The Real Judo

Normally write a bunch of long stuff talking about different issues and such with martial arts. Lately I've been seeing alot of the old black and white footage of Judo in the early days. Watching some of these masters even by todays standards alot of what they are doing is really slick. Alot of what I see these masters doing I don't see used anymore except by BJJ and catchwrestling people. Things like Kimura/Double wristlock takedowns and submissions. Really good scarf hold escapes. The guard being used alot more. People think alot of this stuff was invented by the Gracies until you see these clips. Speaking of The Kimura Lock, A few of these actually feature instruction by Kimura himself. I'm not going to post on the rest of this article. I just ask that you kick back and watch the videos and appreciate the skill and flow of these great masters of Judo.

The Genovese Continuum

   In 2006 I wrote an article called Kitty Genovese and Me. It would later be published in two e-zines, one called The Combatant  out of Chicago and another being DGC Magazine out of Houston. It detailed the study of a murder in New York in 1964 where a young lady was stabbed to death in front of a bunch of people and it was believed no one did anything. Some studies were done about it and it was named Genovese Syndrome after the murder. These days it's more commonly known as The Bystander Effect.  A few months after the article was published in The Combatant I noticed the FBI had done a recent study on it and put it on several sights. Then after that the media got involved and alot more information was getting out to the public. It felt good to be a part of that. Back in 2006 there weren't any videos on youtube about it and most people never heard of it. Now recently in my peer group there has been alot of discussion about it and people wondering what they needed to do and when to act. Some still don't understand the psychology and what it really means to act and what it says when your just a bystander. Even though we covered pretty much the whole thing in the original article I feel a follow up is needed. Watch the below videos before we continue.

    These are some of the more well known incidents as of late. I want to draw your attention to the top video. This is a great video to accompany the first article. It breaks down exactly what we talked about 5 years ago towards the end of that article though some of the terms may have been slightly different. Everyone wants to pass the buck and conform to the crowd. Everyone thinks someone else will act (diffusion of responsibility) but if one person acts it breaks "The Effect" and others help as well. It is my belief that you need to be that one person that helps. This is a blog for martial artists. We didn't spend all those years of training to do nothing with it. If you have the ability to make a difference then you should be compelled to make a difference. The biggest enemy of the bystander effect is the knowledge of it. If you know about it then you should not fall victim to it. You should know that others won't act and that you should act.

    On another note in that video you can see when people think that person is a member of their peer group they feel compelled to act. I think it took someone 6 seconds. In the first article we called this Biker Mentality because that article dealt more with violent attacks at the idea that if you fight one biker you have to fight them all. If a person this your in their group they will help. However it isn't always a violent event as we've scene. Someone could be sick or injured and need help. The bystander effect applies just as much if not more to these situations. Many states have followed suit of countries like Canada and Australia and adopted Good Samaritan Laws. These are laws that protect people from being sued if they help someone in good faith and something goes wrong with it. Other states are even going further and looking at passage of Duty to Rescue Laws which make it a misdemeanor to not intervene when you see someone needing assistance and do nothing. States realize they have to do this because they realize that people today are morally bankrupt and it must be done. 

If your are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem

                                                                              --Malcolm X

      I believe the above statement to be true. I can understand fear. Fear is something we all deal with and there are alot of things that can go wrong. However, courage is not the absence of  fear it is the overcoming  of fear. Giving into fear is called being a coward. I would rather die like a warrior than live like a coward any day. If you witness someone in the process of being killed and you do nothing then in my eyes your just as responsible as the murderer. If someone is injured and laying on the ground begging for help in a public place and you don't know first aid then call a 911 and stay with them until help arrives. I believe being a bystander is one of the worst things you can be especially you have the ability to help them.

    Are we talking about two people arguing and just jumping up in someone's business? Of course not, let's get a little more specific now and put this in the right context:

   If you witness a mugging you need to understand that money and belongings can be replaced. This may not be a life or death situation. If you feel that you have to do something then draw attention to the mugging keep a safe distance and call them out. These guys just want to get the money and run quickly. If your pointing out the mugging and yelling they may just run off. You don't want to just run in on someone with a weapon. Unfortunately in one of the videos above a man found that out the hard way. Then we he was laying there and dying the Bystander Effect took effect in a disgusting display. As i said before people are morally bankrupt and you cannot depend on them. That video made me sick.

    

You see a married couple arguing. Don't just get into that they will more than likely turn on you. If anything tell them to quiet down if they are getting loud maybe they'll actually stop arguing. There's laws about public disturbances you know. However if one puts their hands on the other I believe you should intervene to stop an assault. Just don't personalize it.

  

    Two drunks get in a fight at a bar. They usually have bouncers that break that stuff up. However if they don't and the fight gets out of hand with one getting the upper hand in a big way where a serious injury may take place then yes intervene. As we have learned in the above videos if you break the cycle you'll most likely have help once you do in that type of a situation. Unfortunately not always, but in a more social setting like that I'd bet on that help if it was me(I was a bouncer for years I've seen hundreds of those situations).

   A guy with a broken arm falls by himself in a hallway and can't get up and your a woman he asks for help.

Now those of you on your game will know I picked this specific scenario on purpose. In an above paragraph I talked about assisting someone who was injured in a public place like the one deomnstrated in the first video. As some of us know serial killer Ted Bundy used this exact scenario to lure women into the hallway to attack them. In a private closed off area like that you just ask them to be calm while you go and get help then get help quickly. Not everyone who falls in a hallway is a serial killer faking it. If your a guy you can save face by saying you have a bad back or some crap like that later on just don't go into that hallway alone. Since there wasn 't a crowd this isn't really the Bystander Effect but some critics will try to take it out of context and make it that way.

   The point is that in these situations there are things that you can do. Maybe you handle it slightly different but you helped resolve the situation in a reasonable way. There was an incident not too long ago on facebook where a girl posted that she was going to kill herself. Her friends posted back but no one went over there to stop her and she committed suicide shortly after. It's a myth by the way that when people are vocal about suicide that it means they just want attention and won't do it. Once again, that is a myth. In that situation just someone going over there to talk to her may have saved her life. This is what I'm talking about. This is the more common form of the bystander effect. We talk about more violent events because that is the subject matter of the blog but this is the more common form. It is something anyone can help with. Don't stand by while someone dies. To do so says negative things about our society and you. If you'll stand by while someone dies you'll stand by during anything. We can be better than this and our society can be better. Asking an entire society to change over night is nor realistic. However ask an individual to make a difference is not and a society is made up of individuals. People who stand up for those that need us shouldn't be the exception it should be the rule. Some say police tell you not to get involved. The ones that tell you that only say that for liability reasons it has nothing to do with it being the right or wrong thing to do. If it was wrong to do it then states wouldn't be looking at passing duty to rescue laws making it a misdemeanor not to do it. We can make a difference and you can make a difference if you are reading this. I'd also recommend reading the original article if you have done so. As you may have read in other articles like Beware of the Fallout and The Double Edged Sword of Empathy I'm not a bystander and I don't think you should be one either. Links for the mentioned articles will be provided at the bottom of this one. As I said in the first article you now know about the bystander effect. There is no excuse:

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!

Now be somebody and make a difference! Thank you for your time

relevant articles:

Kitty Genovese and Me

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/06/kitty-genovese-and-me.html 

Beware of the Fallout

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/06/beware-of-fallout.html

The Double Edged Sword of Empathy

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/06/double-edged-sword-of-empathy.html

Martial Artists vs Black Belts by Venom

 
    This is something that has been on my mind for a long time. I've wrote similar articles in the past but it's been awhile. I'm talking about the dumbing down of martial arts in this country until they are no longer martial. There are too many dishonest people involved in what we do who are dishonest with themselves if they don't believe they are dishonest with the people around them. The divide between martial artists and black belts has gotten wider and wider as time has gone on and I feel the need to stand up and speak on it once again because I believe in what I do and most of all i believe in the truth and I hate to see people being lied to and ripped off.

