3 Marines Beaten by Mob
Quick summary of what happened:
3 Marines were walking on the beach in San Clemente where a large group of teens and young adults were acting rowdy and shooting fireworks at people.
A woman pushing a stroller with her 9 month old inside said the teens were throwing fireworks at her baby and laughing.
One of the Marines was hit in the head with firework debris. He told them to stop. Then he turned and walked away.
One of the teens ran up and sucker punched him in the back of the head and then ran back into the crowd.
The Marine chased him into the crowd and gave him a few blows before being mobbed by the crowd.
He and his Marine friends were in the fetal position being kicked and stomped in the head by the mob.
From what I know there weren’t any serious injuries thankfully.
How to Handle This Situation
First off I always tell people that if you see a large group of people it almost always spells trouble. Personally I just avoid large groups. Nothing good is going to come of it.
Never assume rowdy people will be swayed by your reasoning. They are already acting in a disrespectful manner. They are literally announcing to everyone what their morals and ethics are.
What do you think the odds are that they will stop if you politely ask them, sternly ask them, or even demand that they do so?
At best they will ignore you, more likely they will respond with threats, and of course they could very well respond with violence as happened with these Marines.
The woman who had her 9 month old in the stroller wisely just left as quickly as she could without engaging them.
If she would have said anything she would have run the risk of being attacked and putting her baby at risk. These types of animals have no respect for your baby.
Forced to Fight
If you find yourself forced to fight then you might ask me, “is this winnable?”
And my answer is “yes” it might very well be winnable.
But there are a lot of variables that come into play:
There are too many variables to list but this is a really good start.
South Chicago Cop Story
I once heard a story of a cop in south Chicago back in the 1970s who was jumped by 14 gang members.
The gangs staged a fight between 2 people knowing that the officer would be walking around a corner and would come break it up.
You see they hated this cop so they plotted to ambush him.
Sure enough when the officer walked around the corner and saw the 2 men fighting he tried to break it up.
Just then 12 more people came from behind cover and attacked.
Now realize that even with 14 people attacking only 3 maybe 4 people can functionally get to you at any one time. So you aren’t defending against 28 fists but 6 to 8.
That still isn’t good.
Not to mention the sheer mass of multiple people pressing against each other and you could knock you down and if you are on the ground you are in big trouble.
The officer luckily found his back against a tree so he didn’t get knocked over. He said he was doing a pretty good job of blocking punches but realized that it was a matter of time before a good shot got through and dropped him.
He also knew that if he got knocked unconscious that they would surely use his gun to kill him.
He pictured his wife and 2 daughters in his mind and didn’t want to leave them without a husband and father. So he decided to do something different.
He looked out from his arm cocooned cover and got punched. He grabbed the first guy that hit him and started smashing the guy in the face.
Then he got hit again. He did the same thing to that attacker.
Then he looked for the next closest person. But there was no 3rd attacker.
His ferocity and aggression caused the gang members to scatter and run away.
How to Fight Multiple Attackers
Let’s take some lessons from that south Chicago officer.
Don’t Get Surrounded
If you are surrounded use a straight blast to smash your way out of the encirclement to the outside.
Fight 1 Person at a Time
In the movies the attackers always come at the hero 1 at a time in order. That won’t be how it goes down in the real world. So you have to create that opportunity. The afore mentioned straight blast is a great way to move one attacker away from the pack long enough to do some damage before turning to the next attacker.
Just go from one person to the next as aggressively as possible.
Don’t square up in a fighting stance as that give the group a chance to get ready and surround you again. Just go from one to the next using a straight blast.
Use Human Shields
Putting one of the attackers in-between you and the group is a great temporary way to fight one at a time.
Using a Thai clench is a great way to grab someone, spin them in the way of the closest attacker and for a moment have a human shield.
I’d advise kicking the human shield in the testicles and kneeing them in the chin when the bend down to hopefully take them out of the fight.
Then the other attackers have to go around or step over their fallen comrade. This makes them off-balance so you can straight blast the closest one and Thai clench them and repeat.
Just keep repeating this process until there are no more willing opponents
What About Using a Weapon?
In order to utilize a weapon you must first create space. So after you straight blast your way out of the middle and human shield someone you can probably create enough space to deploy a self-defense weapon.
You don’t want to try to deploy it when they are too close to you as they can grab your arms and wrestle the weapon away.
Summary
While it is possible to win a fight like this isn’t it best to just avoid it all together?
I always tell people: don’t do stupid things, don’t go places where stupid people are, don’t hang around with stupid people, and if you do… you might be a stupid person and perhaps some self-reflection is in order.
Until next time,
Brian Copeland
