PORTLAND, Maine — Local police are reporting that two men were stabbed in unrelated incidents early Sunday evening.

Portland police report that both men are expected to recover.

Ar least one attack was on a security guard who was overwhelmed and then stabbed in the back multiple times.

Simply watching the news, it’s difficult to say whether edged weapon assaults are becoming more common in Southern, Maine, but certainly they remain common. From these and other attacks we can unequivocally recommend that citizens and police officers interested in their own safety need to undertake edged weapon self-defense training.

Maine Martial Arts is one of the only schools in the state that focuses on defense against armed and multiple opponents. We spend significant amount of our training time learning to defend against knife attacks. We also focus on gun, stick and empty hand attacks.

Ultimately we learn the principles of defense against any type of attack.

This story is a reminder of how edged weapons are everywhere and are very dangerous.

Interested on training to protect you and your loved ones? Contact us.

Carjacking is a relatively rare occurrence in Maine. However, you can learn to be safer in your car no matter where you are. Here are the most important steps you can take:

1. Safety always begins with awareness
   Know what’s around your car at all times, even when stopped at a light. Drivers distracted by speaking on the cellphone, eating, doing their makeup have proven to be more dangerous than drunken drivers. Be aware, even when stopped.
2. Keep your doors locked
   The only time your car doors should ever be unlocked is when you are getting in or out of or unloading the car. A lot of car jacking happens at stoplights. It’s much harder to pull someone out of a car that is locked than not. Leaving your car unlocked leaves it open for anyone to climb in, an assailent, a child, a burglar – keep it locked.
3. Leave space to escape
   A rule I always follow when stopping behind another car is to leave enough room that I could pull away if I had to – even if that means driving up on the sidewalk. If someone approaches your car with a weapon, your first instinct should be to drive off fast.
4. Understand the rule about second crime scene
   As a general rule, you should never let an assailant take you to a second crime scene. They are not taking you there with good intentions and, chances are, they want to remove your options for survival. If someone does happen to get into the car with you, get out and run if you can. If you can’t it’s recommended that you force the car to crash against a stationary object – hopefully at a speed that won’t kill or injure you severely.
5. Be careful about fake police officers
   This is a nightmare situation, but some criminals equip their cars with flashing lights to pull people over. This has mostly been done to target young women driving by themselves. Occasionally one of them will even dress as a police officer. We’re taught to comply with law enforcement, and disobeying the law can bring charges. Unmarked cars are more common on the turnpike, where it’s unlikely such criminals would be active for fear of being caught. So, if you’re being pulled over in the middle of nowhere:
   • Slow down and signal your intent to stop and try to pull over in a well-lit public area (may not always be an option).
   • Look at the car, if it has blue flashers on a top-mounted light-bar it is most likely a real police officer.
   • Tell the officer you don’t feel safe and ask to be escorted to the nearest police station.
   • Can you see the license plate in the mirror and is it a government plate?
   • If you don’t feel comfortable, keep your door locked and roll your window down just a crack to hand your license and registration over.
   • If anything makes you feel wrong, tell the officer that you aren’t comfortable and you’re going to call 911.
6. Always carry a charged cell-phone
   Even if you don’t have service, like if you haven’t paid your bill, all cell phones will dial 911. If you can’t afford cell service, as least carry a charged phone for 911 calls.

In the U.S, a violent crime occurs every 35 seconds. We in Maine tend to enjoy a very low crime rate, however there seem to be a very recent string of random attacks in Portland.

The Portland Press Herald is reporting today that two suspects have been arrested in a string of seemingly random violent attacks and robberies. Reports to police are that a group of three men attacked at least four different people, apparently going after targets of opportunity and seeking to rob them.

Random violence in the Portland area has been all too commonplace lately. There’s  a report of someone suffering head injuries from another person playing the game “knockout”. Just last week someone threw a brick at the window of John Rowley’s RV and, when he pulled over, five men brutally beat him with bricks and boards taking his wallet and phone.

Whether random attacks are on the increase in Maine, or they just seem that way, it’s a good idea to take precautions:

1. Always be aware of your surroundings.
2. Keep your personal space, if someone you don’t know enters your personal space look to escape, or at least make more space.
3. Look at people’s hands, are they holding weapons, balling them up in fists, bringing them up in a boxer position. No need to stare, just make a quick note when your around other people.
4. There’s safety in numbers, if going out – be social and bring friends when you can.
5. If you’re in your car and it’s struck with an object or by another car, it’s safer to pull over somewhere safe, stay in your car with it running, and call the police.
6. Learn some self-defense

Everybody needs to train in self defense and the sooner the better.