   To get to the point right off let's look at the definition of the word Martial. Merriam-Webster defines martial as: 

1. : of, relating to, or suited for war or a warrior 

2 :  relating to an army or to military life 

3 : experienced in or inclined to war : warlike

     This is the meaning of the word martial. The word itself is latin meaning from Mars(not the planet the God of War). Yes people that's right it's not asian and no martial arts absolutely did not originate in asia. Actually there is some evidence that there were no canonized arts in asia at all until after the campaigns of Alexander the Great. That of course is up for debate and not relevant to this article. So we now know the word itself implies that the person is either in the military or they are basically a fighter in some form or at the very least prepared to fight. 

    I like to sit around sometimes and listen to the old timers talk about how martial arts used to be. They talk about how back in the old days people would spar bare knuckle and you had to be able to fight to get your ranks. Everyone earned everything they got. I know on my way to my Judo black belt I won a heavyweight championship on a state level, a shoulder dislocation, and one good concussion to go with it. You bet I earned my rank. I didn't have it easy but if everyone could have something then it wouldn't be worth anything would it? I think you see where this is going.

    As technical director for an international organization I visited alot of schools and seen alot of programs. I don't visit alot of those schools anymore because frankly I'm just disgusted. I saw schools doing techniques on the same level at black belt that weren't much better than the white belts were doing. I saw an instructor in Madison,AL once change an attack because the wrist lock he wanted to use wasn't working against a real attack. So instead of using the technique correctly or trying it a different way he changed the attack to something unrealistic. I was helping another guy in the area once. I'd go in and show these techniques and better ways of training to produce better students. They'd all nod and talk about how great the techniques were and I'd feel like I got through some where. I'd go back the next week and they weren't implemented. I'd give them more time then bring it up. I'd hear something like umm yeah I remember we talked about that last week. Well you know talking doesn't fix anything. I gave him a link to my articles and he read a few. This guy actually sent me an email back saying he agreed with what I was saying but he was just trying to teach these students how to defend themselves he wasn't trying to develop Navy SEALS. He couldn't understand that he wasn't really teaching his students anything and that what I was telling him was the basic information they'd need to defend themselves at all. You know I once went to a Jujitsu school that didn't teach nage waza because they were afraid it would scare potential students and run them off. Yes I'm serious that actually happened.

   Most use the excuse that they are just trying to empower people and build good character. This is a load of crap and a complete insult to anyone's intelligence. They actually want us to believe that you have to lower the bar on quality to make someone feel better. Well you know the US Military has made alot of men out of boys do you think they shy away from rough training? The fact is they are lying to people. It's all about money plain and simple. Martial arts isn't for everyone and should not be for everyone. Martial arts are for warriors. Teaching someone crap to make it easier to fill your schools is not about character it's about money so you need to stop lying to yourself and others.

   What you are teaching is not martial arts and you are not a warrior your just a fabric salesman. Yes that's right there is a huge difference between a black belt and a martial artist. If you spend more time going to marketing seminars than you do working on your program to make it better then you are not a real martial artist. You just a low rent con artist that takes advantage of people and fills them with a false sense of security. You are not helping anyone but yourself and you are disgusting.

   These jerks have people so brainwashed it's mind boggling. You go in and try to help them out and they just looking at you like you dropped a load of dung on their circle jerk. Some people just don't want the truth they only want the perception of it. They'll come after you too if you stand up and fight it. I've had them go to the Hanshi of the organization before and say bad things about me and they even held up my 6th dan promotion for a year in Jujutsu but I finally got it anyway. You know I'd rather actually be somebody than just look like somebody anyday. People use your common sense. If your not having to work hard for something then your not getting anything. Now building character is important don't get me wrong but that can be instilled with any program. I recently wrote an article called Don't Look at the Floor or You'll Soon Be On It which used boxing as a great metaphor for positive life lessons. Can you imagine the looks someone would get if they claimed they studied boxing but never sparred? That doesn't even sound right.

    Some others use the excuse that they are standing by tradition. This is also wrong. These arts were originally developed in ancient times for military use. The fact is like any military if those techniques weren't working they'd change them. They aren't going to die on the battlefield for loyalty to some technique , but apparently some instructors think it's alright for their students to die for them now. If martial arts don't deal with modern problems and modify and change over time they become a stagnant museum piece. They are no longer a living art. No art deserves that fate. I'm not saying go in there and bash skulls every night but you have train people to develop the attributes of the art that can work in a very real way. You should always pressure test your techniques. Your loyalty should only be to the people that walk through your doors and put the faith in you that you can teach them how to reasonably defend themselves. 

   It's a sad development of our society. Teaching people that the bar will be lowered for them and they don't have to work for what they get is not a good lesson. We are living in tough times and need realism more than ever. We need warriors not pretenders.  A black belt is not necessarily a martial artist anymore. There are alot of good instructors out there it isn't just about money with everyone. Some of us are still out here living and breathing this stuff. My name is Paul Green and I'm proud to be a martial artist.

 

Don't Look At The Floor or You'll Soon Be On It

    I used to train in boxing quite a bit years ago. Like everyone else I wasn't very good when I started, it took alot of effort to get there. Sometimes you had to take a hit to give one. Sometimes you just had to let your hands go. One of the lessons I learned early on was keep your head up don't stare at the floor coming in swinging. My coach would always say,:"If you look at the floor you'll soon be on it." When your moving in to throw those blows you can't just do it blindly because your afraid. You gotta  keep that head up so you'll see those counter punches coming or you'll probably get dropped with an uppercut.
   I often think about boxing as many have as a great metaphor for life. Especially the statement "Don't look down at the floor or you'll soon be on it." I think it has many true conotations. So often in life people go off half cocked. I have several articles on here talking about it. Very recently i did an article called As the World Implodes: When People Put Their Agendas Ahead of the Truth(I'll put a link to it at the bottom of this commentary). Basically a guy was running from police officers then shot at them. When they shot back he was hit and died. An entire neighborhood held protests accusing the police of shooting an unarmed man. They went in swinging without looking. They didn't have all the facts. Now after the gun has been recovered it appears as though he actually shot himself to keep from going to jail.  It happens all the time. Just because someone is boisterous and passionate about what they are saying doesn't mean they have a clue what they are talking about.  You can go after someone but your facts need to be straight. I saw an interview on youtube very recently. It was Bill O'Reilly interviewing Bill Mahar about religion. Bill Mahar is a famous comedian who also happens to be an athiest. He was basically trying to say that religion is bad and alot of the stuff in the Bible isn't true.  Now I'm a spiritual person myself I believe in God but I'm not big on organized religion. To prove the Bible preached violence he quoted a saying from the Book of Deuteronomy. It was basically the part where it says you should kill your neighbor if you catch them working on a sunday. Bill Mahar went in swinging with his head down. As many of you know in the christian religion the Old Testament is basically used for parables only and life lessons it isn't literal. The laws governing the religion are found in the New Testament only. If he had taken the time to research that and know the subject he was speaking on he wouldn't have made a bogus uneducated point. If your going to use aggressive speech you better know what your saying. It's like police kicking in a door before checking to make sure they are at the right house(trust me it happens).
   Before you attack a problem you need to understand the problem. When guys try to modernize martial arts more often than not they go into it with preconceived notions of what will work and what will not. They believe their traditional art to be superior to others so they invent ingenius solutions to nonexistent problems. So they have great defenses against the wrong attacks. They never really understand the problem because they never make the attempt. You can't teach a person who already knows everything. They go in without having all the facts about real attacks then invent a crappy unrealistic system so they can sell it to you as the newest stuff when it is just someone swinging with their head down.
   We've all heard sports metaphors before. We know there's a much bigger reason to keep your head up. You as time goes on it seems the world becomes more and more violent. As it does it seems people care less and less. With so many things going on to make you feel bad keeping your head up can be harder than it sounds. The fight we are in is both metaphorical and literal at the same time. Sometimes I hear folks talk about the innate good in all people. The people who say that need to lift their heads because their is no such thing as innate good in all people. Some people are good and some aren't. Some have had their heads down for so long they are disgusting. I'm gonna date this article by mentioning some current events. Yesterday there was a terrorist attack in Norway. It was a horrible tragedy and our hearts go out to them. The people there will pull together the same way we did during the 911 tragedy. They will be uplifted because of it. People will help because it is a big thing. We are there for the big things but it's the small things we falter. This morning singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment. She had a long history with drugs and public aggression. The belief true or not was that she wasn't a very nice person. When the story was posted on the internet the replies varied. Most talked about it being such a waste which is true in the context it was said but better words could've been used. Alot however went out of their way to say she was a junkie and who cares and that they hoped Lindsay Lohan was next. These are the people that you have to worry about. They have their heads down and can't see the truth. These are the ones that will drag you down to their level and make you suck as bad as they do. They have their heads down so that is precisely why you need to keep yours up. Makes it easier to knock them out.
    Now I know this is getting off subject a bit but it's bothering me and I want to address it. I want to answer the question posted by alot of these jerks today. The question of who cares? I would venture to say alot of people care. I'll continue to use Amy Winehouse as an example. She had to have parents right? I know she was married at one point. She had family and friends who are devastated right now as I write this commentary. You see I want to share a truth to all you people with your heads down. All death is tragic. Death is a lost opportunity for the dead as well as the world around them. For people who have had a bad life it means they have no more chances to make it better or improve. Personally I always pull for the underdogs. It's my way of saying f@#k you to the powers that be. When someone dies  like that their future actions can no longer inspire us. Good, bad, or indifferent we can't learn anything from them anymore. We only have that short span to inspire us in one way or another. They are gone and those opportunies are gone with them. What if she finally kicked drugs? She was very talented. Would she have inspired others to get off drugs? Would her newer music inspire someone else to be a singer? We'll never know that because she's gone. That's what I mean by lost opportunity. When someone dies we all lose a chance at something because none of us know the future. How many of you have lost someone you wish were here right now? I would venture to say all of you. That's the answer to the question who cares so lift your heads up for once and see it.
    As I talked about in other articles Personal Empowerment and You and Do You Have Dreams To Remember? Self confidence is important especially when their are so many people who want to take it from you it should show you the value of it. In this life it's full of people that want to tear you down. We must educate ourselves to these basic truths to defend against them When the ignorant come in swinging to take us out you have to know your stuff and be confident. Do be like those people. Don't look at the floor or you'll soon be on it.

