The Pico-Robertson neighborhood had the first benefit of added patrols. We will be adding Fairfax and Hancock Park this week, too. The residents and business owners we’ve met so far have been wonderful. I’m looking forward to our continued patrols in these areas.

If you are interested in helping with any of these patrols, please Contact Us and lend a hand. If you would rather support our efforts in this community, please consider an appropriate contribution. You’re help is very important to make this added Safety Patrol keep this community as safe as possible.

834.  An arrest is taking a person into custody, in a case and in
the manner authorized by law. An arrest may be made by a peace
officer or by a private person.

835.  An arrest is made by an actual restraint of the person, or by
submission to the custody of an officer. The person arrested may be
subjected to such restraint as is reasonable for his arrest and
detention.

837.  A private person may arrest another:
   1. For a public offense committed or attempted in his presence.
   2. When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not
in his presence.
   3. When a felony has been in fact committed, and he has reasonable
cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it.

839.  Any person making an arrest may orally summon as many persons
as he deems necessary to aid him therein.

Here’s an important detail:

841.  The person making the arrest must inform the person to be
arrested of the intention to arrest him, of the cause of the arrest,
and the authority to make it, except when the person making the
arrest has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested
is actually engaged in the commission of or an attempt to commit an
offense, or the person to be arrested is pursued immediately after
its commission, or after an escape.
   The person making the arrest must, on request of the person he is
arresting, inform the latter of the offense for which he is being
arrested.

We are almost ALWAYS going to be arresting someone for a crime “immediately after its commission, or after an escape” so the first paragraph (while true of course) will not usually apply to the Guardian Angels. THIS IS NOT A SMALL DETAIL. YOU ARE NOT “READING ANYONE THEIR RIGHTS”! Just DO make sure you know what crime they’ve committed.

Also note that the second paragraph DOES apply to us, and we MUST have a handle on the details enough to answer this question with some minimal detail!

846.  Any person making an arrest may take from the person arrested
all offensive weapons which he may have about his person, and must
deliver them to the magistrate before whom he is taken.

This means: DO SEARCH FOR WEAPONS as soon as possible if we make an arrest.

847.  (a) A private person who has arrested another for the
commission of a public offense must, without unnecessary delay, take
the person arrested before a magistrate, or deliver him or her to a
peace officer.

If we’re going to arrest them, CALL THE POLICE ASAP.

Assault

All we need to see to declare “Assault” is:  Intent, Means, and Opportunity to commit a violent injury upon another person. Excellent clarification can be found here: http://www.shouselaw.com/assault.html

Battery

I really like this distinction:
“An assault is often called an attempted battery,’ while battery is often called a ‘completed assault’,” which can be found at http://www.shouselaw.com/battery.html.

Disturbing the Peace (Disorderly Conduct) PC415

415.  Any of the following persons shall be punished by imprisonment
in the county jail for a period of not more than 90 days, a fine of
not more than four hundred dollars ($400), or both such imprisonment
and fine:
   (1) Any person who unlawfully fights in a public place or
challenges another person in a public place to fight.
   (2) Any person who maliciously and willfully disturbs another
person by loud and unreasonable noise.
   (3) Any person who uses offensive words in a public place which
are inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction.

415(1) Unlawful Fighting

Note: Be sure to scroll down to the section on “Penal Code 415(3) fighting words” for important details on this one!

Also take a moment to better understand the subtleties of “Criminal Threats” here:  http://www.shouselaw.com/criminal_threats.html

Self Defense

Was the person just defending themselves? Maybe. Here are some guidelines: http://www.shouselaw.com/self-defense.html

Another important consideration is that there IS some legal leeway for Imperfect Self Defense. That is, an appropriate response to a situation doesn’t mean that the evaluation of the situation is accurate.

Public Intoxication PC647

Boy, a night in Hollywood could have us VERY busy if we were supposed to arrest each and every person intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol in public. Luckily, that’s NOT how this works!

Take a look at: http://www.shouselaw.com/drunk-in-public.html which includes this important clarification:

Many people get buzzed or even drunk at California restaurants, nightclubs, concerts, or other public venues. Only in the more extreme cases would this public intoxication trigger a Penal Code 647(f) prosecution.

This is because merely being “drunk” in public isn’t a crime. It only becomes criminal when you get inebriated to the point that

• you are a safety risk to yourself or others, and/or
• you are interfering with other people’s right of movement.

Trespassing

This one is the security guard’s best friend. Bouncers ejecting a patron from their club can always fall back on this one, too. There’s no need to wait for a bigger problem to develop if you want them out.

555.  It is unlawful to enter or remain upon any posted property
without the written permission of the owner, tenant, or occupant in
legal possession or control thereof. Every person who enters or
remains upon posted property without such written permission is
guilty of a separate offense for each day during any portion of which
he enters or remains upon such posted property.

555.1.  It is unlawful, without authority, to tear down, deface or
destroy any sign posted pursuant to this article.

555.2.  It is unlawful to loiter in the immediate vicinity of any
posted property. This section does not prohibit picketing in such
immediate vicinity or any lawful activity by which the public is
informed of the existence of an alleged labor dispute.

