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Mark was studying late and decided around 1 A.M. to go out for some late night grub at a 24 hour fast food drive through. After ordering at the window, the teenage girl inside repeated his order and gave him his total. He gave her a few bills and then scrounged for the exact change in his ashtray where he stored his excess change. While picking through the coins, he was startled by the sharp sound of the horn from the car behind him. The jolting “honk, honk , honk”, blared through the night and Mark figured that it was an impatient driver wanting him to hurry up. Without even thinking, Mark stuck his left hand middle finger out the window to let his own irritation and frustration from the horn be known and then went back to digging for change.

Before he knew it, there was a right arm coming through the driver side window grabbing his left shoulder along with the words, “You son of a ……”!

Mark’s adrenaline kicked into high gear along with his training and he instinctively grabbed the guy’s wrist, leaned away, twisted and pulled down trying to pop the aggressors elbow down on to the door sill. (variation of play guitar) The attacker realizing what was happening jerked away with so much force that he went flying back and fell onto the asphalt.

Mark quickly got out of his car and as he faced his assailant he realized the surface had very recently been washed down and was a bit slippery. The guy got up and came at Mark grabbing at him with both hands. Mark brought up his hands in front of him while simultaneously delivering a front snap kick to his opponents l groin. His opponent buckled forward but in throwing the kick, Mark also slipped and fell forward himself. With his assailants face directly to his right, he drove a side elbow into his mouth knocking him back into the building where he crumpled down onto the ground.

The girl inside was visibly shaken up and shouted, “I called the police. They are on their way!” Mark thought, “Oh great, just what i need…..”

The police arrived quickly and went first to the assailant who was still seated on the ground. they then came to Mark and said, “We’re going to have to arrest you for assault. He wants to press charges.”

Mark retorted, “Hey! I was the one who got attacked! Did you ask the girl inside what happened?”

“Stay here.” one officer replied “while I check it out.”

He came back after speaking to the girl and asked Mark, “Sorry sir. Do you want to press charges against him?”

“No, I just want to get back to my studies. But you might want to tell him to not be a jerk next time.”

Mark returned to his car and left. When he told me the story at his next class I told him he was lucky and if the rookie officers had known the law better or had called for a supervisor then he and the other guy probably would have gotten cited for public disorder or mutual combat. “How do you figure that?” he replied.

“When you flipped off the guy behind you, that was a provocative gesture and the law explicitly states that “you cannot claim self defence if you provoked the other’s use of force unless you clearly communicate your intention to withdraw and they nevertheless continue the assault. You literally threw away your self defence rights in regards to averting a disorderly conduct/mutual combat charge. You just got lucky with the officer’s onsite. It would have been better to ignore him and just let him vent rather than adding fuel to the fire, but it was a great lesson and luckily it didn’t turn out to be an expensive one. It just reiterates how important it is to learn the rules of the game i.e the laws regarding justifying the use of force, self defence etc. and NOT just martial skills. So be sure to keep building your knowledge along with your power by reading up on these areas in the recommended reading guides. Now let’s get back to work on these new techniques!”