related articles:

As The  World Implodes: When People Put Their Agendas Ahead Of The Truth

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/07/as-world-implodes-when-people-put-their.html

Personal Empowerment and You

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/06/personal-empowerment-and-you.html

Do You Have Dreams To Remember?

http://stonewalltactical.blogspot.com/2011/07/do-you-have-dreams-to-remember.html

Hiking and Personal Safety part 1 with Master Peter Brusso

Summer and autumn hiking is most likely the best there is! However, with the overall economy, the actual way it is, far more people will probably be hiking as it is affordable to perform. With this produces much more of an element of opportunists (the bad guys), whom share the paths along with you. And there are more factors to hiking that may be really dangerous. Having said that, we still all desire to benefit from the out-of-doors so here are a few thoughts for making your hiking more safe.

First recognize you're out side the aid of law enforcement, sheriffs or park rangers. Indeed, they are able to reach you but realize it might not be for hours and hours. Hours, you say? Indeed, several hours and in that time awful things may happen to an individual or their loved ones.

Second, often times your mobile phones do not have coverage within the rural area’s exactly where trails are prevalent. So, you will possibly not even be able to call for help.

Third, recognize you need to depend on you and only you, as your 1st line of defense and your survival. This is dependent on considering some kind of self-defense weapon but what one?

Now where to start?

Understand that assaults come in stages or distances. Someone or some thing will have to close in on you to harm you. So, best to intercept assaults from a longer distance if at all possible. Handguns are ideal for this however, not all park systems permit this sort of item so you are left with several options. Bear pepper spray is one, however in rain or wind, limited if any help you'll have. Strangely enough “wasp” spray is very effective in both conditions where pepper spray doesn’t. However, it has a chance to really damage what ever is attacking you and some say hey, that’s fine with me… it’s an individual decision.

You might like to have a walking stick and learn to utilize it as part of your defense. Walking sticks, or staffs, have already been utilized successfully for years and years both in Asia and europe. Why don't you dust off that ole favorite and learn how to protect your self by using it. At the end of this article will be a link to where one can read more instruction. Now, if a staff is simply too large for you personally consider using a 36” walking stick…. Also it can provide you with superb stand off capability for most of the factors, that might come to harm you. From people to creatures, a 36” stick can be quite handy to have about.

I'll produce other articles or blog posts, which still include options for hiking. But this really is great brain food that you should think about and do some investigation on the 36” walking stick (Hanbo) or perhaps a 5-6 foot staff. Later I will also bring in the self defense weapon "the defenders" for you hiking needs.

Master Peter Brusso

Edged Weapon Defenses That Could Get You Killed If You Try Them!

Go ahead and watch the above video being promoted by Police Magazine. Looks pretty good right? You know it does look pretty good and that's part of the problem. As good as it looks my friends it's not very practical. Knife fighting is one of the most provocative subjects in all of defensive tactics. No one can really agree on anything. However, we aren't worried about those people we are going to use logic and facts in this article. Most that promote knife programs and defenses have a set idea of what they think reality is before they do their research. I however have been in real knife fights and witnessed even more than that. In previous articles we have pretty much exhausted the fact that police officers do not get the training time that they need and probably never will. I'm not saying every one of these tactics are bad but most are terrible and will get you killed if you used them. Officers can use these tactics and develop them over time and they may be useful but the fact is that the will not receive that time and if they do they will not utilize it.These tactics are too developmental for police officers and shame on this magazine for promoting them.
   It isn't because the defenses are bad it's because the attacks are completely unrealistic. Notice how on impact the attacker just leaves his arm out there? All the swings are wide?Sure there will be wide swings sometimes but with every attacker in the world? I honestly don't think there is a fully functional defense against someone attacking dynamically I don't think there is one big magic tactic that will always work. You have to just train realistically and figure out what works for you it could all work or all fail.A big problem in knife training today frankly is too many tactics that are pointless. Most programs separate between committed and non-committed attacks.This is a fatal error since logic would dictate if you just developed tactics for non-committed tactics they could work even better for committed attacks depending on the tactic which of course must be pressure tested.
    On the attack the man not the weapon in my experience I'm kind of in between. Depending on the situation it could be either. I believe at some point you have to control the weapon bearing limb unless you can disengage and escape. This is a battlefield proven tactic used since WWII that we know for a fact works. This tactic is made easier by diminishing the attacker. Maybe you have to strike first before getting that limb but eventually if your not disengaging you gotta get it. Now true some attackers will already be diminished under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Maybe they will be tired or out of shape. This is probably likely but we don't know for a fact that this is going to be true. There are some cultures out there to which knife fighting is an integral part. They study knife fighting from childhood. Sure most knife attackers are untrained but alot of them aren't so we can't assume that at all. So when developing a knife program we must not use this as a factor because it's something that we can't depend on.
      There were many times in this video that attacker could've redirected and cut this guy all to pieces at will. Everything seems to be done in a nice static situation and in reality there's probably going to be alot of movement. Alot off it will be much closer and faster than these attacks are being demonstrated. I promote some footwork while diminishing the attacker then controlling that limb. Frankly it makes the most since out of all of it. If I can run or evade at the same time as drawing my weapon I can just shoot the guy(This is an underdeveloped skill in most gun programs but that's another article entirely).Even more so than all of the tactics awareness can stop the largest percentage of it. Most of the time these knives are carried in the beltline. Do me a favor and stand in front of the mirror and see how hard it is to pull something out of it without bending your elbow outward. Not easy is it? You pretty much do it every time, some more subtle than others but you still do it. Nice thing to know huh? How did this guy even get a knife out in his hand and where was your head at when he did it? If a guy has his hands in his pockets keep  a safe distance and be conscious of it. Make him take his hands out then if he doesn't then you should know that something is up. That information will be more helpful than a physical tactic and I didn't even film a lame uneducated video.
   The sad part is most will see that video and never question it. They will repost it on facebook and twitter and everything else. When i became a defensive tactics instructor I thought I was going to see some killer training and wanted to train in some of these police programs and teach them. I was in shock when I saw how bad and flawed police training police training actually was and decided to come up with my own programs to fix it. Let's look at some REAL knife attacks and I think you'll see what I'm talking about.

