Oliver is a boxer/martial artist with excellent, and articulate, mechanical recall. The following narrative required no reconstruction on my part. This is how he spit it out on my landlord’s front porch. He went into this situation with dozens of childhood street fights, a gang fight, and ten years of boxing and judo behind him. This kind of person suffers less tunnel vision and other forms of sensory impairment than normal in spontaneous situations. If he did not see or notice something, there is no way you would have, unless you trained extensively to look for it, and did a lot of full contact fighting.
It was daylight, about six or seven, August-September, around then. I was taking out my trash at the Cannery Hill Apartments out Liberty Road. It was the County, but you know what Liberty Road is like, out on the West Side.
Author query: So you were jumped by some Jewish dudes?
No, no Jewish dudes. [laughs]
Author query: Come on man, help me out here. Nobody wants to read about black-on-black crime.
Then I suppose I should apologize. [laughs] I’m sorry, it was two black dudes, young guys; if they were even eighteen I’d be surprised.
I was coming back from the dumpster and these two guys were leaning against a car [on the parking lot] smoking. I was going to my trunk—I had had two beers [quality black and tan microbrews] and two rum and cokes. I forget what he said to me about my car. He was a little nervous. The tall one was still smokin’. The smaller nervous guy walked up to me.
I had the trunk open when he walked over and asked me about the wheels and if all of these cars came with those wheels. He walks to the side so the other guy can walk up behind if I keep him in front of me. I knew what was up. Nobody with an interest in cars would have asked about those tires—they were stock. He was getting nervous and acting fidgety. The other guy was the more relaxed of the two, like he had done this kind of thing a few times.
I got leery about keeping them both in view and stepped back so I could see them both. The first guy is like, "What wrong? What you got in your pocket?"
He patted my pocket. So I grabbed his hand.
The first guy was my height but slimmer. The other guy was maybe six-two, slim.
I grabbed his elbow and tried to yank him toward the other guy so I could have both of them in front of me. I locked his arm and he took me onto the trunk [waist tackle] the other guy comes over [reaching over his accomplice] and punches me in the temple.
At that point I do a clinch and start to knee him, trying to keep him between me and the other guy. I caught him in the solar plexus and he dropped. I caught him with a knee somewhere in the face on the way down because he was bleeding.
I hit the other guy with three straight rights—didn’t jab—face, chest, top of forehead. He was swinging some outside shots but didn’t get much in. I blocked one and came with a hook and the guy on the ground grabs my right foot and the tall guy takes off.
He got a single leg and tried to drive me back into the car. I’m a lot more confident, taking my time. I hooked my foot on his so he couldn’t take me down. I had a lot of success with the clinch so I started to knee him again.
A Harm City break for unexpected game-changing moment.
And then I felt a sting [touches left side where he has a short wide scar]. Same thing as when you get hit with a stick. [We had just finished stick-sparring.] I thought it was his nails. Then I saw a whole lot of blood and knew it wasn’t him.
I look down and the knife is inside of me. It was one of those Swiss army knives. So I grab his hand and he’s just trying to dig it in there and slide it around. I had a hold of his wrist. I pulled his hand off and felt a painful burning sensation all over my abdomen. It was really painful when it came out.
I reach around and grab his elbow trying to control him that way. I have control of his wrist and he is reaching around behind me slapping the spot where he stabbed me. [What a nasty little bastard this kid was.] He then threw to my head but it had nothing on it—no leverage.
I rolled to my back, throwing him over, and came up on top of him in far side control, the knife on the other side, with his arm in a kimora. I start hitting him with my right as I bring my knee onto his belly. He wiggled, so I put all of my weight on his stomach and lifted his arm up. I started scrapping his fist on the pavement to get him to let go of the knife. He wouldn’t let go so I started to torque his shoulder, and he lets go.
At this point I’m afraid his friend might come back. I didn’t want to stay on the ground. I went the wrong way and we both got up. I wanted to get up but didn’t want him up too. The knife was somewhere under a car.
He just runs in and front bear hugs me, so I hit the only throw I know how to do. I set it up the same way all the time. I don’t know what the Japanese term is for it. I do an inside reap to an outside reap into a hip throw. He went flyin’ into the middle of the lot. I held onto his arm instead of letting him fly onto his head. I’m waitin’ for him to get back up and he looks around. I guess he was looking for his friend and didn’t see him, so went limping off. He was limping off pretty bad. I was bleeding, he was bleeding; all I was concerned about was AIDS! I let him go and went inside and dumped a whole bottle of alcohol right in the cut.
