Sunday, September 20, 2009

PROTECTIVE FORCE, HOW PROTECTIVE IS IT?

50 years ago, when you got punched at school by either someone like you, or a bully twice your size, you could punch them back, maybe get into a fist fight, and then get pulled apart by teachers. Today, if i get punched, i can run, if i get cornered and punched, i can push and then run. if i get stabbed, i can now punch, and perform joint locks and breaks, which i happen to be proficient at.
This phenomenon is called protective force when applied to self defense.

If i break the rules of protective force, then i am nearly as responsible as the aggressor, and if we will both be expelled from school if that is where the incident occurred, and will also probably be reported to juvenile authorities who can give us time in juvenile hall.
While i do not condone violence and do agree with doing anything within bounds to lower the occurrences of violence both in and out of school, i do not agree with protective force. I can end up being killed in a hall at aragon because i dont want to get expelled and arrested for defending myself. The choices are great aren't they?
One of my friends was nearly killed in middle school, when a boy kicked him for something he may or may not have even insinuated, and remembering his lessons from D.A.R.E., he screamed for an adult. One was on the way to the corner where this boy had my friend trapped, but the boy managed to get another kick off at my friend who was on the ground. He hit him squarely on the throat. And for those of you (most of you) who don't know, having your windpipe broken is a fatal injury, and to do so, when it is not flexed, you need only the weight of your arm falling. My friend was picked up by his parents and rushed to the hospital, where he was told that he was lucky to be alive and that he should be able to swallow again in 2 weeks when the swelling goes down.
Can you think what he could have done had he not panicked and forgotten that he was allowed to push the bully and run, he could have saved himself. And this amount of restriction on self defense is ridiculous, because unlike you lucky women, we guys aren't allowed to stab keys or pens into our assaulters necks because of the probability of rape. I just wish this were a free country again.

4 comments:

prestonchan said...

I see your point Victor, but I'd have to say that I disagree. Sure, "legal" self-defense is indeed limited at this day and age, but what does that matter? If someone is attacking you and you need to defend yourself, do it. I don't think that many of us would hesitate about the legality of our actions when it is indeed a matter of life or death.

Franklin Wu said...

I dunno about that Preston. I have spent some time a while back thinking about this particular subject and all the repercussions of it. Say I was a victim and fought back and somehow, I ended up in jail. How would that affect my life? On all my job resumes, I'd have to put down I served time and how would that affect my career? Maybe I'm just the weird Asian who thinks about these things, but when push comes to shove, fighting back isn't my first choice. Now, if I were to run, and the aggressor pulls out a gun I didn't know about earlier and I get shot, well, I'm screwed. But the point being, if the law didn't condition me to be afraid of the repercussions of my actions, things would have been different in said hypothetical scenario.

Victor Sukhovitsky said...

my point exactly franklin

Omid Dastgheib said...

Yo Victor my man! I do completely agree with what you said. However, I think Preston is right when he says that you should defend yourself first, and think about the legal stuff later. Otherwise, you may not even live to tell your side of the story!