Yup the store owner shot him!

Not alot of space there was it? Did you even see the knife at first?

Notice the lack of space to do the cool Kung Fu parry with strike

So how was he disarmed? Oh yeah controlling the weapon bearing limb

If that guy had tried to parry that knife and attack the man not the weapon he would've been hacked to death

   The tactics taught in the original video we are speaking of can work and can be good tactics but they are simply too developmental for the police than will not for whatever reason get to develop them therefore it is irresponsible as hell for that magazine to promote them as something other than what they are. If you need some tactics tonight don't use the tactics taught in that video because it could cost you your life

Note: After the completion and posting of this article I actually saw a knife video even worse..lol check out this moron:

this is sooooo bad i just had to add it to the article

What the Hell Were They Thinking?

  You know the last couple articles I've written have been about the uneducated public always screaming police brutality so I decided to write this commentary next out of fairness. The fact is police brutality does exist. It happens all the time. Anyone remember the Gena 6? The problem isn't people screaming police brutality when there actually is police brutality. The problem is kinda like cursing. When you do it too much it loses it's meaning. Nowadays anyone resisting arrest screams police brutality and uneducated people are quick to believe them and make things harder on everyone. Police brutality is of course hard on it's victims. It's hard on good police who have to deal with the fallout. It's even hard on the taxpayers when the victim(rightfully so) turns around and sues the hell out of the departments. Who do they think actually pays it? For those that don't know what police brutality looks like I'll give you a couple of examples:

Now I couldn't find the actual file video that I wanted so I had to use news footage. Basically from viewing the file video I watched this woman pull up in her car. She got out and walked up to the suspect who was already in cuffs and just punched him. It didn't look like she even said anything. My question is....WHAT THE HELL LADY?!!! Was she pissed because she had to walk so far? Did they interrupt her lunch at McDonald's? Was she sick the day at the training academy where they covered the part where during an arrest after the guy was in cuffs you weren't supposed to punch him? What part of this procedure did she not understand? Did she think is was free shot friday? This was a pointless and stupid act that is only going to get the department sued and build more animosity towards police. It was just plain dumb.

Jesus! Now that was some bona fide police brutality right there. The kid had surrendered and had his arms on his head and everything. Now the woman taking the cheap shot in the first video was bad but she ain't got nothing on these guys. This video is almost too bad for words. You know I was in Houston back in February teaching at a school there. I had a business lunch with a good guy by the name of Jim Hodges I even have one of his articles on my website on on this blog called Play the Game. He had worked for the Houston police at one time but was now retired doing consulting work.  I remember he told me that many years ago when he worked for the department in his office he had a sign he kept over his desk. I can't remember the exact wording but I'll paraphrase it as best I can. It was something like:

Be careful in you pursuit of the monster

Lest you become one yourself

   I think these guys need to read that statement and remember it and practice it diligently. You know some cops get mad at the media for filming this stuff. They should really be mad at the cops in this video for doing what they did. Videos like this are not only an assault on the victim but also an assault and embarrassment on good police everywhere. These guys aren't typical police most are much better and take more pride in their jobs than these guys. These guys should be ashamed off themselves.

   You know I just got back from Houston this week. This time I was there training officers(not these officers but other ones). I enjoyed talking to the good cops there and looking at this video one conversation sticks out in my mind. I was speaking with an older officer about the old SAP gloves. For those that don't know SAP gloves were lead lined gloves that cops wore in the old days to punch people and knock them out quickly. Police aren't allowed to carry them now and I asked him if he wishes they could still carry them. He said no so just out of curiosity I asked why? He said the police brutality was getting out of hand. He used the example of a guy who may have been a geek in high school becoming a police officer then deciding to beat the crap out of people when he got the uniform on. They were good back then but it's better that we don't have them anymore. There was a good reason they were taken away. This is a good cop here. Real police who respect the badge won't do dumb things like you see in these two videos. These videos are not indicative of most police. The public becomes outraged when they see things like this and they have every right to do so. They should be outraged and I'm outraged too. But at the same time so are most police officers. I would just ask  that the people reading this blog to not lump these cops in with the good cops that go out and do the job right everyday. Thank you for your time

As the World Implodes: When People Put Their Agendas Ahead of the Truth

 The more I work in the public sector I realize people are even crazier than I thought they were. It seems like everyone is trying to get over on someone else and no one cares about the truth anymore. To see this you don't have to look any further than Washington D.C. to see it. Our politicians caring more about their parties and the people who donated campaign money. Media only caring about their agendas and  putting out false stories because they know that no one will check them. Even the people who follow them all like sheep. We could talk about how evil politicians are all day but I don't think the internet is even big enough to talk about all that corruption so I'll use a smaller incident.
  A man was killed today in San Francisco. It's always bad when someone dies but even worse when they are so young. He was only 19 years old. It's a tragedy. He was approached by a crime unit detail and asked some simple questions that they were asking alot of people. He chose to run and fired back at police officers. An officer returned fire and the kid was shot dying soon after.
  After the kid fell laying in a pool of blood someone grabbed the gun on the ground and took off running southbound up the street. Someone caught it on video and the officers caught him later and recovered the weapon. Now why would this person grab the gun and take off like that? They did it because they wanted it to look like the police shot an unarmed person. They had an agenda. They didn't care about the truth they wanted to nail police and laugh about it. Actions like this don't help anything. If you pulled a gun and shot at me I'd shoot back. Any of the people yelling obscenities in the below video would've done the same. That however didn't stop protests later in the day even though they were completely based on a lie. The gun had been recovered and others saw the kid shoot back at cops. But they didn't care. Some just want to hate police and they let their agenda get ahead of the truth. I'm going to post the video for you to watch. Someone uploaded it to youtube and called it "SFPD ruthlessly shoots and kills 19yr unarmed man over $2 bus fair." That ,by the way, is actually a lie. But the fact is none of these people care they want to hate police so they are going to regardless. I orginally saw this video on policeone.com where I post my seminars from time to time. There were some good comments about the videos afterward I'm going to post those as well I hope the people don't mind then I got a little more to say.

   Here are some comments made about it:

I understand it was a very chaotic scene, but get it under control and get those people off your crime scene... officer safety is key, this could have very easily turned a bad situation to a worse one....once back up arrives, rope that scene off and push em out so your rescue personnel can get in...That don't happen in Miami...we make that perimeter so big they need a satellite to get video!
Stay Safe! 

Gotta love the power of the observations of these fine citizens! AMAZING!(note from stonewall tactical - for those that don't understand it this is called sarcasm)
The truth always comes out. Videos like the first one mean nothing for or against involved parties and only serve to pull down good LEO's everywhere.

A great saying I love to reiterate, "Believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you see." So true is it when viewing videos like this one.

The cell phone video really shows chaos and not much more as far as the gun. It does show the mentality of the police haters, uninformed and uneducated people in the area. In most cases people may be curious during a shooting, but anyone with a brain in their head would star clear rather that getting in the middle of something like this. I have seen this here in Africa. People like to riot over small things and then the situation fuels itself and people in the riot are not there for any reason but to destroy things and be violent.

