Inmate In Psychiatric Ward Badly Beats Two Officers

Do you know when to use your tools and when to win the fight with your empty-handed skills? Whether you're a Detention Officer or not, this fight between an inmate and DOs in Maricopa County, AZ teaches us why at Active Self Protection we believe that we are the weapon; all else are just tools.

Details on the incident and raw video here: http://get-asp.com/ybdr

What do we learn about self-defense from this incident?

1. The adage says "I am the weapon; all else are just tools." That is 100% the case here. If you read the story above, it shows that this inmate seriously injured the first officer he attacked, and sent 3 others to the hospital for treatment from this attack. They ALL had a TASER, and yet he is able to subdue the first two completely and only is taken when 5 or 6 officers finally swarm him. Having force multipliers on you is great, but never forget that a fight is a fight against a person. Fight the person, not the tool.

2. Force multipliers are great, but they're not always effective. Officers use the TASER because it is usually very good at incapacitating a threatening person so that the threat is ended. However, it is certainly not 100% effective. Nothing is! I have seen video of someone being pepper sprayed and walking right through it, and people suffering from Excited Delirium being shot multiple times and fighting for 3 or 4 minutes afterward. You must never get complacent if you're a tool user. Tools do not mean you can defend yourself. You must be ready for them to fail and look to defend yourself with your empty-handed skills.

3. An unarmed opponent can definitely be a deadly threat. This inmate broke the face of the second officer and he suffered a brain bleed as well; as of today, that DO is still in ICU. An unarmed opponent who means you deadly harm can definitely do you deadly harm with their fists, so don't assume an unarmed person isn't a deadly threat.

4. The "High Interview" hand position is incredibly important. Don't allow someone who you're not certain is no threat to you into a space that they could attack you from. Use the hands up, palms out posture to get a barrier between your vital areas and the bad guy's potential attack. Tony Blauer teaches this as the start of the "startle flinch" response to an ambush attack. If the first DO had known how to use that startle-flinch response and partially deflected that first punch, he might have been able to stay in the fight and the outcome might have been quite different.

5. If you have a distance force multiplier like a TASER, you want to keep distance from the attacker to use it! If you have a distance force multiplier aimed at you, you want to either close the distance to where you can be effective, or get beyond its effective distance.

6. To cancel a numerical advantage against you, attack with speed, surprise, and violence. The inmate took the first officer completely out of the fight in 3 lightning-fast, well-placed punches and turned the fight into a mano a mano affair. Thankfully in this situation backup arrived relatively quickly, but the principle remains for self-defenders. If you have more than one opponent, take one out of the fight before fighting the other.

Attitude. Skills. Plan.