More Self-Defense News

From: http://www.advocate.com
(December 20, 2005):

After Lucas Dawson was arrested for fatally stabbing a teenager who attacked him because he is gay, a judge declared it self-defense and set him free on November 9. But Dawson hardly feels like a free man.

Dawson, 21, had been in a Philadelphia jail since October 29 for killing 17-year-old Gerald Knight, one of a group of seven teenagers who allegedly beat him while yelling antigay slurs after following him as he walked to a bus stop near his home in the city's East Mount Airy neighborhood.

In defense, Dawson pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed Knight twice in the chest. Dawson started carrying the knife four years ago after he was attacked for kissing his boyfriend in a south Philadelphia park.

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From: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=state&id=3739249
(December 19, 2005):

A thief got more than he bargained for when he tried to rob a convenience store in Modesto.

Edward Petrossi, Quick Stop manager: "I said, 'Hey, you want my money? Come get it!' Right there I chased him. He was shocked."

Edward Petrossi is 5'4" tall and weighs 130 pounds, but he wasn't going to let anyone rob his store. Petrossi has a black belt in six martial arts.

He easily foiled the robbery attempt and then he went one step further.

Edward Petrossi, Quick Stop manager: "Let me take a picture from this man. I take my cell phone. Thanks to technology. I zoomed in, really nice, and got it."

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From: http://www.tcpalm.com
(December 13, 2005):

Police on Monday were searching for an armed man who allegedly forced his way into a home in the 800 block of Southeast Bayou Avenue and ordered a woman to disrobe Sunday night.

The man fled after the woman's 11-year-old son chased him away with a metal curtain rod after he heard the 9:36 p.m. commotion, Stuart police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson reported.

The intruder was described as a black man, about 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall with a muscular build. He was reportedly wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and white T-shirt and had a black pistol with a silver slide.

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New belt-buckle to stop rapes:

From: Dagladet, Norway
(November 24, 2005):

A 19-year-old Swedish female named Nadja Bjork has designed a belt-buckle that according to reports can prevent rapes.

Allegedly this design has already prevented one girl from being raped at a music festival this summer in Sweden (Hultsfredsfestivalen). The attacker gave up when he couldn't open the belt.

In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Bjork claims that the buckle work much like a chastity belt. She says that the belt-buckle sits on top of the regular buckle, and that it takes a special two-handed grip to remove it. Since an attacker will need both hands to attempt to remove the lock, it gives the victim more time and room to escape (or fight back) and get help.

Bjork states that the buckle is designed to prevent or hinder a blitz-rape where a victim is attacked by a stranger, and that it will be of little use towards pre-planned attacks (partner rapes, date rapes or acquaintance rapes).

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From: http://indiatalking.com/blog/indianwomen/1590/
(November 22, 2005):

A third of people in the UK believe a woman is partially or completely to blame for being raped if she has behaved in a flirtatious manner, according to ‘shocking’ research.

More than a quarter also believe a woman is at least partly responsible for being raped if she wears sexy or revealing clothing, or is drunk, the ICM study found.

One in five thinks a woman is partly to blame if it is known she has many sexual partners, while more than a third believe she is responsible to some degree if she has clearly failed to say ‘no’ to the man.

In each of these scenarios a slightly greater proportion of men than women held these views — except when it came to being drunk, when it was equal. In fact, more women (5%) than men (3%) thought a woman was ‘totally responsible’ for being raped if she was intoxicated.

Support groups described the findings as ‘alarming’ and ‘appalling’.

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From: http://www.mirror.co.uk
(November 22, 2005):

A real-life Karate Kid fought off three teenage hoodies after they tried to mug him in a dark alleyway.

One thug punched Daniel Noble in the stomach after the 19-year-old student said he had no cash.

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From: http://www.wftv.com/news/4974151/detail.html
(September 14, 2005):

OCOEE, Fla. -- Two Ocoee women were jailed for attempted murder after police said they confessed to beating a homeless man.

The attack happened in a park right behind the police department last week.

Investigators said 19-year-old Barbara Austin and 31-year-old Lenora Bowen threw the man through the railings of the gazebo and then beat him with the wooden slats after he allegedly made sexual advances on them.

The women said he tried to rape them. Regardless, police said it went way beyond self-defense.

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From: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12629209.htm
(September 13, 2005):

An 11-year-old boy told Kansas City police a gunman tried to kidnap him from his school bus stop Monday morning.

The boy said he was standing at Virginia Avenue and Armour Boulevard about 7 a.m. when a man in a newer model Mercedes pulled up. The man lowered the passenger window and told the boy to get in the car. When the boy refused, the man pulled a gun from the glove compartment, pointed it at the boy and again demanded he get in.

The boy reached into his pocket, grabbed a rock with which he had been playing and threw it through the open window. It struck the driver’s window and might have broken that window, the boy said.

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From: http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0815women.html
(August 15, 2005):

Answering critics of the “battered woman syndrome,” a University of Illinois expert argues that the claims made by victims of domestic violence are a legitimate extension of the longstanding rules of self-defense.

Many dispute the notion that the legal protection of self-defense can be extended to a woman who kills a partner at some time other than during a beating. According to Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, a battered woman “has the option of either leaving or calling the police” rather than taking matters into her own hands.

