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Your instinct would be... what then?

Most likely a non-reaction (physically). Frustration, sadness that I'm in a position where I can't do anything about it because the situation will get more violent and ugly for my kids if I escalate the confrontation by fighting back.

I am not passing judgement on the picture; but, at the very least I would have probably turn around and left with the kids to get them to a safe location. He had others from his family at the event, so presumably he could have found someone to watch the kids, or at least warn the others to beware of the union thugs. Then again, people don't always react in a cool and calculated way when confronted with something like this; so the father's reaction may be perfectly normal.