Читать книгу Scaling Force - Rory Miller - Страница 10
ОглавлениеEven if you have never completed a woodworking project, you probably know that you could pound nails with a drill. You also know that it’s not a horribly effective method of doing it. And it is really tough on the drill. If you want to drive nails, then a hammer is a much better choice. Clearly, knowing your tools makes any woodworking project go more smoothly.
Similarly, a scale of force options gives you a set of tools for managing violence. It also provides a basis for selecting the appropriate application to use in any given situation. The first three levels—presence, voice, and touch—can help stave off violence before it begins, precluding the need to fight. The last three levels—empty-hand restraint/physical control, less-lethal force, and lethal force—are applied once the confrontation becomes physical. Choosing the right level of force lets you control a bad situation in an appropriate and effective way, increasing your chances of surviving without serious injury while simultaneously reducing the likelihood of adverse consequences from overreacting or under-reacting, such as jail time, debilitating injury, or death.
Before you can choose the proper tool, however, it is important to understand the environment in which you will use it. That’s what this section is about. If you have read our other books, much of this material will be familiar to you. Yet it bears repeating because the sections lay out important fundamentals that you need to keep in mind. Our intent is not to go in-depth, but rather to present an overview that places the various force options into the proper context.
I’d thrown…ahem…escorted more than twenty people out of the stadium that day, but I recognized him anyway. Sometime during the third quarter, he’d taunted a Coug fan one too many times and gotten a nice shiner on his left eye for it. But the cops assigned to help us manage the end zone were busy dealing with another altercation, so I gave him the option of leaving of his own volition. When I explained what he faced in terms of minor in possession, drunk in public, disorderly conduct, and assault, he made the wise choice and voluntarily missed the rest of the game. I confiscated his ticket, marched him out the gate, and summarily forgot about him.
But he hadn’t forgotten about me.
Nearly two hours later after the contest had finished and we’d gotten the stadium cleared, I spotted him in the parking lot. Not the public lot where tailgaters were still partying, but the credentialed employee parking lot where he did not belong. Unfortunately he recognized me too.
“You’re the SOB who threw me out,” he spat. Well it was a bit more colorful than that, but you get the idea…
Then he lunged.
Holy fuck, there’s a knife in his hand! I’m still in uniform, but totally alone. No backup, no radio. My mind is spinning, but my body reacts without conscious thought. I’d been practicing saifa kata for the last few months, so that’s my instinctive response.
I set a fence with my left arm, pivoting to the side. He’s still drunk. And slow. Nevertheless, the knife looks like a freaking sword as it flashes by. Checking his knife-hand arm with my shoulder, I smash him in the face with a left palm-heel. His head snaps back, but he starts to retract his hand for another strike. I grab his forearm, place my right elbow on his upper arm, and drop my weight. He loses balance, dropping with me and his head smashes into the back of my fist with a thwack. As his eyes un-focus, I’m able to grab the knife and spin away, wrenching it from his grasp.
Eyes big as saucers, he twists away, stumbles once, nearly falls, then runs off. I look down at the knife in my hand.
Shit, there’s blood all over me!
I start shaking so hard it slips from my grip, nearly skewering my foot when it clatters to the pavement. Heartbeat pounding in my ears, I bent over to pick it up. Bile rises, puke splashing atop the knife and my boot. Ugh, I abandon the mess, race to my car, and grab a water bottle.
I can’t entirely wash away the mess, but at least the acrid taste is no longer in my mouth. I scrub my left hand clean, searching for the wound. Nothing. The blood was his.
Most martial artist’s “experience” with fighting stems from sparring, tournament competitions, or the occasional schoolyard brawl. For most everyone else, it comes from Hollywood movies, televised sporting events. You may think you understand what you are participating in, or know what you are seeing, yet the realities of violence are not what most people think. In essence, there are two types of violence, social and predatory. In the former, you are fighting over a matter of face or status, while in the latter you may be fighting for your life.
The intent when it comes to blows in a social violence situation is to affect your environment. In other words, you want to establish dominance, to “educate” somebody, to get him out of your territory or something similar. There are virtually always witnesses, because you are seeking status from the outcome, either by beating the other guy down or by making him back off. Predatory violence, on the other hand, is a whole different beast from social disputes. There are usually no witnesses unless the predator has screwed up (or they are his accomplices). While the pickpocket might operate in a crowd, the mugger, serial killer, repeat rapist, arsonist, etc., generally won’t.
It is relatively easy to de-escalate impending social violence so that things won’t get physical, particularly if you are willing to lose face. Clever words are more important in these encounters. Unfortunately, the very factors that might de-escalate a social situation will almost certainly trigger a predatory attack if they make you appear weak. It’s only possible to de-escalate predatory violence by appearing to be too dangerous to attack. If you’re alert, aware, prepared, in decent physical condition, and capable of setting a verbal boundary, those are all major warning signs to the predator. Most will subconsciously pick up the fact that you have martial arts training simply by the way you stand and breathe during the confrontation. We’ll delve into this difference later in more detail.
Social violence can be a big deal, predatory violence even more so; these are situations where you may be forced to defend yourself. Sparring, tournament competitions, and the like are often called “fights” by their promoters, yet these events have virtually nothing to do with fighting. To begin, fighting is illegal. Sure, you may be able to get away with it using a legitimate claim of self-defense, but there are no winners, trophies, or status points in a real fight. Fighting always has consequences.
The Raiders fan had biceps that could put Hulk Hogan to shame, and a physique that was nothing short of awesome. He stood out in a bar full of average guys, not only because he was ripped, but also because he was the only person cheering for the other team. The only one doing it vociferously anyway. For most of the first quarter and part of the second, Seahawks fans bantered good-naturedly with him, but as the home team struggled, chatter turned to insult that in turn became vitriolic.
I didn’t hear what set him off, but suddenly a Seahawks fan stood up and hurled a half-full beer bottle at Raider, who kicked his table aside and charged his assailant. Ducking a wild punch, he scooped Seahawk’s legs, planted his shoulder into the other guy’s gut, and drove forward. It was a sweet takedown; Raider clearly had some type of martial arts experience. In seconds, they crashed to the ground with Raider on top. Sitting astride his stunned adversary, Raider threw a flurry of blows into the smaller guy’s face. He seemed to be enjoying himself, right up to the point where one of Seahawk’s friends kicked him in the head. Moments later, he was curled on the ground in a fetal position as half a dozen Seahawk fans put the boots to him.
It was a sports bar with no bouncers and no one to break things up, so the beat-down continued for several minutes before some of us began calling out that Raider had had enough. When they finally let off, he lay eerily still. Several minutes later, when the paramedics strapped him onto a backboard and wheeled him out to the waiting ambulance, he still hadn’t moved.
The cops spent most of the second half of the game taking statements and making arrests.
Every mixed martial arts (MMA) competition or sparring tournament out there pales in comparison to the speed, ferocity, and brutality of a real fight. Sure, competitors train hard, achieve awesome levels of fitness, and become highly skilled at what they do. They risk injury in the ring too, but Olympic events such as judo or taekwondo, and MMA matches such as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) or Pride Fighting are first and foremost sporting events. If they were not, many competitors would not survive the competition. And promoters would wind up in jail. Or get sued out of business.
These contests have rules that either ban techniques outright or change the way they are applied. In judo, for example, you pin an opponent face up so that he has a sporting chance to break your hold. Yet in the koryu jujutsu from which it originated, practitioners were taught to pin face down in the same way that modern law enforcement officers do for handcuffing. Done properly, the adversary cannot continue to fight that way unless he is significantly stronger than you or another person intervenes on his behalf. Furthermore, applications that are especially effective on the street, particularly if you are a smaller or weaker combatant, are not allowed because they are far too dangerous in the ring. Take the UFC for example; they outlaw the following:
• Head-butts
• Eye gouges
• Throat strikes
• Grabbing the trachea
• Biting
• Hair pulling
• Groin striking
• Fishhooking
• Putting your finger into any orifice or into any cut or laceration on an opponent
• Small-joint manipulation
• Striking to the spine
• Striking the back of the head
• Striking downward with the point of your elbow
• Clawing, pinching, or twisting the opponent’s flesh
• Grabbing the clavicle
• Kicking the head of a grounded opponent
• Kneeing the head of a grounded opponent
• Stomping a grounded opponent
• Kicking the other guy’s kidney with your heel
• Spiking an opponent to the canvas so that he lands on his head or neck
• Throwing an opponent out of the ring
• Holding the shorts or gloves of an opponent
• Spitting at an opponent
• Engaging in an “unsportsmanlike” conduct that causes an injury to an opponent
• Holding the ropes or the fence
• Using abusive language in the ring or fenced area
• Attacking an opponent during a break period
• Attacking an opponent who is under the care of the referee
• Attacking an opponent after the bell has sounded the end of a period
• Disregarding the referee’s instructions
• Interference by someone in the competitor’s corner
Recognize anything that might be useful in a street fight on that list? If you’re assaulted by a larger, stronger adversary, then eye gouges, throat strikes, and the like may be exactly the right techniques to use in order to save your life. But they are too dangerous for the ring. These rules are designed not only to prevent serious injuries but also to give competitors a sporting chance to succeed. In order to keep things moving (and more interesting for the audience), the UFC takes points away from a competitor for “timidity,” including avoiding contact with an opponent, intentionally or consistently dropping the mouthpiece, or faking an injury. Unlike the bar fight during the Seahawks game, they also require that competitors challenge each other one at a time.
