Black Belt Test Essay: Self Defense and Acceptable Force
By Samuel Maragliano
Self-defense. It is the technique Wushu Central has taught for many years, starting at tiny tigers, and teaching when it is to be used. The idea is simple: someone is threatening you, and you have the right to employ self defense, using all of your Wushu moves you learned against them. Simple, right? Well…not really. There are many problems with self-defense, and this essay will explore the complicated facets of protection.
Imagine for a second. You are walking down the street, late at night with your friends, when you notice a man walking toward you. You pay him little attention, until suddenly, you feel a push on your shoulder, and you stumble backwards. Now pause. In this kind of scenario, you might act differently, but I think the best thing to do in this situation would be to assess. Analyze. First, start off with what happened before the actual contact. What was this man doing? What was his body language? Was he insulting or threatening you before this? Perhaps he tripped and instinctively reached out an arm to regain balance. Or, was he stumbling drunkenly down the street, hostile after having too much to drink? There are many things to consider before acting, and these should all play into your decision. It is always hard to make choices in the moment, but acting rational and keeping calm is always the best course of action.
Now, let’s say you immediately used some Wushu move on the man, without any thought, thinking this is the appropriate time to use self defense. A kick, a punch, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you have now struck the person. If the man actually did trip, and happened to reach out and accidentally push you, you wouldn’t have known this. Different people would react in different ways to this, ranging from attacking back to suing for damages (in this case, assault). Either way, there is a high chance you will get into trouble. So, if someone seemingly attacks you on the street, think: what are the chances that this is planned and knowingly executed? And: should I even retaliate at all? Self defense is warranted only when you use your intuition, good judgment, and observation to assess whether you are in danger, and then to protect yourself. This, of course, was just one example of a scenario when a choice must be made about whether or not to actually defend oneself, but what if, after all of the decision making, you realize that self-defense is justified, and that it should be used? What level of force would be acceptable at this moment?
There are different levels of force to be considered. For example there is weaponless force, either lethal or non-lethal. There are also attacks with lethal weaponry (popularly guns). In the case of self defense, usually the only amount of force that should be used is the amount of force needed to stop the impending threat. So, in the example beforehand, you wouldn’t use lethal force against the man who just pushed you. Good judgment and observation is required. If you are threatened and believe that you are in imminent danger of getting killed, you would use lethal force. Like before, good judgment and intuition is needed. Again, self-defense is a very complicated topic. Violent or hostile people would use self-defense as an excuse for attacking someone, and get out of it. So when it is used as an excuse, and there aren’t any witnesses, self-defense is a common way to get out of doing things, and this has, in fact, been used many times. So much, in fact, that even if you really did use self-defense during an applicable scenario, many people wouldn’t believe your story. This is yet another reason why extreme caution should be used while protecting oneself, and a reason why it is important to assess and analyze all aspects before striking back.
In conclusion, self-defense choices rely on many different factors. As the defender, it is vitally important to evaluate body language and what is going on around you, and also think back to what was happening before you. Assessing the level of force needed to stop the threat is also a very important thing to do before attacking. There are many choices one has to make, and this essay hopefully has explained, when self-defense is needed, the correct ways to act.
