Not Self Defense Advice Fridays: Elevator Murder Experiment. Mar. 8, 2013

PizDoff · 3/09/2013 8:12am

Not Self Defense Advice Fridays: Elevator Murder Experiment

What would you do if you walked into a murder in progress? Two guys asked themselves the same question and staged a murder-in-progress inside a New York City elevator. Hidden cameras recorded people's reactions. What would you do?

**submessenger** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 8:30am

My favorite is the fire extinguisher - yes, please make sure the guy being choked to death has NO oxygen! Luckily, the "assailant" wasn't hit with the fire extinguisher, which is probably what I would do.

**franginho** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 8:32am

Human reactions.... some scary **** at times....

**Permalost** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 8:50am

Nobody pulled a gun or knife or stun gun: bad news for people who depend on others, good news for the fake attacker.

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 9:12am

yeah, i would hope my reaction would be to soccer kick/stomp the attacker's head, but of course in this case that choice would have been a poor one.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 11:27am

Originally Posted by Ming Loyalist

yeah, i would hope my reaction would be to soccer kick/stomp the attacker's head, but of course in this case that choice would have been a poor one.

In many cases that would be a poor reaction. A soccer kick is a lethal technique- they can injure or kill. Would you injure or kill someone who's trying to injure or kill someone else as a general rule? I wouldn't, because I don't know why those guys are fighting. For all I know, the "victim" is a mugger who got into it with an innocent civilian, who's now kicking their ass. Or, they're doing some Internet candid camera bullshit.

I think the freezing that so many people are doing isn't so much cowardice as much as being totally unsure how to proceed. They're forced to consider too much too quickly.

I think the correct choice of action is to assume one's big boy voice and start issuing loud commands/questions before going into assassin mode.

What not to do: stand there like the douchebag who pulls out his camera phone.

**Wing-Kwan-Fu** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 7:56pm

No need to worry, the assailant didn't have his hooks in. Not a serious attack.

**doofaloofa** · Posted On: 3/09/2013 10:16pm

There was a clear division between those who walked away, quickly, and those that tried to help, which I found disturbing

Fair play to the good Samaritans, especially flower power woman

**Holy Moment** · Posted On: 3/10/2013 6:17am

The truth is is most people don't really know how they'll react until they get in a situation like this. I have, and it's been tough to live down. I'm just glad there were others there to intervene, because I don't how bad off mentally I'd be today if the worst really did happen. A lot of guys think they'll be the big hero and save the day, but the truth is these situations often hit you so quickly from out of the blue that your reaction would seem totally illogical to a person removed from that incidence.

I will say that if I react the same way now as I did in the past, then if I came across these two guys in the elevator I would probably pull my penis out and shove it into the losing guy's face, satisified knowing it'll be the last thing he ever sees.

**danharr** · Posted On: 3/11/2013 9:20am

Since my reaction would be to pull my glock 19 and command them to stop and drop their weapons. I was wondering where this experiment took place and then I saw of course New York where the likely hood of that happening to them is very low.