NYC Subway Monkey Dancing
#fridayfundamentals
Today’s post is not about shooting technique, it’s about avoiding being an idiot. I’m writing a series of Patreon posts about the incident but Idiot Avoidance is the bottom line.
By now, probably everyone in America has heard about the shooting that occurred last week on a New York subway train. The full video is available on ABC 7’s video – Brooklyn subway shooting: the full video https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/nyc-subway-shooting-brooklyn-man-shot-on-train/14527921/
The most important lesson of the entire incident is not about weapons’ usage or unarmed combat or weapon disarms. The important lesson is to avoid ‘Monkey Dancing.’ Rory Miller coined this term years ago and it’s important.
“The term Monkey Dance was coined in the book “Meditations on Violence” to describe the human dominance ritual. It’s a deliberately ridiculous name for a ridiculous pattern of behavior.“
Rory Miller
Before the would-be shooter, who ended up being the shootee, began to access his weapon there were three and a half minutes of Monkey Dancing. It’s also worth noting that accessing his pistol took him 14 seconds because he had it in a zippered pocket of his jacket. He had taken off the jacket in preparation for the Monkey Dance, so it was off-body carry at that point.
It’s also worth noting that with two exceptions, the crowd watched and enjoyed the spectacle for four minutes. They only became unnerved by the introduction of a gun. Then, they began to panic and scream. “Let me out!”
The two exceptions were the woman in the face diaper behind the Black man and another man who took a big chance and stepped in to create a break. The woman, although not involved up to that point, immediately stabbed the Black man in the back several time when he began his Ground and Pound. It only took her a couple of seconds to get started so she must have had her knife in hand ready to go.
Monkey dancing is stupid and irrational. Don’t do it.
Tend To Your Own Business
#fridayfundamentals
Tend to your own business
the Assassin
That’s a sage comment the Assassin made while he and I were talking years ago. His comment was about the perils of intervention. I had my own experience with it a couple of days ago and learned some important lessons about the entire concept.
While at a large retailer, I observed a low level criminal teaching his son how to be a vandal. The criminal was not merely watching but was actively guiding his son through the process of how to vandalize the inside of the store. The boy was about ten years old. It was clear that he was being groomed in a similar way to the youth who tried to rob one of my University professors many years ago was being taught the trade of robbery by his uncle.
The criminal and his son were right next to me and the brazenness of the criminality surprised me so I reflexively asked them to stop. The criminal immediately threatened me for saying something about their criminal act. At that point, I realized he was a seasoned criminal and my conscious mind took over so I withdrew.
Upon reporting the incident to the store’s management, they asked me if he was still in the store and if I could point him out. The criminal and his entire family were only two aisles away so I indicated who he was. The manager and a security person asked me to step away and then they went over to speak to the criminal.
A few minutes later, they came back to me and said there was nothing they could do even though he admitted committing the vandalism. Further, they said they were not even going to ask him to leave the store. I pointed out that he had threatened me, to which they said since it hadn’t been a physical battery they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and the local POlice wouldn’t even respond to a call.
Rather than choosing to stick my head further in the lion’s mouth, I immediately left the store. As a precautionary measure, I took a Surveillance Detection route [Surveillance Detection post] home. Although a remote possibility, I didn’t want to a take a chance on the criminal deciding to follow me to escalate the situation.
Lessons from the incident
First lesson. It takes two or three seconds to make a conscious decision. As soon as things began to escalate, my conscious mind kicked in and I decided to withdraw. Before that, I had been acting reflexively as most decent people would; i.e., “Please don’t commit crimes in my presence.” I said it despite the fact that I have been preaching about the perils of intervention in criminal acts not involving ourselves for well over a decade.
Second Lesson. The incident was clear example that Boyd’s Process [link to OODA category] is not about making decisions in the moment. Boyd’s best work, the Aerial Attack Study [link] is about not only making decisions in advance but also formulating a plan for how to implement the decision. My plan now is to immediately turn on my heel and walk away from such a situation. This replaces my previous and more nebulous idea of “don’t get involved.”
Third Lesson. It is extremely unlikely that the benefactor of an intervention will appreciate it or even support the intervention. It’s just not worth it. As a fellow student commented to me years ago:
“What is the benefit? NO BENEFIT!”