   Ok so those were the comments about the shooting. While I understand the fact that what they are saying is true I still don't like the cavalier attitude with which it was said. Please remember a young man is dead and attitudes like that are big reasons why some of these people hate police so much to begin with. I'll say it again, it's a tragedy anytime someone dies and when they are so young it's even worse. Now the fact is that he shot at police and they had to shoot back to protect themselves. There is no denying that.
   Right now everyone is frustrated. People are mad at the economy. Cops are tired and overworked. Everyone lately seems to have a short fuse and this isn't a good recipe for anyone. So to this guy that grabbed that gun and took off to try to set up police I just want to say...HOW DARE YOU! In areas like the bayview district in San Francisco there is enough problems already. What if the protests had gotten out of hand? What if more people got arrested or shot over your lie? Trust me it could happen. What were you trying to do and what did you hope to achieve? We all know what he wanted to achieve. Once again truth be damned someone else thinks an agenda is more important. We can't believe anything we see anymore. A person laying on the sidewalk dying in public is bad enough. What this jerk did is confirm that we've lost sight of the important things. Truth. I just want to ask people to take a long look at themselves as I will do the same. The truth isn't always pretty and it doesn't always feel good but it's still worth holding onto so please put your agendas aside. Let's make the truth worth something again

Clearing up Knock_and_Announce Confusion by Alicia Hilton

Yes, you can go in without knocking. But you better know when to do it, or a plaintiff's attorney will teach you the hard way.

The detective rapped on the front door. Then three seconds later, instead of waiting for a resident to answer, one of the officers on his team kicked in the door.
They had expected to find a meth lab in the apartment, but the man and woman they'd awakened in the middle of the night and handcuffed had committed no crimes. The officers had raided the wrong apartment.
The couple retained legal counsel and asserted multiple Section 1983 claims against the detective, his team of officers, their department, the mayor, and other government officials. After extensive litigation, the court of appeals held that the detective was not entitled to qualified immunity. So his failure to ascertain the proper target of the warrant and his failure to follow the knock-and-announce rule jeopardized his career and crippled his personal finances.
By understanding the knock-and-announce rule, you can prevent this from happening to you.
Wrong and Dangerous
Some police departments have interpreted the Supreme Court's recent Hudson v. Michigan ruling as a license to execute warrants without knocking, announcing, and waiting a reasonable amount of time for a resident to answer the door before entering. That interpretation is both wrong and dangerous.
Failure to adhere to the requirements of the knock-and-announce rule can result in terrible tragedy and extremely expensive litigation. Perhaps the most infamous example of this is the Nov. 21, 2006, shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a botched no-knock drug raid by officers from the Atlanta Police Department.
To cover up the fact that Johnston was innocent, the investigators who had executed the search planted marijuana at her home and later attempted to coerce an informant to claim that he had purchased cocaine at her home.
The results have been devastating for the Atlanta PD. On April 26, 2007, two of the officers who performed the illegal search pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, perjury, and other criminal charges. The drug informant who was coerced by the officers plans to sue the department and the city. The investigation into the shooting of Kathryn Johnston and other possible related acts of law enforcement misconduct is ongoing.
Let's take a detailed look at the knock-and-announce rule and discuss when and why you can be sued for failing to knock and announce.
This is Nothing New
The requirement that law enforcement officers must knock and announce their presence before entering a residence is not a new rule. Under the common law, police officers could not forcibly enter a residence to execute a search warrant unless they first knocked at the door, identified themselves as officers of the law, articulated their reason for requesting admittance into the home, and were refused admittance.
This requirement was clarified in the 1995 Supreme Court case Wilson v. Arkansas in which the Court unanimously held that the common law knock-and-announce "principle forms a part of the reasonableness inquiry under the Fourth Amendment." Therefore, "the reasonableness of a search of a dwelling may depend in part on whether law enforcement officers announced their presence and authority prior to entering."
Proponents of the knock-and-announce rule assert that 1) it protects life and limb because a resident may mistake an unannounced police entry for a criminal invasion and brandish a weapon in defense; 2) it protects property by giving the occupant the opportunity to admit the officers; 3) and it protects privacy and preserves dignity by reducing the risk that the police will enter the wrong residence and even when there was no mistake about the place to be searched, permits those within to have a brief notice to prepare for the police entry. For example, if officers knock and announce their presence, a nude resident might have time to don a robe before officers enter his bedroom.
Even when the entry is made without force such as when the door to the residence is not locked or an apartment manager agrees to open the door, you must ordinarily observe the requirement to knock and announce before entering. Some courts have even ruled that you must first announce your presence before entering a wide open door.
To comply with the notice requirements under the knock-and-announce rule, you must identify yourselves as police and indicate that you are at the home to execute a search warrant. After this announcement is made, you must wait a reasonable time for an occupant of the premises to admit you. If you are denied entry or there is no response from within the residence, you may proceed with a forcible entry if necessary.
The Supreme Court first addressed how much delay is necessary before forcible entry in United States v. Banks. They concluded that a 15- to 20-second wait by the police before they forced the door open with a battering ram was sufficient because the police had reason to believe that if they waited longer, Banks would destroy his suspected stash of cocaine. The officers that executed the search were unaware that Banks was showering when they knocked on the door. The Court reasoned, "[T]he facts known to the police are what count in judging reasonable waiting time."
In addition to destruction of evidence, the Supreme Court has recognized other situations where police do not have to knock and announce:

• A reasonable suspicion of a threat of physical violence to the officers or someone within the residence
• A reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing would be futile
• A hot pursuit of a fleeing criminal

With regard to futility, proof that officers have made a demand for entry and that entry has been refused has been deemed unnecessary.
Reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause is the appropriate showing when a no-knock entry is challenged. The Supreme Court has also rejected a bright-line rule that certain categories of cases such as narcotics investigations should always be exempt from knock and announce. Instead, the Court requires a case-by-case, totality-of-the-circumstances analysis.
The Evidence May Still be Accepted
Perhaps the most important Supreme Court decision involving the knock-and-announce rule was handed down last summer. In Hudson v. Michigan, the Court considered whether narcotics and firearms that were seized during a search should be suppressed because the Detroit police officers who executed the search warrant failed to observe the knock-and-announce rule. The officers did announce their presence, but they waited only a short time—perhaps three to five seconds—before opening the unlocked front door and entering Booker Hudson's home.
Because Michigan conceded that the officers had violated knock and announce, the sole issue was whether to apply the exclusionary rule.
In delivering the opinion of the Court, Justice Scalia concluded that violation of the knock-and-announce rule does not require application of the exclusionary rule. He wrote that the exclusion of evidence was not warranted because "the constitutional violation of an illegal manner of entry was not a but-for cause of obtaining the evidence." Scalia based his opinion on the fact that the police would have executed the warrant and found the guns and cocaine even without the violation.
Furthermore, Scalia adds that even if the violation were the but-for cause of the seizure that would not necessarily be a sufficient condition for suppression. "[W]e have never held that evidence is 'fruit of the poisonous tree' simply because 'it would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police.'"
In addition, the Court's decision said that the exclusionary rule is not an appropriate remedy for a knock-and-announce violation. The Court reasoned that the threats of internal police discipline and civil suits were effective motivators to prompt officers to follow the knock-and-announce rule.
To sum up, in Hudson v. Michigan the Supreme Court decided that the exclusionary rule was not an appropriate remedy for a knock-and-announce violation. But let's be clear on this: It did not abolish the knock-and-announce rule. On the contrary, the Court reiterated reasons that the rule should be followed and emphasized that plaintiffs have the right to sue law enforcement officers who violate their constitutional rights.

Causes of Action from Knock-and-Announce Violations
Let's say that you failed to knock and announce prior to executing a search warrant. Here's a look at some of the causes of action that infuriated plaintiffs can file against you and your agency.
Civil Rights Violations
After the Civil War, Congress enacted the Federal Civil Rights Act, Title 42, United States Code Section 1983, to provide Americans with a remedy for unlawful arrests, detentions, or killings committed by police. Also, under 42 U.S.C. Section 1988(b), Congress authorized attorney's fees for civil rights plaintiffs. However, because most plaintiffs in these cases do not prevail, recovery of attorney's fees is by no means certain.
In order for a plaintiff to state a claim under Section 1983, he or she must allege the violation of a right secured by the laws of the United States, and must show that the alleged deprivation was committed by a person who was acting under color of state law.
Plaintiffs asserting Section 1983 claims arising from knock-and-announce violations have advanced many different theories of liability. The following list should be treated as an introduction, not a complete summary of all available remedies:

• Danger Creation Doctrine—This is invoked when the plaintiff argues that your action placed the plaintiff in danger. For example, if in the middle of the night you force a man to wait alone outside his home while it is being searched, and someone robs and beats him, you may be liable for his injuries.
• The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment Right to Bodily Privacy—You violate the right to bodily privacy when you cause the plaintiff's unclothed body to be seen by strangers. If you force a partially unclothed woman to wait in the lobby while you search her apartment and she is seen by one of her neighbors, then she may be able to assert this claim.
• Section 1983 Liability for the Acts of Others—An officer, even if he is not a supervisor, can be held liable for other officers' acts. An officer subjects someone to the deprivation of a constitutional right within the meaning of Section 1983 if he or she does an affirmative act, participates in someone else's affirmative acts, or omits to perform an act that the officer is legally required to perform, and that dereliction of duty causes the deprivation of the plaintiff's rights.

