The following video is graphic and disturbing. It shows a man beating a female police officer in front of his daughter who looks on. Why? Because he didn’t want to go to jail. Fortunately, he was later arrested and sent to prison for assaulting the officer. Unfortunately, she was seriously hurt. After you watch the video, please read my comments below.
There are a number of things we can learn from this video. Here are a few of the important ones I want you to remember:
1. Violence can erupt faster than many believe it can. Notice how quick this entire incident is. The attacker goes from 0 to 60 immediately, and in a matter of seconds the officer is seriously injured. People are killed just as fast. People have fallen, struck their head on the pavement, and died. This could have been deadly for the officer.
2. Being unarmed does not mean a person isn’t dangerous. I want you to remember both sides of this coin. When facing an unarmed person, that doesn’t mean the person can’t seriously injure or kill you. Deadly force, including firearms, is sometimes justified and necessary to stop an unarmed person. I don’t know how you could watch this video and not think the officer would have been legally and morally justified in drawing her weapon and shooting this man. Unarmed does not mean a person isn’t dangerous! On the flip side, I want you to remember that you can defend yourself, even against a weapon wielding attacker, when unarmed. Just because you are not armed does not mean you can’t attack back. Unarmed civilians have stopped active shooters. One last time, being unarmed does not mean not dangerous or defenseless.
3. Being armed does not mean prepared. The officer was armed, but not prepared for for the attack that erupted upon her by the larger man. I once had a college student tell me she didn’t have to worry about the awareness and avoidance principles and strategies I was teaching because she had mace in her bag. She proudly dug to the bottom of the bag and pulled it out as she declared what I was teaching wasn’t necessary for her. I asked her if she’d ever trained with it, and if she could find it faster when attacked. Of course not. She bought it, threw it in the bag, and walked around with the false sense of security of being prepared and ready for an attack. I hope she never found out how unprepared and naive she really was, and I really hope some of my awareness points sunk in. Even when armed, you must still practice awareness. It is also smart to learn empty hand defensive skills to allow you to stop an attack so you can draw your weapon.
4. Real violence is brutal and savage. You can hear the sickening sound of his blows striking the officer’s head and face. The descriptions describe her injuries. Violence is brutal, savage and scary. That’s another reason why the awareness and avoidance stuff is so important.