Then there is protective gear. UFC competitors are required to use padded gloves, mouth-guards, and groin protection. In some sports, chest-guards, headgear, and other equipment is required as well.
Sporting competitions have weight classes too. Under UFC rules, competitors are grouped into lightweight (over 145 pounds to 155 pounds), welterweight (over 155 to 170 pounds), middleweight (over 170 to 185 pounds), light heavyweight (over 185 to 205 pounds), and heavyweight (over 205 to 265 pounds) divisions. Because bad guys rarely pick fights they don’t expect to win, you are likely to be attacked by someone much larger or stronger on the street than you would be in the ring.
On the street, fights rarely last more than a few seconds, but when they do, there is no stopping until it’s done, someone intercedes, or the authorities arrive to break things up. This is very different from sporting competitions where there are set time periods. UFC non-championship bouts run three, five-minute rounds, for example, whereas championship matches last five rounds. There is a one-minute rest period between rounds. If combatants take a break during a street fight, there’s something very strange going on.
In the ring, you can win by submission (tap or verbal), knockout, technical knockout, decision, disqualification, or forfeiture. On the street, you “win” by surviving. That is quite a difference. Don’t confuse sports with combat or misconstrue entertainment with reality. Fighting is ugly. It has few, if any, rules beyond the laws of physics and many serious repercussions. Sport is entertainment.
“You want to take it out on the ice kid? We can go right now. I’ll fuck you up!” This was a 40-something- year-old guy snarling at a couple of 13-year-olds at a hockey game. The Thunderbirds had just scored a goal and the kids were celebrating along with the rest of the home crowd. This guy, a Winterhawks fan, looked like he was about to take a swing at them.
“What’s going on,” I asked.
“You’ve got to control your fucking kids. He does that again I’m gonna fucking take him out!”
“What, you’re threatening a little kid. Really?” That was aimed more at his wife than him. She pretended not to notice. Others seated nearby got the message though.
“Damn right I am!”
“What did he do to piss you off man?”
“He was screaming, clapping in my fucking face.”
“Did he touch you?”
“Huh?”
“Did he touch you?” I de-cloaked a little: weight shift, deadeye stare, slight edge to my voice.
“No.” He quickly turned away, pretending to be engrossed in the game.
Sure, the “oh shit I killed him” thing can occur, so all violence needs to be taken seriously, but the intent in a social violence situation is to affect your environment. In other words, you want to establish dominance, to “educate” somebody, or to get him out of your territory. Sometimes that goal can be accomplished verbally, or whereas other times physical actions are necessary. Either way, social violence usually comes with instructions on how to avoid it. For example, if the other guy says, “get the fuck out of my face,” he has told you exactly what will prevent escalation to violence…
One key to social violence is the presence of witnesses, people who the adversary is playing to. He may be trying to establish status, deliver an educational beat-down, or even gang together with his friends to stake out territory. In most cases, however, there is an audience of his same social class to observe his actions. If he is going to win, he will want someone around to see it. Conversely, if he is at risk to lose, the presence of others may give him a way out that won’t adversely impact his reputation.
Social violence can be roughly broken into the following categories:
• The Monkey Dance
• The Group Monkey Dance
• The Educational Beat-Down
• The Status-Seeking Show
• The Territorial Defense
Animals in the wild have ritualized combat between males to safely establish dominance without the likelihood of crippling injury or death. Just because it’s not inherently life-threatening does not mean that accidents never occur, but the intent of the altercation is not to kill the opponent. Similarly, humans frequently delineate their social positions through fistfights and other unarmed conflict.
Most people who frequent bars or nightclubs have seen the glaring, staring, sizing-each-other-up type of conflicts, many of which start with the ubiquitous “what are you looking at” game. In many cases, there is an expectation that others will break up the fight or otherwise give a face-saving way out once status has been established.
Monkey dances are almost always initiated with someone whom the aggressor sees as close to his social level. (Although females occasionally exhibit similar behaviors, this is predominantly a male thing.) There is no status to be gained by a grown adult monkey-dancing with a child or elderly person. Similarly, regular people will not attempt to monkey dance with a very high-ranking individual. Mid-level people in everything from biker gangs to corporate management constantly jockey for position, but they do not do it with the folks in charge. It’s too much of a leap. Challenging the group’s senior leaders like that tends to be career limiting, to say the least.
The group monkey dance is about solidarity, aimed at discouraging outsiders from interfering with the group’s business or as a way to establish territory. Sometimes the victim is an insider who betrayed the group or stepped way out of line. In these cases, the fight can become a contest of showing loyalty to the group by determining who can dish out the most damage to the victim, a horrific and dangerous thing that rarely ends well. Unlike an individual monkey dance, the group monkey dance can easily end with a murder, even when killing the victim was not the goal.
In some places or elements of society, if you do something rude and inconsiderate, you could be socially excluded or ostracized. In others, you will have the tar beaten out of you for your indiscretion. It’s sort of a spanking between adults, an extreme show of displeasure designed to enforce the “rules.”
If the recipient did not do something horrific to initiate the attack and properly acknowledges the wrong, an educational beat-down can be over quickly and end without significant or lasting injury. Not understanding or conceding the wrongdoing or repeated behavior that is outside the group’s rules, on the other hand, can lead to a beat-down designed to maim or kill the victim.
In certain segments of society, such as criminal subculture, a reputation for violence can be very valuable. This reputation can lead others to treat you more respectfully for fear of your “going off” on them. The challenge is that for someone to be truly feared and respected, they may feel a need to do something crazy beyond the bounds of “normal” social violence, such as attacking a child, disabled individual, law enforcement officer, or elderly person. It’s still social violence because it is designed to develop status for the aggressor, yet the outcome could easily be fatal for the victim.
Defending one’s territory against “other” members of different social groups is fairly common in certain aspects of society such as gang culture. It’s an “us versus them” worldview with violence aimed at people who look, act, or dress differently than the group. The act may be as benign as driving someone out of the group’s territory or as malevolent as shooting a person for straying onto a gang’s turf. Territorial defense is a bridge between social and asocial violence because while it is a defense of the group’s turf or resources, it is often carried out in a manner that is profoundly asocial. This type of conflict is deliberately developed and maintained by the leaders of the involved group.
Venkata Cattamanchi thought he was about to get lucky. He was dead wrong. He’d met a woman online who agreed to meet him for a tryst at the EZ Rest Motel in Southfield, Michigan (near Detroit). He was surprised to discover not one, but two women in the room upon arrival, yet the romantic encounter abruptly took a sinister turn when two men showed up as well. Things went downhill from there…
Kevin Huffman, 28, and James Randle, 35, were convicted of ambushing, robbing, and killing Cattamanchi, in part due to statements by the two women who pled guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for their testimony. Huffman and Randle face life in prison for premeditated murder.
Predatory violence is a whole different beast from social disputes. Violence is either a means to an end or, in the case of process predators, it is the goal itself. Or it might be somebody who wants to do really bad things to you simply because he can. Predators are usually solitary because it is hard for antisocial people to band together for common purpose for any length of time. There are generally no witnesses to the attack, or the person is playing to someone of a different social class where his actions make no logical sense. For example, an adult playing the “what are you looking at” game with a child or elderly person is not going to gain any status from the outcome, whatever it may be.
There are two basic types of predators: resource and process.
A resource predator wants something badly enough to take it from his victim by force. Examples include muggers, robbers, or carjackers. Such aggressors are often armed. If intimidation alone works, the resource predator may not hurt you, such as in a carjacking scenario where if the vehicle is surrendered quickly, the victim is almost always left behind uninjured. A ten-year Bureau of Justice Statistics study showed that while 74 percent of all carjackings were perpetrated by armed individuals, only 0.004 percent led to murder. Because auto-related abductions were thrown into the mix, the homicide rate from carjackings could potentially be even lower than that.
Process predators, on the other hand, act out in violent ways for the sake of the violent act itself. They are extraordinarily dangerous. Unless the process predator perceives that you are too costly to attack, it’s going to get physical. You do not have to win, but you absolutely cannot afford to lose. The situation needs to end immediately. It may require you take a human life to come out as intact as possible. Rapists and serial killers are examples of process predators. A fight with a process predator frequently ends with someone in the hospital or morgue.
When we came on shift, Day Shift passed on that four of the inmates assigned to the kitchen had refused to go to work. That’s odd by itself. Working can cut serious time off a sentence. Refusing to work is automatic “hole time”—a trip to disciplinary segregation. Kitchen jobs were considered a good deal and were in high demand with inmates. Odd.
An hour or so into the shift, some inmates on the kitchen crew were caught stealing cookies. That’s not uncommon. Big surprise, but most people who get to jail don’t have a lot of ethical hang-ups about stealing. What was surprising was that they almost wanted to be caught.
Still, it wasn’t my area. Another sergeant had the East End. I was dealing with the Mental Health units on the West End.
Then a backup call. When the officer tried to cut the cookie-thieves some slack and NOT send them to segregation, they refused. They wanted to go to the hole.
