If some young buck full of testosterone gets it in his head that he needs to beat on some old man, or anyone else for that matter, simply to "prove his point" (however stupid it is), than he's more of a danger to society than a help.
And dangers to society need to be removed, otherwise the society collapses.
It used to be that young men had wars to fight, indians to kill, frontiers to tame, and all that good stuff to expend all their youthful energies on...external enemies...rather than turning it on their neighbors!
Not any more. All the wars are fought by remote control (as much as possible), the indians own casinos, there are no frontiers that you can explore now that don't require a shuttle, a sub, and $10M dollars, so there's no one left to fight by each other.
Perhaps what's needed is a national sport where the violent youth can have its 'fun' without endangering anyone else. Remember
Rollerball (NOT the lame remake either)?
Socially sanction violence inside of a controlled enviroment, and very harshly punish it outside. Make it dangerous...lethally so. It's not like there's such a shortage of humans on the planet that we can't afford to lose a few thousand or so every year to a violent sport.
Those who take the option available to them for release of their energies, get peer recognition and compensation (financial or otherwise) as rewards for 'keeping it in their pants' when amoungst polite and civil society.
The ones who are so violent that they can't 'keep it in their pants' by participating in the game, are the ones who are too violent to let live amoungst the rest of the humans, thus earning permanent removal.
'Course, this isn't going to happen here anytime soon, as we've "for the childrens sake"ed ourselves into a nation of pansy-a**ed wimps.
So punk kids get coddled till they're no longer really children, but the sense of entitlement that they've come to expect lingers long after society says that they're no longer children.
Kids used to mine coal in the US as late as the '20's for Gods sake! Tell a kid nowadays that s/he is going to work in a mine for the next hour, let alone 12 hours of everyday for the next 10 years, and they'd be screaming about their 'rights'.
As for someone like me coming to anybodies rescue, don't count on it. Most times, people get themselves into problems all of their own making, and it's not my job (nor anyone elses except the cops) to play Captain save-a-ho.
The 200 pound 'kid' beating the old man? Maybe the 'kid' is getting payback for having been molested by the old man years ago, or the old man is an addict and is getting robbed by the dealer. Either way, the old man deserves what he's getting, and I'm not risking my neck to save his skinny a**.
The woman on the bus,however, did not deserve the treatment she was getting, the punk just wanting to be randomly rude to the first person it felt safe to do so to.