Responding to violence/mugging?

[SophiaGrace]

There was an article about this recently, and they said exactly what SophiaGrace said, hand over your possessions and run. If a person was going to shoot you they would do it no matter what you did, at least by running you lessen the change of serious injuring and give them a moving target which is harder to hit.

you mean THIS article?

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence/

 

[Skorian]

There was an article about this recently, and they said exactly what SophiaGrace said, hand over your possessions and run. If a person was going to shoot you they would do it no matter what you did, at least by running you lessen the change of serious injuring and give them a moving target which is harder to hit.

If someone is going to shoot you, then the fastest way to die is to not be in their face. The minute you turn your back your done.

There is not such thing as going to do it no matter what you do. That is declaring helplessness. A rock in palm while hitting them in the face will be more effective.

You are an easier target at 5 to 10 feet then at 1 foot + the threat of hitting them. The threat of being punched in the face can make someone fumble. Cause confusion and surprise. If you are turning away they have time to sit and aim at you. You will not outrun bullets.

Looking at the article all it seems to be saying is don't stand there and try to be friends with your attacker. It isn't saying run while under threat. It isn't saying act like an easy target. It is simply saying avoid conflict as much as you can. If you can't avoid conflict though and you try to you will likely pay dearly for it.

 

[Ak5]

*popcorn*

 

[Sci-Fi]

There was an article about this recently, and they said exactly what SophiaGrace said, hand over your possessions and run. If a person was going to shoot you they would do it no matter what you did, at least by running you lessen the change of serious injuring and give them a moving target which is harder to hit.

you mean THIS article?

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence/

Yeah that one. You were the one that posted that weren't you, I thought it might have been from here.

Skorian if you are going to make a comment to something directly it would be smarter to actually READ the article mentioned.

Whatever your training, you should view any invitation to violence as an opportunity to die—or to be sent to prison for killing another human being. Violence must truly be the last resort. Thus, if someone sticks a gun in your face and demands your wallet, you should hand it over without hesitation—and run.

If someone puts a gun to your head and demands your purse or wallet, hand it over immediately and run. Don’t worry about being shot in the back: If your attacker is going to shoot you for running, he was going to shoot you if you stayed in place, and at point-blank range. By running, you make yourself harder to kill. Any attempt to move you, even by a few feet—backing you off a sidewalk and into an alley, forcing you behind a row of bushes—is unacceptable and should mobilize all your physical and emotional resources.

 

[SophiaGrace]

There was an article about this recently, and they said exactly what SophiaGrace said, hand over your possessions and run. If a person was going to shoot you they would do it no matter what you did, at least by running you lessen the change of serious injuring and give them a moving target which is harder to hit.

you mean THIS article?

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence/

Yeah that one. You were the one that posted that weren't you, I thought it might have been from here.

I found it on reddit and posted it here.

 

[Ian Haines]

"We would love to, but you have managed to be one of the few countries with an even higher debt ratio to GDP than the US. A dubious accomplishment as we can't afford to bail you out."

That's because the name of our last good country leader was so far back in British history, the name is probably pronounced in grunts and clicks!

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

Solitary, if you hit him and he isn't a threat to you, then you will be charged with assault.

If you believe you are in danger, and he has a knife or is trying to hit you, then you can defend yourself and will not be charged.

I've always thought that if anyone is using threat of extreme violence or intimidation that the law's not going to have too many qualms about what happens next, providing you don't drag the guy across the pavement and curb stomp him or something if you have him incapacitated.

I mean, some guy walks up and says "Give me your stuff or I'll hurt you", then I hit him, from what he said he could have been threatening me with anything. Death, GBH, some kind of permanent maiming...with who knows what implement?

And anyway, as Skorian said, it's not like I'd necessarily wait for the law to get involved after whacking someone anyway.

How can you claim the law doesn't crack down? The gang was brought to justice. You can't convict people before gathering evidence to convict.

I'm afraid I don't remember the documentary name, it was a one-off. It was just called "Mugged" or something.

The law here in the UK is kind of fuzzed up in my opinion. We obviously don't have the death penalty. On top of that, politicians seem to have this stupid view that it's easier to let criminals (often violent, career ones) out of prison really early in their sentence than it is just to build more prisons to keep the arseholes locked up in

After all, politicians usually live in huge mansions and have bodyguards, so it's not like they feel the effect of passing legislation like that.