Falah Al-Mutairi
Lucky Penny Saves the Day
Another motorized maniac tried to nail me on my walk today. Fortunately, I had found a Lucky Penny earlier during the walk. It was heads-up on the ground and Abe Lincoln told me to keep my head up and eyes on the horizon while I was walking.
As I entered a crosswalk, a motor assassin in a two ton Armored Pedestrian Killer (Dodge Ram pick-‘em-up truck) blew through a left turn at high speed. Because Abe had told me to keep my head up, I had my eye on the maniac as I entered the intersection. Sure enough, he roared through with pedal to the metal. I jumped back out of his path and away he went. As I jumped back, I almost fell but didn’t quite. Hopefully, if I had fallen I could have made a good Parachute Landing Fall when I made contact with the ground.
I’m very grateful to Abe for telling me to keep my head up and eyes on the horizon while I was out. The last assassin https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2022/09/04/awareness-saved-my-life/ didn’t get me because I was aware of my surroundings and this one didn’t either. Another thing I’m grateful for is that I studied how to make contact with the ground without becoming a casualty. That was the single most important thing I learned from various martial arts.
If you are interested in more in-depth writing about Point Shooting or Personal Defense Incidents and Analysis, please subscribe to my Patreon page by clicking on the image below.
Improvised Weapons Found
This video shows various improvised weapons I have found over the past year on my daily walk. Don’t assume vagrants are unarmed or harmless. As my colleague Chuck Haggard commented:
Every single “homeless” person I’ve ever arrested or had to pat down was carrying a knife, or knives. At minimum.
Someone who completely missed the point, no pun intended, was this YouTube common tater.
Or or [sic] just maybe Cary a knife / a gun if you are that worried you need a weapon and not use some random rusty screwdriver that probably won’t do shit
The slender 4″ shaft can easily penetrate a ribcage. While a pneumothorax https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pneumothorax/symptoms-causes/syc-20350367 is not an instantly fatal wound, it can definitely become one if not treated promptly.
Just because someone is a disgraceful vagabond doesn’t mean they can’t do something to you. You never know what will set them off.
They are not you.
–the late William T. Aprill
And what they do might involve more than just a cream pie.
AAR – Reactionary Zones
#mindsetmonday
I recently had the opportunity to attend REACTIONARY ZONES, a 3 Hour Online Session with Shelley Hill. This is an online class conducted via Zoom. This is my After Action Review of the class.
http://www.thecompletecombatant.com/online-reactionary-zones.html
One of the glaring holes in Personal Protection training is accessible training that goes beyond the gun itself. While there are various Force on Force exercises available, some good and some not so much, they still require travel to a training site, involve a significant time commitment, cost more than most people want to pay, and are intimidating to those new to the concept of training. Reactionary Zones is designed to address these issues.
As the saying goes, this class can be taken “in the comfort of your own home.” The cost is nominal ($39.95) for a highly interactive experience. Images are heavily used in the class as training props to introduce the clients to the idea that situations will require some degree of reaction for a successful outcome. Images are a part of the class but the emphasis is more on understanding timing aspects of Personal Protection.
A major benefit of the class is that it introduces the concept of spatial relationships and time requirements into Personal Protection thinking. This can be a difficult aspect of self-defense for many people, not just beginners, to grasp in a concrete manner.
Shelley has a very interactive style in the class despite it being Zoom based. It is definitely NOT a boring Zoom lecture. She engages the clients, poses a progression of situations, and requires the clients to learn problem solving. It was obvious a lot of learning was going on by those who attended. This is a thinking and reacting class not just note taking.
For those who are just beginning the journey into understanding Personal Protection concepts, whether armed or not, this is a great starting point. Even for experienced practitioners, there’s a good deal to be learned in the class.
FTC disclaimer: I had significant input into the content of this course. Shelley is a good friend of mine and invited me to take the course gratis. However, I receive no compensation for this review nor commission for anyone who signs up because of my review.
Awareness saved my life
For many years, in every one of my classes I have commented to the class that the typical middle class person is more likely to become a casualty at the hands of a motor maniac than from a criminal.
Yesterday was nearly the day for me. Fortunately, being aware of my surroundings kept me from getting killed or seriously injured. As Tom Givens says:
“Who is around me and what are they doing?”
