I heard a story the other day from a long time cop in New York City. The cops don’t give first aid to anybody when they arrive at the aftermath of a crime scene anymore.  They roll up their windows and yell at the victims to sit down on the curb and wait for the paramedics to arrive.

Well, this cop and a rookie went to the scene and several young blacks came out of an alley all cut up and shot up, one had blood squirting out of his chest.  The cops rolled up their windows as the victims approached the car and the victims said, “Hey! There was some niggers in there that was try’n to kill us”. This being almost entirely black area of town the cops yelled back, “You’ll have to be more specific. Which niggers were trying to kill you?”  The victims described them as best they could, standing there, blood dripping and squirting. All but one of them finally sat down on the curb to wait for the paramedics.  The long time cop finally asked the one still standing if he was feeling a little short of breath. The victim took a couple breaths and said, “Yeah!  I guess I am.”  “How about dizziness? Nausea? Anything like that?”, the cop asked. The guy, looked off in the distance and thought for a couple seconds. “Yeah, I suppose. Why you asking me all this?”   “Well”, said the cop, “Most people shot up as bad as you are, are already dead.”  The victims eyes rolled back to complete whites and he toppled straight backwards on the concrete.  The rookie cop turned to his partner and said, “Jesus!  I ain’t even HEARD of anybody killing someone that way.”

The point of the story is that you don’t stop fighting until the fight is over.  You don’t need to go down just because you have taken a few hits.  As long as you believe you can keep going you will.  If you do go down, you are still going to win because you are going to gnaw through his Achilles’ tendon and bring him down to where you can rip his head off.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995