Living in a relatively low-crime area like Southern Maine, it may seem strange to recommend that every single person here get self defense training. However, it’s not really such a strange idea, and it’s an idea that may save lives.

Damian Ross of The Self Defense Company wrote, “not everybody needs martial arts, but everybody needs self defense.”

Mr. Ross draws a distinction between self defense training and martial arts training, it’s an important distinction I’ve written about before. Here’s why I agree:

1. You cannot predict if and when you might be a target of a violent crime.
   Even if you live a low-risk lifestyle in a low-risk area, you never can be sure when you’ll cross paths with a violent criminal. Home invasions happen in areas, urban, rural, rich and poor. People are mugged going to and from their cars. People  are assaulted by emotionally disturbed strangers, acquaintances, and people they work with.Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen to you.
2. The only time self defense training does any good is before you need it.
   It’s kind of a no-brainer, but I’ve had students sign up after a violent encounter. If you asked them if they wished they got self defense training earlier they all would answer “yes”
3. Proper training helps in a violent encounter.
   I’ve written about the danger of buying too heavily into statistics, but every study I’ve seen, compared with anecdotal evidence shows that self defense training helps. In fact one study showed that women who took an anti-mugging program were less likely to even have someone attempt to mug them. I would probably attribute this to increased awareness along with confidence that comes with training.
4. Preparing for the worst is a smart thing.
   Nobody would question the intelligence of fire drill training conducted in our public schools, yet fatalities from school fires virtually never happen (unless you go back to the 1950s). Violent crime occurs every 35 seconds in the U.S. and nobody is immune. The best preparation is for people to learn to take care of themselves. We buckle our seat-belts, go to the dentist, change the batteries in the fire alarm, so why not get self defense training?
5. You are ultimately responsible for your own safety.
   If you are ever attacked by a violent criminal it will likely happen when you are alone. It most likely won’t happen within earshot of a police officer. The attacker will not wait patiently while you call 911, or while you rummage in a bag for pepper spray. Your attacker will not try to mug you from across the street giving you plenty of opportunity to run.
6. Most criminals are looking for an advantage.
   Crime works along economic rules. Criminals make risk/reward choices about victims. They want to minimize their risk of getting caught or hurt, while maximizing their reward of getting away with their goal. By training you can become “too much trouble” for many criminals. The vast majority of criminals will give up when resisted, and those that don’t you really need to worry about damaging. Violence against other criminals is prevalent because criminals won’t go to the police. Violence against women, children and elders is prevalent because they are seen as easy targets. However, everybody looks like an attractive target to somebody. Studying self defense can be a deterrent to crime, and thus proactive.

So, what’s the objection?

My opinion about the real reason more people don’t train is that it is related to an almost universal human fear. At least 85% of people will measure a phobic psycho-physiological response in the presence of interpersonal human conflict. PTSD is much higher in soldiers who experienced face to face combat than in airmen who dropped bombs in combat. We seem to have a built in mechanism to get along.

Psychologically, it’s been proposed, that when we are attacked (verbally or physically) it can symbolize another human being who doesn’t value our identity. Identity is a complex psychological construct, but we’ll just say that it’s who we think we are at the core. A threat to identity is a threat to not just our life, but who we are at the core.

I believe that a lot of people avoid training in self-defense because they are in denial and are uncomfortable accepting the fact that another human being may threaten their very being. As someone who has had his life threatened by a criminal, it is an uncomfortable thing to accept. However, moving past that and taking responsibility for your own well-being is empowering.

Countering surface objections:

Here are some of the regular things I hear from people when talking about training.

I don’t have time
This is the granddaddy of excuses and it’s BS. You can find time to train. What you’re really saying is that it isn’t a priority. How much TV do you watch in a week? How often do you go out and socialize? How much time do you spend on the computer or playing games. Can you spare an hour or two a week? Of course you can

It’s too expensive
We’re all feeling the effects of the economy these days. There is self defense training everywhere at a number of price points (including free). And, you don’t always get what you pay for – I mostly teach for free. Sometimes schools or police departments offer training at a very low price. Ask yourself this, “What if I were injured in a violent crime tomorrow, what would I have to lose then?”

