Do you know when to use your tools and when to win the fight with your empty-handed skills? Whether you’re a Detention Officer or not, this fight between an inmate and DOs in Maricopa County, AZ teaches us why at Active Self Protection we believe that we are the weapon; all else are just tools.

Details on the incident and raw video here: http://get-asp.com/ybdr

What do we learn about self-defense from this incident?

1. The adage says “I am the weapon; all else are just tools.” That is 100% the case here. If you read the story above, it shows that this inmate seriously injured the first officer he attacked, and sent 3 others to the hospital for treatment from this attack. They ALL had a TASER, and yet he is able to subdue the first two completely and only is taken when 5 or 6 officers finally swarm him. Having force multipliers on you is great, but never forget that a fight is a fight against a person. Fight the person, not the tool.

2. Force multipliers are great, but they’re not always effective. Officers use the TASER because it is usually very good at incapacitating a threatening person so that the threat is ended. However, it is certainly not 100% effective. Nothing is! I have seen video of someone being pepper sprayed and walking right through it, and people suffering from Excited Delirium being shot multiple times and fighting for 3 or 4 minutes afterward. You must never get complacent if you’re a tool user. Tools do not mean you can defend yourself. You must be ready for them to fail and look to defend yourself with your empty-handed skills.

3. An unarmed opponent can definitely be a deadly threat. This inmate broke the face of the second officer and he suffered a brain bleed as well; as of today, that DO is still in ICU. An unarmed opponent who means you deadly harm can definitely do you deadly harm with their fists, so don’t assume an unarmed person isn’t a deadly threat.

4. The “High Interview” hand position is incredibly important. Don’t allow someone who you’re not certain is no threat to you into a space that they could attack you from. Use the hands up, palms out posture to get a barrier between your vital areas and the bad guy’s potential attack. Tony Blauer teaches this as the start of the “startle flinch” response to an ambush attack. If the first DO had known how to use that startle-flinch response and partially deflected that first punch, he might have been able to stay in the fight and the outcome might have been quite different.

5. If you have a distance force multiplier like a TASER, you want to keep distance from the attacker to use it! If you have a distance force multiplier aimed at you, you want to either close the distance to where you can be effective, or get beyond its effective distance.

6. To cancel a numerical advantage against you, attack with speed, surprise, and violence. The inmate took the first officer completely out of the fight in 3 lightning-fast, well-placed punches and turned the fight into a mano a mano affair. Thankfully in this situation backup arrived relatively quickly, but the principle remains for self-defenders. If you have more than one opponent, take one out of the fight before fighting the other.

Attitude. Skills. Plan.