Originally Posted by
DoubleBarrel 
My point was that we didn't care about putting ourselves in worse places when we were drinking. Sticking your neck out, (or hardly at all) is WORTH it when getting sober.
Maybe it reminds you of how people act when drinking. These kind of people could be anywhere. You cannot hide from life.
I believe most people who desire sobriety have had more than enough chaos, danger and emotional turmoil during their drinking days. Now, they do care about putting themselves in bad places. They attend AA with the expectation that the meetings are a physically safe place. IMO that expectation is more than fair.
I agree these incidents are probably rare. In the ~ six months I attended AA, I did not experience any behavior as described by the OP. And if it did occur, it would not have stopped me from attending AA; although, if the situation was not addressed quickly, I would have changed meetings. However, while these incidents may be rare, other posters here have mentioned AA/NA members behaving badly at meetings, so we know it does occur with some frequency.
The issue is how should it be dealt with, and how quickly it should be dealt with. IMO, there should be zero tolerance for any type of violence or threat of violence, and one physical incident should be enough to ban any member from further meetings. And that's being generous, as most people would want law enforcement called immediately after a physical confrontation.