't have a gun.
Isn't that more a case of not wanting to escalate though? By the time someone throws a punch, you're not going to stop it. What you might stop is the next 50.
EDIT: And also, to address the question in the OP, yes, I'd try to for pretty much the exact reasons you outlined.
Maybe I should rephrase, knife went in my pocket, had no idea what was going to happen but if I landed in the middle of something bad it's better than my limited ability to use my fists.
I did not just run out of the house brandishing it like a maniac if that's your impression.
private security and protective services
Watching the till and handing out contraceptive sponges. My man!
Here's why not a knife:
1. You have no idea what's going on. In the events you just related, you were all ready to roll out to someone who as it turns out was having a seizure, and your approach was to run in with a knife? Yeah, that sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's just go into my neighbor's house with a knife when I have no idea what's going on. That can't possibly lead to panic, danger, or people misunderstanding my intentions.
2. What kind of knife did you even grab? A kitchen knife? I don't imagine you've got some handy-dandy survival knife just kickin' around in case you gotta roll out all of the sudden, do you? So what exactly were you expecting to be able to do with that kitchen knife? Save a person's life? How, by taking someone else's? Knives kill people, dude.
3. Do you even know how to use a knife in a self-defense situation? I doubt it, because if you did then grabbing a knife and running off when you don't know what the fuck would've been the last thing you did.
Let's assume some kind of worst-case scenario for her and a Most Heroic Scenario for you.
Let's assume, theoretically, that your neighbor was being violently assaulted by someone. Is it her boyfriend? Is it some random rapist who broke into her house? How would you know the difference? What if the door was locked? Were you going to kick down her door, knife out, ready to start taking a side and swinging at someone?
Are you prepared to stab this person? If not, what were you hoping to accomplish? Scare their attacker away by flailing around in your pajamas with a kitchen knife?
Look, intervening wasn't the stupid thing to do here. Bringing a knife absolutely was.
still shouldn't have brought a knife.
there's not a situation that could've gone down there that would've been bettered by you fumbling for a pocket knife and trying to use it
a knife is a lethal weapon, brah
if you're going to run into an emergency situation packing a knife "just in case" then you better fucking ask yourself if you're mentally and physically prepared to use it to stab a person and possibly kill them
and living with that after
because that's the decision you're making ahead of time
you're putting that knife in your pocket and saying "I'm okay with the idea that I may have to suddenly stab someone with this, and I feel comfortable that I would be able to do so."
Never, ever do that again.
If I didn't know them, I'd call 911.
You must've missed the part where I said I carry/have used a knife in self defense. Knife went in the pocket of my jacket, hopefully I would have a little bit of surprise on my side, is spring assisted, I am quick with it, regularly practice switching grips, and have some amount of (poor) training/experience knife fighting.
Very similar to this model:
http://www.bladehq.com/item--Smith-Wesson-Grey-MAGIC--5215
If I had made it down there and she was seizing instead of being attacked, it wouldn't have come out.
look let me put it to you like this
I work in personal protection and event security. Mostly, I bounce at bars, do security for concerts, escort musicians around, that sort of thing. Periodically I do active bodyguarding work for a specific client, but for the most part I'm a bouncer and a concert security guy. I'm the dude between the barricade and stage stopping people from jumping up. I'm the guy keeping the thugs out of the nightclub. That's what I do for a living.
So danger is a part of my job. Stabbing and being overwhelmed and beaten in particular are very serious and real dangers of the work I do. I often have to break up fights, pull people off people, give first aid to people who have been injured by others (or their own stupidity). That is a normal part of my workday.
I don't carry a knife. Not ever. Why? Because a knife is a lethal weapon. You wield a knife to inflict grievous and potentially lethal wounds on someone. Literally the only justification for ever pulling it on someone and using it is where your only alternative to not doing so is the death of yourself or someone else. If you bring a knife to a fistfight, you are the one in the wrong. If you bring a knife to a knife-fight, then you're just as likely to kill someone as be killed, and enjoy living with that choice (it's not easy, trust me, unless you're some kind of fucking sociopath).
And if you bring a knife to a gun fight, well...
