by Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com
MOUNT VERNON — Personal protection not only includes physical defense against an attacker, it also involves learning how to avoid situations that could turn dangerous. The goal behind January’s designation as National Personal Self-Defense Awareness Month is to educate citizens on how to decrease risk and increase options if assaulted.
“Self-defense is a means of protecting yourself as a last resort, when you no longer have the option to flee or when you have to immediately protect yourself from bodily harm and you have no other option,” said Police Chief Roger Monroe. “Using the term in a broad aspect, [self-defense] is every time you are walking down the street be aware, lock your doors and when you get in your cars, pay attention that nobody’s coming up on you, those kind of things.”
Physical self-defense methods include guns, weapons, your hands and special training such as martial arts; Monroe said pepper spray, a whistle and loud noises are effective less-lethal types of self-defense. Because individuals differ in characteristics such as size, physical restraints and personality, there is no single “right” method.
“You can’t say one self-defense is best for everybody. You have to customize it to yourself,” said Monroe. “The best self-defense is not be in the situation — leave. That’s the absolute best self-defense.
“If you want something to protect yourself, the best way is something that is easy to operate, like Mace, that doesn’t take fine motor skills. Unless you are highly trained or it is something you practice regularly, we don’t have to protect ourselves daily so you want something that is easy, accessible and very easy to operate. I do recommend Mace as a form of self-protection,” he said. “Carrying a gun is self-defense but I don’t recommend that for everybody; you have to have the right mindset and right respect and maturity to use that type of self-defense.”
Monroe said self-defense techniques are usually for extreme cases. “Most of the time if we’re in a situation where it’s a fight, usually it is a two-party incident and not somebody being assaulted,” he said. “One-on-one engagements in the realm of crime are actually very small. But the problem is, when you need self-defense it is usually a very serious situation. You always have to think that any time you put your hands on someone else it is a serious offense because there is always potential for injury or death.”
Monroe agrees with the statement that 90 percent of self-defense is reducing the risk and 10 percent is countering the physical aspect.
“That is 100 percent true,” he said. “We know true violence is going to just happen. If someone is just out to do violence they are going to do it without blinking and it is going to happen right away. People who are actually trying to commit crimes that are nonviolent, like burglaries and things like that, turn violent because things go wrong or the situation changes.
“We’re not going to stop that 10 percent from being violent, and, short of training constantly for those types of situations, you will never prevent that,” he continued. “So we have to just be aware, have common sense and not put ourselves in those compromising positions if possible.”
Regarding risk reduction, Monroe said that criminals look for soft targets and that most of the time self-defense can be used to prevent becoming an easy target. “Carry yourself confidently, be aware of your surroundings, hold your head up, know what’s coming at you,” he said. “If you are walking out to your car and you are looking around, not fiddling with your bags, your head is up, you are confident and you can see what is coming at you, and you have your keys in your hands ready to get in your car and leave, [you are] not an easy target. But the person who is standing by their car, fumbling with their keys, dropping their bags, talking on their cell phone, those are soft targets because they are not paying attention. And they are easier to be sneaked up on in the case of an attack or mugging or something like that.”
Locking doors is another method of risk-reducing self-defense. Monroe said that in 2014 there were 234 incidents of burglary/robbery or burglary/robbery in progress in the city. Many of those occurred during the day when the resident was present; 40 percent were non-forced entry. Noting the recent case of a suspect who entered several homes while fleeing from police, Monroe said preparation is key.
“Had those doors been locked, [the residents] were technically protecting themselves and using self-defense to keep that person out because he would never have made it into the home. He was not trying to break into the house, he was trying to get away from the police,” Monroe said. “In turn, the people who did not have their door locked, were not prepared and were not watching their surroundings are the ones that kind of fell victim to the situation.”
The Mount Vernon Police Department does not conduct regular public self-defense classes, but Monroe said the department responds to requests from groups for specific training such as the proper use of pepper spray or awareness for women while shopping. For more information call 393-9530.
