How to Win a Fight: Self-Defense Strategies for the Untrained Man

You’re out and enjoying life with your friends or a certain young lady.  But some knucklehead  is determined to end your fun by trying to punch your lights out.  What can you do?

There are some simple self-defense tactics that even someone who’s not in great shape or has any special training can employ:

First of all, wake up!

• Who’s watching you?
• Look around, is someone giving you a hard look? Or alternately, does someone quickly avoid your gaze?
• Watch people’s hands as you are walking, don’t look away when you pass.
• Cross the street if you have to avoid a group of punks.
• Don’t get too drunk.
• Are you doing something stupid like hitting on someone’s girlfriend at the bar?
• Are you in the habit of boasting about your fancy watch, car, apartment?
• Point out the troublemaker to the bartender or doorman.
• If the negative vibes get too intense, leave.

Remember, it’s always easier to STAY out of trouble than to GET out of trouble.

Second of all, keep from getting hit in a vital area!

• Get your hands up in front of your face to protect your head.
• Keep your mouth closed with your teeth clenched. When your mouth is open you are ripe to get your jaw broken (which means you should forget about ‘talking trash’).
• Circle away from his power side (circle to the right if he has his right hand cocked back, circle to the left if he has his left hand cocked back).
• You need to be either two arms lengths away from him (outside of his kicking range) or all the way in tight against him (holding him in a boxing clinch). Anything in between puts you in range for his punches and kicks.

Third, use your strongest weapons against his weakest targets.

• Use the proverbial knee to the groin when you are clinching.
• Smash him with your elbows in the face, throat and neck.
• Kick him in the knee, groin or lower abdomen. Kick straight ahead using the bottom of your foot like you would kick in a door. Or kick straight back like a mule using your heel. If you are untrained, resist the urge to kick with the top of your foot like you are punting a football, you will probably use too much of your toes instead of your shin (ouch!).
• If you try to trade punches with him, you’re probably playing right into his game.

Finally:

• Get a barrier between you and him (even if you have to run around a car).
• Yell for help.  You can’t count on people coming to your aid, but he might think someone will render assistance.
• Use a weapon.  Hose him down with your pepper spray.  Use a chair like a lion tamer.  Throw ashtrays at him.
• Make your escape.  Lose your ego and your attitude.  Retreat and escape.  Live to go out and party again next weekend.
• Better yet, start training tomorrow in a self-defense art or program.
• www.stevekardian.com
• www.nydefendu.com
• www.defenduniversity.com

Phone companies know where their customers' cellphones are, often within a radius of less than 100 feet. That tracking technology has rescued lost drivers, helped authorities find kidnap victims and let parents keep tabs on their kids.

But the technology isn't always used the way the phone company intends.

One morning last summer, Glenn Helwig threw his then-wife to the floor of their bedroom in Corpus Christi, Texas, she alleged in police reports. She packed her 1995 Hyundai and drove to a friend's home, she recalled recently. She didn't expect him to find her.

The day after she arrived, she says, her husband "all of a sudden showed up." According to police reports, he barged in and knocked her to the floor, then took off with her car.

The police say in a report that Mr. Helwig found his wife using a service offered by his cellular carrier, which enabled him to follow her movements through the global-positioning-system chip contained in her cellphone.

Mr. Helwig, in an interview, acknowledged using the service to track his wife on some occasions. He says he signed up for the tracking service last year. "AT&T had this little deal where you could find your family member through her cellphone," he says. But he didn't use it to find his wife that day, he says. Mr. Helwig, who is awaiting trial on related assault charges, declined to comment further about the matter. He has pleaded not guilty.

The allegations are a stark reminder of a largely hidden cost from the proliferation of sophisticated tracking technology in everyday life—a loss of privacy.

Global-positioning systems, called GPS, and other technologies used by phone companies have unexpectedly made it easier for abusers to track their victims. A U.S. Justice Department report last year estimated that more than 25,000 adults in the U.S. are victims of GPS stalking annually, including by cellphone.

