A Westlake High School student was robbed at gunpoint in the school’s parking lot Thursday [Feb. 27, 2014] afternoon, the school’s principal says. Principal John Carter says the student was not physically harmed. He says it happened at around 4:30 p.m. The student was approached by a man with a gun who took his cell phone and then fled the scene. The student immediately reported the incident to school officials, Carter says. The Travis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. Carter says as a precaution the school will have extra security staff in the parking lots on Friday.
But I thought guns weren’t allowed on school property. It’s a gun-free zone, right? Or does this mean that criminals don’t obey the law?
Westlake is the “rich folks” part of Austin. Crime never happens there, right? Well granted, it’s not I-35/Riverside (one of Austin’s crime hotspots), but folks — no where is immune. Not “the good parts of town”, not “in gun free zones”. This doesn’t mean everywhere is a battleground, just that you should not be lulled into thinking that there’s some impenetrable bubble around certain areas. Shit can happen, anywhere, to anyone.
Updated (2014-03-13): I work with folks who have kids that attend Westlake High School. The story is legit. Apparently some dude was combing the parking lot, breaking into cars. This student just happened to stumble upon dude, dude pulled a gun, demanded phone, bailed.
School just let out. Kids everywhere. And doing this? Yeah… just remember that if criminals had the same smarts, standards, and ethics as you, they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing in the first place.
Ronald Westbrook, the Alzheimer’s patient, got out of his house during the night of Nov. 27. He appeared hours later at the home of Joe Hendrix, knocked repeatedly on the door and tried the bell, apparently being in a state of confusion. The homeowner, Joe Hendrix, 35, armed himself, went outside, and confronted Westbrook. Eventually, Hendrix shot Westbrook, 72, several times, which proved fatal. According to Hendrix, the elderly man was carrying an object and did not obey his commands.
By all accounts, Mr. Hendrix acted in a reasonable manner – in terms of the law. However, from outsiders looking in, they will not view what Mr. Hendrix did as reasonable. As Claude states:
While Mr. Hendrix will not face criminal charges, there is no doubt that he will still have issues to deal with for the rest of his life. Assuming he is a moral person, no doubt the outcome of the confrontation will haunt him as long as he lives. He will most likely always be known in his community as “the guy who killed that poor old man.” In some cases, there are aftereffects in family life, as well.
This is why it is important to receive self-defense training, and why that training needs to be more than just about equipment and skills. So fine, you can shoot a gun, so fine you can throw a punch, but if that’s all you know how to do, chances are that’s how you are going to respond. Tactics and mindset are often more important.
Case in point. KR Training alum and Assistant Instructor, Dave Reichek attended the 2014 Polite Society conference. At the conference, Dave participated in a Force-on-Force training scenario. Here’s Dave’s write up, and here’s a video of Dave’s session.
As well, TLG posted about it, and it’s a post where reading the comments is actually a good thing. Please, read Dave’s write up, watch the video, and read TLG’s posting too.
Look at the results of how many participants responded. Look at how Dave responded.
I can’t say what I would have done. With the benefit of arm-chairing this, the best I can think of is my initial reaction would have been to respond with “I cannot help you, but I will call the police”, then make myself scarce and dial 911 (i.e. “maxim of beer & tv“, not my problem, need to get home alive to take care of my family, etc.). But who knows if I would have actually done that, given how the scenario itself would have actually played out.
Folks….
Just because you have a Y chromosome doesn’t mean you know how “take care of things”. Just because you know how to shoot a gun, or because you have martial arts training, or took a “self defense course” one day at “the Y” doesn’t mean a whole lot. Yes it’s a good start, but you need to keep going.
As a society, we put so much weight and emphasis on the importance of getting a good education. We understand how knowledge empowers, and the more you know, the more you can do, the better off you’ll be in all areas of life. So why is it folks don’t apply this same value of knowledge to the area of taking care of yourself? Why is ignorance an acceptable trait? (which also spills into folks that attempt to lobby for or make policy/laws based on this same ignorance, but that’s another discussion).