You don't have to personally participate in the act to be held liable. If you set in motion a series of acts by others that you knew or reasonably should have known would cause others to inflict the constitutional injury, you can be held liable.

• Conspiracy Liability—If you join in a plan with one or more other officers or supervisors and that plan results in a deprivation of constitutional rights, you may be held liable as a co-conspirator under Section 1983. Although a plaintiff may introduce circumstantial evidence to provide proof of conspiracy, vague allegations unsupported by material facts will not be sufficient to state a claim.
• Liability for Failure to Prevent Harm to Others—If you were in a position to prevent constitutional injuries that were inflicted by another officer and you failed to take action to prevent those injuries, you may be held liable under Section 1983. In order for liability to attach, you must have had a duty, not performed the duty, and there must be a relationship between the failure to perform and the duty. Also, damage or injury must result.

State Law Intentional Torts
In addition to Section 1983 claims, plaintiffs may also seek redress through state law intentional tort causes of action. These include but are not limited to: assault, battery, trespass, false imprisonment, false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breaking and entering. Depending upon the laws of the jurisdiction, the government may be prohibited from paying punitive damages on the officer's behalf if they are awarded to the plaintiff.
Here's What to Do If You Get Sued
As discussed above, unless you have a reasonable suspicion that exigent circumstances exist, you must follow the knock-and-announce rule before entering a residence to execute a search warrant. Having passion for your job is admirable, but don't let your enthusiasm make you forget the risks of committing a constitutional violation.
If something does go wrong during a search and you are sued by a plaintiff, don't panic. The good news is that most officers who are sued don't lose their jobs, get demoted, or suffer financial hardships because of the lawsuit.
But don't shove the summons and complaint in a drawer and hope it will disappear. Speak to your supervisor and provide him or her with a copy of all legal papers. Then confirm that your agency's legal department or the outside attorney who represents officers in your agency and others who need to know about the matter are notified.
Finally, don't be afraid to call on others within or outside your department for support. Litigation can be a painful experience but, if you cooperate with your counsel and behave professionally, you have an excellent chance of coming out of it relatively unscathed.

Alicia M. Hilton is a visiting professor of law at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was an FBI Special Agent who worked undercover in two long-term criminal cases, posing as a drug dealer with ties to organized crime.

 

The Four Rules of a Violent Attack by Master Peter Brusso

There are four basic laws or rules that occur during a violent attack.  You can stop the violent attack at any one of these points or rules.

Rule number one; you have to be at the wrong place at the right time.  Now that might sound trite but if you think about it is a very important step.  You know in your mind and your heart that there are some places you should not go, at any time.  We know these places are dangerous.  But, we tend to do stupid things because we don't think about where we're going and we get ourselves in to trouble.  So, think about where you're going and is it safe to go.  Okay, we blew it and now we go to rule number two.

Rule number two; you have to be approached for a violent attack to occur.  There are a few exceptions mind you but we won't discuss those, we want to stay in the mainstream of self defense.  So when using your awareness and you can see when people are approaching you, you can simply go the other direction, or in some cases even enter a store or another establishment and avoid this step altogether.  But let's say we want that smart again and were in the wrong place at the right time plus somebody's coming to talk to us.

Rule number three; is for a violent attack to occur the attacker usually picks up some dialogue.  There are some rare cases of just “spontaneous physical attacks”, however we are not talking about the exception to the rule.  So I as the conversation starts to take place, and in one of the other articles I wrote about, this is where you can start to paint the picture you want your opponent to see.  Again, you might say you're an off-duty policeman or the like, and that might stop this whole attack from occurring.  The signposts that were going to move to the physical aggression part usually happens at this stage.  When the attacker uses profanity or some other verbal putdown, you’re moments from the physical attack.  This is where you could decide how you want to handle rule number four.

Rule number four; is the violent attack.  Now many martial artists or even self defense instructors would tell you to get into a fighting stance to defend yourself.  I on the other hand and going to suggest something to off balance your opponent altogether.  Few people can actually get into a fighting stance and go toe to toe with the attacker.  The result is you're still going to get beat up, mugged, or raped or possibly even worse killed.  This is all done of course after you got into your fighting stance and they beat the holy be Jesus out of you to get what they want. Rather I suggest we stay in rule number three that is conversation.  Utilize a conversation to close the distance between you and your attacker, such that you can move your hands closer to a vital target. For example you could hold your hands up and talk to the attacker about your fingers or something as you close the distance, confusing the attacker while all the time your fingers are getting closer to their eyes so you can attack their eyes.  You might move closer so that when you do intend to defend yourself, your hands, feet, and head are just mere inches from their target.  A surprise attack from this close position has a very large chance of success when compared to being to some fighting stance and trying to go toe to toe with the attacker.  By distracting your attacker with your conversation and painting the picture you want them to see, allows you a strategic opportunity to get close to the targets you need to attack to get out of the situation.

In conclusion, by using some form of distraction or confusion, allowing you to close the distance to a vital target is crucial in surviving a violent attack.  Mentally, what it does is it gives you something to think about rather than being frightened.  It also puts you in a great position to defend yourself if the need arises.

Master Peter Brusso

The Reality Check:The Police and You

 Lately as I've been writing more and more I've noticed an explosion on youtube of for lack of a better term"idiots." I've been seeing alot of arrests for disorderly conduct and pretty much every time I've seen it I have witnessed the same broken record. Some moron screaming police brutality and yelling about rights they don't actually possess. It blows my mind that the people that scream the most seem to be the most uneducated people who apparently slept during civics class. You know the type that knows everything but never read a book. Now this may seem like I'm being a jerk talking about people like this but I'm going to post some videos for your enjoyment to illustrate what I'm talking about here. Let's check out this one from here in my home state. This is in Foley,AL. Now I'm going to give you a little backstory on this clip. A police officer was on duty but had a little down time so he stopped into Wal-Mart to pick something up while nothing was going on. This couple verbally assaulted him and accused him of treason for shopping at Wal-Mart while on duty. Yes you heard me right they accused him of treason for shopping at Wal-Mart while on duty. Let's see what happened next.

   Now I enjoyed this video and watching these people get what they deserved. I however want to address some of the dialogue. First, this woman yells, "I can say whatever I want I'm an American!" Now I'm a big supporter of the first amendment but I do not support the abuse of it. The fact is no you cannot say whatever you want and you definitely cannot say it as loud as you want. Though it is usually not enforced it is technically still illegal to publicly use foul language in public in most states. It's part of that whole pesky disturbing the peace thing. Even when enforced it is usually overturned in court but the law is still on the books. Two good examples of it would be in 1999 a man was tried and convicted of cursing in front of a woman and children when he fell out of a boat. In 2004 a New Mexico teen was arrested for cursing at his teacher. Both overturned eventually but the point is the law is there so technically no you can't say whatever you want because others have rights too not just you. They have a right to not have to listen to your potty mouth. Anyone remember disturbing the peace is a crime? Apparently not these idiots. Then this guy yelling at the officer saying he's breaking the law when he obviously doesn't know it. I wonder what these people thought would happen when they resisted arrest. Did they think the officer was just going to give up? He ain't going to give up moron your going to jail. If he can't get you in cuffs more officers will come until your in cuffs. Then next thing idiots like this yell is police brutality. Does police brutality exist? Hell yes! So what is police brutality? Well I'll give you a good example. Let's say you get arrested and go peaceably and the officer cuffs you. Somewhere between the cuffing and the jail you nose ended up where one of your ears used to be. That is police brutality. If a cop gets in a fight with a guy and the guy is beaten and prone unable to defend himself and the cop keeps beating him. That's police brutality. Pretty much anything that happened in Birmingham,AL in the 1960's. That's police brutality. You assaulting an officer while resisting arrested and getting tazed or punched? This is not police brutality. Basically we have freedom of speech. We don't have freedom to be a jerk and ruin everyone's right to a peaceful life. A police officer is not a judge. Their job is to enforce laws...duh.. that's why they are called law enforcement. You will never win an argument with an officer in the street. That is why we have a court system.

