This evening I was walking alone past a youth centre. It is always really busy on a Friday night and there are usually lots of young people (mainly late teens) on the streets around it. Often as I'm approaching there's some kind of loud argument or a bit of a scuffle going on which makes me think something is going to kick off but when I get closer it's just a verbal disagreement or any 'scuffle' is playful or trying to grab something of someone rather than an all-out proper fight. (Both girls and boys attend the club but the more physical arguments or fighting to grab something of someone tends to be between the lads.)
This evening, there were a few lads standing around the porch obviously watching something going on. As I approach I hear a woman's laugh and then when I walk past the entrance I can see a young woman shielding herself with something (a board or a chair or something) and a lad hitting at it with an umbrella. I think there are a few other people in the porch area but can't see if they are lads or girls. For the brief period of time I can see, he is hitting at the board (not hitting her) and not trying to remove her 'shield' or hit behind to actually hurt her. Just after I pass, I hear her shout 'help help' - not in a particular fearful, distressed voice but not with any laughter in her voice either. I'm about 95% certain that this is just more of the usual hijinks. The only thing that bothers me is that it's woman and that she has shouted 'help'. I know it's a youth club so there will be staff somewhere in the building so I reasssure myself with that thought, and that the female laugh probably came from the young woman I saw and walk on by. WIBU?
If anyone says they would have done something, what would you have done? My thought at the time, if I had done something, was to ask the girl if she was okay. However, when I thought about this afterwards, it didn't seem like a good idea. If the incident was just hijinks, either they would just have laughed or they might have got angry/aggressive about me 'sticking my nose in'. If it had been a violent incident, I would have been taking on a group of guys in their late teens who were bigger and stronger than me.
The youth centre is in quite an isolated spot so, other than the teens milling around, there isn't anyone close by and, whatever staff were on duty, would be somewhere within the building which I couldn't get past because the incident was in the entrance area. So as not to dripfeed, this is in a high-crime inner city area which has problems with guns, drugs and gangs but I have never seen any evidence of the young people using the centre being involved in this - just the behaviour I've described above.