Saw a guy de-escalate a fight at a gas station last night in like 30 seconds

I was at the Shell on Main Street around 10pm getting gas and two dudes were about to throw punches over a parking spot. One older guy hopped out of his truck, walked between them, and just calmly said "hey man, your kid is watching from the back seat" to the louder one. Both of them stopped immediately, the one guy got back in his car and left. I always figured you had to be loud to break stuff up but he barely raised his voice. Has anyone else seen that kind of thing work better than yelling?

3 comments

3 Comments

richardk2610d agoTop Commenter

...and that's exactly what happened with my buddy Mark last summer. He was at a 7-11 and two kids were going at it over some dumb argument about a girl. Mark just walked up and said real quiet "your mom's gonna be here in like 2 minutes to pick you up, you really want her seeing you like this?" and one of them just froze, looked around, and walked away. The other kid just stood there looking confused for a second then got in his car too. I guess the trick is finding something they care about more than winning the fight in that moment, which is usually not what you expect.

reese_patel10d ago

Nah I actually kinda disagree. That quiet approach only works if the guy has something to lose like his kid watching, but most fights I've seen the guys are amped up and need a loud voice to snap them out of it first.

fiona_johnson8210d ago

Doesn't that work better because it hits them in a way they weren't expecting