Riot Survival

Hi there

Its been a while, hope everybody has been doing great!

Months ago, on ANZAC Day (An Australian and New Zealand Holiday to commemorate the our past and current armed forces) I was sitting outside a hamburger shop with a friend in a suburb in Western Sydney. Then we heard sounds of glass breaking and alarms coming from the direction of a pub on the same street. The next thing we saw was two males running down the street followed by a large group of males wearing jackets (they looked like bikies because their jackets had matching insignia). As they approached us we got up and crossed to the other side of the road (Avoidance!!!!). Then we saw one of the fleeing males run into a large crowd of people gathered outside a church. This male jumped over the fence and then we lost sight of him. The next male ran into the same crowd but the jacket clad pursuers caught up to him and pinned him to a parked car and hit him with what appeared to be motorcycle helmets in their hands.

We were watching this from another side of the road when we heard voices nearby, "I'll fuckin' stab yer cunt," and saw a man pursuing another fleeing man (who was laughing) and we saw the blade in the pursuers hand. They passed right infront of us (within metres) and ran down the road. As soon as it was clear we quickly departed the area whilst phoning the police.

Minutes later, we heard sirens as we we're walking back to my friend's house and then when we got to his home we heard even more sirens in the distance.

A check of the news revealled a man in his 30's was taken to hospital (stabbed) and police are trying to confirm if a second individual was also stabbed.

Scary stuff but I guess sometimes it's useful to witness this stuff so you make sure you train for reality, not some sort of dojo mentality. By the way it was in important rehash on the value of avoidance. I believe avoidance and escape as a strategy for minimising risk is a worthwhile SOP of self protection plans. I'm not saying it is appropriate or effective in every case, but I think it is usually a very good option if available, especially if a situation is getting out of control.

Thanks

Ron Goodman

I'm all for avoiding fights, if there is a way out of a situation I dont want to be in then I'll take it right away. However sometimes, when I see a big group of thugs, and I know whats about to happen, I sometimes think should I run or not, because a lot of the time when I do run away, they instantly start chasing after me, and im not a very fast runner.

Like two days ago I was in a park with my mates when a big group of lads came in with bandans covering their faces, so it was obvious what their intention was. Anyway I was trying to decide wether or not to run becasue I knew as soon as I started to leg it they would just come after me.

So sometimes I think it depends on the situation as to wether or not to get away from there, but if I could run everytime and not be beaten up then I would be happy to do so. No shame in running away.