By now, everyone who has been paying any attention knows that Daniel Penny has been acquitted of all charges in the death of Jordan Neely.
Rather than rehash for the umpteenth time all of the details of the case, or offer the same kind of analysis that every political commentator can be relied upon to make, it is to the lessons for self-defense that this episode supplies to which I draw the reader’s attention.
First, those of Neely’s apologists who now say that Penny’s actions were unjustified because Neely hadn’t actually harmed, i.e., physically assaulted, any of the passengers to whom he was motioning and issuing murderous threats, sound beyond foolish. They are reckless, as this kind of advice can and has gotten people who may have otherwise survived violent encounters killed.
Never would any self-defense instructor worth a damn tell students to wait until after they were physically assaulted before they sought to defend themselves.
Never.
Miyamoto Musashi, a renowned Japanese Samurai warrior from the 17th century, had memorably written: “He who makes his opponent flinch first, wins.” An undefeated swordsman who, in addition to slaying scores of opponents in duels, also fought many a battle in war, knew a thing or two of which he spoke. Musashi’s point is that timing is crucial. Time beats speed, power, size, reach, and any and every other physical advantage.
If I move against a belligerent before he has an opportunity to escalate to violence against me, I now force him to respond to my action. But precisely because he has to respond, he’s already at a temporal disadvantage relative to me. In other words, I am ahead of him. Now, if I don’t incapacitate the threat with my initial movement, then unless I immediately follow up with a barrage of as many strikes as are necessary to neutralize him, I give him an opportunity to remain dangerous. However, as long as I keep the heat on, time contracts, and contracts exponentially, for him.
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At the same time, it expands just as exponentially for me.
The aggressor can never catch up, for from his perspective, space and time have collapsed.
On the other hand, had I waited for an aggressor to strike first, then I would have disadvantaged myself, as now I would be the one trying to play catch up—assuming that his strike (whatever that would have been) didn’t critically injure or kill me on the spot.
A person who has good reason to believe that either his or her own life or the lives of innocents in his or her vicinity are threatened must act preemptively to prevent that harm from materializing. The only alternative to doing so is being victimized, possibly fatally.
Second, that Neely’s defenders nonchalantly dismiss his menacing behavior as just another day on the NYC subway, a feature of the public transit system to which passengers have long accustomed themselves, is telling. It’s revealing in that in that it speaks to just how frightening Neely’s conduct must have been that the battle-hardened veteran passengers of the city’s subway system, all of whom, according to Penny’s condemners, are desensitized to the presence of disruptive, deranged people aboard the trains, lauded Penny for his heroism in stopping Neely while testifying that they had never been so scared for their lives.
Yet it’s also illuminating in that it helps to explain the routine victimization of innocents in the subways (and beyond): No one thinks that they will be the next victim, and so they don’t treat with the seriousness that it deserves the potential threats posed by the Jordan Neelys of the world.
Third, anyone who says, as some of Neely’s apologists have said, that those who feared for their lives because of his aggression should have gotten closer and asked if he needed help are either shameless liars or blithering idiots. I’ll believe the latter if and when they instruct, say, their mothers, wives, and daughters, to stop and offer assistance to strange men whose cars are broken down on the highway.
The absolute last thing that someone, particularly a woman, and/or a woman who has a small child that she needs to protect, or an otherwise diminutive individual without the will or skill to defend himself, should do is move closer to a belligerent person. Any gesture, regardless of how well-meaning it is, can and most likely will escalate the situation further.
Finally, how and why Neely became the violent career criminal that he became is not the concern of those whose lives he threatened. Nor should they be expected to give a damn about the color of his skin, his socio-economic background, his dysfunctional family life, or the fact that he had once been a pretty good Michael Jackson impersonator.
All that matters is that people had good reason to believe that he posed an imminent threat to their safety.
When firefighters arrive on the scene to extinguish an inferno, they don’t first try to figure out why it ignited. They resolve the problem, and only subsequently determine its causes.
If you are awakened in the middle of the night by strangers who are rummaging around your home, and you are preoccupied with determining whether they are members of an oppressed class, or whether they are mentally ill, or demon-possessed, or whether they need “help,” etc., you, and your loved ones, are almost certainly going to be victimized.
Your mind needs to be focused exclusively upon how to incapacitate the threat as quickly and efficiently as possible—before an aggressor has time to execute his violent designs upon you.
Of course, to indeed make sure that your mind is properly set for situations of this sort, that you possess both the skill and the will to protect yourself and innocents, you must train.
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