555.3.  Violation of any of the provisions of this article is a
misdemeanor.

Want to do a bit more research on your own? Awesome! In California, start here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

For information on making arrests, please also read the post about Legal Info on Making a Private Person’s Arrest.

What else have you discovered on your patrols? Any questions about these laws or others? Please post ‘em in the comments so we can discuss them openly to benefit everyone else!

7-11: Two Almosts

We maintain a pretty good relationship with some of the local bouncers and security guards. Some of them have our phone numbers, and some of them have our frequency on their radios. We respond to their calls when we can help, and they’ve responded to ours. Last night we were at a local convenience store for a couple of noteworthy incidents:

1) Invisible Men to the Rescue

In one case, a dirty-looking man was sitting directly in front of the only door into or out of the store, and the security guard on duty was tasked with removing him. We approached, witnessed the guard trying to order and even push the shoulders of the seated man, with no progress. What to do? The person is causing some problem, but is not a threat, and it seems a waste of resources to call the police if it’s avoidable.

The solution came in the form of another unkempt man, speaking some of the time to the seated man, the guard, the Guardian Angels, himself, and some other people nobody else could see. Sure enough, we heard him being calm and loud, telling the seated man to move, proclaim his own ROTC experiences, and a constant announcement of a phone number (one that couldn’t actually work). The end result? the seated man got up and moved along, the guard didn’t put anyone in danger, and we were wondering what made it work so well.

If you’d like to read some of the best advice available on dealing with emotionally disturbed people in a tactical situation, do yourself a huge favor, and read Talking Them Through: Crisis Communications with the Emotionally Disturbed and Mentally Ill: by Rory Miller

2) The Loudmouth Begs For a Beating

Just out in front of the same convenience store, we saw one young guy and his girl-friend talking trash to a group of five MUCH bigger guys. The group was trying to let him off the hook, and he just kept pushing their buttons, taunting them, generally just letting his fragile ego run his mouth for him.

As our patrol approached, he even told the group of guys they were “acting tough because those guys with the red berets are here to back you up.” Incredible. We convinced the group that this loudmouth wasn’t acting in his own best interest (with which they agreed), and we convinced the loudmouth to keep on moving. Even his girl-friend didn’t quite seem to understand, which is rare. Usually I’ve seen the ladies keep a cooler head, realizing that it’s not a good idea to dare a big group of guys to fight you alone. Wow.

Ivar: Multiple Take-Downs, Bouncer Assists, Handcuffs and Teamwork

We were on the corner where our Chapter had seen one of its most violent nights, watching and listening to the crowd empty out and wait impatiently for their cars from the valet. Looking down the street, I saw two guys standing face to face. I even turned to my partner and said, “You know, if I were standing like that, it’d be because I expected to hit somebody” … and nothing happened. They smiled, laughed, kept talking … and we looked away.

We turned back, and there were three guys, two pounding on the other. We ran down, those two took off running … until the first two Guardian Angels caught up with them. We made it a short get-away, and a quick trip to the ground. We got some assistance from the awesome bouncers working the club helped us walk those two guys onto the sidewalk against the wall, while they talked about self-defense (from the one guy they were beating into the pavement).

That was all fine, until some random person jumped on one of the bouncers. We grabbed him, ever-so-gingerly placed him on the sidewalk, cuffed him, and searched for weapons. Another person was upset that “he spit at me – that’s assault!” The bouncer decided it was no big deal, so we uncuffed the subject … who was then joined by his friend – the same guy he had just spit on! and they walked into a taxi together to leave. Unbelievable.

How to Improve Patrol

1) Leap-Frog is better.

I’d like to see a faster acceptance that the first Angels to intervene with each person can do a decent job of handling that person, freeing up the other Angels to continue on the next person(s) to be handled. Otherwise, without this method adequately drilled we will move too much like a group of five year olds playing soccer, always chasing the ball in a group. If we have six Angels on patrol, and two fighters, it’s rational to expect that the first three Angels will handle the first fighter, and the latter three Angels will handle the second fighter. Each group should maintain appropriate Contact & Cover, making it easy to manage any needed communication between groups. This leads us to the second improvement:

2) Bring more Cover and less Contact.

Ok, I admit it: it’s exciting to get your hands in, break up the fight, put the combative subject on the ground, apply the cuffs, etc. It’s a lot less exciting to maintain eyes on the scene, managing activity, and watching all the interesting parts happen. But this isn’t about fun – it’s about stopping violence, and that’s pretty serious business.

If eight of us decide to break up a fight between two people … most of us should be watching – only the minimum safe number of Angels should be directly involved. We need to keep our eyes on the general scene: looking for other potential trouble makers, and watching for the appearance of weapons.

3) Position to Win

Similar to the last point, most of the patrol members present can and should position themselves strategically as a situation develops. If a “Monkey Dance” is going on, some Angels can maintain a perimeter to keep the unwary from wandering into the problem, and to help detain one of the aggressors if he decides to hit-n-run.

We can maintain useful positions better if we’re willing to let others get a little more of the glory. Be aware, that is not the same thing as kicking back and relaxing while somebody else handles the trouble. As “cover” you are responsible for a much larger physical environment AND the safety of your partners. You must constantly battle for the right position: keeping yourself close enough to help immediately, far enough to see more of what’s happening, and subtle enough to allow the aggression to dissipate if possible (too many people closing in on already aggressive people will increase the chance of violence).

