I think Big D is refering to the fact that just because we aren't willing to use deadly force to intervene, it doesn't mean we can't at least call the local police, or render medical assistance after the "smoke clears". If so, I agree.
You might want to be careful on both those courses of action - calling it in, and rendering medical assistance.
Case in point : A former girlfriend of mine stopped to call the police when a couple was having a slugging match out in their yard. I wasn't with her at the time. Upon seeing her use her cell, the male of the pair ran across the road screaming at her and the female was soon behind, yelling to the effect of "You (censored), better not call the po-pos on my man". In certain areas, being seen calling something in, or giving a statement to officers can brand one as a "snitch" and be someone hazardous to health and well being. That doesn't always happen, but it is something to be aware of.
There have also been cases where those testifying in criminal cases have been marked for retaliation or even murder for doing so. Most states don't really have a budget for protecting witnesses and even the Federal program only comes into effect for major cases and is rather disruptive to one's life.
Not that one shouldn't be a good citizen and do what they think is right, just be aware that doing so might still cause unforeseen repurcussions.
In the latter case, rendering first aid, one might run into civil problems later on, depending on what one tries to do and how qualified they were to do it. In certain situations, an attempted medical intervention might make things worse. The classic example would probably be moving an accident victim who suffered some sort of spinal or neck injury. Thus one might see someone laying on the ground, move them and provide CPR... and end up making the situation worse if what really happened is that the victim fell of a ladder.
Aside from that, any contact with bodily fluids presents a certain risk, and most people don't carry CPR masks and nitrile gloves with them. My wife did used to drive around with a medic's bag in her car - which came in handy at an auto accident - when she was working as an EMT. But lacking proper equipment and training, providing first aid should be approached with caution.
GatorFarmer, I'm staying away from Virginia... the Axe Murderer / child abducting clown capital of the world!
joking....
I agree with you statement though. In many situations, the proper action may be simply walking away.
VA is actually rather nice, though the traffic is terrible at times. All the "interesting" stuff happened to me when I lived in Lansing, Michigan rather than here in suburban VA.
Though to be fair, the spate of corpses with missing heads all went unsolved (to my knowledge), thus the implement of choice might not have been an axe...Though natural causes were eventually ruled out six months into one of the cases. That was a good thing, since one should obviously be concerned about all those natural conditions that cause one to lose their head and have it vanish from the scene.