In the online world, consumers who surf the Internet unintentionally surrender all kinds of personal information to marketing firms that use invisible tracking technology to monitor online activity. A Wall Street Journal investigation of the 50 most-popular U.S. websites found that most are placing intrusive tracking technologies on the computers of visitors—in some cases, more than 100 tracking tools at a time.

The cellphone industry says location-tracking programs are meant to provide a useful service to families, and that most providers take steps to prevent abuse. Mike Altschul, chief counsel for wireless-telecommunications trade group CTIA, says recommended "best practices" for providers of such services include providing notification to the person being tracked.

Mr. Helwig's wife had received such a notification, by text message, from AT&T. A spokesman for AT&T Inc. says it notifies all phone users when tracking functions are activated. But users don't have the right to refuse to be tracked by the account holder. Turning off the phone stops the tracking.

For the full article go here...

http://on.wsj.com/bw5njd

www.stevekardian.com

www.nydefendu.com

www.ThornwoodMMA.com

D.C. Sees Shocking Rise in Sex Assaults or not!

In keeping up its reputation as one of the most dangerous metro areas in the U.S., the District of Columbia has seen the number of sexual assaults skyrocket this year by 50%. Or it could be only 11 %. It depends on whose statistics you use. 

According to the Washington Examiner, it’s a 50% increase for serious sexual assaults which includes 1st degree and 2nd degree assaults (1st degree is defined as when the attacker forces sex through direct violence and 2nd degree is when the attacker uses the threat of violence).

However the city’s Police department says the increase is only 11% this year.  The city’s numbers include everything from the misdemeanor of “innappropriate touching” to forced sex.

The overall crime rate for D.C. differs with who you talk to as well. The FBI says violent crime in the city increased 7% this year.  The D.C. police department says violent crimedecreased by 7%.

Mark Twain said it best, “There’s lies, there’s damned lies, and then there’s statistics.”

I’ve seen statistical information vary wildly from different institutions. Some of it can be chalked up to different methodologies in gathering and interpreting information. But I also suspect that a good portion of it comes from either driving — or protecting — a political agenda. That means organizations which would be hurt by the numbers are most likely to downplay the real threat.

For example, I know that many universities report their crime statistics strictly by the actual school boundaries and not the general campus area. This means that crime statistics can look quite low — as measured within the sidewalks that contain the school’s buildings. But the real crime rate is usually a lot higher around the campus in the living areas, restaurants, bars, stores and parking lots that students invariably use every day.

Sexual crimes and violence against women has historically been, and continues to be, a huge problem.  The fact is, if you are female, you are at risk no matter where you are — dispite what the city, the university, or others might tell you.

www.stevekardian.com

www.nydefedu.com

www.thornwoonMMA.com

CREEPER ALERT! Attention Female Self Defense Instructors!

In 2008 and just this week a number of our “Female Instructors” have been receiving e-mails from a man claiming that his wife or girlfriend was involved in an incident that required her to use force against the male aggressor. He claims she then went on to stomp him in the face while he was down causing significant damage to his face (OVERKILL) or a scenario of a similar nature. The creeper then asks the female instructor if she would be willing to speak, via e-mail, with his wife or girlfriend. The girlfriend (really the creeper) then tells the story. When the female instructor mentions that she spoke with me about the situation, the creeper states “Here is my story, please don't share this with your instructor as I need the opinion of another woman”. The e-mails are violent, sexually explicit and graphic. The “wife/girlfriend” speaks using language that a man would use. After speaking with my partner, Brad Parker, we learned that the same exact e-mail had been copied and pasted to our instructor’s across the country and that we were not the only organization he was targeting.

In 2008 I wrote him and informed him, among other things, that I was in law enforcement and he disappeared. He resurfaced this week sending the same e-mail to several of our new instructors. I sent him an e-mail on Tuesday advising him that I would be more than willing to speak with him and offer my input. I requested his contact information. He has not responded. Please inform your instructors. He only targets female instructors.