Peter’s Note: Train Smarter than you do now. There is NO excuse for training that will condemn you. Now we know better. If you belong to social media groups with “tough-guy” labels and proudly walk around with more “tough-guy” t-shirts, and post internet photos and videos of your “tough-guy” skills … then defending yourself in court is going to be whole lot more difficult than defending yourself against violence.

WATERTOWN, SD – An early morning bar fight in Watertown two weeks ago has resulted in a murder investigation.

A mixed martial arts instructor is accused of beating 26-year-old Justin Jaton outside a Watertown bar. Jaton, who was hospitalized in Sioux Falls, died Thursday morning.

28-year-old Jerrin Stulken is now facing murder and manslaughter charges. Court documents say Stulken hit Jaton in the face on March 13 and knocked him unconscious. Investigators say Stulken continued to hit Jaton. Even after two surgeries, Jaton never regained consciousness and died Thursday morning.

“There’s nobody that’s going to win in this deal. It’s just a good example of why not to get involved in those bar fights and how quickly they can turn bad and how serious the consequences are going to come of it,” Watertown Police Sergeant Tim Toomey said.

Stulken is listed as a trainer on the Disciples of Combat Facebook page. It’s a mixed martial arts group in Watertown. Stulken is identified in pictures taking part in one of their workouts.

Now Stulken is charged with murder because investigators say he beat Jaton so badly that the 26-year-old man died. A death police say could have been prevented.

“Violence is never the answer and that one punch will change the rest of your life and it’s better to walk away from that,” Toomey said.

Stulken was charged with aggravated assault after the initial fight two weeks ago. He’s been out on bail since then, but was arrested Thursday morning and is now being held on a half-million dollar bond.

Peter’s Note:
I have a very close friend and Guardian Angel who ended up in the Intensive Care Unit because of a bad fall in the middle of helping break up an enormous fight in Hollywood. But it didn’t happen from losing a fight – he got pushed while on the way to help somebody else, and had simple bad luck in how he landed. Do you really imagine that your killer tough-guy training is prepared to NOT hurt somebody, even by mistake?

If you’re not thinking about this critical factor, IT’S TIME TO CHANGE YOUR THINKING. Stop training to end up in jail. Lose the attitude, and make all your neighbors think you’re the nicest person they’ve ever met. It may not fix everything, but it certainly won’t add to the problem thoughtless training can create.

Personally, I think it’s even WORSE if you’re a Guardian Angel. You KNOW you’re going to face some violence on a Safety Patrol. So prepare as well as possible for how you want it to end up. Have a list of goals, in priority order. Try this one, off the top of my head:

1. Bad guy goes home
2. Bad guy gets handcuffed
3. Bad guy needs a band-aid, and gets handcuffed
4. Bad guy needs a hospital, but you’re clearly the “good-guy”
5. Bad guy needs a hospital, and you’ll be in court soon (you’re probably handcuffed)
6. Bad guy needs nothing, ever again … and you will be in court, and handcuffed

From now on, look at every technique you learn, and ask yourself which of those options will be the most likely result, if it goes exactly as planned. From that perspective, if you still train on it, at least you’ll know your expected outcome. Start there. Train smarter.

Emerging Adolescence

Pardon the assumption, but I believe that everyone understands that adolescence begins at the onset of puberty. Basically speaking, the average age for girls is 9.5, and for boys it’s approximately 2 years later at 11. OK, so you might not have known the average ages, or even that puberty is the official “kick-off-point”, but I bet you could look at a group of young girls and boys and visually separate the adolescents from the children. I mean, it’s easy when you have biological cues, right? But here’s the big question: Can you look at a group of guys and gals over the age of 18, and visually separate the adolescents from the adults? Not so easy now, is it?

Separating the Men from the Boys

There is no biological marker that indicates the start of adulthood – we have to rely on social cues. In our culture, the cues are all about independence. Financial independence is gained from employment, while emotional independence is gained from starting one’s own family. Simply stated: Adults begin careers, and they get married.

I am not suggesting that all unmarried, unemployed twenty- and thirty-somethings are living in “Neverland.” I understand that the economy is bad right now, that jobs are hard to come by and that people are becoming reluctant to start families in these uncertain times. Marriage and career are not necessary to prove adulthood – they are simply physical indicators that adolescence has ended. But, considering the state of the world today, in order to judge whether a person has graduated to adulthood, we might have to look a bit deeper.

By definition, the extended adolescent is a person who has not made the jump from child-like dependence to adult-like independence. They have purposefully shied away from adult responsibilities, and outright refused to act their age.

In other words, there is a difference between a person who has been laid-off due to current economical problems, and a person who chooses to sit around all day in his pajamas playing video games. There is a difference between a person who wants to build a nest egg before he gets married, and a person who ends a relationship the moment after it has culminated in an orgasm. There is a difference between a person who needs financial help from his parents while he earns an advanced degree, and a person who still has his parents washing his underwear.

Get the picture?

To understand this, let’s look at what is supposed to occur during adolescence.

What is an Adolescence?

