So yeah i get it you feel it is unreasonable for an instructor to tell his students what measures to take in the event they get in a situation when their training should indicate that they not be there.
Kacey, in case you feel compelled to revisit this thread... see what I meant about us not getting anywhere?
Stabpunch: the above-quoted passage is one huge red herring. You are not going to find yourself actually intervening in a domestic by
accident. You may stumble upon a situation in which there is domestic strife, possibly violent, brewing, and in that case, you already should know the answer: make as quick an exit as possible and contact the police if, in your judgment, violence has broken out or is just about to. If that's what you advise your students to do, then no, you're not being unreasonable; on the contrary, you are giving them the best advice possible. But that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about finding yourself in that situation (a situation where you don't want to be) and then
actively intervening in it. You are suggesting that we feel it is unreasonable for you to try to tell your students, or yourself, or anyone, what kind of intervention to undertake in that situation. And you're right. There is no intelligent intervention you or your students can undertake because—you're right, this is indeed getting boring—
you don't know what to do in such situations. You're no more equipped by your MA training to handle such situations— which typically involve complex family dynamics, possible/probably alcohol abuse, possible/probable drug abuse, histories of psychological/physical/sexual abuse, and so on and on—than you are to take over the scalpal from an experience cardiologist at a critical phase in open-heart surgery.
You don't know enough. Why are you having such a problem with this simple, elementary fact? If it makes you feel better,
I don't know enough, and probably most of the MT membership doesn't know enough. Drac, jks and a few others
do know enough because they're experienced cops who've put their lives on the line in such situations enough times, and who've received enough specialized training from experts, that they themselves have become experts in what is often a situation with no good solutions. But you—and me, and most of the other participants in this thread—do not know enough. The difference is, me and the other participants in this thread are happy to admit that we don't know enough and that speedy withdrawal and reporting of the situation is the only viable course open to us
for the good of all concerned. You, apparently, are
still not willing to accept this flaming, gaping fact.
I feel that you are presumptuos that my question is answered as you are my superior and not my equals.
I'm not sure you realize this, but what you're doing here is another red herring. Rather than address the
content, you are trying to focus the discussion on our supposed bad behavior in lording it over you because of our `superior' status [????]—I've no idea where you get this, but think of it this way, Stabpunch—if someone maintained on an MT thread that the best way to rid themself of a headache was to pick up a frying pan and bash themself with it a few times really hard, and that person got a lot of static from people telling saying, whoa, that's a
really bad idea, where did you get such a wrongheaded notion from, all you'll do is hurt or maybe kill yourself, and if the person in question then responded with, `You're just putting me down because you think you're superior to me', wouldn't you lose patience with that person and want to shriek at them, `No, we're just telling what you're suggesting is totally wrong and self-destructive and could get you killed and won't help your head at all, why don't you just pay attention to the issue and not go off on this wounded-vanity tangent??!!' Well, that's what we're telling
you.
As many of you here are instructors i feel it is irresponsible to train from the perspective that you are going to have the ideal situation at hand. Do you ever think that you may be in a position not to call the police what happens then? It's all the what if's again but if you don't disscuss outside of the 'acceptable' responses you are ill prepared for the time when the preverbial hits the fan. 'Luck is the combination of chance and preparedness' as quoted from some book somewhere.
Another red herring, and a real doozy. Your younger child comes up to you and says, `Daddy, who do love more, Robin or me?'. `I love you the same', you say. `But if you only could save one of us from a kidnapper, which of us would you save?' `I'd save both of you or die trying' you reply. `But what if the kidnapper said that if you tried to save us and died, then he'd kill both of us?...
That's what you're doing. Building up absurdly improbable scenarios as a way of avoiding the fundamental fact that in virtually every real-life case you or your students or anyone else is going to encounter, a fast exit and a call to the police is going to be possible, practical and a hell of a lot safer than anything you're contemplating... we keep pointing this out to you and you keep coming back with, `But what if....?' Stabpunch, `what if' isn't going to happen, at least along the lines you keep bringing up. You get out of the situation. You call the cops. That's all that needs to be said!!!
