About an hour ago I was driving past an apartment complex on the way to the grocery store. As I was waiting at the light I looked over and saw three teenagers running in flip-flops toward another teenager and his girlfriend. Then the three teenagers proceeded to start slapping and kicking the other teenager who was with his girlfriend. I thought for a moment, "should I pull over cross the street and try to stop this?" I didn't. Here's my thought process.

1. They are slap fighting like little girls. It's unlikely anyone will get seriously injured.
2. Maybe he deserved it?
3. I don't speak enough Greek to determine who is at fault.
4. I don't want to deal with Greek cops if I try to stop it and hurt someone. My word against theirs.

What would you do? Same call or different?

Here in the States, I'd have to do some quick calculus about how serious the fight was, how likely it would be that weapons would soon get brought out, and how effective I think I'd be at stopping it. Usually, teens in flip-flops wouldn't pose much of a threat, but ya never know.

I say that because I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't be blamed legally provided I did not go to bashing on anyone. Since I'm unfamiliar with how the Greek cops would handle someone jumping in, I'd be more cautious. For all I know, knocking the snot out of your friend is the Greek way of saying, "hi".

Maybe the kid and his girlfriend went to work that day so they were teaching him a lesson? Scab.

Depends.

If I'm solo, I probably hang out, monitor the situation and intervene if necessary.

If my family is with me--keep walking.

On a side note--if you want a hell of a what would you do question(s)--check out the movie Calibre on Netflix.

In a foreign country, my answer is different, but here's what i would do in your situation.

Id roll down the window and yell at them to knock it off. Slap or otherwise, they may be planning something, just announce your presence and challenge them.

Then i'd get a camera photo. Let the police do their job and get a good photo.

Kids,weirdly enough, respond to the threat of having their photo taken.

Outside of that, you can really only get out of the car and keep an eye on them. You can't really get involved until they start throwing real punches.

I was with some French colleagues in London and some teens heard their french accents and decided they'd get confrontational. I was fighting off a grin because they were all 150 lb kids at most, but I basically talked th em into leaving without confrontation.

But here was the problem in retrospect. Every one of those kids probably had a knife. Knife crime in Europe is much higher than in the US. Point being, they may look scrawny, but knife fights are messy. They'll team up really well and get a shot that leaves a lifetime scar, that's not worth the risk.

One night while at Baylor, a friend and I were driving in a sketchy part of Waco - don't recall why, bored I guess - and saw a older guy getting jumped by 3 or 4 youths. We sped towards them flashing our high beams and they all scattered. The guy was a little shaken up, but he was okay.

That's probably still the extent to which I would intervene and if my family is in the car then I'm avoiding the whole thing altogether.

I would have kept driving.

It does depend a little on the country.

UAE, I might have slowed down and let them know someone was watching.

Thailand, keep driving. All 4 of the Thais might have turned on me if I tried to jump in.

China Move along

Hong Kong I probably would have stopped

Texas I would have stopped

I am a little ashamed of my unwillingness to do what I consider right but in a foreign land I wouldnt take the chance,.

When I was president of our neighborhood watch we were trained to be the best witness we could be but not to intervene, leave that to the pros. We patrolled in pairs so there was some consideration given to not putting your partner at risk.

Still, there were times we intervened just by being witnesses. With bright lights. Or maybe it was the ridiculous yellow Kojak light on the Mom mobile...