No joke, there's been a whole bunch of cases recently where some cold, moronic scumbag has just knifed someone to death or beat them to within an inch of their life for absolutely no reason, then got out of prison in 2-5 years.

To me, that's not right at all. I don't see how an innocent victim ending up dead or with brain damage is equal to two years of the aggressor's life.

So that's what I mean by the law not cracking down. It's not much good if those punks are back out doing it all over again in two years tops.

Plus lawyers seem to screw the system constantly. A member of my family was a cop for 30 years and basically got absolutely sick of seeing blatantly guilty people pleading "not guilty" just so an unscrupulous lawyer could make the court case as long as possible and extract a huge fee from it all, over and over again.

Edit - I'll just say, in my mind, if you go up to a random 20 year old and kick his skull in for a "laugh", you should be looking at 35 years to life imprisonment with no parole, depending on the damage you do. If you go up to someone and stab/shoot them to death for no reason, you should be either dangling from a short rope or in prison until you die.

I used to be completely against capital punishment, but I'm starting to think it'd actually be well served for some of the particularly heinous crimes that are becoming increasingly common. It takes a particular soulessness to walk into a shop and fatally smash an item into a young person's face, just because it takes your fancy.

Yes, that actually happened, I will try to dig the news item out, it was from a while back, but IIRC there was no connection between the victim and the criminal involved and the perp thought it was hilarious.

I bet if judges started handing out sentences like that, this whole crowd of 16-25 year olds who think it's really funny to **** up someone's life would suddenly start diminishing rapidly.

 

[Chasm]

*popcorn*

o god Lmaoooo
almost spit my screen LoL

 

[Ian Haines]

Sack the pointless British legal system and send in the Public!

If we don't do that, life in my lifetime will become impossible to ensure the continuation of. Bring us in slowly, in stages, giving us better powers of home/family/self defence options.

Given that a single number of percent of murders are ever solved, anyway, why not just kill your mugger? Just kill the swine and you'll almost certainly get away with it, or you'll wait 20-30 years before they come to knock on your door! If a guy attacks me, the rules go to the wall and the gloves and laws are no longer priorities. I process the congealed smegma out of my life and there's no stopwatch on me. If he persists, I will process him out of his, too!

Rule 1: don't attack me! I never back off and the only begging I take notice of involves a musical instrument and a hat full of coins!

I sometimes put up a sign at the rear of my home: "DEAR BURGLAR...NOBODY ELSE KNOWS YOU'RE EVEN HERE! STOP AND THINK: WHO WILL EVER THINK TO LOOK FOR YOU BENEATH MY FLOORBOARDS!? (1) NO POLICE INVOLVEMENT! (2) FAST-TRACK PROCESSING! (3) PLENTY OF COMPANY DOWN THERE! (4) APPLY WITHIN!"

 

[Callie]

well ain't you a ray of damn sunshine

 

[WishingWell]

I lived in Jersey City, NJ, one of the 5 top crime cities in the U.S. I had three incidents that happened, and they all had different outcomes.

The first was being robbed at gunpoint when working as a cashier for a loan company. Two guys jumped over the counter so fast the 3 of us in the office at the time, didn't even see it coming. They had women's stockings over their faces that distorted their features. They made us lie on the floor, take off our jewelry and put it on the floor in front of us. I was 21 at the time, and I was very foolish. I had a button-down blouse on, and when they weren't looking I took my wedding and engagement ring back from my pile of jewelry, and I put it through my shirt and into my bra. I got away with it. In hindsight, I could have been shot! For jewelry? What a jerk I was! I will say that the episode took me a long while to get over. Everytime I closed my eyes, I saw their distorted features. I was afraid to go into my house unless my husband at the time was home for a long time. And, I was afraid at work of it happening again. I needed my job though since we both made so little money so I had to stay there.

The second, I would say "I was mugged," but it wasn't like that. I was attacked from behind by a man that was tall and stocky. He beat me up really bad, bruising me and breaking my ribs--one a floating rib, which is hard to break. Then he just ran away! My purse was on the ground and he didn't even touch it. I still wonder if someone that didn't like me got someone to just beat the heck out of me.

The third incident again showed no brains on my part. I lived on the bottom floor of my parents' house and heard some noise outside around 11:30 p.m. I went to the window and some guy was trying to break into my Dad's car. I grabbed a hammer out of my husband's tool box and ran out the door, telling my husband to call 911, and starting running towards the guy swinging the hammer and shouting obscenities at him. When I got about 15 feet from where he was, he started to running away. When the police arrived, they asked me why wasn't I afraid that the guy had a gun or other weapon? I was so furious, I didn't even think of it. All I know is that I went into a mode where I didn't feel as if it was me running with the hammer, just wanting the guy to get away from my Dad's car.

