Self Defence and the Law
Ian Durie 2nd Dan March 2004
Dear
Martin,
Two words in the English language that will get martial artists, lawyers, civil
libertarians, police and politicians foaming at the mouth is the two word phrase
'self defence "Each martial artist depending on his or her discipline thinks
their art has the answer, the aikidoka praises aikido as the solution, the
karateka believes in their striking art, the judoka knows that their art is best
with its throws and ground work. The legal profession makes a decent living
defending people who acted in what they thought was self defence only to
discover that they exceeded that right, causing financial hardship paying for
their lawyers to family hardship losing the family home to their loss of
liberty, leading to the banks repossessing their house as the mortgage cannot be
paid while you are detained at her majesties pleasure. The attacker who confront
you always has excuses readily supplied by the bleeding heart civil
libertarians; blame upbringing; blame the media for creating unreal
expectations; blame you for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; blame
the police and politicians, the list is endless.
The buzz
word that is used by martial artist who sell their products is the pre-emptive
strike, these martial artists claim that they are teaching real street effective
techniques (striking first before you are assaulted) an interesting concept if
you happen to have witnesses to you hitting them, then you will be charged and
not them. These martial artist are selling a product, whether it is their books,
videos, DVD's, or their seminars; to this end they are making a good living with
this paranoid belief that someone is about to attack you. I wonder if someone
will get a lawyer who will be willing to sue these real martial artists on
behalf of their client who is now locked up because they followed the advice
they gave them; after all they are no longer poor martial artists now and the
lawyers who specialise in no win no fee could make a bob or two .
Yours in budo
Ian " Lurch " Durie.