I've seen a similar phenomenon myself. I used to have a roommate who
seemed to attract trouble without actually inviting it, getting into fights
at bars and clubs about every other weekend. In most cases, a complete
stranger would "step up" with no provocation and try to start something. I
think it was something of an alpha-male type thing; my roomate was 6'2",
250 lbs of solid muscle, and a fairly good looking guy. Fortunately for
him, he could flatten 3 of his average aggressors at the same time without
breaking a sweat. The times that I was with him I hardly ever helped him
because he never seemed to need any.
The *real* story to this, though, is what happened afterward. Half the
time, the police would show up (late, of course) and throw *him* in jail
for assaulting the 3 or 4 guys who would be laid out in the parking lot by
this time. Because of his size, the police didn't consider it
self-defense, even though he was usually outnumbered and the victim. On
one particular occasion when I was with him, the police showed up ten
minutes after it was over and proceeded to use pepper spray and clubs on my
roommate even though he was no longer fighting his aggressors and was
attempting to cooperate with the police (at which point I nearly got myself
taken with him).
Note: After this happened for the third time in about 2 months, a
successful legal action/investigation was taken against the San Jose police
regarding some of these incidents and all of the charges (resisting arrest,
assault, et al.) were dropped and two of the officers involved received
official reprimands, if I remember correctly. It is fairly obvious that
the police did not believe him to be of the socio-economic class that would
have a good lawyer.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com