Читать книгу Dirty Ground - Kris Wilder - Страница 10

The Morality of Fighting

I was sitting in my living room watching television when I heard a loud crash followed by the sound of breaking glass outside. Looking out a window I saw a teenage saggy pants, ‘banger wannabe walking up the street with an aluminum baseball bat in his hands. Every time he passed a car he’d take out a side-view mirror, headlight, or window with a swing. Realizing there was only a dozen feet between this hooligan and my car I dashed out the door to confront him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Not the best way to deescalate a bad situation, but in the spur of the moment I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Fuck you!”

“Stay away from my car.”

“What part of ‘fuck you,’ don’t you understand asshole!”

“Put down the bat.”

“Like hell. I’m gonna shove it up your ass until you choke!”

Well, that wasn’t going very well. I considered drawing my gun when he swung at me a few heartbeats later, but punk was much younger than I was and I didn’t think that blowing his head off would play well in the press despite the fact that he was armed with a bat. Besides, for a martial arts instructor and firearms expert, I really am a pretty non-violent guy. I had enough experience with weapons that I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to do.

In my sword training, there was a tandem drill that taught us how to use range and angle to avoid a strike. As the blow comes toward us, we shift slightly out of range to keep from being hit, then follow the weapon back in to counterattack before it can be redirected. Although it is a sword-to-sword drill, I figured that the same principles would apply to an unarmed confrontation against a bat as well.

Assuming I could use the same technique to disarm this kid without either of us getting hurt, I prepared to do so. Unfortunately, he wasn’t on the same lesson plan. As I shifted out of range, he let go of the bat, something I’d never seen done with a sword. People only throw their weapons in the movies. Or so I’d thought. Unfortunately the bat flew a short distance through the air and rapped me across the head and shoulder with stunning force.

Before I realized what had happened I was on the ground. I don’t remember falling, yet once I hit the ground I still had the presence of mind to scissor his legs, knocking him down before he could do anything worse. I followed up by grabbing a hold of one of his feet, pulling him in, and simultaneously kicking him in the ‘nads to end the fight. I was still seeing stars when he staggered to his feet and lurched away.

Pretty cool, huh? Heroic even. The badass black belt gets whomped upside the head with an aluminum baseball bat yet perseveres and manages to take out the bad guy. Yeah, right. It was one of the most dumbass things I’ve ever done. Seriously.

Here’s the deal: whenever you go hands-on there are consequences. In this case it was mild concussion and a bunch of scrapes and bruises. Not too bad. I’ve had worse in training, but it could very easily have been catastrophic. What if he’d staved in my skull with the bat? What if the he’d hit his head on the curb when I knocked him down? Or broke his neck during the fall? Or, what if the cops had decided to push the issue when they showed up half an hour later and referred me for prosecution…

“What?” you ask. “Why would they prosecute me? I was the good guy!” Well, not really. The kid with the bat wasn’t the only one who had broken the law… (And I can say that now since the Statute of Limitations has run its course.)

Okay, we’ve covered the drunkle, so now let’s take a hard look at fighting and self-defense. While this brief overview is no substitute for a holistic understanding of the law and a competent attorney to represent you in court, the following information may keep you from needing to hire one. Maybe. Consider it a place to start.

Self-defense is an affirmative plea. That’s a huge freaking deal. It means that instead of the burden of proof resting with the prosecutor, you being innocent until proven guilty and all that, it shifts that burden to you. In other words, you tell the judge and jury that you did it (“it” being killing, maiming, assaulting, or whatever the other guy), but that you had a really damn good excuse.

“Yup, I killed him your honor. But he tried to kill me first…” It’s actually a hell of a lot more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

Under the right circumstances, you have a legitimate excuse for breaking the law and will not be held criminally liable for your actions, which doesn’t mean you won’t subsequently be sued in civil court. While taking a life is obviously illegal, the competing harm (or urgent necessity as they call it in some jurisdictions) of saving your own life outweighs the harm you did to your attacker. If he initiated the confrontation and if you did nothing to escalate it. You have to be completely innocent. And you have to be able to prove it in court.