Do not fear force-on-force training. As you saw in Dave’s video, there was nothing physical. It was very mental, it was exhausting, it’s intimidating. But you better believe everyone that goes through FoF gets humbled and walks out far better for the experience. That is the nature of it.
And hopefully, when you have this sort of knowledge, it can help you make better decisions and avoid potential tragedy.
The people in the video have no respect for the law.
The people in the video have no respect for (your) life.
They understand how to do what they want, that suits whatever makes them happy and don’t give even half a fuck about you — unless you get in their way, then they’ll hurt you (evidenced by the guy that got run over).
The people in the video understand gang mentality, in the sense of strength in numbers.
They have no fear of the police. In fact, the police feared for their own safety and left.
They don’t fear repercussions from “the system”, given they aren’t hiding their faces on the video and in fact are uploading these videos to YouTube.
What are you doing to keep yourself safe in the face of this reality?
Do you leave it to others to manage your safety? Again, the police didn’t and couldn’t deal with this and left (I don’t blame them one bit). According to the follow-up article:
“This has been going on for years,” said Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. J.D. Nelson.
“The powers that be in Oakland have depleted the Oakland Police Department, so, this is the kind of activity you’re going to get.”
(Oh, and that Austin beat-down? Happened 2 blocks from APD headquarters).
So what can you do? The police can’t save you. The government can’t save you. Tell me, what can you do? Tell me how constructing a legal system that abridges the law-abiding from protecting themselves from such animals creates a better, more peaceful, more enlightened society? Tell me how banning guns, knives, and other useful self-defense tools is a wise course of action, given what you saw in that video. Tell me how not getting education, training, skills, and knowledge on how to keep yourself safe is not worth your time or money (because just having a gun isn’t enough).
You must accept there are animals in this world. You must accept there are horrible people who do not hold the same standards as you. That because you cannot fathom behaving in some savage way doesn’t mean such savagery doesn’t exist. Once you overcome denial and ignorance, then we can start talking about real useful solutions to these problems.
“You’re a young/strong/big guy, who would mess with you?”
These suggestions tend to be predicated by either your current situation or my current situation.
When you think about ways people might defend themselves if attacked, you think what you could do, like run away or kick him or being able to put up a physical fight — because YOU (or I) can do those things. There often lacks consideration for others that may not be as able as you.
When my ankle problem came up a couple weeks ago and rendered me essentially cripple, I went from capable to incapable in the unexpected blink of an eye.
Run? I couldn’t even stand up, let alone walk or run.
Kick? If I can’t stand up, how can I kick someone?
Big and strong mean nothing. If I could get around it was with a cane and then heavily leaning on it; my gait made it evident I was crippled.
You’ve seen the shows on Discovery Channel. Who do the predators go for? The young, the old, the sick, the injured. I’ve become prey.
For all those who seem to know better about how we are to keep ourselves safe, please tell me what I’m supposed to do? Am I supposed to keep a cell phone programmed with 911? so while I’m crumpled on the ground getting my head stomped in I can try to call for help? Oh wait, that’s right — I’m supposed to pee on my attacker.
Don’t just consider someone with a temporary injury. Consider those with permanent disadvantage: smaller, weaker, older, younger, frail, crippled, wheelchair bound, other disabilities. Even consider some of us may not have the resources you have, like money, gated-communities, or personal bodyguards and security detail. We’re not all as (potentially) capable as you.
Thus, your solutions may not work for me.
Being human, we are tool users. We have limits, and we use tools to overcome them. That’s why most of us use hammers to drive nails, and phones to communicate beyond shouting distance. We use tools to overcome our limits. And when some of us have greater limits, we may need better tools.
Do not deny us the use of better tools. You may someday suddenly find yourself in a new and less-capable context. You’ll want those tools.
Or at least, when you start suggesting solutions, and want those solutions to be applied to everyone, make sure you take everyone into consideration, because we aren’t all like you.
