What’s this bit all about?
My Survival Files tend to be very specific; they consist of short but succinct feature articles. Each one specifically focuses on a particular aspect of personal security and safety.
However my Chronicles, as I call them for want of a better title are nothing more than my thoughts and opinions spread out for all to see, and should you feel the need to throw stones at them please be my guest.
“This is the gist of all that I know…Proffer advice and gain a foe”.
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Survival Often Means Having To Cheat
Many of us who inhabit today’s modern towns and cities go about our daily business with subconscious concerns about our physical safety. Our worries tend not to focus on whether or not we are going to become the victim of some terrible mishap like getting knocked down by a bus or hit by some object falling from a roof. No, on the contrary sadly most people now-a-days are anxious about street crime, weapons and terrorism. Law-abiding citizens more often than not look to the police to guard them against such possibilities. Unfortunately, as many law enforcement officers reading this report know, you can’t be everywhere and even if you could, the reality is that you probably haven’t been given sufficient training to enable you to easily subdue a vicious mugger and look after someone else at the same time.
The street predators that victimise the weak select the targets and opportunities which they deem advantageous to themselves. Most street attacks are swiftly completed and for obvious reasons are generally not performed in sight of the police.
So the sad fact is… You’re on your own, and furthermore, it’s NOT the police’s job to protect you… it’s your responsibility to protect yourself, your loved ones and those in your care.
Under normal circumstances there should be little or no reason to ever have to come to physical grips with a stranger. Furthermore, if we all lived in a society that functioned to enhance the well-being of its members, there would be no reason to even have methods by which we can defend ourselves from others. However we don’t, we never have and we never will.
There are people who live sheltered lives in affluent or rural areas that have historically been relatively free from violent crime. Such people are often upset by the very thought that there are people from other segments of society that are prone to violence. They will usually deplore such behaviour, but often sympathise with the plight of the poor or maladjusted and look for explanations from sociologists and psychologists. All too often it’s this well- intentioned type of person that fall victim to the very people they sympathise with. To the street predator they are nothing more than legitimate prey and easy prey at that
As most of you reading this magazine are operational police officers military or security professionals and as such you will at some time during your training have come across the phrase ‘Defensive Tactics’. So what exactly are defence tactics?
I suppose they could be described as the means of maintaining your own, or others’, safety and security if, and when, that security or safety is threatened. That sounds OK. Nice and easy. But what does it really mean? If defensive tactics provide safety and security for you, is that not self-defence? So, if you’re looking after other people then that must be defensive tactics? It can’t be self-defence. Self-defence is exactly what it says; a means of defending yourself from harm, not others. Defending yourself from harm implies an attack and the majority of self-defence training concentrates on developing a motor memory and formalised response to an attack with a specific technique. That doesn’t sound the same as defensive tactics to me. So, are they the same as martial arts? I don’t think so. Martial arts encompass many different elements, physical, philosophical and psychological. To study a classical martial art is not the same as studying self-defence. It is more to develop, mould and nurture, not only the physical being, but also to build your character into an all-encompassing way of life. To strive for perfect form, perfect technique, embodied by a philosophy of love and harmony for your fellow man. Or at least that’s the theory. Not much time for all that on a Saturday night faced with some crack head holding a knife at your throat and no help in sight.
The whole point of all this is to understand that defensive tactics have absolutely nothing to do with how many techniques you know, how big your biceps are, the number of black belts you hold, how good you are at handcuffing, how fast you can wield a baton or how accurate you are with a 9mm. In short, defensive tactics have nothing to do with what you can do, but everything to do with how you think about what you can do. Or, to put it another way, how you think about what you have to do and how you formulate those thoughts in your mind. Unfortunately, especially if you are a police officer that can be the biggest problem. There’s too much to think about! Your mind controls your body and if your thoughts are clogged or confused, it is impossible to function effectively and if, as a result, all that good stuff you learned in the training hall goes to pot, it somewhat defeats the object! Defensive tactics training tends to be short term. You may, get a few hours initially, and then if you’re lucky a follow-up refresher every 18 months or so.