This was bad. If you don’t work in the system, you might not see it right away, but situational awareness is all about the situation. A jail or prison kitchen is like any other industrial kitchen. It contains a lot of things that can double as improvised weapons—knives, steam cauldrons, pots, pans, and the like. This one had 20 inmates, four civilian cooks to supervise them, and a single, unarmed officer assigned to maintain control.
Something was going to happen and whatever it was, it was so bad almost half of the inmates wanted no part of it. They were willing to go to the hole and even do extra time to not be in that kitchen on that day.
I called Lt. Turney. “This could be bad, sir. No way to be sure but it smells like a build-up to a potential hostage situation.”
“I can spare you one officer. Do what you can.”
“Can I have Craig?”
“Sure.”
Craig was a former Marine, one of my CERT members and a thoroughly good man in a crisis. I knew and trusted his ability in a fight. More importantly, I trusted his judgment, common sense, and people skills. What we were about to do was all people skills.
Just adding two unarmed officers to the mix didn’t change the odds that much. If things went bad we would still be heavily outnumbered and out-armed. But we weren’t there to fight. For the next few hours, Craig and I were everywhere. Talking, listening, and telling jokes.
Nothing happened. I’ll never know if something was really going to happen. But I wouldn’t bet against it. And if I’m right, we changed that. Sometimes nothing is the perfect outcome.
Most self-defense experts agree that for the average citizen, the majority of dangers can be identified and avoided simply by learning how to look out for them. If you do things right, it is possible to talk your way out of more than half of the potentially violent situations that you cannot avoid. Together, this strategy means that you should only need to fight your way out of three, four, or at worst, five of every hundred hazardous encounters. With good situational awareness, you may not have anywhere near a hundred such confrontations in your lifetime so those odds really aren’t all that bad.
So what is situational awareness? At the simplest level, it is knowing what is going on around you. More specifically, it is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend factors that can be important for your safety and welfare, such as the existence of potential threats, escape routes, and weapons.
Can you remember a time when you were driving along the highway, suddenly “knew” the car beside you was going to swerve into your lane, and took evasive action to avoid an accident? Almost everyone who drives has done that on numerous occasions. It is so common that most of us forget about such incidents shortly afterward. This ability to predict what other drivers are going to do is an excellent example of good situational awareness. If you fail to pay attention to what is going on around you, fixate on one task, or become preoccupied with work or personal matters, you can lose the ability to detect important information that can place you in danger when you are in a public place. In the driving example, talking or texting on your cell phone may diminish your ability to detect another driver about to move into your lane. Distracted driving causes a lot of accidents.
Knowing when it is time to leave a party is another example of good situational awareness. Fights at parties tend to happen after a certain time of night. It’s not the hour on the clock that is important, but rather the mood of the crowd. Most people have a good time and leave long before the fecal matter hits the oscillating blades. Just about everyone who is going to hook up has already done so; they’ve found a date, left together, and are off having fun. As the crowd starts to thin, those who have nothing better to do than cause trouble are the ones who are left. Buzzing with frustration and raging hormones, those who insist on hanging on well into the night are the ones who get caught up in it when the shit is most likely to fly. If you pay attention to the behaviors of those around you, however, it’s fairly easy to know when it is time to leave. If you are not there when things start to get rough, bad things cannot happen to you.
The same dynamics happen in just about any location or situation. By surveying and evaluating your environment, you achieve more control over what happens to you. Good situational awareness helps you make yourself a hard target by eliminating easy opportunities for those who wish to do you harm. It is not a guarantee of safety because there are no absolutes when it comes to self-defense, yet good situational awareness can let you predict and avoid most difficult situations.
Situational awareness, in general, is a skill that everyone instinctively has, yet few individuals pay attention to it. In most cases, you should be able to spot a developing situation and leave before anything bad happens. Pay attention to your built-in survival mechanisms, your gut feelings if you will. Once you begin to do this habitually, you will dramatically improve your safety. Your awareness skills can also be refined and improved through practice in much the same way that predicting other drivers’ behavior becomes easier over time.
Sometimes, however, try as you might to avoid it, trouble finds you and you must react accordingly. Good awareness helps you be prepared for that as well. It can be used before, during, and after a fight.
No one can maintain an elevated level of awareness at all times in all places. There is a difference between being aware and becoming paranoid. Any time you are near others, however, especially strangers, it pays to be vigilant so as not to be caught unawares by sudden conflict. This simply means looking for and paying attention to anything that stands out from the norm, not only things that you see, smell, or hear, or in some cases touch, but also other’s reactions to things that you cannot detect directly.
You cannot walk around in a constant state of hypervigilance, however. It’s emotionally and physically untenable. Consequently, it is important to scale your awareness up or down depending on whatever you encounter around you.
Low-level awareness is essential any time you are out in public. You should be able to identify, without looking twice, generally who and what is around you. Know about vehicles, people, building entrances, street corners, and areas that might provide concealment for a threat or a source of cover to escape toward should something untoward happen.
Be self-assured and appear confident in everything you do without presenting an overt challenge or threat to others. Predators typically stalk those they consider weaker prey, rarely victimizing the strong. We are not just talking about hardcore criminals here, but also bullies and petty thugs as well. Walk with your head upright, casually scanning your immediate area as well as what is just beyond. See who and what is ahead of you, be aware of the environment to each side, and occasionally turn to scan behind you as you move.
If you become aware of some nebulous danger, something out of place, pay attention to it, but not to the exclusion of a broader awareness of your surroundings. Trouble may be starting in other places in addition to the one that has drawn your attention (for example, an ambush situation). You may have heard a nearby shout, the sound of glass breaking, or an unidentified sudden noise where you would not have expected one. You might also have seen another person or a group of people acting abnormally, someone whose demeanor makes you feel uncomfortable, somebody whose appearance or behavior stands out as unusual, or a group who appears to be reacting to something you cannot see.
Higher-level awareness is appropriate if the threat you identify appears to be aimed at you. That is where you may need to verbally de-escalate or physically control a situation. You will need to be aware of bystanders who may be potential threats or sources of aid, escape paths, impromptu weapons, and other factors depending on the tactical situation you find yourself in.
To practice situational awareness, try watching a crowd at a mall, nightclub, or other public area. Pretend that you are a bad guy and think about who you would choose as your “victim” and consider why you think that way. Who looks like a victim and who does not? What about their posture makes them appear to be a target of opportunity. How do they move? Are they paying attention to what is going on around them? Are their hands in their pockets or encumbered by packages, or are they held loosely in front of them? Are they armed? Where do their eyes move and what do they focus on? Who notices you watching? How do they react?
I was parked alongside a major street in downtown Seattle. My hands were full of boxes and the mid-afternoon sun was glaring in my face, making it hard to see despite my polarized glasses, so it took a couple tries to get my key into the lock. I awkwardly dragged the door open, nearly dropping some of my packages, and began shoving my purchases in to the car.
If he hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t have known he was there. “Hey buddy, you know what time it is?”
While his question seemed innocuous, the fact that he was standing a foot away from me when he asked set alarm bells ringing in my head. I hurriedly threw the last box into the vehicle, more to get it out of my hands than for anything else, shifted slightly away from the car, and spun to face him. Simultaneously, I relaxed my posture, straightened my spine, and held my hands out low between me and him.
He didn’t look overly threatening despite his proximity, and his hands were empty, but he was wearing a timepiece on his right wrist. “Sorry man, I don’t have a watch,” I replied.
The smirk on his face disappeared as he took in my posture. Muttering something I couldn’t understand over the traffic noise, he buggered off clearly looking for a less prepared victim. As he walked away, I spotted a suspicious bulge, either pistol or large knife stuffed into his waistband beneath his untucked shirt.
Criminals like to dish out pain, but they aren’t so keen to be on the receiving end of it. Becoming injured in a confrontation not only diminishes their ability to make a living by preying on others, but also sets them squarely in the sights of other predators higher up the food chain. Consequently, before a bad guy tees off on you, he will evaluate his odds of success. This evaluation is often called an “interview.” Unlike a job search, this is one interview that you don’t want to pass.
If you are not paying attention to your environment and appear to be an easy target, you are likely to be selected as the bad guy’s next victim. This interview may be conducted by a single individual or a group of thugs. It may take place quickly or you may be stalked over a period of time. Regardless, your goal in such situations is to be both calm and resolute. Don’t start anything you don’t have to, but be prepared to fight if necessary. While most people look at someone’s size and physique, experienced predators know how to recognize a threat from a person’s posture or movement.
If you are approached by a single individual, be wary of bystanders who may join him. Don’t forget to glance behind you when prudent because he may have an accomplice(s). Use sound, smell, reflective surfaces, and shadows to sense what is going on where you cannot look. Furthermore, pay attention to escape routes should you need to fight your way free. Be wary of the other guy’s hands, particularly if you cannot see both of them because he may very well be armed and preparing to use his weapon against you.
The less you look and act like a victim during the interview process, the safer you will be. Many self-defense instructors use “woofers” who play the bad guy’s role in this process so that you can experiment safely. You learn how to deal with tense situations through scenario training where your teachers debrief your performance afterward. These drills are an excellent way to prepare for interviews on the street.