“Apparently it just takes a minute to shatter that glass and grab a purse,” said Sharon McMillan.
She was picking her son up from a birthday party at Brentwood Park Saturday afternoon. “So, I quickly parked and left my purse in the car, knowing I would only be just a couple minutes,” she said.
She locked the car doors. But when she came back, a window was shattered and her purse was gone.
Only gone a couple of minutes. I’m sure you’ve done this too. We think nothing of it. Just running in really quick — to the house, to the convenience store to buy a drink after gassing up, whatever excuse. Crime only takes seconds to unfold.
“I never leave my purse in the car, but of course that day I did, thinking, the car was in sight, and we were just a few hundred yards away,” she said.
The women say they tracked their credit cards, and found that the cards were being used at a few businesses on West Anderson Lane.
“Immediately, we got on the phone with our credit card company and the bank and canceled the cards,” Spradling said. “It was probably 40 minutes from the time we got to the park and until everything was canceled, and already they had $600 on the credit card.”
And the subsequent crime continued very quickly, faster than you could respond. Within 40 minutes, already $600 in fraudulent charges rang up.
Think about it.
You thought things would be safe. That it’s just a couple minutes. But what would it have cost you to pick up your purse (or put your phone or wallet in your pocket, whatever) and bring it with you? Just another second or two, if that? But failing that, look at the cost you now have to deal with. Smashed car window. Time off to get it repaired. Dealing with insurance, and certainly the cost of repairs/deductible. Losing all your credit cards and other identification, whatever else might have been in the purse. Now you have to replace everything, monitor your credit and identity for further fraud. Whatever the specifics wind up being, it’s certainly a FAR greater cost in time, money, emotion, energy, to deal with the aftermath than it would have been to just take your purse or wallet with you.
Austin’s crime rate seems to have declined. There’s fluctuation from year to year, but if you look at the span from 1999 to 2011, it’s gone down overall (using city-data’s “crime rate” number).
But if you look at some specifics, it’s gone up. Over that time span:
Murder has held steady
Rape is lower, but only after a number of years of significant rise (the low 2011 number may be an anomaly)
Robbery is hard to call. The 1999 and 2011 numbers are about the same, but in between there was a significant rise.
Assaults are up.
Burglary is again one of those where 1999 vs 2011 are about the same, but there’s a massive rise in between
Theft is up
Auto theft is down
Arson has weaved up and down, and after a significant drop, appears to be on the rise again
And using City-Data’s numbers, Austin’s crime rate is significantly higher than the US average.
City-Data then breaks some numbers down.
Violent crime rate? Almost always higher than the US average.
Property crime rate? Significantly higher than the US average. I know property crime is a big problem in Austin.
Austin is lower than the US average murder… but murder is so statistically rare, whereas property crime and assault isn’t. And note that while some assaults are just as simple as that, “aggravated assault” used to be called “attempted murder”; basically they were trying to kill you but you lived — can’t call it murder unless they die. And due to our improvements in medical and Emergency Room care, there’s a high probability that if you are attacked but get to an ER with vital signs, you have a high likelihood of living. So, consider that when you look at violent crime numbers.
Rape has generally been higher in Austin. I do wonder what role in the data the University has.
Robbery is higher than the US average, every year.
Assault fluctuates year over year vs. the US average, but it’s still high.
Burglary is significantly and consistently higher than the US average.
Same with theft.
Austin is a high crime city. It may be getting better, depending who you ask, but it’s still high.
Here’s another tidbit.
Full-time law enforcement officers? Lower than the Texas average.
Hrm.
Well, if you break the crime down in Austin, it seems we can see a few things:
Crime rates are higher than average (vs. the US in general)
Crime rates are generally rising
Theft is the most likely crime you will encounter, followed by burglary, then assault.
While you have to take care to secure your person (you are more important than “stuff”), you should also take steps to secure your stuff and make your stuff-holding-locations (house, car, etc.) to be less tempting targets.