Now in the second part of this video there is an attack on a 15 year old girl in a jail cell. To me this is police brutality. I posted this video for the act in the first part of the video. The infamous video of the girl getting punched. Basically here is what happened. The girl in black was getting arrested for jaywalking. She didn't like that so she resisted arrest. Apparently the seattle police department has no unarmed defensive tactics that are worth anything so the officer had problems. The girl's friend decides to jump in and make it a two on one. She shoved the officer and slapped at him and got punched. My question is what did she think was going to happen? Did she think they were going to beat up this cop and he'd know better than to mess with them because they were so badass? That's just dumb. I can guarantee you something similar to that was the thought. If an officer is going to arrest you then you will be arrested no matter what. If he has to call back up then he will do so and you'll be arrested anyway but now the charges will pile up. The fact is you are only going to make it hard on yourself. Hell the fine for jaywalking isn't even that much. If you resist arrest the officer is going to do his job.
   I'm refusing to post the video of the dancing people at the Jefferson Memorial again however I will tell you about it. There was this guy named Adam Kokesh. He got kicked out of the marines for buying weapons from Iraqis and hiding them. He got a job at the english language affiliate of Russia Today. He hooked up with a friend named Medea Benjamin who raised money for Hugo Chavez. This was a little bit after Russia invaded Georgia unlawfully and the United States talked bad about them for it. Shortly after this in America there was a court ruling that it was unlawful to dance at the Jefferson Memorial. Kokesh and Benjamin used this as an excuse to slam America. They sent out press releases letting the media know what they were going to do at the Jefferson Memorial. Then went there and got really loud. When the cops came over to warn them they cut the cameras on for Russia Today. They then taunted the cops talking about the first amendment etc. They attempted to arrest Kokesh and he resisted so they did a takedown to get him into cuffs because they couldn't arrest him standing. Benjamin and her boyfriend were also arrested for dancing and kissing. The idea was that Russia Today could use the footage to characterize America as a police state and call us hypocrites for talking bad about Russia invading Georgia and it worked like a charm. They still heavily feature it on youtube uploading as RTAmerica, RussiaToday, CodePink, etc. It worked because of the ignorance of the people viewing it. The good folks at facebook couldn't wait to bash the police for arresting these people even though the people planned this and showed up specifically to be arrested on film. I remember one guy made the comment in a thread that unlawful laws should not be obeyed. Seriously? Yeah I'm sure that will be a great argument in court. Just so you know even though these people broke like 10 laws they were let off with a fine for demonstrating without a permit. They didn't even charge Kokesh with resisting arrest. Everyone on the thread went straight to police brutality....big shocker huh? If you resist arrest an officer can do what they need to do to get you into cuffs for the most part. Then if they beat you yes it's police brutality. A cop doing a takedown against someone not compliant is not police brutality nor will it ever be. Please learn the laws before you spout your ignorance. An officer cannot change laws only a legislature can do that. Now if enough people protest then yes the legislature may change that law but that doesn't mean you won't sit in jail until it's changed. Once again in closing you will never win  arguing with an officer on the street if you think you've been wronged then exercise your civic duty and take it to court

Hell, Heaven, and Earth In A Week Part 2

   I remember looking up at the apartment again knowing I was taking a risk. I was really nervous about running out of gas on the way and hoping I'd have enough. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to push it past Birmingham but I was willing to try. Hell I wasn't going to get anywhere playing it safe. It'd never got me anywhere before. I made a few calls on my cellphone to let people know where was going to be and hoping I'd make it there. The sun was still out and as hellish as the day before was it was actually a beautiful day today. I'd went walking earlier but part of the path was cut off due to debris because the city was clearing out trees. You could tell a tornado went through there the way the foliage was split down the middle. There were even fish slung out of a nearby stream onto the path that had died. As I turned down I-65 I put a cd in and rolled the window down a little bit keeping my fingers crossed.
   It was an eye opening drive to say the least as I got just a little down the interstate towards the huntsville brown's ferry overpass I saw the sign that used to mark it wadded up like a big old spitball. This wasn't a small sign the tornado just wadded it up like it was nothing and threw it to the opposite side of the road.

                 This big sign was ripped up and crushed into a ball on the opposite side of the interstate

   I was doing fine on gas I didn't have to worry about it for a bit, but in all honesty I'm a structured person and this was a little out of the ordinary for me just winging it like this. All along the interstate there were gas exits but I knew I needed to get further. As I got down to Cullman I went to the second exit and looked up seeing no one at the gas station I thought I'd found it for sure. If I could go ahead and get the car full it was going to be a done deal. I'd seen a few other gas stations on the way but they were backed up out into the roads hell I'd run out of gas waiting in line as long as it was going to take. So I took that second Cullman exit and pulled into the gas station feeling pretty good about it. I got my debit card out ready to put it in then I saw it. I was so excited about not seeing a line I didn't even notice that the gas station was closed. There was no power in the part of Cullman county everything was shut off the pumps wouldn't cut on. I sighed as I got back in my car and shut the door. It sucked but it wasn't time to panic yet I was only about 45 minutes into a 6 hour trip it was too early to worry.

This is a couple videos of some of the action the day before in Cullman,AL that took out the power

   I rolled through a few more towns before hitting "the Ham"(short for Birmingham) and by this time it was getting really dark and my gas was starting to get low but still not too bad. The Ham had it's own problems with the tornadoes the day before taking a direct hit but as I drove through it everything was still lit up pretty well. Either those buildings can take a punch or somebody got rich selling generators. I was good about it then when I got to the Homewood area everything just stopped. There was either a wreck or some road construction but I couldn't tell. The longer I sat there in gridlock the more frustrated I got and the more I stared at the gas gauge. I was going to be fine if it wasn't for whatever this was but dammit! Now I'm starting to panic a little I'm down to 3 bars on  fuel and I was so close. I wanted to get to Pensacola so bad I could taste it. I had planned on making it there by midnight now I definitely wasn't going to make it. I grabbed the cellphone and called Wayne down in Pensacola and told him I was going to be late I figured he was probably over at The Docks with Janelle having a great time while I was stuck in this damn traffic in Birmingham. He sounded like he was already drunk on the phone(he was actually asleep). He just told me to take my  time and not to worry about it. I took a deep breath and pulled it together staring at the fuel gauge . I told him I wasn't sure how to get there exactly but I'd call him when I got to Flomaton to get better directions.

   Now I gotta tell you about this Pensacola setup because it's pretty schweet! We get these free hotel rooms because Wayne has got the serious people skills. He could sell crack to an ass. He retired from the city of Hartselle and pulls these barbeque rigs behind a truck and can pretty much cook anything better than you ever tasted. Anyway so we get the rooms free and the place is across the road from the beach. You can actually see the ocean from the third floor. There are about 5 bars within walking distance off the room so once you get there you don't have to drive to do anything. The aforementioned Docks is one of those bars and the previously mentioned Janelle is a very pretty bartender that works there. She isn't just kinda pretty she's more like write a bad check  pretty if you can understand what I'm saying here. In other words, there's fun down there and I'm not having any of it right now. After the day I had yesterday and waking up to the apocalypse I was ready to drink a beer or fifty and I had to get to Pensacola to do it and all the damn cars in Birmingham were in my way and I dropped another bar on the fuel gauge.