We think it was Geoff Thompson who originated this concept. The 4 D’s is an excellent, easy to remember way of describing dirty tricks that sneak attackers often use to disguise their intent, get close enough to launch their assault, and keep you from responding until it is too late to defend yourself. This concept is an extension of the interview process. You are singled out as a potential victim, and then the bad guy(s) uses dialogue, deception, distraction, and destruction to set you up and take you down:
• Dialogue creates a distraction while letting your adversary control the distance between you. It is the setup to get him close enough to his intended victim where he can use the element of surprise to strike with impunity. That means that he must be within three to five feet away in order to hit you with anything other than a projectile weapon. The closer he is, the less warning you get and the harder it is to defend yourself. A guy with a watch asking you the time is a bit more obvious than typical, but a good example of the principle nevertheless. You may be asked for directions, the time, or a cigarette. While the other guy is talking, he will be evaluating your awareness, calculating his odds of success, and stealthily positioning himself to attack.
• Deception disguises the predatory nature of the adversary, letting him blend into the crowd and making him appear as harmless as possible until it is too late. The idea is to assure that you will not realize that you are being threatened. Much of deception is based on body language and behavior, though it can include things like wearing clothing designed to blend in and disguise the presence of weapons too.
• Distraction sets up the attack, typically by asking a question or otherwise using verbal techniques. It can also include gestures or body movements such as when he suddenly widens his eyes and looks over your shoulder to get you to look behind you and expose your back.
• Destruction is the physical assault, robbery, rape, or murder. Or it can be something more innocuous like a picking a pocket. When violence is in the cards, if he can successfully distract you, he can get in at least one or two good blows before you realize what is going on and attempt to respond. It’s very tough to fight back once you are surprised, behind the count, injured, and reeling from the pain.
Despite these 4 D’s, it is exceedingly rare for the victim to be caught totally unaware. For example, even if they were sucker punched, most assault victims report that they saw the blow coming but did not have time to react. Even when long-range weapons are involved (such as firearms), fights typically begin close up. Unarmed confrontations always take place at close range once things get violent. Your level of awareness and preparedness should ratchet up a bit whenever a stranger is close enough to strike, at least until you have given him a thorough once-over and dismissed any threat.
I was watching football when I suddenly heard sirens. I live in a quiet residential neighborhood but there is a major arterial a couple of blocks away so we tend to hear an emergency response or two from time to time. They’ve historically passed on by rather than stopping nearby, but this time it turns out that a man was knifed a few of blocks away. The 22-year-old victim was stabbed in the stomach, rushed to Harborview Medical Center, and listed in critical condition according to press reports. Police reported that another man drove a getaway car, but didn’t give a description of the vehicle that I could find.
Unarmed individuals who tangle with weapon-wielding attackers often get hurt. Frequently quite badly. Armed assaults are far more dangerous to the victim than unarmed attacks, more than three times as likely to result in serious injury. In fact, 96 percent of the homicides in the US involve some type of weapon. These attacks are three-and-a-half times more likely than unarmed assaults to result in serious damage to the victim such as broken bones, internal injuries, loss of consciousness, or similar trauma that result in extended hospitalization. Because hand-to-hand combat against an armed assailant is often a losing proposition, it is important to learn how to spot a weapon and avoid it before it can be used against you.
With few exceptions, civilians who carry a weapon need to do so in such a way that it cannot be seen by those around them yet can be drawn in a very big hurry should the need arise. After all, you wouldn’t want to be stopped every five minutes by a police officer summoned by panicked bystanders who report that you are armed. Bad guys also conceal their weapons, though more often than not to maintain the element of surprise. Either way, accessibility is key. A weapon does you no good if you cannot get to it rapidly when you need it.
Most carry techniques center on or around the waist. Law-abiding civilians who own a gun usually use a holster. Holsters make the most reliable carry systems because they rigidly affix the weapon to a specific spot on the body. That way it can always be found when it is needed, even under extreme stress. Many folding knives come with belt clips designed to hold them firmly against the side of your pocket where they are easily located by touch.
Criminals, on the other hand, rarely use a holster. The two most common ad-hoc carry positions for firearms are inside the pants, either in the front alongside the hipbone or in the small of the back. Because the weapon has a tendency to move around when carried in this fashion, you can often spot a bad guy touching himself to assure that it is in the proper place or adjusting the weapon to get it back into the proper carry position.
Pants or jacket pockets are always a handy choice as well. Like the inside-the-pants carry, they are not as reliable or easy to get to as a holster when you need rapid access. Weapons can also be palmed, hidden behind an arm or leg, or held out of sight beneath a covering object such as a folded jacket or newspaper. These methods facilitate rapid access but can be easier to spot than other methods. That’s the good news. The bad news is that if the weapon is already drawn and held in a concealed position, you will be in extremely serious trouble if you do not spot your adversary’s intent. He has already decided to attack and is maneuvering into position to do so.
Weapons can also be “hidden” in plain sight too. A hot cup of coffee tossed into a bad guy’s face can make an effective deterrent. A solidly built pen can operate much like a martial arts kubotan or even like a knife. A cane, walking stick, heavy purse, or laptop computer can be used as a bludgeon. A bunch of keys on a lanyard can work much like a medieval flail, albeit far less effectively. A beer bottle, pool cue, baseball bat, or mug can be just as effective in a pinch as a weapon designed for combat.
Pay particular attention to a person’s hands and midsection, looking for unusual bumps, bulges, out-of-place items of clothing, or odd movements. Also look for concealing clothing that may be covering a weapon. Examples include a jacket worn in hot weather, a vest that covers the waistline (especially the hips/lower back), or a loose shirt that is only buttoned high.
Just because a weapon is not in use at the beginning of a fight does not necessarily mean that it won’t be by the end, particularly if the other guy thinks he’s in danger of losing. Before, during, and even after a fight, watch for the upward or sideways motion of withdrawing a weapon from its sheath, holster, or hiding place; a weapon cannot be used until it is deployed. If someone takes one of their hands out of the fight voluntarily, it is rarely a good sign.
While you will frequently rely on your eyes to spot a concealed weapon, you can use your ears too. Listen for the sound of a weapon being drawn or readied for action as well.
Weapon awareness is relatively easy to practice. Take an outdoor seat at a restaurant in a high foot-traffic area, hang out in a mall, or take a walk through a public place, and carefully watch passersby. Count how many knives, guns, and other weapons you can spot. Who is carrying them? How are they concealed? What subtle clues did you notice that helped you spot the weapon? Once you become good at consciously finding these devices, you can begin to pick them up subconsciously as well. Honing your intuition in this manner builds solid survival skills.
Situational awareness during a fight
While the goal of situational awareness is to avoid violence in the first place, if things go south it remains an important aspect of surviving the fight. It is critical to remain aware not only of openings where you might land a blow or find an opportunity to escape but also for any changes in the dynamics of the conflict such as deployment of a weapon, intervention by third parties, hazardous terrain or obstacles, etc. This can be a challenge, particularly when adrenalized as tunnel vision is a common symptom, but it is important to pay attention to what’s going on around you to the extent possible.
Sometimes an opening is nothing more than a flash of color; say a blue shirt suddenly visible behind a rapidly moving, tan forearm. Similarly a weapon might be silver or a black blur that stands out against that same shirt or the flesh of the hand that holds it. The presence of a secondary threat, such as another combatant or a moving vehicle, might be a subtle hint of movement in your peripheral vision, one that is easily ignored if you are focused solely on your adversary.
You won’t always be able to see what is going on during a fight, so you need to listen too. Sounds can be vitally important. Does the crunch of a footstep mean that another person is about to join in the fray? Is the rip of Velcro pulled apart or the click of a snap being undone mean that a weapon is about to be deployed? What about calls for help, threats of intervention, or other actions by witnesses or bystanders? It’s all significant.
Finally, your sense of touch is also important during a fight. For example, you may not be able to see exactly where an adversary is during a scuffle, particularly if you’ve got blood, sweat, or pepper spray in your eyes, but if you can grab a hold of his arm, it is a simple exercise to find his head (or other body parts) based upon that orientation. Weapons are often felt rather than seen. In a frightening example, it’s extremely common for stabbing victims to think they were merely punched, yet the feel of a blade entering your flesh is different than that of a fist connecting with your body. Be aware of sensations like that too.
Blindfold sparring and slow work are great ways to gain experience finding targets by touch, but one of the best methods for increasing your situational awareness during a fight is through a one-step drill called “frisk fighting.” Virtually everyone carries some type of weapon most of the time, be it a designed implement such as a knife or gun, or simply something they can use to hurt someone like a briefcase or a set of car keys.
The frisk fighting drill can be a lot of fun, but it also must be taken very seriously or someone will be hurt, maybe killed. An experienced practitioner needs to be in charge of safety. The drill can be performed in a training hall or gymnasium, but renting a nightclub or warehouse adds another level of realism. Either way, the drill area must be cordoned off, cleared of anything truly dangerous, and everyone must be checked to assure that no live weapons enter the arena or come into reach of the participants. There can be no exceptions to this.
Every drill introduces a known “flaw” to assure participant safety. In this case it’s twofold, equipment and speed. Equipment first: Each participant should bring the safe training equivalent of what they carry every day. With proper equipment and oversight, this could include real firearms with Simunition®, inert pepper spray, and Shocknife™ training knives, among other tools. More often than not, however, practitioners wind up using rubber training weapons instead. Alternatively, training instruments can be strewn around the practice area where anyone can have access to them. Either way, the environment around you is as much in play as the other guy, hence the focus on safety.
