What would you do: Teenager fight in the parking lot

It’s an icy Wednesday afternoon, and you’ve just left the office after a long day at work. You’re approaching your car in the parking lot and notice a group of rowdy teenagers arguing near a minivan two spots over. There are five teenage boys picking on a teenage girl.

The situation escalates to pushing, shoving and punches being thrown. What do you do?

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Unfortunately nothing… These are 6 words against yours. No chance to win this case.

There is no respect to adult people anymore. If I’ll get involved I’ll be the only person in trouble.
I could defend teenage girl and myself as well… but what next?
I’ve got my priorities - my wife and sons are waiting for me at home.

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Agree with @Jerzees. I actually know a teen girl that enjoys instigating situations like that. She has a very sad home situation.

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The worst what can happen is that such “parking games” might be staged. Perhaps they are waiting for person like you. Six against one? Perfect for them. If I draw the firearm… nothing will help me at the court. Cameras? Yes. But I cannot count on them. What if there are no cameras or there are dead cameras… or security guy has a bad day… to many unknowns…

Sit in you car and drive safely home… you know… it’s an icy Wednesday afternoon… so better be focused on the road.

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Depends. Depends on a lot of things.

If my kids are with me, I’m not getting involved. Maybe I should be a better role model to my kids, but I make different decisions when they’re around, and I never put them at risk. Someone else will have to step in.

If I’m by myself, it’ll depend on what I see. How serious is the situation? Is someone’s kid about to be seriously hurt? Is anyone asking for help? Are these 15-year-old dweeb teenagers or 19-year-old football players? Do they look like the type I can chase off or the type looking for a fight? Are there other witnesses around? Is there another adult I can pair up with to intervene?

These decisions have to be made quickly and I might not make the right choice, but a lot comes into play.

But since this is USCCA, I have to say that I’m not going in guns blazin’. The only thing I’m drawing from my holster is my phone to record the incident and maybe call 911. How close I get depends on the way the situation develops, but I’m going to start from a safe distance and keep my exits open. If I have to unholster my firearm, something has gone seriously wrong. I want to approach this situation the same way I’d want another adult to respond if that were my teenage son or daughter in the parking lot.

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Call 911

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Call 911. Record the incident on video.
If they are going after you for recording, that’s a different story. Otherwise, for all you know it may be a prank, and the joke will be on any good samaritan.

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Like others have stated, it depends. I probably would get in my car and move it farther away from the altercation in a position that allowed me several exit options, also positioning it so I could keep an eye on what was happening while calling the police. It could be a set up to relieve me of my valuables but it also could be the boys decided to grab a lone female coming out of the same building, the scenario given doesn’t let us know how it started.

While it isn’t my responsibility to protect others, I still feel a moral obligation to protect a fellow human, especially if it were 5 against one. That doesn’t mean I’d step in guns blazing, but if they lifted her up and threw her in the van, I’d follow, if safety allowed it and keep the police dispatcher up to date on their direction of travel.

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911, provided defunding didn’t effect the area, secure yourself in your car and video on your phone as you leave the area. Not your business, stay safe, avoid area. In a normal world and at a much younger age, would probably offer assistance, or at least try to diffuse situation. However there is a TOTAL disrespect for adults!
Unfortunately they created an apathetic world. I became the defender of my wife, family and friends, I’m not the savior of strangers. No matter what the good guy does, he will always be looked upon as the bad guy, unless you’re looting or burning something. It was probably a gang initiation, leave it be, go home! In their canceled world, why should I give that situation a second thought? The Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule got flushed down the toilet a long time ago!

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Best answer hands down. No “if this, if that” blah, blah. & from kevin29 …unreal

I’d start a batting pool. :wink:

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I’d pull up a chair and popcorn and grab my phone to shoot a video to be a perfect witness. If things started to escalate to violence I would loudly scream that I just called police and they’re almost here.

Like Jerzy pointed out, kids don’t respect adults at all these days. If we got involved they could ALL turn against us and falsely claim anything. There’s no winner in actively placing yourself in situations like these.

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“I just called the police! They’ll be here in 20 minutes! You’ve been warned!”

:laughing:

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Unless it’s a democrat run city…in which it may be closer to an hour wait. Too soon?

I had to wait over an hour, one time. When the police finally arrived, I was home. They called and yelled at me for leaving the scene. I politely informed him that I needed medical care and couldn’t wait any longer. Never heard back after that.

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A large city… Crime goes where the money is…and that taxes the system. OKC, for example, is rated as very conservative…and you are going to wait a minute for an officer in OKC…because it’s a big city.

  1. Get a picture of the minivans plates in case something happens to the girl.

  2. Back up and call the police.

  3. Swipe my badge and get back into the building (it’s access controlled so now I have a barrier).

  4. Go to the security desk and let them know about the situation.

I don’t know any of the kids and it could very well be a trap. Carrying firearms is prohibited where I work so I’m not armed. A couple of years back, a coworker was pulling into a gas station close to work for a fill-up before going home. He saw some kids arguing and when they pulled knives on each other, he wisely decided to go gas up elsewhere.

definitely getting in the way if 5 people are picking on a girl… calling the police as well. Will try to be reasonable and peaceful but will be ready and capable of escalating with the situation.

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With a National Average ranging between 10-14 minutes…I’d bet your time is off. I also googled OKC and found their police response time is 9 min 30 seconds per their own admission.

https://www.okc.gov/home/showdocument?id=1704#:~:text=The%20Police%20Department%20measures%20the,9%20minutes%20and%2030%20seconds.

So, I’d wager that anytime a police officer happens to be quicker than that, they literally were right in the area already and happened to be close to allow their time to be less than 9 min.

Right on. San Francisco has a 5.46 minute response time… So, not all big cities or liberal cities have a poor time I suppose. I’ve lived in both conservative cities and liberal cities, and never really noticed a difference tbh…