LARS said:
As a new member, I have spent several hours reading posts on this forum to become familiar with thoughts and beliefs on the topic of street violence. Research on this topic is very important to me , due to the line of work that I am in. My bio can be found at:
http://www.personalprotectionsystems.ca/darrenlaur.htm
For some perspective on what happens in a street fight, I offer the following link to over 40+ video clips of street violence caught on video tape that everyone can look at for free.
http://www.personalprotectionsystems.ca/multimedia.htm
Darren
Mr. Laur, now I remember who you are. I've seen you interviewed on the Taser (I'm a Taser instructor as well). I've read several articles on your website and they're very fascinating. I did want to note a couple things. In addition to being an LEO, I'm also a psychology masters student and i'm planning to specialize in the study of aggression in human beings and other primates, both group and individual, and how that aggression manifests itself in modern society.
One of your articles entitled "A Deadly lesson" presented a very good story about how people can misread a situation and the deadly outcome. I agree whole heartedly that your conclusion that the biggest mistake made was to be suckered in to argument was correct.
I wanted to present a couple things about the incident that occurs to me for discussion. Many times the baiting and name calling that preceeds a fight is an opportunity for each participant to size up his opponent and build his own courage. It's a ritual played out in school yards, prison yards and back alleys everywhere, and it's much like a choreographed dance. If you just walk away, however, it is still possible to be suckered in, and in some circumstances may result in even greater aggression, as it allows the would be aggressor to believe you are an easy mark. Of course that said, one should never succum to the temptation to engage in this back and forth banter, as it doesn't provide any real advantage.
Further, I believe the fatal mistake made other than not walking away initially, was walking away after the fight was engaged. I've seen this numerous times. A fighter will get the better of another fighter, but will decide that the fight is over when it really isn't. They will decide to walk away, and the person on the receiving end will seize the opportunity of an opponent with his back turned to attack. I believe this is an inborn response in all predatory species, including man. The turned back creates a predatory response and actually increases the likelyhood of attack, especially with a weapon involved. We even see this among by-standers who sometimes feel compelled to strike one of the combatants from behind.
Once aggressive contact was engaged by the victim, two things should have been his response. An aggressive enough response to cause injury in the would be assailant to a degree significant enough to cause impairment or a lack of desire to continue to fight. I've seen this occur when a male subject was attacked by a member of a group of males. The aggressive response of the attacked individual was not only enough to eliminate the threat of the attacker by rendering him unconcious, but also frightened the aggressors 5 other friends enough to prevent them from rendering aid. The second response should have been to back away from the incident, as the aggressor would be less likely to attack from the front.
Again, a few discussion points and I look forward to your comments. Very informed website with a lot of good information.