Now on to speed: The drill is performed as a tandem exercise done in slow motion with each partner taking turns and multiple participants working together at the same time. This is commonly called a “one-step” training exercise. One partner initiates a move and the other partner matches his or her speed making a single motion to respond. You each get only one movement before it becomes the other person’s turn. The drill continues without resetting until the allotted time expires, or you end up in a position from which you cannot continue and have to reset.
Even though you move slowly, it is vital to use proper body mechanics and targeting as well as to move at equal speed. It’s okay to speed things up a bit so long as you are both doing it, in control, and safely. Keep things slow enough that you have time to evaluate and take advantage of the “best” opening available. In this fashion you are training to habituate good techniques. You can do the exact same things on the street, only faster. This drill is not about winning or losing; it’s about refining your situational awareness during a fight. Nevertheless, you should react to the opponent’s blows so that the ebb and flow of the fight is more-or-less realistic. You don’t need to stop moving even if you’re “killed.” It is important to talk to each other so that you will learn what you are doing well in addition to discovering opportunities you may have missed during the exercise.
The basic one-step drill is not so hard, but here’s the twist: you can use your hands and feet along with everything else you find in the training area except what you brought into the game. If you can draw your opponent’s weapon in one motion, do so, but you cannot draw your own. It’s rare, but sometimes creative participants will draw a weapon from someone else in the room who is not their opponent. This kind of creativity is encouraged.
This is not a competition, but rather a cooperative endeavor, which incorporates several related skills and concepts:
• It makes people stay alert for opportunities and openings.
• It forces people who carry weapons to consider and practice weapons retention.
• It gives a (very mild) introduction to fighting in an armed world.
• It rewards an educated sense of touch—often you feel the weapon before you see it.
• It brings an elevated awareness of the environment and the people around you.
In order to truly benefit from this drill, it is critical that each person makes only one motion during their turn. Not one block and one strike but only one action. This encourages strategic movement and angles of attack, economy of motion, and techniques that simultaneously attack and defend in one movement. The habits you learn in this type of training can make a huge difference on the street where you will often be trying to recover the initiative once the threat has already attacked you.
Identifying the threat’s “tell”
The Halloween crowd was rockin’. Spinnakers offered a thousand dollars for the best costume and there were over a hundred contestants. Encased in over 115 pounds of 16-gauge steel, I chatted up the “mermaid” next to me while waiting my turn to show off my outfit, a stunning replica suit of medieval white-harness plate armor. The girl was hot, but her boyfriend was hotter when he saw us laughing together. I headed over to grab a drink when he confronted me.
“Stay the fuck away from my girlfriend asshole,” he spat.
“We were just talking dickhead. Get over it!”
Okay, that wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but I was 22, a little drunk, and hadn’t gotten over that whole raging hormone thing yet. Nevertheless, his reaction was by no means unexpected. His nostrils flared. His face turned red. He snarled. And threw a punch at my head.
Normally I’m not one to favor blocking with my face, but in that instance I just grinned at him as he broke his hand on my steel helmet. Unfortunately when the bouncers tossed him out, the girl left with him. Can’t win ‘em all…
While it often seems that way to victims, violence does not happen in a vacuum. There is always some type of escalation process beforehand. While it may be a long, drawn-out confrontation that builds up to the point of attack, it could just as easily appear to be a sudden ambush. In such situations, the escalation may have taken place within the mind of the aggressor. Either way, an astute observer can identify and react to cues, such as an adversary’s adrenal twitch that precedes his attack. Unfortunately, if you do not spot these indicators or “tells” in common self-defense parlance, you are bound to get hurt.
Spotting an adversary’s tell directly requires you to notice very small physical movements and signals of the other guy’s intent to attack. These indicators are often subtle, hence easy to miss, particularly when you are distracted or mentally unfocused. For example, the tell might be a slight drop of the shoulder, a tensing of the neck, a flaring of the nostrils, or even a puckering of the lips. On the other hand, changes in an opponent’s energy are much easier to spot then any specific physical sign. You are simply looking for change. Any change of energy should be treated as a danger signal. Here are some examples that you can recognize and act on during a confrontation:
• A person who was standing still moves slightly. A weight shift is far subtler than a step, but this change is a possible preparation for attack.
• There is a change in the rate, tone, pitch, or volume of a person’s voice. An overt example is when someone who is shouting becomes suddenly quiet or, conversely, one who has been quiet suddenly raises his voice.
• A person who was looking at you suddenly looks away or, conversely, a person who was looking away suddenly makes eye contact. Watch this one. As humans we focus on eyes/face to gauge attention, which we think is important, but often turning the head away, especially with an experienced fighter, loads and clears the shoulders for a strike.
• There is a sudden change in the person’s breathing. Untrained adversaries will begin to breathe shallow and fast in the upper chest while trained opponents will breathe slow and deep from their abdomen.
• A person develops a sudden pallor or flushing of his face (paling is adrenaline-induced vasoconstriction, reddening is vasodilation).
• There is a change in the person’s posture. Untrained adversaries tend to “puff up,” opening their chest and arching their spine, while trained opponents tend to close down their chest, straighten their spine, and lower their center of gravity.
These seem to be contradictory—look away or lock on, puff up or compress, pale or flush. They are not. An amateur or someone engaging in social violence is trying to send a message of domination, so they get big, red, and loud. They lock eyes so that you know who beat you. A professional tries to calm himself (abdominal breathing, slow smooth movements) and not draw attention. He looks away just before the attack to check for witnesses.
Most people aren’t mentally prepared for sudden violence. Even when sucker punched, most victims see a blow coming before they are hit. But not in time to react. Those who fail to recognize the signs of an impending attack or who wait too long to take action can be needlessly hurt or killed. It does not matter why you are being attacked, simply that you are in danger. Do not deny what is happening, recognize the change of energy that constitutes your adversary’s tell, and respond appropriately to defend yourself. Worry about making sense of the encounter once it is over and you are safe.
Legal Ramifications of Violence
Recently I watched Felon, a movie that makes some realistic and valuable points about self-defense. The story centers around an average guy named Wade Porter (played by actor Stephen Dorff). Porter, his fiancé, and young son have just moved into their first house. After years of struggling for success, his construction business is beginning to take off, they have gotten their finances in line, the marriage ceremony is rapidly approaching, and life is good. Of course this happiness doesn’t last. One night an intruder breaks into their home and everything changes. Porter hears a noise, finds a guy in his son’s bedroom, chases him outside, and smacks him in the head with a baseball bat, killing him. Since the burglar was unarmed and died outside the home where castle doctrines do not apply, Porter is sentenced to three years for voluntary manslaughter.
As the movie progresses, Porter soon realizes that he has lost everything over a split-second decision. The movie teaches some valuable lessons. Chasing down an unarmed intruder who’s hell-bent on escaping and attacking him is clearly not self-defense, not even in Hollywood. In fact, in most jurisdictions a person can only resort to deadly force in order to escape imminent and unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm. That “unavoidable” part is the bugger.
Let’s be honest, fighting can be fun. But there is a downside too. If you’ve been in a fight, there is a very good chance that you will be charged with a crime. The more damage you caused to the other guy, the more serious that crime may be. Consequently, it is important to know where and when you are legally justified in getting physical and when you are not.
Legal definitions and interpretations are not universal. To stay out of jail, you really need to talk to an attorney who understands the laws and nuances that apply wherever you might encounter a fighting situation. In general, the classic rule is that self-defense begins when deadly danger begins, ends when the danger ends, and revives again if the danger returns. A proactive-violent defense before an attack has taken place can be extremely challenging to prove legitimate self-defense in the eyes of the court. You will need to very clearly articulate your reasoning. Similarly, a killing that takes place after a crime has already been committed is tough to prove as self-defense. Chasing a burglar outside and attacking him does not end any better in real life than it did in that movie.
You must understand that “self-defense” is an affirmative defense. What this means is that you are admitting to an action that is a crime and arguing that you should not be punished because it was justifiable under the circumstances.
This concept is paramount and bears repeating: claiming self-defense is admitting to the basic crime.
Scenario: You walk into your kitchen late one night and suddenly see a flash of steel, and a knife gets buried in your chest. In an explosive miracle of training, luck, and the will to survive, you lash out with a perfect throat shot. You dial 911 but pass out from blood loss before you can answer any questions. While you are unconscious, the home invader suffocates from the trachea you crushed.
The guy is dead. You killed him. That is homicide. The charge will likely be manslaughter technically, since it is unlikely a prosecutor would try to prove that your intent was specifically to kill. Don’t get hung up on the nuances, but understand clearly that if you claim self-defense you cannot deny the underlying crime. You committed homicide, but you have a really good excuse for doing it—dude was trying to kill you. The challenge is that if your self-defense plea fails, you have admitted to a crime and you will be punished for it.
An affirmative defense, therefore, shifts the burden of proof to you. The prosecution does not need to prove that someone was killed or that you did it. You did his job for him. YOU must prove that you had no choice but to react the way you did.
