Would you step in a help someone who is getting a beating?

[Ardesco]

Depends how big the person doing the beating is......

[chicane]

And how could any decent human being stand by and watch it happen to someone else?

Depends who the "someone else" is. Cruel as it may sound, there's a vast number of people in this country who need a good beating to put them straight.

[dotnetter]

Yeah obviously you have to weigh up the situation.

If it's a couple of chavs who are as bad as each other then fuk em, but if its a just an innocent person getting abused then I couldnt just let them take a beating.

I mean say it was your missus and nobody came to help her you would be pissed right. Thats what wrong with this country, people don't stick by each other and that allows these fukkin youths to go around doing what they want.

[MrRobin]

You are legally entitled to strike someone if they a) blatantly are about to do you an injury or b) in defence of others.

The article states that it is only legal if you are defending a family member or your property. Defending a stranger is just as illegal as a straight forward assault.

[realityhack]

are people really supposed to wait until someone hits them before reacting? I mean if the other bloke is a little bit handy then it could be game over for you.

Nope:
"To gain an acquittal, the defendant must fulfill a number of conditions. The defendant must believe, rightly or wrongly, that the attack is imminent. Lord Griffith said in Beckford v R: A man about to be attacked does not have to wait for his assailant to strike the first blow or fire the first shot; circumstances may justify a pre-emptive strike. But, in the general case, the time factor is important. If there is an opportunity to retreat or to obtain protection from the police the defendant should do so, thereby demonstrating an intention to avoid being involved in the use of violence."
Source - I've had conversations with DIs & PCs about this too - general consensus is you can hit first.

[realityhack]

The article states that it is only legal if you are defending a family member or your property. Defending a stranger is just as illegal as a straight forward assault.

Not true - the law of self-defence applies as equally to the defence of others as it does yourself.

[cailin maith]

Not so long ago, I was walking home from town with my sister and we saw two young fella's trying to mug a chinese couple. I waded straight in, without even thinking, it was only afterwards I though sh*t they could have had knives or anything.

They started to have a go at me and my sister (luckily we were just at my apt building) took the couple into the foyer and called the police - who I might add were utterly useless!!!

It's scary but you can't stand back and let people be bullied like that, it's just wrong.

[Diver]

The above quoted news atricle seems to contradict that. It clearly states that the defendant threw the first punch but was aquitted as the 'yoof' was acting threateningly....

I think that yoof's , especially hoodies should be fair game myself.
Might keep them indoors and out of trouble if they got a whack with a cricket bat every time they went out

[dotnetter]

I've always been trained to have a fence around me, and I'm not going to let anyone get into that space if I'm in an argument with them.

It's interesting to read books by Geoff Thompson like The Fence, which explains mainly how to avoid getting into a confrontation and not being a victim in this kind of situation.

It's all about body language, and being able to calm a situation and recognise when a situation will turn to violence and overcoming the adrenilin dump to keep a clear head.

[chicane]

I mean say it was your missus and nobody came to help her you would be pissed right. Thats what wrong with this country, people don't stick by each other and that allows these fukkin youths to go around doing what they want.

Yes - however if the person getting a beating is a complete stranger, and the thugs look pretty nasty or as if they might be armed, would you then intervene? I've no idea how serious the the gun/knife problem is on the streets in relation to the media hype, but I'm certainly in no hurry to find out.

The thugs have worked themselves into this position of power because the innocent public are left with no viable choices; give a thug a beating and you've committed assault; take on an armed thug and you get a knife in your chest; report a thug and nothing happens because a stop-and-search will violate their rights.

The only thing that's going to bring law and order back to the streets is a strong sense of togetherness amongst the law-abiding citizens at a community level, however this isn't the 1950's any more and people perceive insufficient incentive to build local connections in comparison to the other things going on in their lives.