Exile, he's the schmukele's lawyer. He has to say crap like that. It's still an impressively outrageous thing to throw out there.
Really—I sure as hell couldn't do it! I just hope the guy who defended himself on the street isn't going to now have to defend himself in court against a civil suit brought by the dead attempted murderer's relatives—or by the survivors who were injured. In a world where you can be awarded zillions of dollars because you spilled some hot coffee on yourself, who know what will happen next?? I swear, if that happens I'll contribute to his legal fund... and so will half of NY, I'd bet. People there look at someone like him and think, that could have
me those four guys went after....
Four armed against one unarmed. One dead, one nearly dead, one on the run, one captured. That's some mighty fine fighting there. Good training done conscientiously came through. It also shows that the dynamics of the situation are very important and how they differ from a set-piece duel or most training exercises. He was in the business of staying alive. They were in the business of finding a victim, not someone who would liberate a weapon and start killing. His thoughts on the matter were a little different. When things started going badly they could run - leaving their dead and wounded behind. He had to stand and fight or turn and die.
Yeah, I've read a certain amount over the past few year about how the military situation these days favors the defender, when there's anything like technological parity and approximately equal firepower. But in civil violence, it's normally all in favor of the attacker, because of this crucial difference in mindsets.
In my modest experience and extensive reliance on people who have much more it seems that the most important part of all of this the ability to flip the switch quickly and wholeheartedly. Causality is tricky, but it seems that the ones who don't fall into the third part of "Fight, Flight, Freeze" start taking the whole thing very seriously and immediately. Sometimes it takes that first wound to provide the trigger. In sexual assaults and armed robberies defenders who fought back tended to do so after the most serious injury. It's also possible that he didn't notice that he'd been stabbed at the time. A lot of people report feeling like they'd been punched or a cold sensation.
Interesting... as though the R-brain reactions finally kick in once the threat to survival reaches the point of an actual wound, a breach in the skin. Indo-european-group berserkers would, according to the reports of witnesses, fight ferociously till the very end of the battle in which they had been mortally wounded, and only die later on, not having noticed that they'd been gutted. Some of that was probably the result of... well, drugs, taken before the battle...but some of it was almost certainly just that strange physiological state that people go into when lethal violence engulfs them.
Who can say? It's inspiring as all hell. Thanks for posting the story, Omar.
Inspiring is right. My thanks too!
