The Boring Parts
Many of you had to go through "Driver's Education" or "Safety Education" classes in High School. You spent hours in a classroom learning the rules of the road, traffic signs, etc. It could be agonizing, all you wanted to do was get behind the wheel and actually drive, but you needed to get through the boring parts first.
There may be a"boring part" to self or community defense as well. Those who choose to mask up and engage in "Black Bloc" or "Anti-Fascist" activities need to cover the legal and other ramifications of confrontation. The fascist and other reactionary forces that Trump and his fellow strongmen have empowered likely have an understanding of the law; many of them are former, or may be active members of the military or law enforcement. They may have allies in the law enforcement community; a chant heard from American activists sums it up well, "Cops and Klan go hand in hand!"
According to Mark MacYoung and Jenna Meek, self defense and, by extension, community defense, has four components:
- Understanding Violence
- Mental Preparation
- Physical Skills
- Aftermath
Much self-defense training, according to MacYoung and Meek, only presents one of these components as all that is needed. Most often the physical skills are presented. The others are reduced to what MacYoung and Meek call "Soundbite training." This may be a way to just skip the "boring parts", but this can lead to a sort of "Murphy's Law" effect, and at the worst possible time; a gun jams or gets fumbled, a knife is pulled out of a boot, what starts out as a one on one fight turns into a mass attack.
Mark MacYoung and Jenna Meek have made an attempt to clear up the soundbites in their book What You Don't Know Can Kill You. This book was recommended to me by my former Aikido/Aikijutsu instructor.
My plan is to read through the book, chapter by chapter, and apply it to the bloc. I am not currently formally training in any martial art at this moment, nor am I an attorney. I am just someone who doesn't want to see activists in jail, in the hospital or in the ground.