Anti-Bullying Teacher Programme 4 (diary entry)

19.10.2022 Hour four of my teacher consultation on Drum Kempo Ju Jutsu and Fitness's anti-bullying programme looked establishing the "target hardening" attitude and also a discussion on dealing with black dogs. The latter was in response to a recent post within our subculture where a trained individual had been assaulted but the period of time had elapsed whereby any physical response by him could be deemed lawful. When it comes to self-defence situations we are discussing thwarting an immediate threat. So, an offender can be stopped from committing a crime or whilst they are in the process of committing a crime but the law does not permit retaliation or revenge. Time is a factor here and so is ego. When I trained on Joe Saunders' Managing Violence instructor programme, we were challenged with the idea that a threat might breach our boundary but still be de-escalated. Although within their legal rights to respond, it might be advisable to take the shove or the slap so long as a good distance was created and a fence erected. In the described recent case study, the trained individual, clearly facing the understandable urge to deal out immediate justice on the offender who sucker-punched him, saw that distance had been achieved and the matter would now need to be settled legally. His actions after this point would probably be interpreted as revenge. Although, technically speaking, if you were struck by someone who then moved away you could make a case that your follow-up actions were to apprehend someone who had just committed a crime (in this case an assault), it seems likely these actions would take the form of strikes and might be difficult to justify to a jury as measures taken to retain an offender. The Black Dog of depression popularised in the mainstream by Winston Churchill but known throughout self-protection subculture by Geoff Thompson's specific application to the mental self-flagellation self-defenders put themselves through post-incident. Dealing with the stress of a traumatic incident through writing stuff down and talking to like-minded individuals, is one very effective way to help quieten that Black Dog. Next lesson we will look at who gets targeted by bullies. Today we only had time to establish my first two points to students. These points are that we need separate victim selection from any sort of mitigation on the bully's side. Two slides back on my course, I addressed the fact that a good number of bullies might be part of a cycle of abuse. Regardless of the trauma the offender (which might include serious mental/psychological disorders) might have and/or is suffering, we only talk about this side in order to better understand the threat and not to excuse bullying. It's very important that this made clear because self-protection and self-defence can be seen as a form of "victim blaming". This is something I deal with in depth in my essay on long term and short term self-protection in my book, "Mordred's Victory". In short, "target hardening" is not "victim blaming". Victim blaming is a serious problem that should be discussed in self-protection education but this place isn't in the immediate reduction of interpersonal violence. Certain behaviours and ways in which one dresses can be easy targets for bullying, which brings us back to situational awareness. Reading the environment and the context from a self-awareness perspective can be as important as general situational awareness. My client also discussed the importance of not identifying as a victim. This is something that goes back to my early days teaching children's self-protection. I even used to have students declare it back in the past. Nowadays I like to move more towards the positive identification of being a protector. However, I totally agree with my client's philosophy of adopting a resolve never to be broken down by a bully. It's in alignment with the Viktor Frankl proactive mindset laid out in his "Mind's Search for Meaning". My Podcast on "The Black Dog"Buy "Mordred's Victory" and/or "When Parents Aren't Around" (books relevant to this post) https://clubbchimera.com/services/