There is a huge amount of information to process and remember. Where do you start? Politics, tactical communications skills, the law, new legislation, use of force, PACE stop and search, assertiveness techniques, empathy, the Cut, the ‘plus one’ rule, proxemics, control and restraint, contact and cover, the reactionary gap, threat and risk assessment, less than lethal tactical options, incapacitate sprays, baton, handcuffing, lethal tactical options, weapon retention, etc, etc,. The list goes on and on – it’s almost endless. Plus, you also have to try and remember the actual physical techniques you have been shown. Add to this the fact that the chances of a law enforcement officer being attacked or assaulted are about three times greater than an ordinary member of the public, the risk of serious injury, or even death, are increased dramatically. You need less to think about, not more! It’s hard enough for someone that’s had training, for the average citizen it’s a nightmare.
The vast majority of people facing street violence are like a virgin in the hand of Casanova “Their probably going to get screwed”.
We learn self defence in a sterile environment we train with consent. You won’t find the street predator in the local church hall on a Tuesday and Thursday night practising his art. He gets all the training he needs on the street doing it for real!
He’s got a host of nasty, sneaky tricks that he hasn’t just practised he’s used them to survive. If you have to fight to survive remember one thing about the bad guy. He will cheat, and it’s easy to win a game of cards if you’re the only one cheating. It becomes considerably harder when everyone else is cheating too. Violence in the street is a game where everybody should be cheating, and the winner is going to be the one who is better at it. Not always the toughest, fittest or best fighter
To be candid, the street predator is not going to give you a chance to use all that stuff you were shown in the gym. When he drops his bombshell on you, it’s going to be at his convenience, not yours. Because he knows getting in first is a major component of who wins on the streets.
If you don’t recognise the danger and understand what these things look like as they develop, then you are going to become just another victim of violent crime before you have a chance to bring out your best defensive tactics technique. The reality is that the predator you will be facing has experience, it’s not a matter of training with him, it’s a matter of doing. Like I already said you’re the virgin in this situation. He knows what he’s doing is a winning strategy because he has done it before. It doesn’t matter how “tough” you think you are or how good you are in the training hall, survival against professionally and habitually violent people has less to do with physical prowess or weapons, than knowing how to spot when someone is trying to set you up. Because once he gets that advantage, he will never let up to allow you use all those killer moves that you paid so much to learn.
Your safety is your responsibility, but it’s not about learning to fight, it’s about learning to cheat.
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Have you ever wanted to scream
“I told you so”
It hasn’t worked, and I told you it wouldn’t.
It is now on record that more than £12 million of tax payer’s money has poured into fighting knife crime has been an utter waste. It just hasn’t worked, and those that know me will verify that I have been very vocal about so-called ‘Government strategies’ being a complete waste of time and public money.
When are the people that decide on these policies going to recognise that the only ones who really understand knife crime on the streets of Britain are the people that commit it? Furthermore, the vast majority of these people have no interest whatsoever in what the law says about knives, and even less regarding what spews out of 10 Downing Street. What’s more, the mainstream of those who would like to get rid of their knives are unlikely to do so because they believe being unarmed in a war zone is stupid in the extreme.
Violent crime has been allowed to soar
In the past ten years violent crime has been allowed to grow by 77% in the UK. According to various statistics, this is higher than for any other country in Europe. At present, violent crime accounts for more than 1.15 million of the total crimes committed in the UK each year. Having to live in a country that is not only under the ever present threat of terrorism, but also has more than 70 reported knife attacks every day and we all could be forgiven for feeling a little under threat.
Whether the Government likes to admit it or not, the UK is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic, and rightly or wrongly the public’s perception is that such crime is out of control.
In 2009, at the cost of millions, every household in the UK was mailed a 12-page leaflet on how to protect yourself and your loved ones against an epidemic of Swine Flu that was supposedly going to wipe us out. You could obtain this information in about 15 different languages, on audio tape, in extra large print and even in Braille.
