Gutless wonders

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Gutless wonders

Mike Harding · Guru

I regret to say:

You are on your own in this world my friend.

Whenarewethere · Guru

The problem is the law. The one who helps ends up accused of assault. Then multi-year legal battle with the State, with little change out of $100k if you are lucky. You get cancer with all the stress & die an early death.

86GTS · Guru

You never know when the aggressor will pull a knife or worse still, a gun.
Best to quickly dial 000 & let the professionals handle the situation.
Not intervening is not being gutless, its being sensible.

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

2 of the 3 answers I expected. The old guys wife rang 000, the police showed up 25 minutes later. A gun or a knife, well you do have eyes. I had the offender subdued on the ground and yes the police thanked me for helping the old gentleman who was transferred to hospital with shock. To the 2, yes YOU are better off standing back and letting innocent ppl be abused and assaulted, lets hope its not you one day eh.

oldbloke · Guru

Whenarewethere wrote:
The problem is the law. The one who helps ends up accused of assault. Then multi-year legal battle with the State, with little change out of $100k if you are lucky. You get cancer with all the stress & die an early death.

Pretty right. And yes, was told by police just a little over a week ago, nearly all carry knives.

yobarr · Guru

Bas + Eve wrote:
2 of the 3 answers I expected. The old guys wife rang 000, the police showed up 25 minutes later. A gun or a knife, well you do have eyes. I had the offender subdued on the ground and yes the police thanked me for helping the old gentleman who was transferred to hospital with shock. To the 2, yes YOU are better off standing back and letting innocent ppl be abused and assaulted, lets hope its not you one day eh.

Firstly I would like to congratulate you, and indeed thank you, for having the intestinal fortitude to go in to help this old chap. Calling the Police is never going to stop the assault, although in this case they did eventually arrive. Had you not detained this misfit he would surely have been long-gone before PC arrived? Again, well done. Perhaps some could consider these words, incorrectly attributed to Edmund Burke. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Perhaps other forum members might have different views if it was their 79 year old Dad getting dished-up? Cheers

Whenarewethere · Guru

Long ago we had a break-in, I will just focus on this one point. A bottle of wine had been moved & left in a bedroom.

I was told they picked up the bottle to smash & use as a weapon. In a previous case someone had over 100 stitches in their face.

We were told it was better you were not home, which we agreed with.

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Thank you Yobarr.

Gundog · Guru

Perhaps if someone had a bit of intestinal fortitude at Port Arthur maybe the death toll would have been lower.

It also begs the how and where did Bryant get a L1A1 SLR, a military weapon and a AR15 a sporting version of the M16 Armalite a military weapon, both the SLR & AR15 are semi-automatic rifles.

At least some people had some guts to take down the perp who drove his car down Bourke St Mall in Melbourne.

Wanda · Guru

Bas + Eve wrote:
2 of the 3 answers I expected. The old guys wife rang 000, the police showed up 25 minutes later. A gun or a knife, well you do have eyes. I had the offender subdued on the ground and yes the police thanked me for helping the old gentleman who was transferred to hospital with shock. To the 2, yes YOU are better off standing back and letting innocent ppl be abused and assaulted, lets hope its not you one day eh.

Well done you did the decent thing, none of us really know how we would react at our age but I guess we would like to think maybe the same way you have.

You were there and obviously summed up the situation and risks quickly, thinking quickly and making the right decision paid off, well done.

Cheers

Ian

DMaxer · Guru

What a total load of BS Whenarewethere. In over 40 years of practice predominantly in criminal law I have never seen anyone who has come to the assistance of a person being assaulted, charged. I have never seen anyone charged with assault spending $100K on a defence. I have also never seen anyone have an assault case take years to finalise. Those stories go down well at dinner parties and happy hours but dont try and sell them to people who happen to know.

Tony Bev · Guru

Wanda wrote:
Bas + Eve wrote:
2 of the 3 answers I expected. The old guys wife rang 000, the police showed up 25 minutes later. A gun or a knife, well you do have eyes. I had the offender subdued on the ground and yes the police thanked me for helping the old gentleman who was transferred to hospital with shock. To the 2, yes YOU are better off standing back and letting innocent ppl be abused and assaulted, lets hope its not you one day eh.
Well done you did the decent thing, none of us really know how we would react at our age but I guess we would like to think maybe the same way you have.
You were there and obviously summed up the situation and risks quickly, thinking quickly and making the right decision paid off, well done.
Cheers
Ian

X2

People who know me, also know that I am not a big or tough guy

But even at 75 years of age, I will do my best to jump in, and try and stop a vulnerable person being assaulted, by a younger and much fitter person

TravellerBob · Veteran Member

Well DMAXER,
it happened to me. Back in the late 90s early one morning in the Sydney CBD I went to the aid of a person who had been assaulted. He was laying the the gutter bleeding. His attacker ran when I appeared. I came out of a nearby doorway

I had a woman get a building security guard to call and ambulance for the person. The ambulance turned up and took him away to hospital. Two hours latter I was arrested at gun point in the Cross and latter charged with assualting the victim and a few other charges relating to the incedent
It took over 3 years for the matter to finally be resolved in court after 2 miss trials. I was toatally cleared of any involvment in the assault . The description of the attacker given by the victim did not match me in any way other than being male. but this was not taken into account by the cops at the time.
After that expirience I would not consider getting invloved in anything other than a life threatening situation

-- Edited by TravellerBob on Wednesday 29th of June 2022 10:04:37 PM

-- Edited by TravellerBob on Wednesday 29th of June 2022 10:06:07 PM

-- Edited by TravellerBob on Wednesday 29th of June 2022 10:07:12 PM

Whenarewethere · Guru

Not an assault. Our neighbour stopped her car to help at an incident. She was totally unrelated to the accident. She was charged, lost points. We have known her for years, she is in her seventies & doesn't have the energy or time (age) to fight this.