Not enough police to really stop and prevent crime. You are on your own when it come to the first line of prevention.
Sasha, our dog, was sitting in the kitchen because of course it was food time!
I was eating a sausage patty, and her eyes were glued to the patty in my hands.
When Wife tossed a bit of sausage at Sasha, it bounced off her head (Sasha’s very good about catching food in mid-air)… because her eyes were glued to my sausage patty.
This is what we call “target fixation”, and how it can cause you to miss important things in life. 🙂
And as usual when things like this happen, “advice” is offered up on how to stay safe:
They are urging people who use Terry Hershey Park to make sure they walk, jog or bike with a friend and always carry a cell phone programmed with emergency numbers.
I’m not sure who “they” are (the police, the neighborhood association, or the coffee shop employees… the article’s use of pronouns wasn’t the best), but regardless, what use is that advice?
Watch the first 30 seconds of this video:
(h/t Chuck Rives)
The key I want you to focus on is how fast an attack unfolds.
In fact, watch the rest of the video and see how one thing the attackee (defender) has is a gun, but he’s never able to deploy it. Attacks happen so fast.
Do you really think having a cell phone programmed with emergency numbers is going to help you? If the national average police response time is 11 minutes, how is that going to do you any good when you’re being sexually assaulted right now?
Please, someone explain this to me, me because apparently I fail to grasp this concept.
What if instead the woman had pepper spray? In fact, while jogging she should have the can of spray in her hand ready to go. This would actually be a better first step than even having a gun, because you can’t go jogging with a gun in your hand to gain that advantage; but pepper spray you certainly can and I dare anyone to deny a woman to carry pepper spray in a readily-deployable manner. I’m not saying it would have stopped the attack, but it’s likely to have given her a better chance.
Also, what was awareness like? Many people jog with headphones on. Was there awareness of being followed? Did she make herself more vulnerable by being unaware of her surroundings? I don’t know, and I’m not trying to scold nor minimize what this woman went through, but I am hoping we can use it as a learning experience so others do not have to undergo what she did.
Where’s advice on fighting back? Where’s advice on how to prevail? Where’s advice on how to avoid being a victim in the first place? Bullshit suggestions like “jog in pairs” and “carry a mobile phone” are certainly useful things, but when you consider the actual reality of what goes on, they really don’t do much to help you avoid problems in the first place, nor deal with the problems if they happen. If we really want to reduce violent victimization, let’s start giving — and then heeding — actual useful advice, eh?
Of all the presentations at the 2nd annual SDS Conference, the 3 kiddos were unanimous in what their favorite presentation was.
Leslie Buck‘s presentation on improvised weapons. (yeah, it should have been Dad’s presentation, but I’ll let them slide). 😉
Not only was it just a fun presentation, with lots of good video. It was something that was really valuable to the kids.
Because I got to thinking.
The purpose of the presentation was primarily for us adults that probably carry a gun normally, but for some reason cannot. So what else could we have at our disposal.
But think about kids.
Kids are vulnerable. They are generally physically smaller, weaker. When it comes to force disparity, usually kids are going to get the short end of the stick. Weapons are tools designed to help us overcome force disparity.
However, look at how our legal structure denies children the ability to use and possess these tools.
Look at how schools and other groups and places kids go will deny them.
If the mantras are “won’t someone think of the children” and “if it saves just one life, then it’s worth it”, then why are we doing things to make our children even more vulnerable?
And while it wasn’t necessarily a new topic to the kids (given their father), sometimes things make more impact when it comes from another teacher (especially one that isn’t Dad), or due to the presentation. From talking with kiddos afterwards, it sounds like Leslie’s presentation made a lot of positive impact on them and really opened up their minds to the possibilities. Even Wife took something from it.
So, when it comes to your kids, think about how they could use improvised weapons to help them defend themselves. Temper it of course (it’s not license to bash the bully upside the head with hammer), but help them realize there are things they can do when the situation arises and they may need it.
Stuff From Hsoi 