On my daily walk, I crossed a four lane local street. There’s no intersection nearby so I had to cross the street where I could. A rape/murder van https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rape_van (beat-up full size van with no windows) was approaching so I waited for it to pass and then crossed behind it. Although those vans usually have rear windows, this particular one was even worse since the driver side rear window had been replaced with plywood.
As I crossed behind it, the driver immediately stopped, threw it into reverse, and hit the gas. Because I had my head up and was paying attention, I saw the white backup lights come on. This was a clue to me that I had better quickly move out of the way, which I did by sprinting to the other side of the street.
Then as I quickly walked down the sidewalk, the maniac continued to back up the street in the same direction I was going. Starting to think it was some Central American assassin coming to make amends, I got my hand on my pea shooter under my shirt but didn’t draw it quite yet.
Finally, he stopped and turned into the driveway of the shopping center on my side of the street. Then he drove into the drive-thru of the Burger King and ordered something. I proceeded on my way after visually verifying that he wasn’t an assassin but was actually just a moron like Joe Biden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron_(psychology)
The incident is a good example of why I never wear ear buds to enjoy distractions on my cell phone when I’m walking. Further, I follow Bill Rogers’ advice to ramp up my awareness when the situation changes. Crossing the street is a situation change.
“When you’re driving and you see the first few raindrops on your windshield, it’s time to stop daydreaming and pay more attention to what’s going on around you.”
I was only a few feet behind the van and had, at best, two seconds to get out of its way. If I had been distracted and not acted instantly, I would have ended up under his wheels.
After surviving all the health issues I have over the past four years, getting killed by a fool in a motor vehicle who’s only thinking about a Bacon, Sausage & Ham Fully Loaded CROISSAN’WICH https://www.bk.com/menu/picker-picker_4740 would have been a real tragedy. But I’m in one piece because I pay attention to what’s around me.
As a general protocol, I stay as far away from those vans as I can. If there’s one in a parking lot, I drive to the other side of the lot to park, regardless of how far I have to walk.
This post is also an opportunity for me to plug the idea of taking a Defensive Driving Class, which is the point of my comment in my firearms training classes. The last time I took it, I was the only one in the class who wasn’t there because a court made them. That’s sad.
The Oscar Slap
The timeline of the Oscar Slap has much value in the study of Personal Protection and Self-Defense. It has been preserved for posterity and study on video. The Guardian provides a short clip that shows it.
- Chris Rock makes his joke about “GI Jane 2.” = O second
- Will Smith laughs = +1 second
- Jada Pickett Smyth rolls her eyes = +3 seconds
- Chris Rock says, “Uh oh,” meaning Will Smith was already on his feet = +10 seconds
- Will Smith slaps Rock = +15 seconds
From the first indication something was going to happen, five or at most six seconds transpired.
Note the distances involved. Smith and Rock were no more than 25 feet (Near Phase of Public Space) apart.
Note also that Smith didn’t do a “Tueller Drill” on Rock. He walked purposefully but not even at a rapid pace to cover the 20 to 25 feet of ground.
Dr. Phil says “What bothers me? No one – no security or anybody came on the stage to protect Chris, and no one in Will’s camp – nobody stepped up to save him from himself.”
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dr-phil-reveals-bothers-him-080152453.html
Dr. Phil’s guest Exavier Pope, an attorney, legal analyst, and host of the podcast SuitUp, common tated, “He had a whole runway. That’s a lot of cooling time, not just for Will Smith but for anyone to have stopped him.”
Five seconds is NOT “a lot of time,” especially for something as unexpected as a Battery (Cal. Penal Code § § 242, 243) during a high profile televised Black Tie event.
Also observe that it took less than 10 seconds for Will Smith’s laughter at the joke to turn into violent action. The term “trigger” is appropriate.
When it’s least expected, you’re elected.
–John Farnam
For anyone who thinks this was staged, look at Will Smith’s face when he shouts “Keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth” near the end of the clip. That’s genuine anger. BOLO for it and keep your distance.
Priorities in Personal Protection
#mindsetmonday
Another excellent video featuring Ken Hackathorn has been posted on the Wilson Combat YouTube Channel. In it, he discusses what the real priorities are for Personal Protection.
