Scaling Force. Rory Miller
people tend to make good decisions. These decisions can always be refined and the decision-making process can be improved, but usually people don’t trip themselves up much in the process; they trip themselves up in the explanation.
Having justification is not enough. I.M.O.P. by itself will not get you out of trouble. Because self-defense is an affirmative defense, it falls on you to explain. You must be able to articulate exactly why you made each decision—why you needed to become involved and why you used exactly the level of force and even technique that you used.
There are two drills for this. One is simple. Go to YouTube. Watch real fights. Then pick out exactly why it was or wasn’t self-defense. Look at all the times the guy who walked away could have been fine if only he had kept his mouth shut. It was clearly a mutual fight but both thought they were defending themselves. There are times when a pre-emptive strike would have been justified, and prudent, and others where such actions land the perpetrator in jail.
The second drill, the articulation exercise, requires some background.
As we mentioned in the situational awareness section, you have a finely developed intuition. All humans do. Your senses perceive and your brain processes huge amounts of information, far more information than your conscious mind can handle. Because of this we get “feelings.” Hints. Little subconscious niggles.
Next time you get an intuition, a thought, or an idea, stop and explain it to yourself. The exercise is just that simple. And that difficult. When you see two people and think, “They are about to argue,” take the time to figure out what triggered that intuition. Body language? What specific body language? Did the voices change? How? Louder? Higher pitched?
This articulation exercise has two benefits. The first is simply the skill at explaining a fast decision. If you ever need to defend your use of force in court, it is likely that you will have made a decision very quickly, probably faster than conscious thought. And you may have to explain that decision to a jury.
The second benefit will affect your entire life. Intuition is a larger part of your brain, of you, than your conscious mind will ever be. The articulation exercise makes your conscious mind and intuition work together. It develops trust between two parts of your mind. Intuition ceases to be “mere” intuition but something you learn to trust. Not only will the drill help you to make better decisions faster, it will also help you understand and explain those decisions.
On September 23, 2002, at least ten people allegedly saw 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer bound and gagged, lying on the floor of an Everett, WA garage shortly before she was taken out into the woods and murdered. None of them stopped to help. None of them even called the police. Legally, none of them had to. Many people simply will not get involved, even in cases of life or death. Are you one of them?
You need to seriously think about what you are willing to do, what you are not willing to do, and what you are willing to have done to you far before violence occurs. Such decisions cannot rationally be made during a dangerous encounter. There is a vast continuum of responses to take should you choose to intervene in a conflict—everything from moving to a safe place and dialing 911 to taking hands-on physical action. Intervention can be verbal or physical, encompassing the entire force continuum.
Spending some time thinking about when and under what circumstances you are willing to get involved is important. While scenario training can help prepare you for such decisions, when it gets down to brass tacks every situation you encounter will be different. It’s no longer a philosophical exercise. You need to know exactly what you are walking into to make a wise choice.
Start by evaluating what you have encountered. If your situational awareness is good, you might have several seconds, or possibly even minutes, to do this reconnaissance before you are forced to take action. If it’s poor you may have to take in the scene and make a decision in microseconds. Or it may be made for you. In whatever time you have, do your best to note combatants, witnesses, sources of improvised weapons, terrain, and other important factors so that you will know as much as possible about what you are up against.
The decision to get involved (or not) and at what level is paramount. Whatever choice you make can have lasting consequences. There is a cost in terms of physical and/or emotional well-being to taking action as well as to not taking action. Only you can decide. And you’ve got to live with that choice.
When I was twelve years old, I was walking to the bus stop after judo practice one night when four older boys stopped me. They quickly began to hassle me about the gi I was wearing, spitting on me, calling me names, and threatening to “kill” me. Verbal threats soon escalated to pushing and shoving, which was clearly evolving toward more serious blows. Although I probably stood a good chance of badly injuring one or two of them, I felt that there was no way I could win a fight against four kids, all of whom were bigger, older, and most likely stronger than I was.
Swallowing my pride, I did my best to ignore their expectorating and taunting while I tried to figure out a way to escape. As soon as I saw a car approaching, I shoved the nearest antagonist out of the way, shoulder-rolled over the hood of the vehicle, and darted across the street. The driver slammed on his brakes, stopping between where I had just run and where the bullies on the sidewalk had started to follow. While they were distracted by the irate driver, I hopped over a fence, ducked down another side street, and ran away as fast as I could. In a situation where I could not win, running was the best thing to do.
Once you make the decision to fight it is important to know why. What is your goal? Are you trying to control a situation or escape from a threat? Everything hinges on this. The strategy of control or escape will drive the tactics necessary for success.
It is very hard, for example, to capture someone who is determined to get away, even when multiple adversaries are in play. If that is your goal, simply running away may be enough, particularly if you are able to move first. If in attempting to escape, you let yourself be drawn into a fight, however, it becomes self-defeating. Knocking an adversary aside so that you can run is better than squaring up to him in this instance. After all, your goal is to escape, not to beat down the other guy, win the fight, control the adversary until authorities arrive, or whatever else you can think of.
Consider intent, means, opportunity, and preclusion when determining your goals during a conflict. Many altercations these days are captured on video, be it from surveillance systems, cell-phone cameras, dash-cams, or some other source, at least when they occur in major populations centers across the United States. Even where video is not in the picture, bystanders may witness the event. If your actions don’t match your statements you will be in serious trouble when you get to court, particularly when it comes to preclusion.
Know your goal and make tactical decisions that support it.
Dealing with Threats with Altered States of Consciousness
Alcohol muddles your mind so that you don’t fully think things through. It also relaxes your inhibitions so that you are more likely to act out. Oftentimes it gives you a socially acceptable excuse for your behavior, or at least portions of it, compounding the effect. You want to do more and think you’ll get away with it, not that you actually will, of course… According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 36 percent of all criminals and 41 percent of violent offenders are intoxicated with alcohol when they commit the crimes for which they are convicted. These numbers rise even higher if you add drugs into the mix.
Drunks can be unpredictable, violent, and very difficult to corral. Tangling with one when you are sober gives you a significant advantage. When you’re drunk too, it only exacerbates the situation.