Tweet
The reality of it all...
Below is a post from "PROTECTOR" from another forum.
Some of you might know of him from his Panther video series on the balisong.
I think that this story can teach some valuable lessons regarding the reality of the street. Don't hesitate... be ready to "flip the switch", and don't rely on the help of bystanders or the mercy of your opponent!
~Kev
===============================================================
I am an LEO in an island resort community off the coast of Washington. We recently had a rather gruesome incident involving locals vs. tourists.
A group of ten 35-50 year old men were having a reunion at one of our resorts. They had been drinking and barbecueing at their cabin. At about 1 in the morning they decided to walk to a viewing area for 'moonlight on the ocean'. They were in a group, taking up one of the lanes on the road. An intoxicated 21 year old local was driving the road and was annoyed they were in the lane, so he buzzed them with his car. They yelled some obsceneities and he turned around and came back again, forcing them to dive off the road. The local claims they then threw rocks at him, but the tourists denied this. The car was such a beater that we couldn't tell.
The tourists decided to abandon their walk at this point and return to the cabin. Our drunk local returned to a friends house and recruited 3 large male friends to 'go back and teach them a lesson'. He tracked down the tourists on the resort property and drove his car right into the group causing them to scatter. He and his friends jumped out of the car and started attacking the tourists, with the attacks ranging from pushing to punches and kicks.
Our tourists were average size or larger, in reasonably good health and they outnumbered the attackers 2 or 3 to 1. They basically did nothing to defend themselves, later making comments that they were 'amazed this was happening', 'dazed by the suddeness of it', 'confused as to what the problem was'. Finally one of the tourists started to fight back and actually managed to put up a good fight with the original drunk local. Our local knocked him to the ground, shoved two fingers into his eye socket and pulled his eye out onto his cheek, then 'squeezed it until it popped'. The pop and the man's scream was loud enought that everyone stopped and looked. The tourists was now standing, with his gaping eye socket and crushed eye hanging on his cheek.
This freaked out the locals friends so much they ran away. The majority of the tourists ran in the other direction. One of the tourists, who had not gone on the walk, was a 48 year old karate black belt, 6 foot 4 tall and weighing 240 pounds. He heard the noise and came out of the cabin. He saw his friend with the destroyed eye, staggering towards the cabin. The eye gouger had pounced on another vicitm and was trying the same technique. The attacker was pointed out to the black belt, who walked over, grabbed the eye gouger and held him against a truck, telling him the cops had been called. The black belt had not struck him or applied any type of lock or hold, but was just holding him. The eye gouger proceeded to attack the black belt and hit him 3-4 times in the face before the black belt decided to fight back. He then threw the gouger to the ground, applied a lock and sat on him until the cops arrived. When interviewed later, the black belt said he had 'never been in a real fight in his life' and he 'couldn't believe this was happening'.
One phrase we heard over and over from the tourists was "My god, why didn't I help?" They blamed 'the peaceful location', disbelief that there would be crime here, disbelief that just a few guys would attack them, disbelief that they would really try to hurt them and 'a total lack of preparation for a fight'.
If you ever end up in court after a self-defense situation, here is another real world example of why you train, why you travel armed and why you react instantly and completely when threatend or attacked. There is not a single person I have told this story to who has not cringed in sympathetic pain when I describe the eye being gouged out and popped. Stay safe and don't let it happen to you!
-----------------------------------
Just thought you might like to know, that after 6 months out on bail and numerous defense motions, plea bargains, etc. the eye gouger was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
He was charged with assault 1, which could have given him life in prison. He plea bargained it down to assault 2, a couple of counts of assault 3 and disorderly conduct.
The prosecutor asked for 5 years, which is an exceptional sentence for a first time offender. They had to have a special hearing, where the victim and his friends testified about what happened. The victim not only lost his eye, but received so much damage to the socket that he will problaby have to go in for operations for the rest of his life. His wife testified that he can't bring himself to go out in public, where there might be groups of young men. The victim and most of his friends are in counseling or therapy.
I was assisting with courtroom security for this and I noticed that none of the vicitms or friends of the victims had any self-protection devices to put in the lock box. From their testimony it would seem that they have allowed this one savage person to ruin the rest of their lives. Learn to protect yourself and your families. Don't ever end up like this! 5 years in prison will replace nothing for the victims.
