I’ve written about a specific incident where I, and 3 men, were confronted by a man with a large knife. As I was closest to him and had my back turned, I was the one who talked him down when I turned around. I think, as someone else said, the men were waiting to see if they would have to fight. Also, I’m a trained therapist and martial artist which hells me control initial fear and gives me skills to talk people down. I still felt unsupported. Maybe it all happened so fast they didn’t know what to do.

https://medium.com/new-choices/the-homeless-man-approaches-with-a-knife-ec7c23660e3f