If I was ever confronted by one person in front of me, I would try one of the self-defense moves that my husband taught me. I remember Bruce Lee said something like whatever scores is effective. I would try my best to do something to temporarily disable him, and then run like heck to get out of there. Mace is illegal in New Jersey, and I wouldn't even know where to get it, but hair spray isn't. Those little purse size ones is a good thing to have to carry in your hand if you are walking alone, especially at night. If I had the opportunity though, I would strike him somewhere and then use the hair spray and run away.

Growing up in the City, like I did, I don't have a lot of fear of incidents like that. I guess that's a bit crazy of me! Now in the suburbs for the last 8 years, I saw about 5 police cars--not at the same time--spread out over the years! You can't even get a pizza delivered if you don't call before 8:00 p.m., and NO TAXIS are available in this town. Talk about change--I still can't believe the difference that the 25 miles from there to here is such a drastic difference in all aspects!

 

[Ian Haines]

Am I a ray of sunshine?

If you stay on the right side of me, yes - otherwise, no.

---

Wishing Well...

You've got guts, good Lady! My type of Lady! Yeah!

Well done! In my teens, Bruce Lee was my hero - just as I left High School, in fact. I'd seen "Enter The Dragon" around 4 times...before I heard that he was dead. It broke my heart, but it also started 17 years of obsessive martial arts involvement. The 70s/80s...the happiest years of my life. Lee used to repeatedly tell women that a man's knee breaks at around 15 pounds of kick pressure..."a child's pressure", he said.

Give them Hell, Well!

Ian.

 

[WishingWell]

Something funny--but not at the time--is that I was practicing some moves with my husband one day, and I broke his nose. Sounding like Lucy, in I LOVE LUCY, to Ricky, I said, "well you taught me!" And, he said, yeah, but you are supposed to break the attackers nose not mine! He was a good sport about it!

 

[Ian Haines]

Remind me not to take a punch from you, WW!

Sheeeeesh!

 

[WishingWell]

Ian, I didn't mean it, really! I don't believe anyone should hit anyone, EXCEPT IN SELF DEFENSE! Do you seriously think I would break my husband's nose on purpose?

Besides, we were practicing--that he went to hit me, I blocked his punch and broke his nose by head-butting him in the face. I didn't know I was using so much force.

He was really unbelievable. He used to be able to put his open hand with the fingers straight ahead though a hanging shower CURTIN with a lot of concentration. That impressed me so much--except I had to get another shower curtain! LOL! Also, by measuring and telegraphing, he was able to throw a punch at my face and come within one inch away from it! He never took a lesson. Just read a lot, especially about Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kwan Do"

 

[Ian Haines]

Well, erm...no. I didn't think that you opportunistically cracked the nose bone of your husband. I just jokily meant that I'd think twice before letting one of your bangs get through to me.

I've shepherded this thread off-topic. Oops! I've done it, again!

 

[WishingWell]

Like I said, I lived in Jersey City most of my life--I had to know how to protect myself.

And, I did it again, too--OFF THE TOPIC!


Back to the topic, please...How do you responding to violence/mugging? Next person, please.....

 

[DreamerDeceiver]

I lived in Jersey City, NJ, one of the 5 top crime cities in the U.S. I had three incidents that happened, and they all had different outcomes.

That's quite a story, WishingWell.

Do you really know martial arts?

 

[WishingWell]

I believe I know enough DreamerDeceiver to hopefully be able to DROP an attacker and run like h***. Like Bruce Lee also said, the art of fighting without fighting. If I tried to stay and fight with someone, I would not have a chance. I know techniques to disable someone for a period of time--hopefully, enough time to get away.


Once again, let's get back to the topic...I didn't know that I was so interesting!

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO VIOLENCE/MUGGING? Next person, please...

 

[DreamerDeceiver]

Someone told me a long time ago that if you are under eighteen and have one of those belts and a card from mastering a form of martial arts and someone gets you into a fight, you will automatically be prosecuted by the police, even if you were fighting defensively. If it happens on a school campus, you will be immediately expelled. Not sure if this is true or how it applies to adults, but it would make learning martial arts for defense rather useless.