Adolescence, according to psychologists, is a period of development when the brain and body are maturing. Morality is forming, abstract thinking is forming, goal-setting is increasing, and one is developing psychosocial control (the ability to delay gratification, to regulate emotions, to control impulses and to resist peer influence).

Of course, there are also biological changes that are occurring, but this is outside of our concerns for the moment. A person is going to grow physically and mature sexually despite their conscious desires to remain “a kid”. Actually, if people could delay their sexual development until they are ready to become adults, the first problem associated with extended adolescence would be solved.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Boys who grow into guys (as opposed to men) have a tendency to use women as objects. They go out at night with the predator’s mindset of “getting laid.” Unfortunately, they’re also more likely to have unprotected sex than men are – and unprotected sex all to often leads to unwanted pregnancy.

On average, single mothers have less formal education. They also have more trouble accumulating wealth, and tend to get stuck in a low socio-economic status. Low SES is linked with children who:

• Are less likely to receive quality education
• Are less likely to complete high school, or to go on to college
• Are more likely to engage in risky behavior such as substance abuse, criminal activity and promiscuous sex.
• Are more likely to reproduce too early, and to have higher birthrates

And thus begin a new cycle.

I’m not even gonna get into date-rape and drugging scenarios – just understand that that happens too.

What Are You Looking At?

Guys are more likely than men to engage in unnecessarily violent behavior. The extended adolescent is less able to control his impulses, and thus more likely to get into meaningless fistfights.

These fights often occur after a night of binge drinking. If you want to see what this looks like, join our LA chapter for a safety patrol in Hollywood some Saturday night. It seems like every couple of blocks, we stumble upon the beginnings of a drunken fight. Some guy looked at another guy’s girlfriend, or some guy mumbled something to another guy that sounded a bit too much like, “Your mom’s a whore,” or some other such nonsense. The point is that these fights are meaningless, and avoidable – and adult-minded men are never involved.

For the guys that we separate on Saturday nights, masculinity is a thing that must be proven, while the idea of personal responsibility is outside of their cognitive grasp. As if being a man is positively correlated with how many beers one can pound, and how hard one can hit another person with one’s fist.

You see, the same thing that causes an 11-year-old boy to bully his classmates is what makes a 25-year-old guy start a bar brawl, or jump a homosexual, or slap his girlfriend for being disrespectful: psychosocial immaturity.

The biggest problem is that you can’t reason intellectually with a person of this mind-set. Trust us – we’ve tried. A convincing argument will not succeed in changing their behaviors. Behavioral change only occurs with maturity. Or, as is often the case in Hollywood, with physical restraint and threats of arrest.

Contributions to Society

In many cases, the extended adolescent does not make meaningful contributions to society. He often either lives at home, or lives in an apartment crammed full of other guys – and sends the rent and the food bills home to mom and dad. If he works, he usually holds a dead-end job out of choice. He might even jump from job-to-job, pausing now and then to live off of unemployment, and public assistance.

In a Nutshell

• In-and-out of relationships
• Lacks direction
• Shies away from responsibilities
• Financially dependent
• Emotionally immature
• Child-like decision making abilities
• Aggressive behavior
• Sexually manipulative
• Hops from job-to-job
• Drains public assistance

Thus is the reality of the “Peter Pan Syndrome.”  True – not all extended adolescents exhibit all of these traits. Some are married, but cheat on the side and have a mother-son type relationship with their wives. Some have high-paying jobs or careers, but consume women, booze and high-tech toys like a six-year-old consumes candy. Others avoid alcohol, but still live with their parents, and spend all of their time socializing online… on so on.

How can we combat it?

By treating it as what it is – socially unacceptable.

These guys aren’t biologically impaired, they are capable of growth and of psychosocial development – they just need a little push. The problem is that their actions are accepted by well-meaning friends and family, and thus their lifestyles are validated. But, think about what these guys are missing:

• Long-term intimate relationships are linked with longer lives, and higher levels of happiness.
• Career success, for men especially with their hierarchical-focused brains, is linked with greater satisfaction overall.
• And lastly, people need goals in order to get out of bed every morning and to feel excited about the day.

So, the next time your thirty-year-old buddy tells you about how “wasted” he got last night, or about some random blonde that he banged, or about getting extra money from his parents this week, do him a favor and tell him to grow up. Sure, he may get angry now, but in time, he will thank you.

Radios to the Rescue

Because we had a ten-person patrol, we were able to cover a lot of ground simultaneously. Well, more correctly, that’s because we had a way to talk to the people dispersed throughout  that ten-person patrol. We had no trouble communicating all up and down the main boulevard and the side streets branching from it with our mix of various radio brands and some know-how (some of our members hold various FCC license levels).

There is no way we could have covered as much space without good radios, and proper protocol to use them. We could easily have two Guardian Angels watching a potential trouble spot while sending two more around the corner to check on a suspicious noise, and another team check on someone passed out across the street … all while keeping perfectly good communication with each other!

With an unarmed team, it’s vitally important to utilize the strength in numbers and teamwork that our patrols can have. We can lower our own risk by working as a team, and thereby lessen the amount of injury needed to subdue the average drunk thug. That teamwork becomes available faster with good radio support. If that team around the corner needs us, they can summon the entire group quickly. And if they don’t need us, then it just means more and more people seeing the Guardian Angels on patrol, seemingly everywhere at once in one night. For my best suggestion, and the radio that the Riverside Chapter and I use on patrol, check out the Quansheng TG-UV2.