Ken gives his view on priorities in this way:
But the most important thing you need to have is a proper mindset. And proper mindset; the way I explain it, is really broken down into three categories of importance.
- Number one, importance wise, is situational awareness.
- Second most important thing is decision making skills.
- The third one we all fall back on is combat marksmanship.
In 1759, the French philosopher Voltaire published his satirical novel Candide: or, All for the Best. From it the following ‘quote’ has often been derived.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Ken distills this into “Life sometimes deals you a bad card and you may be faced with combat marksmanship.”
My ebook Thinking Clearly about Self-Defense and Personal Protection goes deeply into the topics of awareness and decision-making. If you would like to purchase it, click on the image below.
This coming Thursday evening, March 24, 2022, those who want to develop and enhance their decision-making skills will have a unique opportunity. The Complete Combatant will be conducting an online evening class from 7-9:30 PM using Image Based Decisional Drills. IBDD was developed with a bit of input from me and I will be attending this particular session to observe, refresh, and learn. If you would like to join us, please click on the Reactionary Zones image below.
Points of Likely Contact
Sometimes we can be aware of danger zones and other times we can be on the lookout for specific spots where a predator might lay in ambush for the unsuspecting. The latter can be described as Points of Likely Contact. Recessed doorways, pillars inside parking garages, and dumpsters are examples of PoLC.
Today as I was on my daily walk, I noticed a suspicious individual hanging out behind a dumpster I pass by. There’s not really any good reason for someone to be hanging around a dumpster at noon that I can think of. So I made a detour through another pathway and walked around the front of the building instead of behind it.
This situation is a good example of Area of Interest and Area of Influence.
I’m interested in an Area that far exceeds the range of my weapons or a predator’s weapons. In this case, I saw him at least 35 yards away, so I had plenty of time and space to make a detour. No need to make any contact with lowlifes at all, if I can Avoid them. Avoid is the first, and most desirable, element of the Avoid, Escape, Confront, Resist paradigm.
When the terrain permits, my Area of Interest is 100 yards or more. For example, the distance from the turn lane guidepoles to the traffic light is about 130 yards. I’m actively watching distances that far away when I can.
I keep my eyes on the horizon whenever I can. That maximizes my view of my Area of Interest. This is also a good technique when driving. Look past the bumper of the car in front of you and as far into the traffic ahead as you can.
New Package Deal
It was suggested that I create a package of the STOPP Presentation and Advanced Pistol Practice. That package is now available at:
https://www.payloadz.com/go?id=3384448
As with all of my materials, purchase of the package also includes Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make.
When the time for talking is over
When someone pulls a deadly weapon on you, the time for posturing and talking is over. Regardless of whether it’s an edged weapon, gun, or impact tool, at that point the adversary has displayed deadly intent. In terms of the Avoid, Escape, Confront, Resist paradigm, you should either be Escaping or Resisting not Confronting.
You might use some De-escalation words as you move away, but that’s merely a ploy to buy time not a serious attempt to defuse the situation.
“They say running is good for your health, in my neighborhood, it can save your life.” –Chicargo humor
The need for this mindset was very clear in the Calvin ‘Mad Dog’ Gonnigan incident https://wgntv.com/news/courts-man-killed-1-wounded-2-in-south-austin-after-plea-to-stop-shooting-gun-on-july-4/. It also applied to several other incidents that have been brought to my attention recently.
Practice changing direction quickly and be ready to do it at a moment’s notice. Break Contact as soon as you can.
Tactical Professor books (all PDF)
- Thinking Clearly about Self-defense and Personal Protection https://www.payloadz.com/go?id=3377208
- Indoor Range Practice Sessions http://indoorrangepracticesessions.com
- Concealed Carry Skills and Drills http://concealedcarryskillsanddrills.com
- Advanced Pistol Practice http://bit.ly/advancedpistolpractice
- Real Shootouts of the LAPD https://realshootoutsofthelapd.com/
- Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make http://seriousgunownermistakes.com
- Shooting Your Black Rifle http://shootingyourblackrifle.com
- Package deal of Thinking Clearly about Self-defense and Personal Protection, Serious Mistakes, Indoor Sessions, Concealed Carry, and Shooting Your Black Rifle (50% off) https://store.payloadz.com/details/2644448-ebooks-sports-shooting-drills-package.html
Purchase of any book includes Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make.
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