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Do bar fights actually happen in this day and age? I’ve hit up bars of ill repute around the world since before I was of legal drinking age, and I’ve only witne

Do bar fights actually happen in this day and age? I’ve hit up bars of ill repute around the world since before I was of legal drinking age, and I’ve only witnessed a single bar fight between two grumpy locals in rural New Zealand.

donatj 9y ago
My friends brother was hospitalized around 2 years ago after getting into one, he’s fine now. I’ve had a number of drunk angry people try to start things with me and my friends, but we’re all too polite and apologetic to get into a fight. One guy, who very drunkenly threw a punch at a friend (and missed) for unknowingly taking his chair even told us that his mother had just died and he only went out to the bar to punch somebody.
dogruck 9y ago
I have personally never been in a bar fight in my life. But, yes, bar fights still happen regularly. That said, my experience is: 1. They are somewhat cultural. More common in some regions/bars/demographics 2. They happen more frequently as the night/drinking deepens
- dagw 9y ago
  But, yes, bar fights still happen regularly. Where are you going to find regular bar fights? Is it more a US thing, a rural thing, a college town thing? Because despite having spent way too much time in bars in various parts of Europe, I've basically never seen anything escalate beyond shoving and shouting.
  - RobertoG 9y ago
    My personal observation is that it depends mainly on your culture (nationality?) relationship with drinking. In some places, drinking is just something that do you do when you go out, in others, it seems like drinking is the goal of going out and they try to get drunk the faster the better.
  - dogruck 9y ago
    My general view is bar fights are more common when there's not a perceived tendency of escalating into knife and gun fights. I don't have data to support it though. I last saw a bar fight on the north shore of Kauai. I love Kauai, but locals have told me, "there's not much else to do at night other than drink and fight."
cafard 9y ago
Not sure how far back this day and age goes. I was bitten on the finger (and probably lightly punched on the face) ca. 1979 stepping in between a man in his thirties, likely coked up, and a weedy law student he was about to hit. That was in downtown Washington. In the early 1980s I saw a guy get knocked down and kicked in the face outside a bar in the DC suburbs. In the 2007, I saw a guy get beat up by two other guys outside a bar in Vienna, somewhere between the Ring and the Prater. The first two were late at night, the latter was in broad daylight. (I had suggested to my wife that we stop at a cafe a bit farther from where there were drunks talking loudly. She ignored the suggestion and was greatly surprised at the fight.)

donatj 9y ago

My friends brother was hospitalized around 2 years ago after getting into one, he’s fine now. I’ve had a number of drunk angry people try to start things with me and my friends, but we’re all too polite and apologetic to get into a fight. One guy, who very drunkenly threw a punch at a friend (and missed) for unknowingly taking his chair even told us that his mother had just died and he only went out to the bar to punch somebody.

dogruck 9y ago

I have personally never been in a bar fight in my life. But, yes, bar fights still happen regularly. That said, my experience is: 1. They are somewhat cultural. More common in some regions/bars/demographics 2. They happen more frequently as the night/drinking deepens

dagw 9y ago
But, yes, bar fights still happen regularly. Where are you going to find regular bar fights? Is it more a US thing, a rural thing, a college town thing? Because despite having spent way too much time in bars in various parts of Europe, I've basically never seen anything escalate beyond shoving and shouting.
- RobertoG 9y ago
  My personal observation is that it depends mainly on your culture (nationality?) relationship with drinking. In some places, drinking is just something that do you do when you go out, in others, it seems like drinking is the goal of going out and they try to get drunk the faster the better.
- dogruck 9y ago
  My general view is bar fights are more common when there's not a perceived tendency of escalating into knife and gun fights. I don't have data to support it though. I last saw a bar fight on the north shore of Kauai. I love Kauai, but locals have told me, "there's not much else to do at night other than drink and fight."

cafard 9y ago

Not sure how far back this day and age goes. I was bitten on the finger (and probably lightly punched on the face) ca. 1979 stepping in between a man in his thirties, likely coked up, and a weedy law student he was about to hit. That was in downtown Washington. In the early 1980s I saw a guy get knocked down and kicked in the face outside a bar in the DC suburbs. In the 2007, I saw a guy get beat up by two other guys outside a bar in Vienna, somewhere between the Ring and the Prater. The first two were late at night, the latter was in broad daylight. (I had suggested to my wife that we stop at a cafe a bit farther from where there were drunks talking loudly. She ignored the suggestion and was greatly surprised at the fight.)