Thugs – Putting Them in Their Place

At one end of the patrol area, Riverside Chapter Leader, Dave Eagle, had an interesting “conversation” with a group of young hot-heads. This group of guys was walking along, talking to the girls as they passed, giving them a whistle and an annoying bit of attention. That’s not so unusual in a setting like this … what made it different was that these guys were interested in the girls WITH boyfriends. This group was less interested in the girls’ attention, and more interested in starting a fight with their dates, instead.

Most of the girls were smart enough to realize how stupid it was, and convince their boyfriends to ignore the low-IQ club. It’s doubtful that it would be that peaceful every time, though, and Dave Eagle took a small team with him to follow these obnoxious idiots. Sure enough, more of the same: whistle at the girl … tell the boyfriend he should let her party with them instead … tell the girl she’d have more fun with them … blah, blah, blah.

And then they noticed the Guardian Angels behind them.

The leader of the group, Mr Hot-Head, walked up to Eagle to intimidate him. He was at least a foot taller, and full of drunken confidence. “What do you think you’re gonna do about it if I start somethin? Huh?”

Our patrols follow simple tactical positioning, known as “Contact and Cover” giving Eagle all the ready back-up he could want if he needed it. The patrol spread out to advantageous positions in case this potential “Monkey Dance” followed its course towards violence. But Eagle had his own plans.

Eagle looked nearly straight up at Hot-Head, and told him point blank, “I’ll arrest you.”

That’s it – no ego, no macho show-off display. Dave just knows who he is, what he can do, and what his patrol members can do. Sure enough, those guys calmed down, walked off, and changed their tune. Did it stay that way all night? Who knows. We “Dare to Care” and make a difference wherever we can. If we helped those guys cool off enough to make a longer difference, then it’s even better than we’ll ever know.

Bombs

We got our team reassembled and ready to deploy  in new directions. We were taking full advantage of having multiple members and multiple radios. At most, two minutes went by when a call went out from our southbound team: “We found a suspicious looking package.”

Sure enough, that team found an aluminum briefcase … standing alone with nobody around to claim it. Suspicious? You bet. That team made a call to LAPD. Maybe it was just an empty briefcase … maybe it was full of drug money … maybe it was really a bomb planted in Hollywood … or maybe even it was a test by a would-be bomber to see if anybody would actually take action. We most definitely take action when we see a problem – that’s what excites me about the Guardian Angels.

LAPD got on the scene and most certainly agreed. They cleared the block, and stopped traffic all around. A few Guardian Angels helped convince people to keep on moving out of the area to let the incoming bomb-squad do their work.

What happened? What was in the case? We will never know. LAPD called us, and asked us to wait at a particular spot for a follow-up interview … but the night had other plans for them and they never got back to us. Yeah – it’s a little frustrating: I’d love to know what’s in it, too. But most of all, I’m happy to know that Guardian Angels don’t just wait around and react … they take action and make things happen.

People – The Real Best Technology

photo courtesy of Rob Meyers

Last night was a great example of the “tough-geeks patrol” that I prefer. We had high-tech radios, members with FCC licenses, computer-geeks, bounty hunters, ex-military guys … and best of all: those weren’t necessarily different people! The individuals on this patrol brought such a mix of skills and knowledge, that it really felt like we could competently handle a great variety of problems.

Combining skills, knowledge, experience, and teamwork, the Guardian Angels can make a huge difference in the world. I saw it last night – this is an organization full of great people who really do Dare to Care.

Special thanks to Rob Meyers for access to photos – more coming soon. Check out his gallery here.

No reflection on your sex life(1) but, every night you go to bed with a human, a monkey and a lizard.

This is a model that reflects the different parts of your brain. A rough breakdown goes like this: Your Human is your thinking, rational neocortex. Your Monkey is your socio-emotional limbic system. (It’s what allows humans to function in groups.) Your Lizard is your survival-oriented hind brain and cerebellum.

This model isn’t technically accurate, but that’s OK. It’s hard to remember scientific explanations when someone is in your face, barking, howling, drooling, insulting or threatening you.

On the other hand, when someone’s acting like a pissed off monkey it’s pretty easy to remember this model. Also it’s important to know because someone making references to your testicles on your mother’s chin is trying to light up your Monkey and get you to act the same way.

That’s what we’re going to be talking about today: Staying cool, calm and using your higher functions when someone is up in your face. This especially after you’ve told him something he doesn’t want to hear.

But to do that, we’re going to have to speed through some foundational information. Information you need to know on which to build working skills and knowledge.

Let’s start with the fact that emotions are contagious. We, as human beings, are psychologically and physiologically designed to infect each other. We do this through nonverbal communication; body language; shared cultural signals, paradigms, memes, triggers, and whole battery of other things. You need to go find a copy of Manwatching by Dr. Desmond Morris to get a good introduction to all that. (Just to make reading a book sound more studly, he talks about threat displays, attack behaviors and there’s pictures of boobies in it, too.)

