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Old 11-19-2008, 10:23 PM   #54
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Re: YouTube: Aikido in a real street fight.

Some things I thought about when reading the thread...

“Is it Aikido?”

- Yes, for me it is. It is Aikido technically, tactically, and strategically.

Someone wrote: “At no point the civilian is a threat, hands in pockets, not entering when the chance comes up, he is completely passive.”

- When you are an EMT, every patient has a communicative disease, until demonstrated otherwise. When you are wearing a badge and a firearm, every civilian is a threat, until proven otherwise.
- Last year, according to the FBI 2007 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted: 57 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty, and 59,201 suffered assaults while on duty. Of the 57 killed, 21 were killed under the circumstances viewed in the video. Of the officers assaulted, 31% occurred under circumstances viewed in the video. 80.2% of the time, the suspects used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet), to assault the officer.
- One of the most dangerous things when facing a suspect is being unable to see his/her hands (keeping them behind one’s back, in one’s pockets, etc.) This is because the existence of a weapon remains unknown, and that “unknowing” forces the officer into a reactionary state, forcing the officer to be behind in the OODA cycle – which increases the suspect’s likelihood of being successful in his/her assault attempts.
- Weapons, from knives to handguns, etc., are very often kept in folks’ pockets.
- The suspect would not show the officer his hands, would not comply with verbal directions, and would continually re-place his hands in his pockets. In some areas, at some moments, such behavior is not only enough for a suspect to utilize in the slaying of an officer, but it enough for an officer to raise matters near to the level of lethal force. For example, in some places, at some times, it would not have been out of the ordinary for an officer to draw is firearm and point it at the suspect for such behavior.
- The suspect already physically demonstrated aggressive/non-compliant behavior even before the officer approached him – as we can see in the officer’s comment when he first views the guy. Additionally, he is a person suspected of committing battery upon another.
- In short, this is not a normal situation, the suspect is not a normal person, and the officer would have been a fool to act (further down on a use of force spectrum) otherwise. * To tip my hand: At minimum, that would have been a Taser out call for me. Instructions would have been given for him to sit on the ground (legs out, ankles crossed, hand visible on his lap), not walk passed me to my car. Non-compliance for that amount of time, with that number or verbal repetitions, ZAP!

Someone wrote: “I'm not sure... it looks more like he struck the guy (and followed through) with a palm strike to the throat. Not so Aiki to me (but hey I'm not really an Aikido master or something)”

- If Aiki is a way of harmonizing with universal principles, if it is a way of universal reconciliation, both martial and spiritual, both personal and global, both internally and externally, etc., then it must include all aspects of existence. It cannot by default be synonymous with softness, indirectness, gentleness, etc., and with a rejection of those aspects that are opposite to things. Such a standpoint is not a reconciliation but rather a mere exclusion and then by default non-Aiki. I am reminded here of a radio interview Osensei did, one where the interviewer asks Osensei something like, “Is it true there are not strikes in Aikido, no offense?” Osensei laughs, laughing at the absurdity of the questions, and states that for Aikido to truly be universal it must include offense as much as defense, etc. Others with better memory than mine can chime in and make this point better – please.

Was the suspect unskilled?

- Forgetting for the time being that even unskilled/untrained suspects injure and/or kill officers, I believe the suspect was more likely trained than not trained. Cues for this are that the suspect took several steps into the back-fall and tucked his chin, keeping his head off of the ground. These are not intuitive behaviors. Look to your beginners in your dojo and see how many right off the bat leave the feet in place and fail to tuck their chin. Additionally, but definitely less trustworthy, his style of dress and grooming smells of MMA sub-culture, as does his reported fighting.

Someone wrote: “I wouldn't assume the guy was unskilled, but I agree the use of force seemed excessive. I wasn't commenting on whether or not it worked. I just thought it looked like kata, partly because "uke" didn't really seem to be offering much of an attack.”

- A thing this touches on for me is that this is not sport or dojo culture we are dealing with here. What often goes totally without saying, as far as what a luxury it is, is that sport and dojo culture have established start and stop times. Violence outside of these controlled environments, because start and stop points are never established in the streets, can only erupt into our plain of existence. This is the main reason why law enforcement and military personal have constant debates over vigilance and what it means to maintain it. Such energy is a testament that one does not know, cannot know, when or how violence is going to rear its head; that violence is, for the most part, completely unexpected. As a result, waiting for fully developed attacks to establish themselves, as is most often done in Kihon Waza training, in non-controlled environments, not only means you are way late, but that you were ignorant of a whole lot of cues you should have picked up on but didn’t. From this point of view, while his resistance seemed “passive” it contained within it a lot of aggressive behavior. This is most often noticeable from the opposite perspective. Imagine it is you, and you were NOT fighting in the street, and an officer comes up to you because he/she thinks you match the description of the suspect… He says, “Can I talk to you?” You say, “Yeah sure officer.” He says, “Can you do me a favor and take your hands out of your pocket?” You say, “Yeah sure officer.” You see where this is going? You wouldn’t act like this person at all, as “normal/innocent” citizen would.

Someone wrote: “From that point forward it is the officer just being unprofessional and excessive. If the subject cracked his head or received a concussion--oh yea, the lawyers are going after the deep pockets of LVPD and he is the means to get at them.”

- Check out this Taser shot and watch what happens to the back of her head – in a not altogether different situation. While I stated I would have gone with a Taser shot, I can easily conceded that lost of control the suspect will most likely have over absorbing the back fall (steps to the rear, tucked chin, etc.):

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQXoczxzwYk

David M. Valadez
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