I don’t have any experience
I get this all the time, and it makes me chuckle a little. Nobody had any experience before they began. The time to begin is now.

I’m out of shape
I have news for you, a violent criminal doesn’t care. You probably need training more than anybody. Real self defense training does not rely solely on athleticism. It helps, for sure, but an attacker is generally not looking for someone in the best shape to scrap with. And, self defense training will provide at least some exercise which everybody needs.

I don’t have years to train
This one is also kind of funny, I don’t have time to be good so I’ll stay lousy. The reality is that real self defense can be learned quickly, while martial arts take a lifetime to master. Our own military hand to hand combat instruction is extremely short but effective for the mission. They don’t have 30 years to prepare troops for combat.

So, wouldn’t now be a great time to begin your training?

Last night I attended a talk on information security given by a representative of a major endpoint security company. They make antivirus software for those who aren’t fluent in geek.

The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.

There are two basic self defense scenarios that I like to characterize as ambush or delayed. In an ambush attack, the assault happens immediately, the attacker leads with violence. Delayed is where there is some interaction prior to the violent act. In both cases, awareness of what’s going on should be your first tool to avoid trouble. Violence is to be avoided at all costs, unless you are in a profession which requires you to confront violence.

In a delayed violence scenario, there may be a few reasons why the attacker delays violent action. The bar fight where angry words are exchanged before violence erupts is one example. Another would be a  mugging where the attacker first uses intimidation before resorting to physical violence.

In a delayed violence scenario, you may still be able to avoid violence, or prepare yourself to mitigate some of the violence. Becoming aware that violence is about to happen is the key. Here are some body language cues that someone may be about to attack:

• Target staring or glancing – A person may narrow their eyes and stare at a part of your body (such as the chin) looking at the target they intend to strike. They may also begin to look around at other people in the vicinity or exit routes
• Looking through you – Also known as the “thousand yard stare”
• Blading the body back – Instead of facing you straight on, someone places their body more or less 45 degree angle, the knees may be slightly bent. THink of a boxer’s stance or Karate ready stance.
• Hands to the Head, or on hips – Some people who are extremely angry will unconsciously touch their head, some may place both hands behind their head
• Hands touching or patting potentially hidden weapon locations – Under a threat, people who are carrying a weapon may instinctively move their hands to check the weapon – usually at the belt-line, pockets, or jacket area
• Suddenly looking away, or turning partially away – This is the typical “sucker punch” maneuver
• Clenching the fists – Clenching and unclenching, or holding balled fists
• Bearing the teeth – Particularly the canine teeth
• Dropping the head – Chin tucked and eybrows dropped
• Face becoming red, or pale – Rapid changes in blood flow to the face may indicate an emotional change
• Rapid, deep breathing through tight lips or flared nostrils – May be accompanied by puffing the cheeks
• Rocking or bobbing back and forth – usually on the balls of the feet, may be combined with looking for targets on your body
• Shedding clothing - such as removing a shirt or jacket
• Profuse sweating – watch for sweat of the forehead
• Excessive blinking – Also a fairly good lie indicator, excessive blinking may indicate emotional stress

These are just a few pre-violence indicators, and it definitely pays to learn them. Most of them are unconscious behaviors, so a potential attacker will not realize they are doing them at the time.

Obviously some other indicators include things like making verbal threats, raising the voice, being intoxicated, and other things we may already know.

Now, what do you do if you pick up on some pre-violence indicators? That depends on the situation, but your guard and your attention should go up immediately. It’s a good idea to make some distance, and take on a safer non-violent posture. Always be aware of what the person’s hands are doing, look for weapons, and accomplices. Look for your best exit.

Again, depending on the situation, you may still be able to avoid a violent encounter by safely leaving the area, talking the person down, or creating some distance.

Whether or not you’d be justified in striking a person first if you sensed them about to attack is a very sticky area of law that I can’t get into as I’m no lawyer. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the law is that nothing is 100% sure. Most, if not all, jurisdictions allow the use of reasonable force against the threat of violence. Some people who should be within their rights to defend themselves have undoubtedly wound up in prison. Imagine yourself in front of a jury explaining why you stomped a guy who hadn’t even thrown a punch at you yet. Research the law in your area, talk to a cop and a criminal lawyer sometime,  and use your best judgment.