Unless you learn to immunize yourself, you’ll get infected.

Moving on. There are all kinds of ruff n’ tuff talk about the adrenal stress response. Let me state for the record, most of what you think you know about adrenal stress is advertising. Often it’s the selling point of some kick ass, we’ll-make-your-dick-as-big- as-ours training system.

Putting all that macho crap aside, the adrenal stress response is not only the body’s physiological response to stimuli, but it also is a form of consciousness. To be more specific, it’s you stoned on drugs (adrenaline) — as any person who’s experienced altered consciousness will tell you: You have to be careful about what you decide to do when you’re baked.

Here’s one of those little details that most people miss. Communication and stimuli  precede adrenal response. That’s kind of important.

So there you are, and some guy is acting like a pissed off monkey, screaming, howling and throwing emotional and verbal shit at you. That’s his Monkey trying to infect yours. It’s an attempt to get you to both engage in the same behavior — known, scripted and ‘safe’ behavior. I should also qualify it as an attempt to get you to engage in the same stupid and obnoxious behavior.

Behavior that — if you let your Monkey get you caught up into and the situation goes physical — you will be arrested, too. That’s because you have become an active participant in the creation, escalation and execution of illegal violence.(2)

Oops.

Basically what happens — if we don’t have our Monkey on a leash — is that guy drops into his monkey brain, sends out signals and your monkey brain responds. He has ‘infected’ you. When you are infected, your adrenal stress response kicks in and now you have a stoned monkey driving the bus.

Double oops.

I’ll admit many of my stories end with me saying, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” But let’s bring that explanation up to the here and now. When someone is up in your face, your monkey brain is going to tell you to do the absolute worst, stupidest and most antagonistic thing you possibly can.

It’s going to seem like a fuckin’ brilliant idea at that exact second. “Motherfucker? Me? Ya know what? You’re right. I did fuck your mother last night.”

I speak from personal experience, that response won’t work out quite the way you planned. (Unless your plan was to provoke an attack. In which case, it works great.)

But man, your Monkey thinks it’s going to show this other Monkey were it’s at. That other Monkey will be quivering and cowering before your total awesomeness.

If you follow your monkey brain’s advice, you will act this way. Guaranteed. You’ll believe how awesome that response was right up until the shit hits the fan.

There’s something I should tell you. If it’s a fist-fight, then your Monkey might happily jump forward and try to beat down this other one with your mighty penis. Ook ook, slobber, drool, my mighty Monkey has proven my superiority and dominance. (You can tell yourself that as you’re sitting in the jail cell, by the way.)

On the other hand, if the dude comes at you with a gun or knife, you have serious problems. If your Lizard can’t immediately kick in with some effective movement, you’re going to the hospital or the morgue. All because you let yourself be the Monkey’s ventriloquist dummy. Those results are guaranteed if you step forward and try to do a Monkey fight against a weapon. Often, when it comes to weapons, your Monkey is going to haul ass out and leave you flapping in the wind — too late to run and not enough left to go at it like you need to.

Usually though, your Monkey is likely to hang onto the steering wheel, but will be frozen in wide-eyed shock and confusion. We’re not just talking deer in the headlights. We’re saying it’s frozen, but not letting go of the steering wheel so the lizard can take over. (Go watch the movie Aliens with the lieutenant who locks up this way after things go sideways.)

In case you missed it, I just gave you a big hint about overcoming the freeze response. Don’t let your monkey brain drive the bus. Once it gets its hands on the steering wheel, it’s loath to let it go — even when sliding into the wreck it created.

So what are some hard and fast rules about not getting caught in your monkey brain?

Before I start talking about that, let me give you the biggest pre-attack indicator of them all: You’re being an asshole: 
http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/preattack.html

Yet your Monkey will tell you that it’s the other guy who is being an asshole. What you’re doing is right, justified, appropriate, cool and, of course, only self-defense.

You’re not being an asshole, he is.

If you ever find yourself feeling that way, it’s time to step back and let someone else handle the situation. That’s because the Monkey is driving the bus. Here’s a list of indicators you need to take a hard look to see the shape of the hand on the steering wheel:
 http://www.conflictcommunications.com/monkey_is_in_the_building.htm

This is of critical importance because while the human brain wants to solve the problem, the monkey brain wants status, dominance and recognition for being the stud that solved the problem. This is a key element in many areas, including effectiveness, professionalism and — when out in the street — not getting arrested for monkey dancing with someone.

What is more important? Showing this dude and your peers that if you were cut off at the knees they could call you a tripod? Or effectively resolving a situation?

I’m going to tell you something important. Important in that it serves as a:

• pre-attack indicator
• way to break the control of your adrenal stress response
• negotiation and de-escalation tool
•   way to stay out of jail
• better way not to step on your dick.

Range

Simply stated, range is a combination of factors you need to physically attack someone.

A model I got from a co-author, Tristan Sutrinso is: Range is made up of three things:

1. Target
2. Reach
3. Distance

Now, personally, I add in a fourth, orientation. But we’ll get to that in a second.

Target — Where is the aggravation going to be delivered? I’m not talking about targeting the head, the face or the gut. I mean in a ‘physical address’ sense (or GPS if you’re not technologically impaired like I am). Where is he? Or on a bad day, where are you? This may not sound like much, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t just screw the pooch, but outright fuck the dog by not factoring in the target’s location.

