As we continue to climb out of the Pandemic’s lockdown, people throughout our country are displaying either their mental illness or lack of humanity for their fellow human beings. Over the last month, I have heard story after story where innocent people are randomly attacked, with little or no provocation where they were seriously hurt or killed. Usually, the people who were attacked were of no match for their assailant as they were literally much older and not able to properly defend themselves.
In some cases, innocent by-standers have turned a blind eye to the attack as it happened literally right in front of them. In other cases, some of the by-standers have attempted to intervene only to be seriously hurt or even killed. As for the motive of the attacks, some people have attributed it to hate crimes, while others have no apparent motive.
If you ever need to decide what actions you might take should you witness one of these random and suddenly unprovoked violent crimes, before you intervene and risk your life, ask yourself these questions:
- Are you competent in any form of self-defense where your skills can easily match and overcome that of the violent assailant you need to face?
- Are you capable of matching the level and intensity of violent the assailant will bring to you once he/she turns their attention from their initial victim?
- If the assailant is armed, are you armed with a deadly weapon that can stop the attack?
- Are you prepared (mentally and physically) to use deadly force against this assailant?
- Are you legally justified to use whatever force to stop the attack, even if the force needed to be used is deadly force?
- If you are not armed, are you proficient in the rapid identification and deployment of an improvised defensive weapon (found in that environment) that can stop the assailant?
- If you are with friends, will they also intervene with you to stop the assailant?
- If you are with family members, can you perform the actions required to stop the assailant without putting your family members at risk?
- Is the assailant alone or do they have others with them that might intervene against you?
- Are you prepared to defend yourself against multiple assailant?
If you need to intervene with one assailant who is attacking an innocent person, you will never fight fair! Launch a counterattack to the blind side of the assailant. Strike him or her with whatever tool would offer the appropriate level of force sufficient to stop them from attacking the innocent person and prevent them from turning their aggression on you.
Once you have intervened, understand that in today’s world, more than likely someone has recorded the altercation on their cellular telephone or the altercation is captured on a surveillance system.
Contact law enforcement and advise them of the altercation and offer your complete participation in their investigation. In most cases, your level of force may be deemed justified. In rare cases, someone might misjudge your level of force against the violent aggressor as excessive and you find yourself the target of their investigation.
In all cases, be fully prepared (mentally and physically) to deal with any factors that could come your way.