Southwest PA Self-defense Network Blog

  The Polly Klaas story rocked the nation for highlighting the idea that no one is safe, even in your own home during a slumber party.   I've included the entire article here. In 2024, a judge turned down the request for his death penalty to be recalled. But imagine if it was a possibility ? So now, he can have the lack of parole reviewed. And then possibility of early release. Although not likely, there is the possibility. nbsp; The takeaway from this article is as Marc Klaas states "  "If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of capital sentence of a condemned murderer who, prior to murdering Polly, had multiple convictions for violence towards women and was diagnosed as a sexually sadistic psychopath, then any victim’s family who thought that justice was served in the courtroom is in for a shocking new reality," Marc said in his statement. "If Polly’s killer is somehow able to prevail, this is the tip of the iceberg." He is correct. A death s...

  Our justice system is set up so there are two options  - restitution where the criminal and the victim agree on some standard of making it right and state imposed punishment or rehabilitation.  I wish to focus on the later. Although it sees like a nice idea, let's toss out the idea of rehabilitation. It doesn't happen and only naive, pollyannaish views believe that it does. So let's focus on punishment.  We have set up in our country a system of laws where, if someone does something there is a prescribe outcome of punishment, whether it be jail time or fines, which if unpaid, eventually lead to jail time.   At some point in time, law makers have prescribed those jail times...two days, a month, a year, 10 years, 25 to life, life without parole, etc.   Sometimes these times are set in the legal terms.. " a misdemeanor punishable by not less that X days in jail " and sometimes the judge can set those terms.  And some point in time we have set ...

 In Context: Understanding Police Killings of Unarmed Civilians by Nick Selby, Ben Singleton, Ed Flosi 437 pages c2016 This book was an interesting but tough read. Not because of gruesome details but statistics and more statistics !  The book was based on a research project of StreetCred Software - The StreetCred Police Killings In Conext (PKIC) for incidents in 2015.  They examined 153 cases that fit the parameters of unarmed civilians killed by police or that died while in police custody.  The study collected information and then broke down all kinds of demographics such as age, race, were narcotics involved, what was the prior information, what did the officers do, etc.  They spent a fair amount of time explaining what criteria they used to include or exclude and what sources they pulled from. The last section of the book they analyzed all 153 cases broken down by month, an amazing catalog.  The book did not present an agenda just a careful analysis of w...

  Review of The Strangers 2008 To put it bluntly, this is a great movie for all the ways to NOT do good self-defense. A husband and wife ( and later the brother ) are at a family home in a fairly isolated area. The movie recounts a harrowing and terrifying night for the couple with lots of drama, fear, jump scares and all the usual makings of a bad guy, home invasion type movie. Halloween, this isn't.  There are so many failures in this movie and here are a few. 1. In the beginning of the movie, it is 4:00 in the morning, the couple has returned from a party after a bad argument and they are tired, worn and emotionally raw.  " KNOCK" on the door.  They both look at each other like...Who could that be ?  They go to the door and open it. No checking around, no peephole and the porch light is out that was on a few minutes ago. The young girl says " Is Tamara here?" in a halting, slow to respond voice. When they say no, she says... " I'll be seeing you...

This is an editorial that crossed my path while researching pacifism and self-defense. My words are in red.   https://ndcatholic.org/yourresources/editorials/column0319/ About Take Action Resources Deadly Force Can Rarely be Justified by Christopher Dodson Executive Director North Dakota Catholic Conference March 2019 For the second consecutive legislative session, the North      Dakota Legislative Assembly has considered legislation to expand when a person can use deadly force against another. Proponents call these proposals “stand your ground” laws. Some law enforcement officials call them “shoot to kill” bills. ( Sure, maybe some liberal police chief somewhere stated this but d oubtful this is true representation of most law enforcement.)   As in 2017, the latest bill was defeated, but the margin was narrow. Both bills would have allowed the use of deadly force to protect theft of property, even if no life was threatened. (Not a fan of using deadly ...