How do you know when it is legal to get physical with an adversary? Learn the I.M.O.P. (Intent, Means, Opportunity, and Preclusion) principle. All four of these criteria must be met before you have a good case for taking action. If one or more of these conditions are absent, you are on shaky legal ground.
These guidelines are not only useful, but they are also easy to remember in the heat of the moment on the street. That’s because they are based on common sense. You must be in danger, or “jeopardy” in order to protect yourself from harm. Obvious, right? Danger from another human being comes from their intent, means and opportunity.
The hard part is that knowing this is not enough. The presence of intent, means, and opportunity may be sufficient for you to act in self-defense. However, their mere presence may not be enough for you to prevail in court. You must also be able to explain how you personally knew that each element was present in a way that the jury will believe.
You must be able to show that the threat (the standard cop term for a bad guy) wanted to do you harm.* You must be able to tell how you knew. Someone screaming, “I’m going to kill you!” is fairly clear, at least if his body language backs up his words. If the threat balls up his fist and draws his hand back, you can explain why you believed he was about to hit you. If a threat suddenly reaches under his jacket, you may believe that he is going for a weapon and can explain that too.
Intent is critical. People have chances to kill you all the time. The waiter bringing you a steak knife in a restaurant has a deadly weapon and is well within range. But we do not kill the waiter, nor do waiters live in fear, because we all understand that without intent there is no threat. No justification for force. So we don’t act.
This goes for the guy reaching under his jacket. This is an action that people do every day, getting out wallets, keys, and loose change. The hand reach itself is not enough. You will have to explain all the elements of that moment that indicated to you why that action showed intent. Did he continue toward you after being told to back off? Were you in an isolated area or alone at night at an ATM? Did you see, hear, or smell something that brought this everyday movement to a new level?
To be a legitimate threat, the person must have intent and you must be able to explain how you knew that.
All the intent in the world does not matter if the threat couldn’t hurt you. Most people have some means at some level—fists and boots and size. Others have weapons or indicate that they have weapons.
A two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum has some of the purest intent in the world, but he or she lacks the size, strength, and coordination to do anything severe.
The means that the actions you articulate must also match the means that were presented. People who were poorly trained in self-defense mouth the words, “I was in fear for my life,” like it is a mantra or a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is a bullshit platitude. You will be expected and required to explain exactly what made you fear for your life—the intent, the means, and the opportunity. If you are claiming the threat was deadly, the means have to be deadly. A shoving match does not count.
You must be able to articulate exactly what led to your fear in a way that demonstrates it was legitimate.
Intent and means do not matter if the threat cannot reach you. If someone is screaming he is going to kick your ass from across the room, he may be a threat but he is not an immediate threat. You can’t shoot him. If he has a gun, being across a room does not matter as much. You have a pretty good argument that you were in danger. Similarly, someone waving a knife at you from inside a vehicle while you are walking on the sidewalk is not an immediate threat. If he slams the accelerator and the car lurches toward you, that situation has changed significantly.
Intent, means, and opportunity are the desire, the ability, and the access to hurt you. You must be able to show all three to justify using force for self-defense.
Even if intent, means, and opportunity are clear, there is one other requirement (for civilians and in most states*) to satisfy. You must be able to show that you had no safe alternatives other than physical force before engaging an opponent in combat. If you can retreat without further endangering yourself**, this criterion has not been met. After all, it is impossible for the other guy to hurt you if you are not there.
These are the questions any jury will be asked and you must be able to explain: Could you have left? Could you have run? Did you in any way contribute to the situation getting out of hand? Would a reasonable person have seen a way out or seen a way that used less force?
All of these are preclusions that would have stopped the situation from going to force. You must not only prove the threat was real and immediate, but that you had no other good options.
Clearly you should never let fear of legal repercussions keep you from defending yourself when your life is on the line, but an understanding of the law can help you make good decisions on “that day” should it ever arrive.
There are no absolutes in self-defense, but your ultimate goal is to apply sufficient force to effectively control the situation and keep yourself from harm. In general, you may legally use reasonable force in defending yourself. “Reasonable force” is considered only that force reasonably necessary to repel the attacker’s force.
Unfortunately, “reasonably necessary” is a vague term usually associated with what the “reasonable person” would think necessary. The so-called reasonable person is a fictitious composite of all the reasonably prudent people in a given cross section of life.
Whether the ordinary person acted reasonably will likely be judged against the reasonably prudent, similarly situated ordinary person in the appropriate geographic area. Everyone starts out at this level, but other personal attributes may heighten their required standard of care.
Whether a martial artist acted reasonably in a fight will likely be judged against the reasonably prudent practitioner of similar skill and training in that general geographic area. This test works the same way for other experts as well. For example, whether a doctor acted reasonably in medical care will be judged against the reasonably prudent doctor of similar skill, training, and specialty.
The reasonable person standard is not necessarily used in all criminal proceedings nor is it universally used in all civil proceedings. On the other hand, some standard of reasonable and right are embedded in the mind of every person, including those sitting in the jury box. The reasonable person standard will likely also be used in any civil suit (e.g., wrongful death) filed after a criminal decision.
A trained fighter is usually held to a higher standard of reasonableness than the average person in a court of law. The martial artist’s training is believed to give him or her better understanding of the application and consequences of using a certain amount of force. Thus, where a less-skilled individual might be able to shoot a club-wielding attacker, it may only be reasonable in the eyes of an undereducated jury for the martial artist to use his or her hands for defense. For non-practitioners, most folk’s understanding of martial arts is limited to unrealistic movie and television stunts. This is why expert witnesses are so important (and expensive).
Crimes generally revolve around the “intent” to do something bad, or the “reckless disregard” of the consequences of doing something that turned out bad in retrospect. Reasonableness also enters criminal proceedings to help resolve issues surrounding intent or reckless disregard. You can never know with certainty what someone intended yet the courts can infer what was intended from evidence and circumstances. This inference involves knowledge, skill, training, and state of mind of the participants as applied to the evidence and circumstances at hand.
Exceeding a reasonable level of force may well turn a victim into a perpetrator in the eyes of the court. Justifiable self-defense is a victim’s defense to a criminal/civil charge. If one’s intent were to defend his or her self, then a reasonable person would only do so using reasonable force. Using a higher level of force infers intent to needlessly harm the other. This allows the perpetrator turned “victim” to use your defensive actions against you, the victim turned perpetrator. Even if a criminal prosecutor dismisses your actions, a civil court may not do so.
Another important aspect of self-defense is disparity of force. While there is no such thing as a fair fight in most instances, legally there is often an expectation of one. Equal-force doctrines in some jurisdictions require law-abiding citizens to respond to an attack with little or no more force than that which he or she perceives is being used against him or her. In some places, the law clearly specifies that equal force must be exactly equal. The attacked can respond with no more force than that by which he or she is threatened—slap for slap, punch for punch, kick for kick, or deadly weapon for deadly weapon.
Disparity of force between unarmed combatants is measured in one of two ways. It exists if:
• The victim is being attacked by someone who is physically much stronger or younger.
• The victim is being attacked by two or more assailants of similar or equal size.
Where disparity of force exists, you may legitimately be able to exert potentially lethal force to defend yourself. However, a person cannot legally respond to an assault of slight degree with deadly force. Such overreaction will land you in serious legal trouble.
In practice, you will usually want to respond to an assault with a degree of force sufficiently, but not greatly, superior to that with which you are threatened. There are two advantages to this “slightly greater” degree of force doctrine:
• It places the defender in a more secure tactical position.
• It discourages the assailant from continuing to attack and escalating into a position where lethal force is required.
Some self-defense experts throw out the phrase, “It’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.” Though the sentiment is accurate—we would rather risk prison time than a cold grave—it trivializes the problem. Never forget that if you are found guilty in a jury trial, you will be spending a whole lot of quality time in a confined environment with unpredictable, dangerous neighbors who may be less than friendly when you interact with them. You may also suffer consequences with others in the community, facing challenges from family, friends, employers, and those you wish to interact positively with on a daily basis.
While you should never let fear of legal consequences keep you from surviving a violent encounter, you must keep your wits about you at all times.
Good people tend to make good decisions. These decisions can always be refined and the decision-making process can be improved, but usually people don’t trip themselves up much in the process; they trip themselves up in the explanation.
Having justification is not enough. I.M.O.P. by itself will not get you out of trouble. Because self-defense is an affirmative defense, it falls on you to explain. You must be able to articulate exactly why you made each decision—why you needed to become involved and why you used exactly the level of force and even technique that you used.
There are two drills for this. One is simple. Go to YouTube. Watch real fights. Then pick out exactly why it was or wasn’t self-defense. Look at all the times the guy who walked away could have been fine if only he had kept his mouth shut. It was clearly a mutual fight but both thought they were defending themselves. There are times when a pre-emptive strike would have been justified, and prudent, and others where such actions land the perpetrator in jail.
The second drill, the articulation exercise, requires some background.
As we mentioned in the situational awareness section, you have a finely developed intuition. All humans do. Your senses perceive and your brain processes huge amounts of information, far more information than your conscious mind can handle. Because of this we get “feelings.” Hints. Little subconscious niggles.
Next time you get an intuition, a thought, or an idea, stop and explain it to yourself. The exercise is just that simple. And that difficult. When you see two people and think, “They are about to argue,” take the time to figure out what triggered that intuition. Body language? What specific body language? Did the voices change? How? Louder? Higher pitched?
