Josh Gold“I start staring at him and tapping my foot with an intense expression on my face.”
I recently published an article titled Risking your life to help someone. We received many comments with a variety of opinions and several interesting scenarios. I was particularly intrigued in this submission by Miles Meyrow. I believe that this sort of approach to solving violent scenarios represents the essence of the Aiki spirit. – Ed.
I have intervened in four separate incidents, all in New York City.
1 – Three guys were kicking someone on the street at night… From across the street I yell to stop, they yelled back that they would beat me, I answered asking, “Why?” always keeping distance between us. Soon the guy got up and ran away.
2 – Daytime this time: four guys were beating up one guy. I told them to stop, keeping a distance. They said some stuff back. I said if the cops see this, they would be in trouble. They told me to stay out of it, but let the guy go.
3 – Daytime, Central Park: crazy guy with knife knocked over a Chinese food delivery person. Again, I kept a distance and kept him engaged in conversation for about ten minutes. Food guy left with his food. Two guys came over and started getting in the middle of my conversation with crazy man, so I left. About five minutes later, I see crazy man chasing the two guys with his knife.
4 – On the elevated subway at 10 am Sunday morning: I am going to work wearing my white cook clothes. I get on a train and an attractive woman gets on the train. She sits on the opposite side of me at the other end of the benches. A large, badly dressed crazy man gets on the train. He yells stuff in English, then hisses loudly and speaks in some weird, scary language. As soon as he enters the car, I start staring at him and tapping my foot with an intense expression on my face. He stands for a while being loud, then sits by the door and quiets down. All the time, he never connects with my stare. The train stops between stations for a while. The crazy man gets louder and louder and stands up again. Then he notices the attractive woman at the other end of the bench. He goes over to her. He now is giving her attention and starts to sit by her. I, say “Why don’t you get the f–k out of here?” He jumps up and starts going through his insane changes. I am still staring and tapping my foot, but looking aggressive. Now the other people on the train are looking at us. The woman has her face buried in a book. Eventually, crazy man sits down again and only mumbles to himself. I am still tapping my foot. The train starts up, goes to Queensboro Plaza, and crazy man gets off the train. The woman looks up and smiles at me.
Yup. Have done similar stuff myself on occasion.
Regarding the train incident – I heard the following story. An aggressive man enters the train and passes down the carriage being rude and confrontational – probably drunk. A passenger engages him in eye contact and pats the empty seat next to him, inviting him to sit. He sits and the passenger asks him if he’s OK and commiserates with him that certain days can be really difficult. The drunk starts telling him about the bad things that have happened in his life and the situation becomes calm. Aiki in action! Probably won’t work with a mob intent on beating someone up though!
How to deal with those people with mental health issues is an important topic, especially for law enforcement. Though “crazy guy” isn’t a medical term or a diagnosis, someone exhibiting symptomatic behavior, can become a danger to themselves and others. I used to work in an Alzheimer’s ward in a veteran’s retirement home. It proposed many challenging situations. I still believe an arm bar pin, is a humane and humble way to disperse the aggression of a person suffering from a mental illness or a temporary lapse of reason. A person with mental illness might thank you later for stopping them from doing something terrible, any one, for that matter, who loses their cool, or betrays the common understanding of peaceful co-existence in a moment of weakness, should thank you for preventing an act of violence. Jail is dirty and prison is worse.
JP