Is this seat taken?

If sudden jihadists driving their cars into crowds, shooting up malls, airports, and Jewish centers isn't enough to wake you up to the problem, take a look at this.

So, in Philly no less, the city of brotherly love, he whispers something to a little kid, presumably his son, and then commences to attack an innocent young man with a hammer.  One wonders if he told the boy; Watch Daddy now; this is how you get laid in Paradise.

If you're attacked like that, here are some things you might be able to do, if you decide to do more than sit there screaming for help.

Put your arms up over your head, or in front of your face, in an X-pattern to protect yourself.  If you just hold your hands out or up, blows can make it between your arms and hands to your head and face. The X-pattern blocks those blows and can offer some protection. Kick the attacker if you can while you're shielding yourself.

Or, reach up and grab the attacker by the shirt or coat and pull him to the ground.  Get on top of him and pound the shit out of him with whatever you can find for a weapon.  You decide.

You're probably going to be hurting pretty bad but you need to remember that if you stop to treat your boo-boos, you're going to get hurt worse and may even die as a result.  You can look for band-aids later.  When you're being attacked like this guy was, you need to fight. If that's what you decide.

If someone is swinging a stick or hammer at you and you're not armed with a handgun, you have limited options and limited choices only you can make.

• You can run away and hope the bad guy loses interest.
• You can attack. 
• To attack means you will have to move inside the arc of his swing and attack his body.  With what?  I don't know.  With you.  With your head.  With your fists.  With your coffee.  With your computer.  With a knife. 
• With resolve and determination ~ even though you'll be scared.
• It's your decision and you should decide now generally what you will do then.

Some have said the cowards who let this man be attacked were smart because they avoided litigation. To that useless canard I have but one thing to say: Bullshit.

There is a precept in law called the reasonable man standard.  Generally, it means that if a judge or jury thinks you did what a reasonable man would have done in the same situation, you will probably not be held liable.  Am I a lawyer?  Nope.  Am I telling you what to do?  Nope.

I'm a man who's not going to stand around and let an innocent person be killed, if I can stop it.  And there are millions of us out there.  A word to all of you millions: you need to be more ready than ever before.  In front of a child who is probably his son, this savage tried to murder an innocent man in the name of Allah. 

It is more than heinous. 

It is more than disgusting. 

It is more than alarming. 

It is an act of war.

If you're in a position to see such an attack, here are some options you might consider.  These are things you choose to do, not me.  You take responsibility for your choices and actions.

Hit the attacker with a heavy and hard object.  Hit him on the head.  Very hard the first time.  You don't need to piss him off, you need to knock him out so he'll stop attacking.  When you knock him out, grab something and tie his hands up behind his back.   

Or, try a hair-hold.  Reach into hair on the back part of the top of his head, where the bald spot is on some men, and grab a big hunk of hair.  Grab it good and tight.  Don't yank it like a school-girl; pull on it like in a tug-o'-war.  Don't let go of it.  Pull that head back and the body will follow.  Because your hands are on the top/back of his head, it will be harder for him to reach back and fight you.  So pull hard.  Drag him to the ground.  Slam his head into hard objects like walls and poles and seats as you're pulling.

But before you do anything like this, you need to be sure to a moral certainty that his actions are endangering your life a/o the lives of others, and you as a reasonable person are going to try to stop his dangerous actions using the minimum amount of force necessary.  You didn't decide this POS needed his ass kicked.  You didn't decide to teach that creep a lesson.  You decided to try to stop him from hurting others a/o yourself and you used reasonable force in doing so.

Something else once taught in police self-defense courses, and may be still today : the old reliable choke hold.  From behind him, get one arm around his neck so the inner part of your elbow is under his chin and grab the fist of that hand with your other hand.  And pull back.  This will cause your  bicep and forearm to press in on his carotid arteries while putting pressure on his trachea at the same time.  Blood flow to his brain will slow and he'll have trouble breathing.  He'll begin to get tired and may become weak.  If/when you feel he is getting weak and his attack slows, hold on just a few seconds longer until he starts to drop.  Then help him to the ground with the full weight of your  body and when aground, get him tied up before he can recover.

Might this move kill him?  Yes.  Were you protecting your life a/o the lives of others when you did it?  I don't know.  Only you do.

If you're armed with a handgun and decide to shoot, you might not be able to get a totally clean shot, one that will stop the attacker and not hit any victims a/o bystanders.  So, if you decide, take the next best shot.

Again; you decide these things, not me.  You decide to accept the possibility that these things can happen in your presence to someone you don't know.  Or to someone you love who's sitting on a bus reading a book while you gaze at the bucolic scenery.  Or it could happen to you. Tomorrow.

If you decide to resist, you could win.  And survive.  And you'll deal with some troubling emotions for a while perhaps. And you may end up in court.

If you decide to let something like this happen in front of you while you could try to stop it, you most likely won't end up in court.  But your emotional trouble will be deeper and longer... and you will lose some of your soul, maybe all of it... but that's between you and God.

A crisp salute to Debbie and Robert for covering this attack from a different angle.  Wander over to their blogs and check out the comments there. Then get your butts back over here.

Class is still in session, unerschrocken.

Update here.

9-11-08 Update: a reader here pointed out to me that the article I linked to in this post clearly shows that terrorists consider hammers to be just another innocent-looking weapon to be used against the infidel.

Man up.

And thanks to Robert for the clue.