The epidemic of Swine Flu NEVER HAPPENED! So please let me pose a very simple question… Where is our 12-page Government leaflet that tells us how to protect ourselves and our loved ones against the real epidemic of weapons-related street crime that has been allowed to grow into a colossal malignant cancer already responsible for destroying thousands of lives?
As a nation we should be mortally embarrassed that, in the 21st Century, the British people have allowed the horrendous decline in values and discipline to ravage our streets and terrorise our citizens.
Want to cut knife crime? Educate the victims
I have said it over and over and over again, and I make no apologies for sounding like a broken record, but it’s a no-brainer…If you want to cut knife crime then educate the victims. To date I have not met one person that disagrees with that statement.
It’s the victims who pick up the tab for the Government getting it wrong. It’s the victims that suffer in silence while huge amounts of Government resources are being poured into futile initiatives that just don’t work.
We are all victims of violent crime and, as such, every citizen in this country should have access to information that helps them to understand the threat and gives them options on what they can do to avoid and survive it.
I wonder how much the British tax payer has paid for these pearls of wisdom printed it the Swine Flu leaflet. Under the headline ‘Catch It, Kill It, Bin It’, we are told to:
• Always carry tissues
• Use clean tissues to cover your mouth and nose when you cough and sneeze.
• Bin the tissues after one use
• Wash your hands with soap and hot water or a sanitiser gel often
Well here’s one for all of you on the subject of street crime. Accept this advice with my complements. Under the heading ‘Accept It, Avoid It, Survive It’, I would say this:
• Complacency will steal your life – accept the fact that weapons-related street crime is now part of your life and will never go away
• Do everything in your power to stay away from the people and avoid the places that might endanger you
• Learn how to recognise the danger signs that always precede an attack – this will help you to survive, and remember that survival is all you can ever hope for
Stop the talking and do something
It’s time to stop talking and take action. If the Government and the police won’t do it, I’ll do it and I’m willing to work together with like-minded people and organisations who believe my words to have merit to generate the funding and get and on with the job. While the Government wastes more and more of the tax payer’s money, people are dying and lives are being destroyed for lack of information.
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“Violent youngsters…
… are not born violent”
Sadly street crime and violence has permeated the very fabric of our lives. In our inner cities, suburban areas and now even small country villages no-one seems to be immune. Violence degrades the quality of all our lives. This diminished quality of life ranges from an inability to walk safely alone in the park or on the streets of our own towns, to the forced installation of expensive security systems and, because of an abject lack of a police presence, the necessity to formulate neighbourhood watch groups. Even in our quietest country villages long gone are the days when front doors were left open so friends and neighbours could just pop in.
Reports of children committing suicide as a result of experiencing violence and bullying in schools are rife. Children carrying weapons and committing horrific crimes of violence, murder and rape are on the increase. Many youths simply believe that they have to carry a weapon at school and on the streets in order to protect themselves. All these things are growing to epidemic proportions so much so that there is now a worldwide problem with aggressive and violent behaviour from children and adolescents not only on the streets of our cities, but in our small towns and rural villages. Bizarre as it may sound, some communities are literally living in fear of the local children.
For many years there has been huge amounts of psychosocial research into violent and aggressive behaviour. This research has shown there to be a substantial link in aggressive behaviour from infancy to adulthood.
A child of 5 or 6 years who shows aggressive and violent behaviour is more likely than others to exhibit delinquent, criminal and violent behaviour in adolescence and adulthood. Simple fact; in the majority of cases violent children grow up into violent adults. However, no child is born violent. There’s no such thing as a three-year old mass murderer or serial killer. Yes, very young children have killed and do kill, but many more children are killed by adults than there are adults killed by children. In order for a child to develop into a violent adolescent and consequently a violent adult, the child first has to be exposed to violence and that first exposure will invariably have been at the hands of an older person. As I said earlier, children aren’t born violent. True, but children are born into violence and violent situations.