This articulation exercise has two benefits. The first is simply the skill at explaining a fast decision. If you ever need to defend your use of force in court, it is likely that you will have made a decision very quickly, probably faster than conscious thought. And you may have to explain that decision to a jury.
The second benefit will affect your entire life. Intuition is a larger part of your brain, of you, than your conscious mind will ever be. The articulation exercise makes your conscious mind and intuition work together. It develops trust between two parts of your mind. Intuition ceases to be “mere” intuition but something you learn to trust. Not only will the drill help you to make better decisions faster, it will also help you understand and explain those decisions.
On September 23, 2002, at least ten people allegedly saw 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer bound and gagged, lying on the floor of an Everett, WA garage shortly before she was taken out into the woods and murdered. None of them stopped to help. None of them even called the police. Legally, none of them had to. Many people simply will not get involved, even in cases of life or death. Are you one of them?
You need to seriously think about what you are willing to do, what you are not willing to do, and what you are willing to have done to you far before violence occurs. Such decisions cannot rationally be made during a dangerous encounter. There is a vast continuum of responses to take should you choose to intervene in a conflict—everything from moving to a safe place and dialing 911 to taking hands-on physical action. Intervention can be verbal or physical, encompassing the entire force continuum.
Spending some time thinking about when and under what circumstances you are willing to get involved is important. While scenario training can help prepare you for such decisions, when it gets down to brass tacks every situation you encounter will be different. It’s no longer a philosophical exercise. You need to know exactly what you are walking into to make a wise choice.
Start by evaluating what you have encountered. If your situational awareness is good, you might have several seconds, or possibly even minutes, to do this reconnaissance before you are forced to take action. If it’s poor you may have to take in the scene and make a decision in microseconds. Or it may be made for you. In whatever time you have, do your best to note combatants, witnesses, sources of improvised weapons, terrain, and other important factors so that you will know as much as possible about what you are up against.
The decision to get involved (or not) and at what level is paramount. Whatever choice you make can have lasting consequences. There is a cost in terms of physical and/or emotional well-being to taking action as well as to not taking action. Only you can decide. And you’ve got to live with that choice.
When I was twelve years old, I was walking to the bus stop after judo practice one night when four older boys stopped me. They quickly began to hassle me about the gi I was wearing, spitting on me, calling me names, and threatening to “kill” me. Verbal threats soon escalated to pushing and shoving, which was clearly evolving toward more serious blows. Although I probably stood a good chance of badly injuring one or two of them, I felt that there was no way I could win a fight against four kids, all of whom were bigger, older, and most likely stronger than I was.
Swallowing my pride, I did my best to ignore their expectorating and taunting while I tried to figure out a way to escape. As soon as I saw a car approaching, I shoved the nearest antagonist out of the way, shoulder-rolled over the hood of the vehicle, and darted across the street. The driver slammed on his brakes, stopping between where I had just run and where the bullies on the sidewalk had started to follow. While they were distracted by the irate driver, I hopped over a fence, ducked down another side street, and ran away as fast as I could. In a situation where I could not win, running was the best thing to do.
Once you make the decision to fight it is important to know why. What is your goal? Are you trying to control a situation or escape from a threat? Everything hinges on this. The strategy of control or escape will drive the tactics necessary for success.
It is very hard, for example, to capture someone who is determined to get away, even when multiple adversaries are in play. If that is your goal, simply running away may be enough, particularly if you are able to move first. If in attempting to escape, you let yourself be drawn into a fight, however, it becomes self-defeating. Knocking an adversary aside so that you can run is better than squaring up to him in this instance. After all, your goal is to escape, not to beat down the other guy, win the fight, control the adversary until authorities arrive, or whatever else you can think of.
Consider intent, means, opportunity, and preclusion when determining your goals during a conflict. Many altercations these days are captured on video, be it from surveillance systems, cell-phone cameras, dash-cams, or some other source, at least when they occur in major populations centers across the United States. Even where video is not in the picture, bystanders may witness the event. If your actions don’t match your statements you will be in serious trouble when you get to court, particularly when it comes to preclusion.
Know your goal and make tactical decisions that support it.
Dealing with Threats with Altered States of Consciousness
Alcohol muddles your mind so that you don’t fully think things through. It also relaxes your inhibitions so that you are more likely to act out. Oftentimes it gives you a socially acceptable excuse for your behavior, or at least portions of it, compounding the effect. You want to do more and think you’ll get away with it, not that you actually will, of course… According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 36 percent of all criminals and 41 percent of violent offenders are intoxicated with alcohol when they commit the crimes for which they are convicted. These numbers rise even higher if you add drugs into the mix.
Drunks can be unpredictable, violent, and very difficult to corral. Tangling with one when you are sober gives you a significant advantage. When you’re drunk too, it only exacerbates the situation. Either way, you need to do your best to keep a cool head.
To begin, never argue with a drunk. As the old saying goes, “Reason goes into the bottle faster than the alcohol comes out of it.” If you can get away with it, just smile, nod, and say “Yes” or “No” as appropriate. Oftentimes, however, liquid courage will lead the other guy to take a swing at you. That is when you will undoubtedly be tempted to strike back.
Unfortunately, hitting a drunk doesn’t work nearly as well as you might think. It is not necessarily that they don’t feel pain, but rather that they do not feel it as much or as immediately as sober people do. That is an important consideration when dealing with an inebriated opponent.
Alcohol is not the only substance you might encounter that alters the mind of those who mean you ill. People who use drugs are roughly twice as likely to engage in violent behaviors as people who do not. In general, it is best to avoid tangling with anyone who is under the influence of drugs because such confrontations can become extraordinarily ugly. Leave such things to law enforcement professionals whenever possible.
For example, it can take as many as a dozen officers to restrain someone effectively in a drug-induced frenzy without accidentally killing him because less-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, Tasers® and the like, can prove ineffective in such cases. There is a good chance that many, if not all participants, will be injured in the process.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of violent criminal offenders are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or both, at the time of their offense for which they are subsequently convicted. The drugs of choice are most often marijuana, cocaine/crack, or heroine/opiates. Stimulants such as cocaine and crack are most linked to violence, although certain psychological conditions can have similar effects. (We’ll discuss emotionally disturbed persons in the chapter about Level 2.) Similarly, about 30 percent of victims are intoxicated with drugs at the time they are attacked.
Pain Compliance versus Mechanical Compliance
At the end of the National Anthem, we block the stairs above the 50-yard line to let the band exit the field and take their places in the stands. This usually takes several minutes, during which latecomers cannot take their seats. Those at the front of the line can see the kickoff and first few plays of the game, but those in back can only hear what’s going on. Needless to say that makes us somewhat less than popular, yet most fans understand and wait (more or less) patiently for the band to get out of the way. Not so, no-shirt guy. Painted purple with a gold W on his chest, he shoved his way through the line and tried to push his way past the guards at the top of the stairs.
They managed to stop his forward progress, but he launched into a verbal tirade and continued to push against my employees, nearly knocking one down the cement stairwell. After helping the guard regain his balance, I stepped into the fray and tried to reason with the fan, quickly discovering that he was far too intoxicated to understand what I was saying let alone comply. After fruitlessly arguing for a moment, I reached over and slid my fingers around the top of his collarbone while simultaneously pushing my thumb into the suprasternal notch at the base of his throat and dug in hard. On most people this will cause excruciating pain, simultaneously buckling their knees. On this guy, nothing. He didn’t even notice.
Pain compliance is a an excellent tool. It affords you the ability to control an opponent without seriously injuring him—when it works. Unfortunately, a committed adversary, a person whose mind is affected by certain intoxicants or who is in an altered state of consciousness, or one who is gripped by adrenaline is likely to shrug off virtually any pain you can throw at him. In those cases, pressure points or pain compliance techniques will not be enough. You will need mechanical leverage to control or injure your adversary.
If you must hurt someone in a fight, you will need to target a vital area of his body, someplace that can be damaged relatively easily. Punching someone in the stomach, for example, may only piss him off while striking him in the head may render him unconscious if you hit hard enough (and possibly shatter your hand in the process).
As we cover the higher levels of the force continuum, you will discover that targeting moves from lesser to more vital areas of the body to help assure success when dealing with determined foe. For now, be aware that merely delivering pain may not be sufficient to control a situation.
On January 1, 2008, Meredith Emerson, a 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate, managed to fend off both a knife and a baton attack, holding her own until her assailant tricked her into surrendering. Gary Michael Hilton, a burly 61-year-old drifter, subsequently tied her up and carried her to a remote location where he raped and eventually killed her three days later.
Hilton reportedly told police interrogators that his petite victim nearly overpowered him when he first accosted her on an Appalachian hiking trail. According to published reports, Hilton stalked the 5-foot-4-inch tall, 120-pound woman on the trail but was unable to keep up so he laid in wait and intercepted her on her way back down. He pulled a knife and demanded her ATM card. Emerson, a trained martial artist, recognized the threat and immediately fought back.
“I lost control, and she fought. And as I read in the paper, she’s a martial artist.” Emerson, who held middle kyu ranks (blue belt and green belt) in two different martial arts, ripped the knife out of his hands. He countered with a baton that she was also able to pull from his grasp. As the struggle continued, they fell down a steep slope, leaving both weapons behind. “The bayonet is probably still up there,” Hilton later told investigators.