Reach — I don’t care how much of a comic book nerd you are. You are not going to be fighting Reed Richards (Fantastic Four), Plastic Man or any super villain who can change the length of his limbs.

Distance — Subtracting his reach, how far must he travel to attack you? (Remember, I said, “On a bad day?”) The same goes for you. How much distance must you cover to reach him. The ability to measure this is really important.

Let me add a few points on this. First, weapons extend one’s reach.

Second, different nonweapon techniques have different reaches. That changes the distance that must be traveled in order to use them. For example, you can get hit by a jab at a greater range than a hook. He has to travel less distance for a jab than a hook. The importance of this is that the guy’s location determines what he can attack with. Otherwise, he has to adjust the distance.

Third, you can safely function inside someone’s attack range by playing with orientation, location and relative positions. But that is both outside the scope of this article and something not to play with until you get good at assessing and working on range.

A quick rule of thumb to figure out someone’s reach or attack range: Measure the distance between his eyebrows to the floor. Visualize it measured out on the floor and stay outside that distance. If you get inside, things can go down really fast.

As a pre-attack indicator watch for his moving into that range. (Oh by the way, if you’re a big guy, measure your own attack range and don’t approach smaller people closer than that. People react badly when you move into your attack range and are outside of theirs. Practice this habit no matter how much your Monkey wants you to loom and intimidate. It’s one of those subtle, nonverbal communication and triggers things.)

Distance is important because when you see someone trying to close, it it’s not a good sign. There’s two ways this can be done. One is intimidating. One is fucking dangerous.

An untrained fighter will try to develop attack range while attacking. Often this is accompanied by a battle cry as he rushes forward. This is real intimidating to our monkey brain. The reason this strategy works is that the Monkey’s reaction to it is to freeze, take a rooted stance or try to backpedal. Another version is to charge forward. If you look at any of these responses in terms of an oncoming train, they all leave you on the tracks.

Do not mistake this ‘monkey brain vs. train’ behavior as a sign of competence or effectiveness. It’s what you will see the most (especially in MMA bouts and against inexperienced fighters) but it is far less dangerous than you might think.

What is dangerous is someone who calmly develops attack range while pretending he’s doing something else. This is especially true when using monkey scripts. The guy asking, “Why you being so unfriendly?” as he is closing the distance is still closing the fuckin’ distance. He’s not going to get up in your face and threaten you, he’s going to get into attack range and drop you like a prom dress. Be especially aware of him moving while calmly reaching for a weapon.

Orientation is my contribution to the range model. Human beings are oriented on the 90s. If your nose is at 90 degrees, your shoulders are 0 and 180. Basically, humans will attack the way they are looking, and then their bodies follow. This is how you can tell if someone is legitimately turning away from you or if he is trying to lull you before he whips around to attack.

As a throw away, this is why — when someone you’ve been in a face-off with turns away from you — you need to take a few steps to the side from where you were. That way if he tries to whip around and nail you, you’re somewhere else. And, oh, yeah, he gets a really funny expression on his face when he realizes his target isn’t where he left it.

Knowing about range, let’s revisit our old friend the adrenal stress response. Common manifestations of this altered state of consciousness are spatial and distance distortions.

Now I can tell you, I have never had a gun or knife pulled on me. It’s always been cannons and broadswords. When you’re hyperfocused on the threat, it looks REAL BIG and REAL CLOSE! That bugged-eyed, snarling guy who’s threatening to kick your ass? He is right there and an immediate danger.

That is until you check to see if he’s in attack range. I mean look at the ground and get your mental tape measure out. “Oh, he’s not in attack range! He’s not developing it either. I don’t have to do anything.”

Once you have that established, you can calm down and let him say his piece about a ménage a trios between you, your mother and your pet sheep. It may be insulting, it may be threatening, it may be designed to get you into a monkey dance. But it is not dangerous. So you don’t have to react to it.

“Mmm-umm, yeah. Right. Oh you know mom? I’ll tell her you said ‘hi’.”

More importantly, this is going to keep your adrenalized monkey from doing something really stupid. And that would be stepping forward without noticing it. I cannot tell you how many claims of ‘self-defense’ are justifiably blown out of the water because the video shows the person — who claims he was defending himself — stepping forward. Your stoned monkey won’t see it as such, but everyone else — especially the guy you’re about to get into it with — will see it as what it is. You aggressively developing attack range.

Triple oops.

In closing, I’d like to give you a bit of advice. My wife and I used to have a plastic banana on the fridge. Anytime, I’d get too obsessive or deep in my monkey brain, she’d hand me the banana. It was the signal that I’d lost it. No talking, no accusations, simple communication. I, a pissed-off monkey, was hanging from the ceiling fan. It was time for me to back off.

Working with partners is largely about communications — especially communicating when one’s head is engaging in some rectal exploration.

The trick is to communicate to your partner that he’s caught up in a monkey dance with a third party — without letting the third party know he’s being an asshole, too. (Remember, he thinks you and your partner are being the assholes, not him.) Personally, I recommend developing a code word or expression where everyone knows what it means. Something like “(Fill in name), shift change.” Everyone in your group knows what it means and that it’s time to let someone else handle the situation.

