Help Yourself and Others—Don’t Panic or Freeze
Posted: Friday, May 25, 2007
by Steve Kovacs
The Kovacs Perspective
Who wouldn’t panic in the face of shocking, graphic blood and guts violence, up close and personal?
In the last two years there have been several shocking attacks caught on video of people being attacked and beaten with nearby adults doing absolutely nothing to help out. One disgusting incident occurred in Akron , Ohio and was broadcast all across the country. It happened in a small pizza parlor where a very big man--weighing around 300 pounds starting punching a much smaller man in the face. The assault started over a verbal altercation between the large mans lady friend and the victim. You might be saying to yourself people get into physical altercations everyday . . . so what’s the big deal? First, the big man hit the other in the face unexpectedly, which is sometimes called a sucker punch. That first punch probably rendered him unconscious, however, he continued hitting him 7 or 8 more times. People die from the kind of beating he was dishing out. Here’s another reason this incident was such a big deal—on a different scale. There were 7 other adult males in this very small pizza shop who stood by and did absolutely nothing to help the man being pummeled. Albeit, the man was very large, seemingly under the influence of alcohol or drugs and seemed crazy (in the tough guy sense) yet, none of the seven did ANYTHING to stop the man. Nothing! Shocking? Yes. Surprising? Not really.
There are other similar incidents which happen more often than we imagine, however, most of them simply do not get captured on video.
The reason the pizza shop incident wasn’t surprising to me was because many people fall into a fear “trap". This essentially occurs because they’re not used to this type of in-your-face graphic violence. They are shocked and scared by what is completely foreign to them. Consequently, they experience an adrenalin reaction which is normal, however, it overwhelms them.
Documented phenomenon has occurred to people who have been caught in mass shooting situations similar to the recent Virginia Tech tragedy. People, who were being shot at, sometimes just froze and stood there and made it easier for the gunmen to shoot them. Some did not even attempt to run. This also has occurred in other major traumatic or shocking events, like in my opinion, the pizza parlor incident.
While watching graphic violence on television and playing extremely violent video games certainly can make it easier for some people to become violent and pull a trigger, the vast majority of American citizens get completely shocked when actually confronted by graphic violence. They become shocked, scared and even frozen. Again, this happens in shooting situations, sexual assaults and traumatic life threatening events.
Were those people who did nothing in the Pizza shop cowards? I bet some of them, think they were. However, I’ll also bet most of them would not do the same thing again if confronted with a similar incident. I’m sure they did soul searching and some deep thought and if confronted by a similar incident again, I believe they’d do something. And if they think they’re cowards or others think of themselves as cowards because they too have not helped out when they should have, they don’t have to feel that way. A true explanation of cowardice is “that a man is a coward from the time he should have been brave, to the next time he has the opportunity to be brave". This means no on has to be branded a coward or for that matter brand themselves a coward. There’s always tomorrow . . . to not be a coward.
Yet, many people need help in knowing what to do in situations of violence so they do not freeze or panic to the point of not helping others or even themselves.
There are real ways, actually simple ways, to head off fear and panic in these incidents.
Here are some solid cornerstone tips to follow. Follow them and you’ll be much better off and ready to function when you need to do the right thing:
· Understand- from this moment on, terrible things such as witnessing someone being stabbed, shot or being beaten badly may occur and it very well may even occur to you. Realize, know and believe that gruesome, shocking, ugly incidents can happen to you, and it may even happen today.
· Believe- that you will be able to do something by relying on your life-instinct to run, fight or to use a tool or weapon to “make it".
· Commit-to the fact that you will fight back no matter how bad, ugly or shocking the situation is that you’re confronted with. Fighting back of course means fighting, but it could also mean running away or as a wise man once said advancing to the rear; whatever works for you for that particular incident. Although, you will fight, no matter what. You can make it.
These affirmations condition your mind to handle what may occur, and also how your mind can handle it. If and when an incident occurs, your mind will have data to help itself to understand and function. Depending on your particular location or circumstances quickly affirming these principals once a week should be enough for them to take hold.
Now, if someone is being attacked or beaten-up and you know that physically you can not really help, consider blowing your car horn, hollering or making some other noise that might bring the assault to the attention of someone else whom may be able to help. Or you can consider using an improvised self-defense tool or weapon. As an example, in the pizza shop merciless attack, one could have used a fire extinguisher or other hard object that may have been nearby to hit the attacker over the head. Would that have been an appropriate level of force to help an innocent person from possibly being killed? Yes, it would have been.
As for groups of people; the most effective way they can take control of a thug is by the group getting together and rushing the predator, taking him to the ground and holding him there. This goes for airplane incidents, pizza parlor incidents or really anywhere else. Experienced police officers know one of the better ways to control a crazed, big, violent man if Pepper Spray or a Taser is not be available or feasible, is to use the power of many bodies basically jumping on the man to effectively control him. This of course depends on working as a team which may be easier said than done, however, it’s a fact and if a group can work as one, they can be effective in helping themselves or others.
It is the civilized and right thing to do to help others--not to mention ourselves. With the right knowledge and understanding we can take the action needed to survive and help.
This Article has been viewed 283 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)What has happened to our world. I hope I would help someone in need, but sadly, until it happens and you weigh the possible consequences, you can't know for sure what you would do.Thanks for your comment--I hope you and I never have to go through an incident similar to the one's described. Stay safe-- Steve Kovacs
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.