I drove myself to the hospital. I was concerned about internal bleeding. They said there was none but that I needed stitches. I guess I was lucky about the kind of knife. That thing wasn’t made for stabbing. They were stalling for the cops. I knew that. Now this was a Jewish guy! [laughs] He was the head of surgery. I saw him later when I worked at a car dealership. He was good friends with the owner. He kept telling me that someone was coming to talk to me. I didn’t need that. I had been drinking and, well, I can tell you the reason I feel the way I do about police. That’s a whole other story. I just left.
If you want to know why Oliver, a law-abiding educated man who works in home technologies and has been writing fiction since he was 14, does not consider involving the police when a crime is committed against him, then see his other article on this page. This young man is an excellent interview, and I will be interrogating him again, I think.
Dawn in Dindustan
Conducting the Moral Autopsy 0f a Nation
Fascinating! The tactic employed against Oliver of using a single leg take down to stabilize and off balance your opponent while drawing your knife and stabbing him is right out of "Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison" by Don Pentecost (page 42). Jim Grover also referred to the same tactic in his Personal Security Column, "Street Knife Fighting", in the November 1996 issue of Guns and Ammo Magazine. Grover dubbed this tactic "The Jackknife". He wrote that it is a tactic often resorted to by an assailant who engages you in a fist fight initially and then, when he comes up on the losing end of the exchange of blows, decides he needs a "game-changing" maneuver to prevail. Anyway it looks like you can add the Jackknife to your list of common street knife attacks for future seminars.
Man, I wish you lived next door!
Thanks. By the way, I read Don Pentecost's Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison over ten times! My favorite line was 'Hit him in the head until he's dead!'
Thanks Jeremy.
What hand did he use to grab your right foot for the single leg? What hand did he use to stab? Would it have been possible to push down on his head when he grabbed your right foot and back away?
This is another supporting data poitn for using the clinch and one bad in between the other bad guy. The knee to the solar plexus dropped your human shield. It's also possible to pull down on the guy's head, let go, and when he stands up suddenly, push-kick him as hard as you can. It's the same set up as for an ankle-pick except you're creating a lot more space between you and one bad guy so you can immediately deal with the other without leaving one at your feet.
Not criticizing at all, because this was a deadly-force attack, and any one of those you walk away from means you won and you did something right.
When I use this as a teaching scenario for my adult children, though, I'm going to add this point: Don't be civilized in this situation.
1. If you're able to lock in a kimura, take it all the way. Don't stop because the guy drops his weapon. Take the arm where it was never intended to go—and beyond. No tap-outs on the street.
2. Don't be civilized with your throws. If you hit a hip or shoulder throw, leave your feet when you feel the other guy hit that point of zero-g. Aim his head onto the deck and drop your whole weight on top of him as he lands.
3. If a stranger asks you what you've got in your pocket and then starts a pat-down—Counterattack him right then. Be like an old country doctor—Eyes, ears, nose, and throat.
Oliver, you did good. I'm glad you're OK.
This attack was why Oliver sought me out in 2009 for training.
@ Shep:
Carl Cestari's got an excellent DVD (Ebay) on Goshinjutsu Judo, (no-tapping, street survival). I can't find a clip from it, but this'll give you an idea of his style.
youtube.com/watch?v=J0NGxOaghHA&index=1&list=PL2G9Ga0lB-CfrKUqZLqtuoNSSLvf6MLQg
(As I understand it, he once got stabbed in the leg whilst a LEO because his choke wasn't sufficiently quick acting, hence a personal interest in the matter).
More Cestari clothing chokes:
youtube.com/watch?v=JxQgUxBGf9w
Was this first posted in 2013? Man, time sure flies when you're having fun, eh? Sometimes even when you're not.
Yes, Jeremy. I've been knocking the dust off of pieces from 2012 and 2013.
Thanks, Bob. I have heard of Mr. Cestari and I will check that out.
@ Shep:
Here's what I mean. Some pretty ugly stuff.
youtube.com/watch?v=U96M9aJCsmo