He has used a Yahoo account and has used the name Jim and Steve. His female name is Becky

Six Sexual Assaults occured in Daytona Beach the first week of Spring Break!

Every year I speak to hundreds and sometimes thousands of young High School and College women but the crime of sexual assault and drug facilitated sexual assault continue to raise at an alarming rate.

There have been six reported rapes in Daytona Beach during spring break, all of which occurred in one week.

Daytona Beach police said the reported rapes happened the first week of spring break. One person has been arrested in connection with a rape, while authorities search for the other suspects.

One attack happened at a resort and spa. Another four occurred behind a popular beachfront restaurant and one on the mainland.

In the most recent attack, which occurred on Sunday, a 37-year-old woman was pulled into the men's bathroom at the Ocean Center and assaulted during an electronics trade show.

Police said reported rapes usually increase in March because of vacationers on spring break.

Last year, there were 41 sexual assaults in Daytona Beach, police said.

Hustler Magazine's VILE request!

Gary Michael Hilton, 61, pled guilty January 31 to killing Meredith Emerson, 24, after he met her hiking in the North Georgia mountains. Authorities believe Hilton killed Emerson on January 4, three days after she disappeared while on a hike with her dog.

Hilton directed authorities to Emerson's body on January 7. An autopsy found she died from blunt-force trauma to the head and was decapitated after she died. Hustler magazine has filed a Open Records Act application in an attempt to obtain the pictures for publication in their magazine.

While there are legitimate reasons for a news agency to request crime scene photos for news stories, I cannot fathom why HUSTLER would or could justify doing a story on a poor woman that was kidnapped on a hiking trail, raped, tortured and partially decapitated. Is Hustler catering to sexual deviates? I have investigated homicides where a person has been nearly decapitated and I can say first hand that these are some of the most gruesome scenes that a member of Law Enforcement will encounter. The thought that Hustler wants to print these photos in a porn magazine is deeply disturbing and it appears that the magazine is acknowledging the fact that some people may get aroused by the gruesome violence and forceable rape these photos depict.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation refused to release the photographs to Hustler even though the Open Records Act provides for their release.

At the same time, the Georgia State Legislature moved closer to enacting a law that will change the state's Open Records Act. The law would prevent anyone from obtaining gruesome crime scene photographs.

Full story here at http://www.11alive.com/

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=141649&catid=3

January is national "STALKING AWARENESS" month!

Largest-ever National Study on Stalking a Wake-up Call

A major national study on stalking, released on January 13, 2009, by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), serves as a wake-up call about a serious and often misunderstood crime, says the
National Center for Victims of Crime, the nation’s leading resource and advocacy organization for crime
victims and founder of the Stalking Resource Center. Stalking Victimization in the United States, the largest
collection of data on stalking prevalence and behavior to date, found that 3.4 million persons identified
themselves as victims of stalking in a 12-month period. This figure, which represents an increase of 2 million
victims per year over the findings of a key 1998 study,1 suggests the urgent need for a more comprehensive
response to the crime.

“This groundbreaking report shows the vast scope of stalking and the devastating impact of the crime,” said
Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime. “It also sheds light on some
previously unexplored aspects of stalking, such as the use of technology to stalk.” More than one in four
victims reported that stalkers had used technology, such as e-mail or instant messaging, to follow and harass
them, and one in 13 said stalkers had used electronic devices to intrude on their lives. One in seven victims
reported having moved to protect themselves. About 130,000 victims reported having been fired or asked to
leave their job because of the stalking, and about 1 in 8 lost time from work because they feared for their safety or were taking step (such as seeking a protection order) to protect themselves.

Raed the full article at http://www.ncvc.org/src/AGP.Net/Components/DocumentViewer/Download.aspxnz?DocumentID=45874