Today I came into work a little bit later as I had an appointment this morning. Making my way to the station it felt like such a spring day, lovely and warm and a clear, blue sky. I sat down to wait for the train and started checking emails on my phone and suddenly became aware of raised voices nearby. Looking over, I saw a young woman on my side of the fence on the station platform, and on the other side of the fence in the carpark a young man (I say young, they both looked anything from 25 to 40-ish).

It quickly became apparent that they were arguing about money, or rather he was shouting and she was trying to respond in a calm and quiet manner. He was asking her to give him the f***ing money, calling her the word that we all hate as well as every other name under the sun and went so far as to actually spit at her through the fence. Aside from wondering what on earth she was even doing talking to him and not walking away, the thought that was going through my head was: do I do anything? He kept screaming that she owed him this money and he wanted the card as well and if she touched anything of his again he would f***ing kill her. All the time he was trying to lunge through the fence at her, fortunately she was standing far enough back that he couldn’t reach. After about 5 minutes of him threatening to come into the station, she gave him what he wanted, he disappeared with one last ‘c’ word and she went up and over the tracks to the opposite platform.

Should we mind our own business?

It’s stayed with me for most of the day for many reasons: thankfully I don’t see this kind of thing too often so it shocks me when I do; it made me realise how DAMN lucky I am to have a loving and supportive husband, friends and family and to not find myself caught up in any situations where anyone would even speak to me like that that I actually knew; and mainly, because I couldn’t help wondering what I would have done if it had got worse.

My thoughts were that from our side there was definitely safety in numbers – the station was manned by TFL bods, as well as some burly looking maintenance guys fixing the signs and several passengers. Would I have been brave enough to intervene by myself if it had continued, and not just in this situation but in any where someone is under attack? I always like to think I would, because I’d want someone else to come my help if I needed it, but when push comes to shove would I protect a stranger over myself? Are our reactions different when a woman is involved versus two men? What would YOU do?

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