Anyway, if you carry a knife it should be for utility purposes. There's plenty of legit reasons to carry a knife, depending on your job, but that's always for cutting things, not people.
If you are entering a situation where you don't even know what's really going on and you are carrying a knife in case you need to use it on a person, you're making a dumb choice.
duder i don't know where you live but i do know in many parts of the world spring-assisted knives are quite illegal.
just as an aside. might wanna check if that knife of yours is even compliant with the laws where you live.
You shouldn't be carrying a knife as a self-defense weapon. Period. Knives kill people. They are weapons of war and murder, not self-defense, and not protection. If you really, really do feel you need to carry a weapon into a dangerous situation, for the love of christ bring some kind of good, solid blunt instrument. When I have particularly hairy work details where I know things could get ugly, I have at most a baton. Usually I just have one of them big maglights, and let me tell you in a self-defense situation them fuckers are quite handy.
Pretty sure in the OP I said it was a dumb choice, but it sounded like someone was killing her. The screams barely sounded human. If I waltz in and politely ask that Rapey McStabby stop raping and stabbing this lady, I really don't see that ending peacefully for me.
I carry that knife at all times, mostly for cutting things, but in the event somebody attacks me and there is no way to deescalate (giving them my wallet/electronics/running/buying them a beer and having a laugh over how we almost came to blows over nothing) I would rather fight with a knife, I have before.
I mean, I get that you don't need a lethal weapon working security, but that's not quite the context here.
your call broseph, but it's one I strongly disagree with
were I you, in the situation you mentioned, I would've likely acted similarly, just sans knife
that's really all I'm jumping on your sack about, to be clear
otherwise you were doing the right thing
This refers to guns, as far as I know it applies to knives too but IANAL.
truth is that's often all that's needed
in many of those situations if someone, anyone would've stood up and said something or gotten all fired up, it would've made all the difference in the world
a friend of mine is a university student. she got attacked on campus by some guy who was grabbing her and trying to drag her into an alley. some other guy heard her screaming and ran over while yelling. that was enough to make the attacker bail.
sometimes that's all it takes, but it's awful how often people will avoid even doing that.
meant more specifically the law regarding assisted knives and the like
it's one of those laws that can sneak up on you if you don't realize it.
1. You don't want to be in a stranger's residence while in possession of a weapon when the patrol unit kicks in the door with their own weapons drawn.
2. If the legal resident also has a weapon, and is in the process of defending herself, and she sees another unexpected intruder enter her residence, she's not going to immediately be able to discern you as a friend instead of a foe, and that will make a really lousy epitaph on your tombstone.
3. You're not even really sure who is attacking whom. You weren't actually sure someone was being attacked to begin with.
4. Even in a stand your ground state, you'd probably be prosecuted for manslaughter in the event that you used the knife. Castle Doctrines and Stand Your Ground usually only protect you when you are someplace where you have a legal right to be, like your own residence.
If you witness a crime occurring right in front of you, that's another matter, but in a neighboring residence? Your girlfriend's right. Call 911 and then stay put so that you're not present and complicating an already tense situation when the police arrive on scene.
Yeah, it's weird, switchblades are illegal in California, but something about how the mechanism works in this one makes it legal, even though it's mostly the same, as long as it isn't longer than what you're allowed to carry in specific counties. I was surprised as you are when I found out it was legal. Bought it at a large hunting goods store, in-state, only found out because they sold it and the guy at the counter explained the loophole when I asked, don't remember the exact details though. Sadly, for some retarded reason, you can carry a spring assisted knife but batons/large maglights are illegal for civilian use.
One of my top priorities when I have the cash actually, is to take eskrima, so that I can actually have a systematic, comprehensive way of fighting ingrained in me. The focus on knives and improvised weapons should work great for me since the first thing I do in a fight is look for an blunt or sharp object I can use to even my odds anyway.
This is about right.
That has nothing to do with anything.
Sure it does. I've worked security, and I'm a fairly willowly guy. I never waded into a fight with just my bare hands; I threatened with pepper spray and told them to fuck off before the police arrived.
A chimp is easy prey to a tiger, unless it's holding a stick. But a gorilla is never an easy meal, regardless of the circumstances.