Unfortunately in the neighborhood around my downtown shop, I have encountered this problem. I call 911 first; then, I stop him and get her away from him (at least temporarily, unfortunately too many women will run back to these jerks after a few hours). Very, very few men I have encountered in the United States frighten me.
A long time ago when I was young and foolish I dated a very controlling man. When I expressed my displeasure with the way he was speaking to me he locked the apartment door and proceeded to beat the hell out of me. A very nice neighbor that I didn’t know at all called the police and then stood at my door yelling that he had done so. I don’t know what would have happened if he had not done so, even with that I spent a few days in the hospital listening to his friends tell me I should drop the charges, take him back and apologize for hurting his feelings.
In the spirit of pay it forward I’ve made a couple calls to 911 over the years and announced from some place of reasonable safety that I’ve done so.
Talk show host: Let’s say you’re walking down a semi-deserted street and you see 2 tough looking dudes, roughing up a woman. What would you do?
Chuck Norris: ~after a thoughtful pause~ … I guess I would let them rough her up.
I don’t have ANY use for a man who beats on a woman. I don’t care if he weighs less than me or is 400lbs. He’s getting a punch in the eye and the cops called on him.
I’m not really a big animal rights person, but once I saw a group of BIG men torturing a small dog. It just made me so MAD. I had to do something. So, I go up in there and ended it. I’m not going into how and the exact details, but let’s just say they probably thought I was crazy. I made it very clearly if they tried stop me I would WHOOP some ass. Looking back, it was very dumb. They probably would have had no problem hurting me, but I was running on just hatred. I literally hated them at the moment. I know would feel the same hatred for a man who abused a woman.
If you asked before that would I stop animal abuse, I would have said no. Not that I’m for animal abuse, but I would think it wouldn’t upset me. You never know until you’re in the situation.
I’d probably wonder what she did to deserve it.
Call the police or… wimp out and ignore it. I hate to say that I might, but I’m a coward at heart. Having read all of this, I hope it’s definitely the former.
What kind of use do YOU have for men who DON’T beat on a woman?
It depends on if they’re single or not. 
Target practice: Post 41 Should American Females be Required to Register for the Draft? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
Call the police.
1-Call the police
2-Announce that I have done so
3-Observe to determine immediate severity of risk to the woman.
4-If in my judgement there is severe danger to the woman, I will physically intervene. I will do my best to separate before going directly against the man, but it I have to, I will. I am a large, trained and generally “threatening looking” man. A visible weapon, especially a firearm, will effect my decisions about the need to intervene and the immediate level of force I would use if I did so.
When I was 19 I intervened outside a bar. Pull the guy away and pinned him against the wall by his throat. The crazy bitch attacked me from behind and told me to leave her boyfriend alone. Scratched my face.
I don’t know what I’d do now. I am not as physically fit as I was then and far more aware of my own mortality. I don’t carry a phone. I suspect I would still try and do something.
it depends but the second to last time I got in someone face it was for this very reason. I grabbed him from behind, shoved him face first into a wall from a few feet away (he got his arms up in time to keep from face planting) and evidently told him I was about half a second from fucking his entire life up. (I dont remember that part, I was pretty pissed)
I am 6’3" and well aware of how intimidating I can be.
so yeah I would probably do it again. but it would still depend on the situation.
Intervene and try to de escalate of course. This is even a question?
Rush in like an idiot and try to break things up. A long long time ago a friend and I were walking along, and this guy jumped her from behind. I latched onto him like a horny whippet, screaming and girl-punching. Turns out it was this guy from work, and they both had a laugh at my over-reaction. I invited them to go eff themselves and told my friend she should be flattered that I’d step up like that. Bitch was laughing too hard to even respond.
Slightly off-topic, but like many of us here I was raised by wolves, so when I see possible child-abuse situations I call someone.
I would like to think that I would call 911 and leave it at that.
Per **Ibanez **and Khadaji, in a domestic, you have two people to fight.
Although, I am pretty idealistic-some stupid part of me *may *say that
a. the guy would stop beating the woman and
b. the woman would be so grateful that she would not pull out the gun that she refrained from using on her bf and not put six into me,
and I would interfere. Hopefully, I am above that, now.
An actual quote, from somebody:
“Those who in quarrels interpose,
Must often wipe a bloody nose.”
Best wishes,
hh
Nothing at all, that situation usually ends with BOTH of them turning on you.
Exactly. Don’t step into the middle of a domestic incident. You’re just as likely to end up attacked from behind by the person you think you’re defending.
I don’t think I’d ever do more than start screaming for it to stop and announcing that I had already called the cops unless it was “one person sitting on the other beating the fuck out of them”, in which case it is; pull the one person off the other and then back off quickly to get out of harms way.
From across the street or a reasonably safe distance, I yell, “Hey motherfucker, I’m calling the cops!” and then I do so. I’m a chick with a bum shoulder so there’s no way I’m getting into a physical altercation with someone, but I will do what I can short of that to stop the beating (or whatever is going on).
Exactly.
If you see a man roughing up a woman, you should assume it’s a common occurrence between the two. Furthermore, there’s a good chance the woman will attack you if you try to stop him. (“Keep your hands off my man!!”) Before you intervened, no one was attacking you. Now *two *people are attacking you… 