Some of you might know of him from his Panther video series on the balisong.
I think that this story can teach some valuable lessons regarding the reality of the street. Don't hesitate... be ready to "flip the switch", and don't rely on the help of bystanders or the mercy of your opponent!
~Kev
===============================================================
I am an LEO in an island resort community off the coast of Washington. We recently had a rather gruesome incident involving locals vs. tourists.
A group of ten 35-50 year old men were having a reunion at one of our resorts. They had been drinking and barbecueing at their cabin. At about 1 in the morning they decided to walk to a viewing area for 'moonlight on the ocean'. They were in a group, taking up one of the lanes on the road. An intoxicated 21 year old local was driving the road and was annoyed they were in the lane, so he buzzed them with his car. They yelled some obsceneities and he turned around and came back again, forcing them to dive off the road. The local claims they then threw rocks at him, but the tourists denied this. The car was such a beater that we couldn't tell.
The tourists decided to abandon their walk at this point and return to the cabin. Our drunk local returned to a friends house and recruited 3 large male friends to 'go back and teach them a lesson'. He tracked down the tourists on the resort property and drove his car right into the group causing them to scatter. He and his friends jumped out of the car and started attacking the tourists, with the attacks ranging from pushing to punches and kicks.
Our tourists were average size or larger, in reasonably good health and they outnumbered the attackers 2 or 3 to 1. They basically did nothing to defend themselves, later making comments that they were 'amazed this was happening', 'dazed by the suddeness of it', 'confused as to what the problem was'. Finally one of the tourists started to fight back and actually managed to put up a good fight with the original drunk local. Our local knocked him to the ground, shoved two fingers into his eye socket and pulled his eye out onto his cheek, then 'squeezed it until it popped'. The pop and the man's scream was loud enought that everyone stopped and looked. The tourists was now standing, with his gaping eye socket and crushed eye hanging on his cheek.
This freaked out the locals friends so much they ran away. The majority of the tourists ran in the other direction. One of the tourists, who had not gone on the walk, was a 48 year old karate black belt, 6 foot 4 tall and weighing 240 pounds. He heard the noise and came out of the cabin. He saw his friend with the destroyed eye, staggering towards the cabin. The eye gouger had pounced on another vicitm and was trying the same technique. The attacker was pointed out to the black belt, who walked over, grabbed the eye gouger and held him against a truck, telling him the cops had been called. The black belt had not struck him or applied any type of lock or hold, but was just holding him. The eye gouger proceeded to attack the black belt and hit him 3-4 times in the face before the black belt decided to fight back. He then threw the gouger to the ground, applied a lock and sat on him until the cops arrived. When interviewed later, the black belt said he had 'never been in a real fight in his life' and he 'couldn't believe this was happening'.
One phrase we heard over and over from the tourists was "My god, why didn't I help?" They blamed 'the peaceful location', disbelief that there would be crime here, disbelief that just a few guys would attack them, disbelief that they would really try to hurt them and 'a total lack of preparation for a fight'.
If you ever end up in court after a self-defense situation, here is another real world example of why you train, why you travel armed and why you react instantly and completely when threatend or attacked. There is not a single person I have told this story to who has not cringed in sympathetic pain when I describe the eye being gouged out and popped. Stay safe and don't let it happen to you!
-----------------------------------
Just thought you might like to know, that after 6 months out on bail and numerous defense motions, plea bargains, etc. the eye gouger was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
He was charged with assault 1, which could have given him life in prison. He plea bargained it down to assault 2, a couple of counts of assault 3 and disorderly conduct.
The prosecutor asked for 5 years, which is an exceptional sentence for a first time offender. They had to have a special hearing, where the victim and his friends testified about what happened. The victim not only lost his eye, but received so much damage to the socket that he will problaby have to go in for operations for the rest of his life. His wife testified that he can't bring himself to go out in public, where there might be groups of young men. The victim and most of his friends are in counseling or therapy.
I was assisting with courtroom security for this and I noticed that none of the vicitms or friends of the victims had any self-protection devices to put in the lock box. From their testimony it would seem that they have allowed this one savage person to ruin the rest of their lives. Learn to protect yourself and your families. Don't ever end up like this! 5 years in prison will replace nothing for the victims.
Comment