For the record, I’d also like to point out this is an effective de-escalation tactic. Not only because the asshole the asshole was dealing with is no longer in second asshole’s face, but now there’s a different person involved. A person who isn’t playing the same monkey game as the first asshole.

“He’s pissing you off? OK, fine. Come talk to me instead.”

So when you’re out there, remember the goal is to get the situation resolved. That’s a lot harder if you can’t keep the stoned monkey from driving the bus.

Marc MacYoung

Footnotes:
(1) And if it is, I don’t want to know about it.

(2) Rory Miller in his book Meditations on Violence coined the term monkey dance.
Learn it, live with it, DON’T do it.

About the author: Marc “Animal” MacYoung has been around for a while. If you know who he is, nuff said. If you don’t it would take too long to explain. But you can find his website at http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com You can find Rory Miller’s and his site on Conflict Communications at http://www.conflictcommunications.com

© 2012 Marc MacYoung
All Rights Reserved

Related Post: Rory Miller on Lowest Level Force

A police search went on for days, and the Guardian Angels were on patrol during days and nights. We walked for miles and miles, through underground passes under Orange County’s bridges, through mostly dry riverbeds. We went anywhere the homeless were known to camp and sleep. Anyone is vulnerable in their sleep, but a cold, likely malnourished, and possibly lonely homeless person has even less protection from alleged serial killer Itzcoatl Ocampo than from the elements.

The investigative process is still ongoing, and while so far it seems very likely that “alleged serial killer” will soon be shortened to “convicted serial killer” Itzcoatl Ocampo, the police will have their hands full dealing with this and other crimes. The homeless can rest a little easier, and citizens can go back to their daily grind. But that’s not all that is happening in Orange County now.

Citizens can life their heads a little higher. Everyone can know that they can make a difference, and that every good deed improves our society. Some, like Donny Hopkins, go the extra mile, and do something many would call extraordinary. The Guardian Angels say that we “Dare to Care” and he most certainly showed that he does, too. For that act of selfless effort, our local Chapters would like to make him an “Honorary Guardian Angel” and invite him to patrol with us any time in any place.

I hope his story inspires you to consider ways you can help your community. Of course, if you aren’t already a member of the Guardian Angels, then I strongly suggest that you contact us to find ways to be a part of the effort. Everything helps: a little effort or a big contribution. Maybe you want to join us for a park clean-up or graffiti removal, safety patrols, or even just making a donation to help us with our efforts. Most of all, I hope you find a way to “Dare to Care!”

And that’s when it happens: A deep, angry voice calls out from a nearby corner. “You got a problem or something?” the voice demands. You move your gaze to the source of the voice and discover a large-framed guy with a deep grimace, his narrowed eyes are glaring at you. “You must have a problem,” he demands, “since you’re standing there staring a me.” You feel your stomach tighten and you realize that your great night is over.

So… what the heck happened?

It’s called hostile attribution bias, and it basically means that the recipient finds provocation where provocation is lacking. In other words, the big, angry guy at the bar misinterpreted your neutral gaze as an aggressive threat – maybe because he was in a lousy mood, or maybe because he, himself, is an aggressive person. Studies have shown that aggressive people tend to attribute hostile intent in neutral situations more often than not.

To a carpenter, everything looks like a nail.

Hostile attribution bias is a big problem, because it’s hard to reason with someone who is quite certain that you are trying to start a fight. A person who feels attacked is less likely to engage in a reasonable discussion with his or her potential attacker. What’s worse, this aggressive misunderstanding can happen anywhere, and to anyone.

Even you

You’re on the freeway after a long day, traffic is bad, and you know it will take another forty minutes for you to get home. You’re tired, hungry and completely fed up with commuting. Suddenly, a car pushes over from the left lane, and cuts in front of you. It takes but a millisecond for your blood to boil with rage. Who the heck does that driver think he is? How dare he cut in front of you, the selfish #$@%! You sit glaring at the taillights of the offending car, your mind plotting all kinds of creative, bloody revenge – or worse, you speed up to teach the driver a lesson. You never even stop to think that maybe the other driver is having car trouble and needs to get to the shoulder before he stalls. Maybe he’s rushing someone to the hospital. Or, maybe he is simply tired, like you, and he made a mistake.

Call upon empathy

Understand that when you are assuming malicious intent in ambiguous situations that you are simply attributing actions to the internal state of the other person rather than observing situational cues. Recognize that this is fallacious thinking, and that you cannot possibly know what is happening in the mind of another person. Instead, take a breath and notice of your own physiological condition. Is your heart racing? Are you feeling stressed? Anxious?  Perhaps a few deep breaths can help calm you down enough to view the situation rationally rather than make hasty decisions.

What if you’re the victim?

You don’t have to engage. That big guy at the bar may be barking, but it doesn’t mean he’s going to bite. Aggressive behavior doesn’t have to lead to acts of aggression. Understand that his actions have nothing to do with you, and that your ego is not on the line. A little clever banter and a friendly smile might be all you need to put your night back on track. If not – check out our training pages for some easy, liability-conscious methods of self-defense.