Self-defense claims raised by battered women have encountered the greatest objections in cases in which a woman claims that a history of abuse led her to kill her partner as he slept or was not engaged in violence.

“Although statistically most domestic violence killings do not fall into this category,” such killings raise the most troublesome questions for battered women claiming self-defense, wrote Kit Kinports, a law professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. “Can a woman who kills under these circumstances legitimately argue that she acted in self-defense – that, pursuant to the prevailing definition of the defense, she honestly and reasonably believed she was in imminent danger of danger or serious bodily harm?”

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From: http://www.vancouvertelevision.com
(March 23, 2005):

Martial arts training came in handy for a video store clerk last night.

He helped foil a robber. 21 year-old Brandon Zentner's arm and leg are bandaged after he took matters into his own hands.

He was in the middle of his shift at Willow Video in Langley, when a man came in with a gun and demanded cash. While the employees were getting the cash, the gunman put his weapon down on the counter. That gave Zentner just enough time to grab it and a struggle ensued. He was pulled over a counter-top, but was able to wrestler the robber to the ground with the help of customers and other staff. Although the gun wasn't loaded, it turns out the robber also had a knife.

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From: http://www.thestar.com
(November 12, 2004):

An inventor whose daughter's drink was spiked on her 21st birthday has developed a tamper-proof bottle stopper designed to prevent 'drug rapes'.

Ray Lockett hopes the plastic device, called a spikey, will protect women at risk from GHB and Rohypnol or from having vodka poured into soft drinks.

Earlier this year his daughter, Marilyn Henshaw, a model, was targeted while out celebrating with friends. She had not been drinking alcohol but found herself feeling woozy and unable to stand.

She said: "I thought I was coming down with something, but it was only the next day that I realised what must have happened."

"That night changed her life forever," Mr Lockett of Henfield, West Sussex, said.

"Her friends took her home and put her to bed. Marilyn had been spiked and we are so lucky that she was with good friends and wasn't raped."

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From: http://www.thestar.com
(July 30, 2004):

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From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3693049.stm
(May 7, 2004):

GPs in Northern Ireland are signing up for martial arts lessons to protect themselves from assaults at work.

The British Medical Association is so concerned about the rising number of attacks that it has said house calls could be a thing of the past.

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From: http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1772941&nav=0qq6M9yy
(April 8, 2004):

Parents expect their kids to be safe when they're in school. But one mother says that wasn't the case at Savannah High School. A few weeks ago, her son was in the cafeteria when kids came onto school grounds and attacked him. And her son was suspended for defending himself.

We spoke with Brenda Johnson, the teen's mother, as well as people at the Board of Education. School officials say it's all part of the zero tolerance policy which means no weapons, drugs or any kind of violence on campus. But Johnson says school policy not only violates her son's civil liberties, but he is an innocent victim.

Her son, senior Alejandro Johnson, says he is a victim of the zero tolerance policy. "I was attacked," he said. "I was in the right, 100 percent. I was where I was supposed to be doing what I was supposed to be doing."

Alejandro says he was eating lunch inside the school cafeteria when kids came off the street and into the cafeteria and started beating him up. He says he had no choice but to stand up for himself. "I was defending myself and I feel like I was backed into a corner," he said.

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From: http://www.peterboroughet.co.uk
(February 1, 2004):

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From: Unknown source
(2004):

ARLINGTON, TX — Steve Swyhart, chayon-ryu green belt student at the Arlington Dojang, foiled a robbery at a local Stop-N-Go convenience store here using a gun-defense technique.

Swyhart had stopped at the convenience store after class and was still wearing his uniform (minus the belt). He entered the store and noticed that several people had gathered in the back. A large man stood near a magazine rack at the front of the establishment. Swyhart walked past the man, who then spun around with a pistol in his right hand. “I didn’t think,” Swyhart said. “It just happened like we train in class.” He avoided the muzzle and pushed the weapon aside, then grabbed the barrel and twisted the pistol and locked the gunman’s finger in the trigger guard. The criminal immediately dropped to his knees and screamed in pain.

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From: home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=63220&ran=14153
(December 8, 2003):

The man with the gun was backing out of the sports store.

The moment of crisis had passed, and shopkeeper Ziad Ismail was left with his battered dignity and his anger.

He could not contain his feelings that November day.

Without thinking about his five daughters and pregnant wife at home, the 42-year-old man followed the gunman and two others outside his Portsmouth store. He fought them, wrestled the gun away and smashed the windows of the getaway car as the robbers drove off.

People on the street tracked the suspects, and police caught them minutes later.

“I wanted him to feel what I felt,” Ismail said. “I wanted him to fight for his life. I felt so good.”

Like Ismail, a number of people in South Hampton Roads have fought back against their attackers in the past year.

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From: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/3261259.stm
(November 11, 2003):

Vergers at Sheffield Cathedral are being sent on a self-defence course amid a rising tide of violence against church workers.

It is believed to be the first time that an English cathedral has sent any of its staff on such a course.

Two of the cathedral's four vergers, Bill Ross and David Maw, are to be taught how to deal with threatening people who come into the building.

Mr Maw, 38, said: "As vergers we always aim to treat everyone with the same fairness and respect.

"But that can be difficult when you are faced with an angry man demanding money with menaces, or someone you know is wanted by the police for violent behaviour."

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