YOUR PERSONAL “Y SAFETY
Yes, it’s as simple as that. While it
may sound glamorous to carry a gun and engage in running gun-battles with terrorists, in actuality — it’s not. I worked the streets of San Diego for 20 years in a wide cross-section of jobs, from uniformed patrol to driv- ing police boats and ATVs. I worked traffi c division where we cleaned up after fatal crashes, took suicide re- ports from the distraught parents of teenagers, worked a bit of undercover vice, conducted investigations as a re- lief offi cer, trained new offi cers at the academy and got shot at four times in my career. (Actually, it was a blast.) What I learned, is it’s very much
unlike the movies. It was rewarding at times, but never glamorous. People and offi cer-friends bled real blood and died real deaths. A punch in the face from a punk I was arresting for drunk driving hurt later — badly. My uni- form got torn, scabs from fi ghts took a long time to heal, and I attended too many offi cer funerals. The citizens I helped endured
tragedies nobody should have to go through. From those suicidal teens, to distraught husbands killing wives, to random acts of violence against fami-
12
lies who were simply trying to enjoy an evening at the movies. It was of- ten ugly, tiresome and it got old to be around. Do you want to know the most infuriating thing about it all? Much of it could have been avoided if only the victims had been paying better atten- tion and were properly educated.
Some Facts First off, the police in your com-
munity are under absolutely no obli- gation to protect you, at any level — period. Shocked? No, it’s true. There have been many court cases where the fi nal verdict was only that police had to work toward assuring some semblance of general safety for the public at large, but were not respon- sible if something happened to you. I’ll say that again: The cops don’t have to protect you. Besides, they can’t do it anyway. If by some miracle a cop happens
to be driving by at the same time you’re about to be assaulted, he might be able to help you out. But there’s a reason for the saying, “Cops: minutes away when seconds count.” Most agen- cies like to advertise their average re- sponse times. For some city agencies
Roy Huntington Publisher and Editor, American Handgunner Magazine
our number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence and de-escalation.”
it might be as little as 4 or 5 minutes, (still an eternity if you’re getting your butt kicked or worse, eh?). But, that also means sometimes it’s 20 minutes or longer. If you live in a county or ru- ral area, response times can drag out for hours. And that’s for an emergen- cy call. I know, because I’ve personal- ly covered county units who were re- sponding from 35 miles away, and my city beat just happened to be closer. I recall many nights on patrol
where calls were “stacking,” meaning the dispatcher had a list of many calls pending. She would try to assign the most critical ones to units. I’ve often heard them say, with obvious desperation in their voices, “Is there any clear unit for a robbery in progress?!” Then some unit would reply, “Um, I can drop this burglary in progress and respond to that robbery if you want?” What if it was your house being burglarized? Or your house being robbed? Or a man with a gun in your yard?
Avoidance Let’s look at our fi rst sentence
again and break it down, paying close attention to three very important
PERSONAL DEFENSE • FALL 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180