Here's a video of The Ham the day before

   I finally weeded my way through traffic and found the source to be some road construction where the interstate was down to one lane. The Ham was right at the end of the disaster zone and I guess everyone wanted out at the same time. I was down to two bars on the fuel gauge but I felt like I could make it to Alabaster. I had a friend in Alabaster that taught Jujitsu and I'd go down there and teach his class sometimes so I knew there was a gas station right off the interstate by the whataburger.  I was still a little worried when i took the exit thinking what if I was wrong what if they are shut down too and it doesn't end with Birmingham.

I could see alot of lights so I knew they had power I pulled into a service station and let out a huge sigh of relief that I was right and I could get gas here. There was an attendant out there sweeping stuff up I noticed him right away because he had an eye missing and no teeth. I spoke to him briefly as I was filling up the tank. Apparently he owned the place which was shocking. I know you can't by sight but shit, you can buy some teeth and a marble. I was feeling alot better getting in that car pulling back out onto the interstate. I guess Hondas do get great gas mileage after all. It was only 9pm but this stretch of the interstate seemed to have no lights so it was very dark.

    As I got further down the road with no traffic and with it being so dark I couldn't see a thing I started to get restless. I didn't really feel like listening to the radio I enjoyed the silence but at the same time when things are quiet too long I can start to get a little introspective. It had been less than a month since I had left my technician's job to focus exclusively on Stonewall Tactical. I'd been working on the Houston seminar but it was a bad time of year. Police departments were out of money the fiscal year  runs from october to october in Texas. By my calculations I'd be broke sometime in august. I was also looking at other states but it would take some time to get POST(Peace Officer Standards and Training) approval in those states. It was a huge gamble but I wasn't happy with my life. I had goals and dreams that I had to at least try to attain. As I grew up I watched my father work at a job he hated to provide for us. I could tell how miserable he was he would just sit in his room and drink. Over time it changed him and he became a more bitter person and rarely left the house. I love my father but I don't want that to be my life. I wanted a better life and was willing to fight for it but it was still scary. If I were to fail there would be no one to blame but me. 

    As I passed Montgomery,which is the state capitol, it looked majestic. It was lit up like a christmas tree spared from the tornadoes. It was so dark other than those lights it made them brighter. It made me think to myself as I passed by and the interstate turned pitch black once again. I asked myself would those lights have been as bright if it wasn't so dark around them. If there was no failure would success have any meaning? Do our bad times magnify our good times? With all the doubts I sometimes feel I know this time I have to just keep on and not give up. The talent that I believed in to get me to quit my job was going to have to be the talent that got me through this doubt. You know doubt and fear are necessary in life. Both act as a check to keep us from being reckless. 

   There was always something about driving at night that helped me think. I remember years ago I was engaged. I was probably 20 years old it was so long ago. You know as bad as it sounds 17 years later I don't remember alot of great times with that girl. I guess it was a good thing we never got married. I do remember being devastated when it was over and thinking the feeling would never go away, but of course it did. Time clears away pain the way it does with memories not worth remembering. I remember not being able to sleep and getting in the car at 3 am and driving at night to clear my head then too. Sometimes I'd drive all the way from Athens,AL to Columbia, TN. I'd just keep driving until I saw the light. I guess that's what we have to do in life sometimes when it's dark. Driving to the ocean seemed metaphorical for me. Sitting by the ocean watching the waves was always so peaceful and relaxing. I thought to myself maybe if I stay on this road in my life long enough maybe I can find the ocean there too. 

    I shook my head feeling my eyes get a little heavy. Introspection is great but no one needs to be in their own head for too long. It was around midnight when I saw Exit 69 to Flomaton on the right. I knew there was some odd turn at the end of that road but I couldn't remember it. I stopped at an all night gas station and got a soda then gave Wayne a call. He still sounded a little out of it but I got the directions I needed and got back in the car. It was another very dark road but I wouldn't be on it very long. I made my turn by some chicken place and got on the right road crossing the Florida panhandle and drove for around 45 minutes. I got off on another interstate I think it was 110 but can't quite remember I tried to call Wayne but couldn't get anything. I called information and asked for the number for the Cabana Inn but they never heard of it. What the hell! I always stay there. I finally got Wayne on the phone and he said they got bought out by a travel lodge but didn't know the number there. So I called information to get the number and they transferred me to the wrong one. They shot me over to some central office guy in some other travel lodge but screw it I could get the number from him. So I get this numbnuts on the phone and tell him I'm lost. I mean I recognize the road but can't remember how to get to the hotel. This asspacker asked me did I want to do a survey and get some coupons for my next visit. Well I said not really I'm lost can he give me the number for the Travel Lodge in Pensacola I'm in the city but I'm lost. Then this mother fucker asks me if I'll click over and do that survery if he gives me the number. I'm lost in some state I could be passing the road as we speak and this dude is pulling this shit. That's ok though because I knew what to do. I said sure I'd love to click over and do that survey for those coupons. He then gave me the number I needed and told me to hang on while he transferred me. It was at that point I hung the phone up on his sorry ass because I had the number I needed. Sure I could've waited until I got transferred to hang up but I wanted him to know that he just got hung up on by Paul Green special just for him.

   I got the guy at the local Travel Lodge on the phone and he was much much better, very helpful. He stay on the phone with me the entire time all the way to the parking lot to the hotel even through the toll booth to cross over into Gulf Breeze. As I pulled in the parking lot Wayne called asking where I was on the road. I told him I was in the parking lot and he gave me the room number and said it was open. I walked up to the third floor and went in. That's when I realized he was never drunk at all he'd been asleep the whole time. I kind of felt like an ass for thinking he was drunk but then again feeling like an ass wasn't that new to me anyway.

   From the room I could hear the bar next door jumpin. They were still going full speed they didn't close until 4:30 am there. The bar was called Sandshakers and they had invented a famous frozen drink down there called The Bushwhacker. I'd been on the road for 6 hours after surviving over 150 tornadoes the day before. I honestly felt like a refugee. Well this refugee needed a drink. The place was really smokey and it was an older crowd. Normally I refuse to go into places where smoking is permitted but I was thirsty and wanted a drink and I didn't want to walk all the way over to the docks to get it because it was already after 2 am. Hell I've been known to whack a bush here and there in my day and now seemed a good time to whack another one. If I was going to catch a buzz beer would be too slow I was running out of time. Now as I'm typing this it sounds really stupid but when you haven't slept in 48 hours logic can kind of take a hit. 

   I walked over there anxious to relax and get the edge off. Wayne said to hell with it and went back to sleep.

I smiled as I walked in looking around. Yes the place smelled like ass just the way it always did.  I took a seat and looked around at all the people. It was a banner night for sure. Everyone there was older than me. They were also drunk and appeared to be pretty stupid. They were ugly too with the exception of the bartender. The bartender was older than me but she looked good. If i ever got attacked by a cougar down here she was getting my vote. I ordered a quick bushwhacker and went to work on it as I looked around. A girl came in  and sat at the end of the bar and didn't look half bad at all. I was going to let her get settled and maybe start up a conversation but one of the drunk geezers pounced. Why I have no idea he wasn't going to get anything and even if he did he wasn't going to be able to do anything with it. As drunk as he was viagra would be useless. He'd have to opt for a couple popsicle sticks and some duct tape,  but then again he'd be too drunk to get them on he needed to just go home. I didn't want another bushwhacker I was getting the brain freeze so I switched to white russians. I stayed there until closing drinking those white russians and watching television. There's been so much hell going on I didn't even know the NFL draft had taken place. Mark Ingram ended up with the New Orleans Saints. Oh well at least he didn't get stuck with a shitty team. The geezer left and I got a chance to talk to that girl too. She was a server at a local restaurant there called Peg Leg Pete's and would be working saturday night. Well i come to Pensacola from time to time so I was going to try to be there saturday night. If I didn't get anywhere  on this trip then so what I'd have a head start on the next one I thought. I paid my tab and wandered back to the hotel stopping by the front desk to get my key then headed up to the room. Wayne was still out asleep so I went over to my bed  and did the same. I don't think I laid there that long I just went right out not worried about tomorrow.