Managing Multiple Assailants

THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF CROWD VIOLENCE

American news reporters in Japan covering the aftermath of the disastrous March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami were astounded that there was hardly any looting following the complete breakdown of law enforcement services–even in areas outside the Fukushima nuclear evacuation zone. Contrast that with the looting which is standard after American disasters, or even if the power is out for any length of time.

Stolen Sonys may not be your problem, but they can become so if your car gets flipped over and set on fire–with you inside. Living somewhere other than the SE coast during hurricane season, and staying out of California after unpopular court decisions, used to be a good way to avoid mob violence, but frequently now, there are protests throughout our nation.

Most of the protesters are concerned about very real socioeconomic inequality. But their honest perceptions (and misperceptions) are frequently hijacked by left- and right-wing extremists who use violence, some clearly hoping our “culture wars” escalate into a real, nation-wide civil war.

This riot on 4th Avenue in Tucson started because the University of Arizona lost a Final 4 basketball game–a basketball game! Image from the U of A Daily Wildcat.

Cell phone technology has enabled “flash mobs” to leverage otherwise peaceful protests into opportunities for organized theft, vandalism, even arson of occupied buildings. Most flash mobs are peaceful–even silly–but some are intended to overwhelm local security (“they can’t catch us all if a hundred of us blatantly steal cars at once”).

Protests that started peacefully enough have turned into angry mobs. If you accidentally wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting your family away in one piece will take more than a pocket pistol and bravado.

It doesn’t have to be a zombie apocalypse for multiple assailants to be a problem. Many street criminals operate with a “layoff man.” Youtube videos of the Rio Piedras bakery (24 Aug 1998) and the Walmart in Las Vegas (08 Jun 2014) illustrate two of the many examples where an armed bad guy, masquerading as a bystander, snuck up on an armed good guy from behind.

In our Managing Multiple Assailants courses, Heloderm addresses these issues in detail. Knowledge and training lead to situational awareness, plus confidence based on competence, that bad people can sense.

To many shooting schools, “training for multiple opponents” means shooting a sub-par “El Presidente” time against 3 pieces of cardboard that are not moving and not trying to kill you. The El Prez was developed as a test, a means to establish a baseline. It was never intended as a strategy. Our “Undercover Andy” force-on-force exercises will show you in no uncertain terms that if you stand in one place and trade bullets with multiple opponents, you WILL be riddled.

We will do other role-playing exercises where you must identify different types of threats, including:

Instigators
Quiet ones who are packing heat, and
Flankers, who try to cut off your escape

. . . learning to deal with each appropriately, with a gamut of options from verbal de-escalation to blasting a hole through a wall of people surrounding you.

You’ll learn how to use micro terrain (say, the gap between your car and the gas pump) to channelize and stack your opponents. Our live-fire exercises will have you moving to “eclipse” multiple assailant targets. You’ll learn to ration your ammo so that it lasts long enough for you to escape.

Heloderm’s signature “Antelope” drills can train your family members to be part of the solution, whether it’s “watching your 6” and calling out threats, handling comms, or armed response (with their own gun, or a backup you carry). When your family is trained to work as a team, the whole, as they say, is far greater than the sum of its parts.