Speaker is a Pussy.

The BBQ Pit
1

That’s right. That jerk was walking down the street with his mom, taking his newly bought camera back to the car. Suddenly, about twenty five feet ahead of him, a man comes pelting out of the ally and a woman runs after him, yelling “Help, that guy just beat me up!” and holding her nose (Speaker saw this all from behind). Immediately, another man starts running to catch up to the mugger, who runs into the mall, where Speaker lost sight of him.

What did Speaker do? NOTHING. Did he try to run and catch up to the mugger? No, he just pussied out and watched.

:mad:

2

So, next time the situation, or one similar, arises, you’ll remember this feeling and be motivated to do something about it. Not necessarily put yourself in the line of fire, but something to help someone else. Life lessons can burn like hell, but it helps spur us on the next time. Don’t beat yourself up too much over it. :slight_smile:

3

OK, two responses (Og knows why…)
If you’re Speaker, then I can’t blame you; I saw someone fall off of a toilet cubicle last year at Fat Boy Slim’s Brighton beach concert onto the concrete floor below. I did nothing. Even though her mate looked straight at me I did nothing. I would like to think that if anything bad happenned to anyone around me I would jump in and save the day, but I didn’t. I would just stand there like a rabbit in the headlights. Don’t feel bad for yourself because you did nothing; most people wouldn’t.

Now, if I was ‘20/20 hindsight speaker’ I would’ve jumped across 10 rows of innocent bytanders, performed a 360 roundhouse on the perpetrator Jet Li stylee and been a hero to all.

Unfortuntely, real life isn’t performed in slo-mo, you just stared like a rabbit in the headlights.
Same as the rest of us.

4

No sense beating yourself up about it (you wouldn’t save yourself anyway :))

Seriously, there are many stories of good Samaritans getting shot or stabbed. Most of the time, by the time you realize what just happened, it’s already over.

5

Hold on, were you the guy with his mom, or the mugger? If you were the guy with his mom, don’t feel too bad. It’s not your job to chase down muggers.

If you were the mugger, you should be ashamed of yourself. Hitting people is wrong.

6

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of dead samaritans in this world.

What would you have done if you had run after him, and caught him. He just got through beating one person up, so he was pumped, and probably ready for another. Although, it might have been nice if you’d checked on the lady, and made sure she didn’t need medical attention or something.

7

If I had caught him, he would have stopped, which would have been fine - there were enough people watching (and another person chasing) that he would have been subdued pretty quickly.

As for why I didn’t stop to check on the lady - she was chasing him, too.

8

If I had caught him, he would have stopped, which would have been fine - there were enough people watching (and another person chasing) that he would have been subdued pretty quickly.

As for why I didn’t stop to check on the lady - she was chasing him, too.

9

This wouldn’t be an underhanded way to have some free nookie thrown your way, would it?:wink:

10

Damn, peepthis, you beat me to it! :smiley:

11

I’m thinking overcooked ham…

12

Speaker,

I have been in some similar situtations[#1, #2] and you did the right thing. Unless you are trained to take on an armed criminal down (you have to assume he is armed) or you are Bruce Lee, chasing down a criminal is a bad idea.

I would hope that, if there was a phone available, you called the cops.

I have been in a couple bad situations which I was not trained or able to handle. I snuck away and called the cops. It is better to let trained people deal with the situation than try to step in and end up with people hurt.

#1. I was at an NA meeting once with a friend. A guy, who we later found out was sky high on Angel Dust, came in with a .45, a .357 and a shotgun. I found out after the whole hostage crisis ended that the armed maniac had been dumped by his girlfriend because she was getting straight and he kept using. (Oh, did I meantion that I was sitting next to the girlfriend? At one point the maniac put his shotgun against the back of my head. Apparently he did that to impress upon his ex-girlfriend his serious intent) Anyway, the whole hostage thing lasted about 2 hours and, thankfully, no one got hurt. If I or anyone else tried to do anything I believe that the situation would have turned into a bloody mess.

#2. My sister was dating a guy who I thought was a total scum. It turned out I was right. My sister and I were living in the same house. My sister broke up with, well I’ll call him Dave. Dave was a loser. He didn’t have a job, had no interest in getting a job and mooched off my sister. My sis figured that out and dumped the guy.

About a three days after my sis dumped Dave he showed up and barged into the house. My sister ran down stairs and I heard her and Dave fighting. I then heard my sister ask Dave why he had a gun. He said, basically, that I had caused my sister to dump him and that he was going to “fix that problem”. I was in my room, with no weapon, so I put on my boots and crawled out the window. (Note, we lived up in the mountains and there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground.) I ran to the next house, which was a pretty long trek. I told the people what was happening and we got the state police to come out to the house.

Back at my sisters house Dave apparently went to my room, saw that I was gone and left. To this day I am not sure why he just left. I know that if he would have found me things would have turned really nasty because he blamed me for his problems.

The State cops caught Dave at the bottom of the mountain and he was armed to the teeth. Dave got a pretty long prison term and me and my sis left.

Anyway, I guess my point is that running away or not chasing is sometimes the best choice.

Slee

13

Not acting impulsively just means you’re not impulsive–it doesn’t mean you’re not brave. It’s how you act after a moment’s thought that counts. I think you didn’t make a bad decision (it might not have been the best, but it wasn’t bad). The only thing your not acting cost the woman was any belonging the thief had stolen and a chance to punish the mugger.

14

I think the best course would not have been to try and take him down because, as mentioned, he might have been armed. Instead, just making sure the woman wasn’t assaulted again or being able to ID the guy should he be caught would have been a good course.

Next time, take his picture with that camera in your hand.

15

Well, i wouldn’t be so sure. For whatever reason, people are often reluctant to get involved in situations like this, even when it’s obvious that the “good guy” needs help. You don’t want to be left alone fighting a guy who might have a weapon, and who has already demonstrated a willingness to use violence.

I’ve often asked myself what i’d do in a situation like yours, or something similar, and i guess the reality is that we never really know until it happens. Despite the amount of violence we see on TV every day, most of us aren’t used to seeing it up close, or being involved in it, and it’s often a lot more scary in real life than it is at the movies.

Don’t beat yourself up about it.

16

Update: It turns out I was indirectly responsible for the (two men, apparently) criminals’ apprehension. When I got into the mall I offhandedly mentioned it to a store clerk, assuming somebody had already called security, but it turns out they hadn’t. He called them, and the guys got caught.

I feel better.

17

Wait a second…

An eager young photographer witnesses a mugging, and lets the mugger get away…

Just remember, Speakerman: With great power comes great responsibility.

18

Speaker… it seemed like this happened really quickly so perhaps your lack od action has less to do with you being a pussy and more to do with being in a state of temporary shock.

19

You need to turn in your cape.

20

You know what they say. “You are what you eat”.