It's why I have cameras all around my car.

slowboat · Member

well done Baz, good on you for helping.

DMaxer · Guru

Nice story Bob. Arrested at gunpoint? The case got through committal proceedings without an eye witness? Two trials that were aborted? For a miscarriage of justice and an unwarranted arrest highly inappropriate to the evidence they had to go on, you must have received a poultice of compensation and damages from the legal proceedings your counsel brought! Oh thats right. You just walked away and wrote it off as a bad dream. What tv show were you watching before you fell asleep.

SoloMC · Senior Member

Good on you for helping the old bloke. I wonder if you would have stepped in if it was a young bloke getting flogged? These days, the numbers of people I've seen carrying a knife astounds me. I'll never forget a bloke who was thrown out of a nightclub who proceeded to stab the owners tyres when he produced a knife that he had been concealing INSIDE THE CLUB. No way I would have stepped up simply because of the speed they produce a knife.

littledick · Senior Member

And I bet he was out shortly after. furious

Dick.

Blues Man · Guru

Gundog wrote:
Perhaps if someone had a bit of intestinal fortitude at Port Arthur maybe the death toll would have been lower.
It also begs the how and where did Bryant get a L1A1 SLR, a military weapon and a AR15 a sporting version of the M16 Armalite a military weapon, both the SLR & AR15 are semi-automatic rifles.
At least some people had some guts to take down the perp who drove his car down Bourke St Mall in Melbourne.

Hi Gundog , Bryant prob got the weapons at the gun shop .At that time semi auto's were freely available .I can still recall when you could buy firearms from corner stores hardware stores.

Whenarewethere · Guru

When I last came back from Tasmania, State border guards asked if I had any guns. I said no, then they proceeded to look thoroughly through the car including thoroughly in the engine bay. I have never handled a gun & have no interest, but there must be some issues returning to the big island.

Cupie · Guru

Bas + Eve wrote:
I observed an ice addicted bloke in his 20s picking on an old frail 79 year old male who was minding his own business. When this moron grabbed the old bloke, it was my automatic que to step in. The part that disturbed me was the fact that there were many bystanders, half my age that would not render assistance. I am no spring chicken but as I grew up in an extremely rough area I did years of boxing and martial arts ( not that this would have helped these days) but I had the ticker to help an Aussie in trouble. What is wrong with ppl these days.

Well done & thankfully there are still a few people like you in our community.

I'd like to think that even at 81 YOA I too would step in as you did, or that a good person like you would come to my aid.

BTW, on the subject of break ins, we had a near miss when someone tried to get into one of our upper floor windows. The Police officer pointed out the weeding tool that the person had used to prise open the screens.

He told us that in no case should we get between an intruder & the door as the tool would make an excellent weapon. He had experienced several such incidents where the intruder had panicked at the exit path being blocked & lashed out with dire consequences.

-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 30th of June 2022 09:26:48 AM

Mike Harding · Guru

And yet we are not permitted to possess any form of weapon for the purpose of self defence in Australia.

Something seriously wrong with the law here.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Cupie wrote:
Bas + Eve wrote:
I observed an ice addicted bloke in his 20s picking on an old frail 79 year old male who was minding his own business. When this moron grabbed the old bloke, it was my automatic que to step in. The part that disturbed me was the fact that there were many bystanders, half my age that would not render assistance. I am no spring chicken but as I grew up in an extremely rough area I did years of boxing and martial arts ( not that this would have helped these days) but I had the ticker to help an Aussie in trouble. What is wrong with ppl these days.
Well done & thankfully there are still a few people like you in our community.
I'd like to think that even at 81 YOA I too would step in as you did, or that a good person like you would come to my aid.

BTW, on the subject of break ins, we had a near miss when someone tried to get into one of our upper floor windows. The Police officer pointed out the weeding tool that the person had used to prise open the screens.
He told us that in no case should we get between an intruder & the door as the tool would make an excellent weapon. He had experienced several such incidents where the intruder had panicked at the exit path being blocked & lashed out with dire consequences.

After our second break-in through the front door we installed a metal frame screwed to every brick on each side, it's all hidden behind architraves. Pins on the hinge side & armour plate on the door. There were new marks from a third attempt but it stopped after that. Also have laminated glass windows. It is a very unnerving experience when some uninvited guest has been through your home.

dorian · Guru

When I was living overseas I went to the assistance of a young girl who was been assaulted by two Chinese guys. I was nearly beaten to death. The girl's father (father-in-law?) was a powerful, well connected man. He asked me not to contact the police. Some time later his son told me that the two thugs wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore ...

Mike Harding · Guru

dorian wrote:
Some time later his son told me that the two thugs wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore ...

Sometimes... natural justice is best.

TravellerBob · Veteran Member

DMAXER
beleive what you want
I know what happened and if you were a lawyer for 40 years and not just the office cleaner as it appears you were, I am more than happy to provide you with the detals of the case and can go and research it