Innocent Until Proven Guilty
When you initially hear this term – innocent until proven guilty – you may assume it refers to the “bad guy” in a court case. If you have been involved in an altercation in which you had to use force to defend yourself and you have engaged in hand to hand combat training or some sort of martial arts training, this statement may actually apply to YOU!
It is important to remember that we are bound by laws in our country. The law is there to protect us; but in the instance of using techniques learned in a program including hand to hand combat training, it is very likely that the person who had to defend themselves will find themselves on the other side of that law. It doesn’t quite make sense, does it?
The sad truth is that we live in a time when lawsuits abound. There are ample stories of good people protecting themselves who have then been charged with a crime; leaving the person who initiated the attack looking like a victim. I think it’s absolutely nuts that anyone could not see the reality of a situation in which self defense is used; but that’s just me. In truth, only two percent of the population is willing to use force to protect themselves from an assault.
Two percent! That is a very low number! When you understand that this means that 98 percent of the population is basically sheep walking into slaughter, and that these are the people who would be sitting on a jury hearing about your bout with violence, you can see that you may have an uphill battle trying to prove you were in the right. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, no; of course it doesn’t. But this is the way our legal system operates.
So this gives you yet one more thing to think about when you are going through training. You may learn through a self defense video, or through a hand to hand combat training course, or by practicing with a friend; but you have remember to use your brain as well as your body in the event of an attack.
If you find yourself in an altercation, your senses will already be heightened. You need to think of what you learned in that self defense video; what move you need to employ to get this person to back off. But you also need to pay close attention to what the other person is doing. Why? Because there is a good chance you will have to defend yourself in court after you have defended yourself on the street or in your home.
Sad, but necessary. If you find yourself in front of judge and jury, it will be your job to give the total view of what occurred, and what made you employ the self defense moves that you used. Be aware that if you do engage in hand to hand combat training or any sort of military training or martial arts training, you will have a harder time proving that you were a victim. This goes back to that statistic of people be more willing to be harmed than to use violence.
Don’t stop training just because the law may be used against you. You just need to remember that, while you are showing the bad guy that he can’t get away with violence against you, the entire altercation just may be replayed in a court of law and you want to come out victorious. So pay attention.
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