Eskrima Kombat

I have written previously on the Zimmerman/Martin incident here and here.

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Zimmerman has been found innocent of all charges, and Alan Dershowitz has publicly stated that the special prosecutor who brought charges against Zimmerman should be disbarred.

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Much has been said by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of an “unarmed boy” who was gunned down. Trayvon was 17 years old and 200 pounds, hardly a “boy.” (And since when does Jackson approve of calling a black man “boy”?) But the bottom line is that Trayvon punched Zimmerman and beat him repeatedly when he was on the ground. The injuries to the back of Zimmerman’s head and nose, plus Trayvon’s sole injury to his knuckles, are consistent with Zimmerman’s account.

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I have said repeatedly on this blog –don’t start anything. If someone is following you, let him know that you are aware of him. At least he knows that he can’t sneak up on you. But don’t confront anyone who’s following you. He might be armed, for one. Instead, go someplace safe, such as into a store. Call the cops. Discreetly get a grip on your weapon.

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You also must be aware of a point at which even your justified self-defense goes too far. Let’s say someone punches you. You counter, knock him to the ground, and now start kicking him. Many styles practice this sort of response –an opponent punches and freezes, then the defender unloads, striking countless times as the attacker stands frozen. This is training for overkill. I’ve practiced techniques in my old kenpo days of breaking the neck of a downed opponent. Legally, this is asking for a long prison sentence. If an assailant goes down and you continue the attack, you may have crossed the line between justifiable self-defense and committing a crime yourself.

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Imagine someone pulls a knife on you. You hit him and he goes down. Just because he pulled a knife on you doesn’t mean that you are now legally entitled to do anything to him that you want. If he is out cold and you decide to drop a cinder block on his head, you are potentially facing murder charges, even if he was a drug-addicted ex-con who pulled a knife on you in the course of a robbery.

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It’s best to train for a power shot so you can drop someone. If he’s got a gun, or a knife, or there are multiple opponents, you need to be able to count on him going down. But if you have to hit an opponent repeatedly, in court that can be made to look like overkill, like you decided to dish out punishment as a form of street justice.

 

A Cardboard Cutout Shows Trayvon’s Size Relative to Zimmerman