In very simplistic terms (and because child abuse is a deep, dark subject that would certainly need more than this short article to explore) the first and most fundamental cause is to have suffered violent abuse at home at the hands of a parent/parents. However, even if a child is not on the receiving end but regularly witnesses aggressive and violent behaviour being dished out to others by a father, mother or older brothers and sisters, they will and do conclude that violent behaviour is quite acceptable and a normal part of life.
All children learn by modelling and imitation. In other words they copy what they see. Even if a child comes from a perfectly stable non violent home, it’s bewildering to think just how many acts of violence that child will have witnessed before the age of twelve. Violence in the media, gratuitous violence at the football ground, the symbolic yet non the less explicit violence in TV shows or at the movies, the death and mutilation glamorised in hi-tec interactive video games, not to mention the violence and abuse advocated in modern rock and rap music, especially towards women. Consuming vast quanties of violent material plus the likelihood of actually having to live in a violent environment, add to the mix the fact that many of these kids (for of course that’s all they are) have been conditioned into believing that resorting to violence is perfectly acceptable in order to get what they want. This plus an unshakeable belief that the more aggressive and violent they are the more ‘respect’ they will command and you have a serious problem. A problem that touches us all.
In the majority of cases where children have been violent to or even killed their parents it has been found that the child has usually been abused in some manner – degraded, humiliated, beaten, sexually abused or even tortured. The child often responds to violence with violence, for that’s all it understands. Sometimes an abused child can turn its violent anger towards a sibling within the family.
Most people are afraid of gangs of rowdy juveniles and at times with good reason. However, as with rape victims, the majority of people attacked and killed by adolescents are known to them. If a stranger is killed it is usually during a robbery. This sometimes happens because the juvenile will panic, but it’s more likely simply because of peer pressure, and usually from older kids. Statistics show that murder is more likely to occur when two or more juveniles jointly commit a crime. Also, if they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the more aggressive and violent they are likely to be. So staying away from gangs of drunken teenagers would seem a sensible thing to do.
In reality violent crime touches us all in one way or another therefore we have all become victims of violent crime. Even if it has never happened to you personally, the likelihood is that it will happen to someone you know – a friend, neighbour or even a relation and even if that’s not the case, the fact that we are forced to witness almost every day on the TV and in the newspapers the misery and suffering inflicted on total strangers by violent crime, gives us all cause for concern about our own safety and that of our loved ones. So you see, we are all victims by the very thought of aggressive and violent behaviour.
Anyone who has experienced a violent tragedy in their lives will know how they were forced to take a long hard look at everything in their lives from that day on. Often a long and arduous search for responsibility engulfs the mind, but the results are usually unrewarding. People related to a victim tend to fall into two categories – those who blame themselves and those who blame others.
In Gavin De Becker’s book ‘THE GIFT OF FEAR’ De Becker writes of one Willie Bosket acquiring remarkable criminal credentials very early in life. Apparently by the time he was fifteen this young man had stabbed twenty-five people and been in and out of detention facilities for an estimated two thousand other crimes. He was arrested for killing two people and commented, “I did it for the experience.” But because he was still only a minor he could only be detained for five years. Even behind bars Willie Bosket’s violence continued. He allegedly set fire to his cell seven times and violently attacked guards nine times. “I’m a monster the system created,” he says. One thing for certain, Willie was not born that way, so someone or something created him. Where should the blame lie for Willie’s actions? In the State of New York, USA there is now a legal statute that allows juveniles to be tried as adults. It is called ‘The Willie Bosket Law’.
De Becker relates another very poignant story. One brother says to the other, “Why did you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer came back, “Because our dad was a drunk”. The second brother then asked, “Why didn’t you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer came back, “Because our dad was a drunk”. Many kids live through awful childhoods and still grow up to become upright, productive, contributing and law-abiding adults. Whatever the outcome, it’s adults that make children into whoever they become.
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