Southwest PA Self-defense Network Blog

My cat is demanding! What we can learn about stalking behaviors. If you have cat, you'll recognize this behavior.  When the cat is hungry is will meow, nudge your legs and make a general nuisance of himself until you open that can.  You try to ignore the cat....you pet the cat... you tell it you'll feed it in a few minutes but nothing works.  The cat keeps trying... After the 10th time of coming to you, you finally give in and feed the cat. What has the cat learned ?  It takes 10 encounters for you to give in.  So the cat learns , the first 9 are going to be ignored and it's the 10th time is the sweet spot. Stalkers learn the same way. If they leave 9 messages and they are ignored and you respond on the 10th one, what have they learned? It takes 10 times to get a response out of you.  And it might not be just a text message. It might be 3 text messages, 3 notes on your car, 2 emails, 5 phone calls before you finally give in and say " Stop contacting me!" So...

 I wanted to review this movie because it intersects crime, crime prevention, evidence, justice and how justice is blind or should be...or shouldn't  be.   One of the most  chilling opening lines is " Mercy does not make mistakes".  It allows for the average citizen to develop a hands off, everything's fine attitude toward criminal justice.  The story takes place over a course of  a 90 minute trial where the protagonist Chris Raven, a police detective is accused of murdering his estranged wife. The evidence presented is both current events over the last 12 hours before the murder and also historical evidence of video clips, text messages sent by his now deceased wife Nicole.  The story unfolds with plots twists and turns and we come to find out that Chris is simply not a noble, likable character with a history of violent outbursts, drinking and relapse.  In the end we find out, no surprise that Chris is innocent of the charge, the comput...

Cops' Real Stories of Facing Evil by Loren Christensen C2024, 212 pages This book was interesting and difficult to read. It was a mix of "What is evil" philosophy discussion and true stories from cops. Christensen provides officers room to tell thier stories and they do, from domestic violence calls to serial killers and child predators. The book is never laid out to be a case study on the final word of what defines evil. It's almost like the definition of pornography - you know it when you see it. But for cops it's different. They see it literally face to face. Often times it's a sense of "they're only getting warmed up" when they're caught early. Some of the stories are retellings from memories and are therefore potentially anectdotal and not 100% accurate. But still the story telling is chilling.