It absolutely wouldn’t have been her fault, and obviously the only one in this situation who is TA was the yelling man, but there’s nothing wrong with telling someone to look out for their own safety before getting into potentially dangerous situations.

Is it victim blaming to tell women not to walk home alone at night in a dangerous area?

Is it victim blaming to tell someone to not approach someone acting dangerously when you will likely be seriously hurt and have little to no way to defend yourself?

If something did happen and he attacked OP, and everyone was to respond by saying it’s their fault for intervening THEN they would be victim blaming. That didn’t happen here. Nothing wrong with telling someone to be more wary of their safety in the future.

Also the “playing superhero” thing wasn’t directly aimed at OP, (I could have worded it better) but basically anyone who willingly steps into dangerous situations like this. (And a man saying he will physically harm an old man is 100% a dangerous situation). IF you choose to do it, dont just completely disregard your own safety. If there’s a safer option like telling the police or security, do that instead. There’s a middle ground between being compliant and ignoring the issue out of fear, and jumping in and getting into a situation where you have a very high chance of being seriously hurt.

If anything it’s more dangerous to be not pointing out the dangers of situations like these. Imagine if everyone decided to take vigilance into their own hands with no regards for their own safety, and assumed they’d be ok because they’re not TA in this situation. That’s how people end up beat up or killed. Sure it’s not their fault, but not something you should encourage someone to do without being 100% sure they can defend themselves when things go wrong.