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.

  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...