One of the bad aspects of the expat population here in DaNang is that there are quite a few people and of course certain places in this town where things tend to kick off a bit more than others when booze flows into the wrong hands for too long of a period of time.
I think that most people are sensible enough to not get into a barfight, which I think is probably the stupidest, yet most frequent, place to fight. I'm of the impression that no matter who wins, everyone loses in a barfight and many establishments have a policy of you not being allowed back in that bar, ever, if you are in a fight - and I think this is a good business strategy since things get broken and people spill blood and well, that's not good for business.
I wrote a while ago about how I don't think that women should get involved in attempting to break up an argument between men because I think they actually make the situation worse and more likely to turn into a fight when they get involved. For the most part I think that this is true with anyone that tries to talk down to the people that are real close to coming to blows but it's worse when it is a tiny little girl that is talking down to both the men who already seem to feel as though they have to protect their manhood or something.
I think that if I was in a situation where a barfight was going to be directed towards me that I would just walk away even if I could easily overpower someone but not everyone is a prudent as I am in these situations.
The other night I was at some event at one of my local places and two guys started mouthing off towards one another and it was the tell tale sign that things were about to get ugly. I normally won't intervene in these situations but just said "guys! come on, let's cool it and not ruin everyone else's night!" And that worked for a minute but then one of them just had to get the last word in on the other person and next thing you know these two were about to kick off again.
Then someone that I barely know, who isn't even that big or even intimidating did the most awesome fight prevention words that I have ever seen spoken to two strangers before.
He said something along the lines of "I don't know either one of you, but whoever throws the first punch, I am going to help the other guy beat the shit out of you. It doesn't matter to me which one of you it is but whoever throws the first punch, can you take on two people at once?"
He said this loud enough that other people heard him too and they all kind of chuckled and the next thing I know a bunch of other people said they would do the same thing, I heard someone say "can either of you take on 3 people at once?" then 4 then 5 and then I threw my hat into the ring as well. By the end of it my entire section of the bar basically agreed that whoever threw the first punch, was going to have everyone in the bar mob them. This worked wonderfully and the situation deescalated and the two guys who were previously about to throw hands at one another, actually started to joke around and laugh a bit about the "zero sum" situation that they now found themselves in.
I wouldn't say that they left the bar being best friends or anything, but they realized how stupid their argument was, shook hands, and then one of them just walked away to the other side of the bar.
I think this is a wonderful tactic because a drunk hothead might think they can take out the person that they are shouting at in their drunken haze, but I don't think that anyone is stupid enough to decide to take on the entire bar especially since the decision about who to beat up was going to be based on that person's own stupid choice.
After it was all said and done nobody fought that night and I have never seen this tactic before but I think that I might just use it in the future sometime should the situation arise.