“I had to hand-fight her,” Hilton said. “She wouldn’t stop fighting and yelling at the same time so I needed to both control her and silence her.” He kept punching her, blackening her eyes, fracturing her nose, and breaking his own hand in the process. He figured that he had worn her down as they moved farther off the trail, but suddenly she began fighting again. He finally got her to stop by telling her that all he wanted was her credit card and PIN number.
Once she relaxed her guard, he restrained her hands with a zip tie, took her to a remote location, and tied her to a tree. Predators often take their victims to secondary crime scenes where they have the privacy to perform their depravations. Sadly this was no exception. He kept her captive in the wilderness for three terrifying days before telling her that he was ready to let her go.
Then he beat her to death with a car-jack handle and cut off her head.
Hilton made a plea deal with prosecutors, leading investigators to his victim’s remains so that they would not seek the death penalty for his crimes. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
The goal of self-defense is not to win a fight, but rather to avoid combat in the first place. After all, the only battle you are guaranteed to walk away from unscathed is the one you never engage in. Taking a beat-down can seriously mess up your life. Nevertheless, sometimes despite your best intentions, you may find yourself in a situation where there really is no alternative but to fight. When it comes to such circumstances, particularly in an asocial violence scenario, you cannot stop until it’s over.
Once engaged in battle, it is critical to remain mentally and physically prepared to fight or continue a brawl at a moment’s notice. Always keep your opponent in sight until you can escape to safety. Even if your blow knocks an adversary to the ground, remain alert for a possible continuation of his attack. Most fistfights end when one combatant gives up rather than when he or she can no longer physically continue. Weapons bring a whole new dynamic into play. Even fatally wounded adversaries do not always succumb to their injuries right away; they can continue to be a critical danger for several seconds, if not minutes. That is a very long time in a fight.
Never give up until you are sure that you are safe. Sadly, too many victims do not heed this lesson, with tragic results.
Never believe anything an assailant tells you. His actions have already demonstrated beyond any doubt that he’s a bad guy. Do not relax your guard and get caught by surprise; that is a good way to die. If the other guy thinks that he is losing, he might be more inclined to play possum or pull out a weapon in order to cheat to win. Worse yet, street attacks sometimes involve multiple assailants, many of whom may be seasoned fighters who know how to take a blow and shrug off the pain. Be mindful of additional assailants, potentially latecomers, and be prepared to continue your defense as long as necessary.
As the Chinese proverb states, “Dead tigers kill the most hunters.” Remain vigilant during any pause in the fight. You may be facing multiple assailants, an adversary who pulls a weapon in the middle of a fight, or an opponent who just won’t quit. Once you have removed yourself from the danger and are absolutely certain that you are no longer under threat, you can safely begin to relax your guard.
When I took a defensive handgun course several years ago, I was taught to train for handling the survival-stress reaction commonly associated with actual combat. To simulate the reaction, we had to do as many pushups as we could as fast as we could for one minute. Immediately after completing the pushups, we sprinted to the parking lot and raced around the building four times as fast as we could go, covering close to a mile in the process. We then sprinted back into the building and attempted to accurately fire down range under the watchful eye of our instructors.
While I could normally hit the bulls-eye of a static paper target much of the time at 25 feet during shooting competitions, and always put every shot in the black, the first time I attempted to do so after this stress test, I missed the paper completely. It was an eye-opening experience.
When adrenaline courses through your system during a fight, you can be stabbed, shot, or badly mangled and yet persevere, at least until the pain kicks in afterward. Your ability to think rationally is greatly reduced. The good news is that you tend to become stronger and more resilient than usual. The bad news, however, is that you will likely have degraded motor skills, experience tunnel vision, and perhaps even suffer temporary hearing or memory loss.
While precise movements are extraordinarily tough, even imprecise ones like grabbing a wrist or hooking a leg can be problematic even if you are highly trained. If you try to get too fancy, you will hurt your chances for success in a fight. However, gross motor movements, especially those that target vital areas of the adversary’s body, can work pretty well.
The more comprehensive and realistic your training is, the better you will perform in actual combat because conditioned responses can help you counteract, or at least work through, the effects of adrenaline. Conversely, the more stressed you are through exertion, fear, or desperation, the harder it is perform. Mostly. A friend of ours, who hijacks planes (from terrorists) for a living, puts it this way:
“The body’s reaction under critical incident stress has almost nothing to do with how you think rationally. Instead, it has almost everything has to do with ingrained responses, be they trained ones or instinctive ones. The amygdala will choose. It has the chemical authority to override your conscious thoughts and decisions.
“It also has the chemical authority to enforce its decision despite your conscious will. This is why divers are found drowned yet with full oxygen tanks—something happened to them and the amygdala reacted to that critical incident stress with its preferred strategy—clearing obstructions from the breathing passage. As a general rule, getting stuff out of your mouth is an excellent strategy for a land-based species in land-based confrontations. But spitting out your breathing tube is a terrible strategy under water. The fact is none of those drowning victims really thought they could breathe water. Something happened and their bodies reacted.
“Like a diver in duress, when you face a threat on the street you won’t be doing much thinking. Unless you have a very high adrenal threshold and/or a LOT of training. Deliberate thought is slow, taking several seconds to accomplish. That’s an eternity in a critical incident. Might as well go get a massage while you’re at it…
“Deeply ingrained reactions are far more likely than conscious decisions. And don’t even get me started on how much training you have to do to override and replace your body’s instinctive responses with new ones. Regardless, you won’t be selecting an option from a menu of choices calmly and rationally like you do in the training hall. Your body is going to pick its own response in a maelstrom of shit and adrenaline.
“Training then, to me, is all about trying to give the amygdala better choices. Because you won’t consciously be deciding on much on ’that day.’ Or maybe it’s about getting your body so used to adrenal stress that you can actually think, somewhat, during pauses in the action. Or more likely a combination of the two. End of the day, training isn’t about what most people think it is.”
—M. Guthrie, Federal Air Marshal
As Bruce Siddle described in his book, Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge, in a violent encounter your heart rate can jump from 60 or 70 beats per minute (BPM) to well over 200 BMP in less than half a second. Elevated heart rate is an easily measurable symptom of the effects of adrenaline, one that can be used to index what happens to you when adrenalized:
• For people whose resting heart rate is around 60 to 70 BPM, at around 115 BPM many begin to lose fine motor skills such as finger dexterity making it difficult to successfully dial a phone, open a lock, or aim a weapon.
• Around 145 BPM most people begin to lose their complex motor skills such as hand-eye coordination, precise tracking movements, or exact timing, making complicated techniques very challenging if not impossible.
• Around 175 BPM most people begin to lose depth perception, experience tunnel vision, and sometimes even suffer temporary memory loss.
• Around 185–220 BPM many people experience hypervigilance, loss of rational thought, and inability to consciously move or react. Without prior training, the vast majority of people cannot function at this stress level.
Breath control techniques can help you minimize or recover from the effects of adrenaline, particularly if you have enough time to see an attack coming. Begin by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth following a 4-count process for each step—inhalation, hold, exhalation, hold. In other words, each cycle of combat breathing includes:
• Inhale for a 4-count.
• Hold for a 4-count.
• Exhale for a 4-count.
• Hold for a 4-count with empty lungs.
When men are confronted with extreme emotional or violent situations, their adrenaline kicks off like a rocket, surging quickly and then dissipating rapidly afterward as well. In a home invasion situation, for example, when the male homeowner shoots the suspect, the killing is likely to take place near the front door. When police officers arrive, they will typically find that the suspect has been shot perhaps two or three times, just enough to make sure he is no longer a threat.
Women, on the other hand, get a much slower, longer-lasting adrenaline surge. It takes longer to get going and dissipates a lot more slowly than you find in men. In that same home invasion scenario, police often find the dead robber in a back bedroom where he had chased and cornered the female homeowner. But here’s the kicker. Rather than shooting him a couple of times, she’s emptied the gun into him, perhaps even reloading and doing it again.
Interesting difference, huh? An implication is that women have more time to think, but must often defend themselves before becoming adrenalized, whereas men get the advantages and disadvantages of adrenaline without the clear-headed ability to plan.
The rest of the book lays out several levels of force in a logical order, covering (1) presence, (2) voice, (3) touch, (4) empty-hand/physical restraint, (5) less-lethal force, and (6) lethal force. This by no means implies that these levels are stages on a ladder where you must move from one to another. Select the level you need to safely prevail/escape. If your choice is not working, you may have to change levels quickly.
* For self-defense. Other levels of legal force, such as refusing to leave the premises after a lawful order to do so, also require I.M.O., but at a different level.
* Law Enforcement Officers have a “duty to act” and can’t be expected to retreat. In some states, “Stand Your Ground” laws appear to remove the preclusion requirement. “Castle” laws give great freedom for self-defense in the home provided the threat feloniously enters. If someone breaks into your home, a castle law essentially grants that I.M.O. are givens.
** The justifications for defending a third party are essentially the same as for defending yourself. Though you, yourself, might be able to leave safely if another potential victim would be left behind and helpless, you can articulate why you needed to engage.
