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[Diana]

I have to point out that I see a lot of fearful thought processes in this thread. The concept of walking down a dark alley at night in a city being inherently dangerous seems almost laughable to me - don't get me wrong, I know assaults can occur and robberies and what not, but these instances are very small. I've spent most of my adult years working "downtown" until late at night in the bar districts, walking to my car alone with wads of cash on me, and I never felt scared or unsafe. I know there are probably a few extremely dangerous metropolitan areas, like Chicago or Detroit, or parts of LA or NY, where lots of seemingly random violence occurs. But in the scenario presented by Aion, you are two people walking down an alleyway at night - I can see how alone might feel scary, but if there are two of you, it shouldn't be just an innately scary situation, IMO. Most cities don't have random violence that occurs frequently enough that one should feel fear to walk at night with a friend.

Also, not to give away the riddle, but calling 911 is the response of someone who is used to "giving away their power". Is calling the cops to intervene really the logical solution? Do you think an officer will arrive before anyone gets hurt, if violence is inevitable? (which it doesn't appear to be in the scenario) Why waste time dallying on your phone? What are you going to tell them - that there are three adults here having a consensual fight?

It's not scary. It's a choice to walk down the alley or not. I do not think anyone should be afraid to do anything. I agree that violence is exaggerated by the media. But an alley at night in a city seems like an unwise choice to me.  

What's wrong with calling 911? It's absurd to say that's giving your power away. It's a way to avoid conflict. Do you think it would be better to stay and fight two violent drunk guys? It's true that someone might get hurt in the meantime, but if the fight goes on long enough to really cause great harm, intervention by police (who would at least in this instance be providing a service instead of tracking down pot-smokers or writing traffic tickets) might prevent serious injuries. What would you do then? The scenario involved a person who could not fight. To me, it makes sense to find a solution that doesn't involve engaging if you can't defend yourself. Just the energy of making the call might change the situation. 

Ultimately, we do attract situations to us. This was a theoretical situation that does not take this into consideration.