Lived in East Belfast for a while in the 90's, a decent enough part.
One night we were sitting in the house watching TV and we heard this mad banging noise outside. The 2 of us looked out the front door and saw this huge fella banging on his front door 2 doors up. I'd seen this lad a few times before in nearby shops and that, seemed dead on. Everyone was looking out their doors and windows, this wound the fella up more, started shouting at his closest neighbour.
Had a chat with the woman next door, she said he was like this every so often, dead quite for months and then he'd go mad on the drink.
The police arrived really quickly and his wife opened the door as they arrived. He grabbed her and started thumping her, got her down on the ground, kicking her, just went mad. Their kids were screaming, the cops jumped on him and he started fighting them. There were 2 cops initially but another car arrived with 3 more including a police woman. They literally had to beat the shit out of him with their batton things.
Eventually they got him down and got cuffs on him. As they putting him in the car, the wife jumped on one of the cops screaming "leave him alone you bastards". She starting punching him and then hit the police woman full in the face. The kids were still screaming and crying, the whole scene was just mad. They eventually got him in one car and put her in the other. The neighbour took the 4 kids in to her house, the cops left and we went back in.
Couldn't really believe what happened, did the usual speculating of what would now happen, social workers getting involved, court case etc.
A couple of days later met the fella on the street coming back from the shops with a couple of his kids heading back to his house with bags of groceries. Couldn't believe it.
The house next door on the right was owned by the housing executive and they used it to put in women who'd left their partners or families who'd had to move for one reason or another.
One weekend we could hear really loud shouting, kid's crying etc. It got so bad, we could actually hear the woman screaming as some fella was beating her. The kid's were basically screaming now so my mate who's quite handy knocked the front door, this little shit came out all mad, typical cunt with small man's syndrome. He was all hyped up and had a go at my mate. My mate kocked shit out of him, put him back in their hallway. Next minute his wife or girlfriend came screaming out telling him to fuck off and mind his own business. Of course I was right behind him backing him up. We phoned the cops, never noticed if they ever arrived or not but the family just disappeared. Went to work on monday, they were gone when I got back.
What do you do, I just feel sorry for the kids, they haven't a chance.