Witnessed fight and nobody did anything

[ComeOnNowww]

We live next to a quiet pub, but it's been much less quiet in recent weeks.

Went to window and there were 10 peole having a scrap in middle of road. In 40s and 50s. Irish (from their shouts) and probably from traveller community - i only say that as that affects how open they'd have been to police interference i guess?

They are all fighting and punches being thrown.Pretty chaotic. My husband is stood behind me also watching. For about 30 seconds, until I kick into action and call 999. A woman is dragged from the scrap and becomes clear it's all about one bloke against the woman. He manages to pin her up against the fence, (others trying to hold him back) and he headbuts her properly. I am narrating all of this to the police on the phone saynig i am witnessing a woman being hit and headbutted in the street.

Husband is behind me (we are by our front door) telling me to get off the phone and stay out of it!! a woman is being assulted in the street! After the headbut the other men manage to sit on the bloke and drag him away and once that guy is dragged away to further down the street - everything becomes calmer v quickly. I tell the police that the violence has stopped andwoman is crying and everyone is comforting her, the man can't be seen. Lots of shouting randomly and chaos still. think the bloke is some way down the stretet shouting things.

The call handler says "can i confirm the fight has dispersed" and i say yes - and then they say thank you for the report and of course no police appear at any point. Call handler ended call pretty quickly.

Both my own husband and the police seem remarkably unconcerned about the assult. I mean to be fair by the time they would have arrived - the people would have probably gone. I don't have a ring doorbell or anything.

I feel a bit dismayed at both my own husband the police. AIBU to expect more a response?

You did the right thing to call the police and your husband is unreasonable. I wouldn’t have done anything beyond calling the police, it’s not worth getting beaten or stabbed for.

It seems a bit odd that you decided to stand by your front door and advertise you were on the phone to the police.

You could've given the running commentary from your window.

And 'Nobody did anything' isn't true.

Irish travellers you say?
And you wanted your DH to intervene?
Have you thought about the repercussions of this for you, your DH and (if you have children) and your home when they find out where you live?
You haven’t, have you?

So you also didn’t think of the repercussions of being a witness either?

OP, you’ve had a lucky escape.

I think @ThejoyofNC is a traveller. She compared ‘our culture’ to ‘yours’ in the post you quoted. I’d say her awareness is high.

You would almost think that there were "no go zones " in this country and different levels of police response /or no response for certain groups. Tut tut.

If they're all known to each other they'd turn on an outsider in the blink of an eye .
Report by all means physical intervention no way.

Exactly!I would have stopped my husband from intervening and just called the police. Why didn’t you go stop him?? You expect someone to take on a violent person?

Irish (from their shouts) and probably from traveller community

You can't say this!

RTFT or at least all of the OPS posts. She didn’t want or expect him to do anything. Just not be so blasé and not try and stop her from phoning 999.

Luckily the man was restrained by people around. Had they not been able to do that, the police arriving might have saved her life.

Comprehension issues on Mumsnet. People should really understand the post before commenting!!

My next door neighbour and wife were driving home one evening and saw a man assaulting a woman on the pavement on the opposite side of the road. He stopped his car to help the woman and got beaten up so badly by BOTH of them and a few more that turned up that he was in a coma and never recovered.
It sounds like under these circumstances there were enough people outside to stop it - your dh would most likely not have come away unscathed if he had involved himself.

"Husband is behind me (we are by our front door) telling me to get off the phone and stay out of it!!"

I know it's often commented on here that women must be good at assessing risks due the dangers posed by men.

In this case, I think your husband assessed the risk of the situation better than you did. He cannot intervene in this situation as for the vast majority of men it is unacceptable to assault a women and even many domestic abusers will not assault women in public.

Noone in that group would likely have qualms about assaulting him and likely would see anyone intervening in any way as an interfering outsider.

If you or he had been seen making that phone call there was a good chance someone in the group would have objected and assaulted one or both of you. Who was there to intervene if that happened?

You see it as him being unconcerned about a woman stranger being assaulted - even though you could both see there were people trying to stop him.

He was just trying to keep you both safe. You have the moral satisfaction of telling yourself you did the right thing; but what effect did your call really have?

Was it worth risking your safety? And let's be honest ; if there was a confrontation your husband would have taken the brunt of it.

Nonsense

It's not assault if the participants are all consenting. It's affray possibly.

But traveller men do fight. There's little point trying to nick them for it as all involved consent and aren't going to try and get eachother arrested over it.

In the words of Phil Lynnot

Friday night, they'll be dressed to kill
Down at Dino's Bar 'n' Grill
The drink will flow and blood will spill
And if the boys want to fight, you better let 'em
That jukebox in the corner blastin' out my favourite song
The nights are getting warmer, it won't be long
Won't be long 'til the summer comes
Now that the boys are here again

The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town
The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town
The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town
The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town

It's what they do.😀

Quite honestly I wouldn't want to tackle them - especially if they are travellers, they could have knives or anything. Your husband might have been killed.

I wouldn't hold it against him. He saw with his own eyes who they might be and probably thought what's the point.

Did you describe them to the police as possibly being from the Travelling community? Could be why they didn't respond?

They were travelers. You were stood in the doorway of your own home, advertising the fact that you were calling the police. You’ve put yourself and your own family in danger.

Your husband was right.

i live in a small block of flats and a group of men broke into our communal back garden with knives and weapons looking for my neighbour. I was on the phone to police but as soon as this group walked off down the street about 10 mins later they couldn’t care less. Next time I’ll say they have a gun and maybe they’ll do something about it.

You did the right thing by calling the police but your husband is right to be cautious. I know someone who was beaten up by a traveller and left unconscious in the street. He didn't tell the police who did it because he said if you grass to the police they will come round and burn your house down 🤷‍♀️

Your husband may be well aware of the consequences of getting involved with that community. Probably trying to protect you.

Did you video it? This would have been a perfect time to have got one of you to video, maybe through the top window, one of you ring the police. Then the police would have evidence to act on.

I’ve heard similar. I wouldn’t want any man to try and jump in in that scenario and I know that’s really shocking to say.