Would You Intervene In A Fight?

[Thorin]

This article discusses the recent fight on an Edmonton LRT train that continued into a beating of an unconscious man who then died from the assault: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Police+fatal+attack+unprovoked+sided/7758709/story.html.

Now, if this had happened on a train that you were on, would you have tried to stop it?  Most of the passengers on the train got on their phones and called ETS security, as if that would stop it.  I guess a couple of passengers tried to intervene, but did not manage to stop the beating.

I don't know what I would've done.  I want to say that I would've stepped in, but the problem is I have no idea why they're fighting or what weapons they might have.  And the assailant was clearly in a murderous rage.  At the same time, though, I know that what we need to do to stop these kinds of murders is step in.

[Mr. Analog]

I've done both and one is thankless and dangerous.

Guess which.

If I see someone in trouble or if they are really sick/passed out I call for help using the system (and the phone number) and stay with them until someone shows up.

But for fights? I avoid those now.

[Stewie521]

I like how Gabruck said that this was their first homicide on-board the LRT. They should have bolded and underlined that due to previous history there.

6There have been some serious incidents involving the LRT in recent years. In November, a man was thrown onto the tracks of the Churchill LRT station after an argument with three strangers. The 49-year-old victim was assaulted and kicked back down onto the tracks when he tried to climb to safety. Other passengers intervened to help the man. Three men have been charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault in that incident.

In February 2011, police shot and killed a teenager after a series of violent robberies at the Coliseum LRT station. In that case, a woman passenger had a knife held to her throat by one of a group of robbers, and a man was slashed with knives and beaten when he refused to give the teens money. One of the teen robbers, Cyrus Green, was shot and killed by police after he lunged at an officer with a bat and a knife.

In May of 2010, Heather Thurier was killed after being shot in the head with a sawed-off rifle inside the Stadium LRT station after a brief argument. The shooter, Colton Ferguson, is now serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

Sad that yet another person has taken the life of an "innocent" man. But then again Collar could have owed Newborn money for the pot he bought from him last week, as they never told us why the fight erupted... We will just have to wait.

[Tom]

Not that any kind of reasoning could excuse a vicious beating like that.

[Stewie521]

Not that any kind of reasoning could excuse a vicious beating like that.

I'm not trying to excuse it, I am curious as to why a vicious beating like that started. Whether he was a pot head and was looking for a fight or just simply the victim asked him to give up his seat for a pregnant lady. That's what they haven't told us.

[Mr. Analog]

That's the trouble though, very often there isn't any one single cause, perhaps a combination of things, there may not be a cause and effect reaction to mental instability at all.

The real danger is correlating thing A with effect B. Maybe he had too much coffee and his underpants were on too tight, is the next step to ban tight underpants and coffee for a freak occurrence?

At any rate, we should be focusing on the victim and the loss of life.

[Darren Dirt]

we should ban banning.

and apathy.