I have watched the Zimmerman fiasco with half-an-eye since it began. Frankly, if I were walking in a neighborhood where I had every right to be, and some guy without a badge starts closing on me, yeah - we're gonna have a problem. I can see the Martin perspective. I also see the Zimmerman perspective - he's trying to keep his neighborhood safe. I can find more to fault with Zimmerman than Martin - from a Right & Wrong, Reaction/Over Reaction perspective. I'm not talking about the legal misconduct that has been epic.
Zimmerman - you want to be a cop, go to the academy. Zimmerman's community - you want real security, then do it right with radios, protocols for engaging suspicious people, et cetera. This half-assed silliness when it comes to perimeter security gets people killed.
But from a CQB perspective: Every account I have read says Martin "got the mount" on Zimmerman. This means Zimmerman was on his back, and Martin was straddling him - either at the shoulders, the chest, or belly/hips. Either way, Zimmerman was in a BAD spot. Every report I have read (and evidence I have seen in pictures) suggests Martin was using his advantage and beating the snot out of Zimmerman.
Fight to your Weapon is the theme of my CQB class. I do not teach my students how to grapple their way out from under a guy who has the mount - that's beyond the scope of my class. But Zimmerman managed to do EXACTLY what I try to teach my students - he managed to keep Martin from knocking him out or killing him, while at the same time he managed to deploy his weapon and end the fight. Well done.
Here's my nit to pick - since I have my little attitude problem about being challenged by ANYONE in a place I have a Right to be, especially by some civilian who isn't OBVIOUSLY legit - if Zimmerman had just a few weeks in almost ANY groundfighting class, ju-jutsu, BJJ, GJJ, he'd have been able to end that fight without killing Martin, with a technique ALL of my students have seen in my class.
Most of you have watched when Holly straddled my chest, she captured one of my extended arms, rolled to the side and put me in an armbar? If Martin had the mount on Zimmerman and was either punching downward (by some accounts) or had hold of his head and was pounding it to the concrete (by some accounts) Martin was GIVING ZIMMERMAN THE ARMBAR.Caveat: Yes, it matters whether Martin was straddling Zimmerman at the shoulders or chest or hips, but only in the number of moves Zimmerman would have needed to take the arm and break it - ending the fight without muzzle-blast.
I'm not declaring right or wrong of either Zimmerman or Martin - I'm simply showing my students, and telling the rest of you, (and my students have SEEN how easily Holly was able to catch my arm and break the elbow if she had chosen to do so) that if you just train up a bit you improve your odds of survival exponentially.
Folks - get to a school. 6 months of Krav. Can't find a good Krav school, find a good GJJ or BJJ school, or even check into a dojo that claims "MMA" curriculum. If you train for the 300 yard fight, and the 30 yard fight, great! But I promise you, and there is no better current example than the Zimmerman case, that the 30' fight, even if YOU have the gun, can turn into a 3" deathfight in moments.
This is a teachable moment - don't miss the lesson.
Kerodin
III
These days, 'civilians' are far more legit than the cops. (And remember the Seventh Principle of police work: "Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.") (Emphases mine.)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you're actually going to fault Zimmerman for doing something that, in the old days, was what damn near everyone would do when encountering a suspicious person in their neighborhood?
Dude.
Wraith: You know I wasn't giving Zimmerman a hard time, because I said so at several points in the piece. I "did" say I can also see Martin's perspective - but all of that is beside the point of the piece.
DeleteThe point is that with just a bit of training, Zimmerman "could" have escaped the mount and taken Martin without killing him. Here's a "What if..." that makes this relevant: What if Martin was an Intel Asset for OpFor and the mission was to take him for questioning? In that case, Zimmerman failed his Tribe.
Everyone trains with rifles and handguns (though I must admit I am finding a deficiency there - that's a topic for another piece) - it only makes sense to be ready for the 3' fight and the contact fight as well.
As to the "morality" of the Zimmerman case - this should be a lesson to everyone out there that real security is not a single volunteer on a neighborhood watch patrol. Zimmerman deserves to walk without a single charge - but his heart should be a bit heavy at how and why things turned out as they did.
Had he approached me in identical circumstances, there would still have been a body on the ground, one way or another - I don't like being challenged when I have a right to be at X.
K
OK, that clears things up. I get it now.
DeleteKerodin,
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that challenging someone who has a right to be in a location is not right. Had Martin let it go and continued to walk away or ignored Zimmerman he would very likely avoided a physical altercation and remained alive. Unnecessary risks are just that, unnecessary.
JJ
Martin iniated/escalated. Pretty clear from the facts.
ReplyDeleteZimmerman took out the trash. Give the man a medal.
Young hooded unknown in MY neighborhood? Count on me finding out who/why etc.
The point if this whole show trial is to make self defense illegal.