My pretty little French girl is Suzette
Yeah, but I’m not going to spend much time worrying about it.
I remember. 
If some guy is threatening me in the presence of my husband, and he didn’t step up to defend me… I just can’t even imagine that scenario. It wouldn’t happen.
He’s got 40 lbs of muscle on me, and actual experience in physical fighting. I’m pretty tough for a 5’ 2" woman, but I’d appreciate any help I could get if some dude threatened me. If my husband just watched while I handled it myself, there would be words.
As a self defense matter, third party intervention can be a good thing. I was once in a verbal altercation with a cable guy outside of my apartment. I know: weird. I had successfully positioned my bicycle between myself and him (shorter than me but also some 80 pounds heavier). Suddenly my (female) upstairs neighbor yells out of her window: “Don’t mess with MfM: he’s a good guy!” Or something like that.
The prospect of a witness cooled him off a little. She later told me she thought there would be a fight. Huh: I’m glad it wasn’t just my imagination.
Provided the priority is deescalation, I’d say third party defense is desirable.
“Two were having a fight and a third got beaten up.” But that’s more likely to happen when the third gets physically in the middle spouting platitudes; amazing how often an onlooker yelling “hey!” is effective, while someone trying to insert himself between the two people will get hurt.
I don’t go through life expecting knights in shinning armor to defend me (or even knights in beat-up armor, you know, the ones who actually get in fights), but there have been two times that someone was physically attacking me and other people grabbed them and took them away - and at those times, it doesn’t matter who the person being attacked is, what’s important is breaking it up before anybody gets hurt.
I quickly came to the same conclusion. 
Do what you want to the girl, just leave me alone!
Better?
Regards,
Shodan
↑ ↑ ↑ This is why young thugs need to be careful with old guys. Bawahahaha Ain’t going to bother with no fisty cuffs. 
GusNSpot:
I am too young to die and too old to take a beating. That is why I carry.
FWIW, a friend who took a self defense class reported that they recommend that third party strangers recruit another person, as getting caught in the middle is a real risk. Physically confront a man beating on a woman and you can get a surprise attack from the victim for example.
You recruit not by saying something to a crowd but by making a personal appeal to one person at a time. Interestingly, recruiting a female isn’t necessarily a bad idea as she is less apt to be confrontational.
I’d be inclined to keep my distance, look for cover, and ostentatiously call the cops. Admittedly, I’ve never exactly done that, though I have tried to verbally calm down certain situations.