Why policemen with big sticks woke me at three in the morning

Published: Sun, 06/16/19

Many years ago I lived in a shared house on the Cowley Road in East Oxford. My house mates were mainly a colourful assortment of asylum seekers from various parts of the world. One young man was from Algeria. He found himself a girlfriend who had some issues with substance abuse. The girlfriend also had an ex boyfriend who didn’t like the new boyfriend and there were verbal confrontations. Then, one evening the two men had yet another argument on the doorstep. The ex boyfriend apparently attacked the Algerian with a broken bottle. My flat mate countered with a knife he had at the ready and wounded his assailant who then managed to run off. I do not know who involved the police, perhaps the hospital informed the authorities and it went from there. All I do know is that I heard the police knocking loudly at the front door in the middle of the night. I think it was someone else who actually let them in but I got up and made
myself presentable as I knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before the forces of law and order were demanding access to my room.

The knock came and I was confronted with two large policemen wearing stab vests and gloves and each holding a large baton at the ready. I am not sure how many officers entered the house that night but I think it was at least six. I assured my visitors that I was not the person they were looking for, allowed them to have quick glance around my room to see that no one else was present. They thanked me for my cooperation and moved onto the next room.

The police did not find the Algerian on this occasion as he had absconded from the house within minutes of the doorstep incident. A detective came around the next day and I told him all I knew but at that stage I could not tell where the fugitive might be hiding. I was given a card with a name and phone number and asked to call if I did learn anything.

The next day a friend of the fugitive arrived in a taxi and cleared his room. Another resident and myself made a note of the taxi company and tipped off the police. An arrest was made and a few days later the Algerian reappeared on the doorstep, shook my hand and thanked me. Apparently the police had arrested him and he had been interviewed by a senior officer. When the full story had been related the officer just said. ‘Sounds like self-defence to me.’ And released him without charge. My erstwhile house mate was most grateful to me for grassing him up because it had got the matter settled and he could proceed with his asylum claim.

So, all turned out relatively okay in that particular incident.

I believe that there is an interesting lesson here in the way that the police matched their strategy of arresting a suspect and taking him into custody with specific tactics. The first tactic was simply having the authority to make an arrest. Another was making the raid in the early hours of the morning when people are most likely to be home and sleep might make them less inclined to resist. A third was to flood the house with enough manpower to make any resistance, or attempt to escape, futile. The officers were also fully equipped with protective clothing and appropriate weapons which, I hope, they had been trained to use correctly. As it turned out though, the tactic which actually did the trick was sending the detective to ask questions and making it easy to pass on the information. Perhaps the most critical tactic of all was having a good enough relationship with members of the public to receive the cooperation they needed to
actually find their suspect.

In Stav there are five principles or strategies for dealing with conflict. ...

Trel (slave), whose priority is personal safety and self-defence

Karl (Freeman), whose priority is defending space and territory

Herse (Warrior), whose priority is controlling of individuals who might otherwise hurt others

Jarl (Lord), whose priority is controlling a number of people in a command position

Kong (King), who may be willing to self-sacrifice for the greater good

I believe that the story I have related above illustrates the Herse strategy quite well. For most people the Trel and Karl principles, which relate to keeping ourselves, our loved ones and our property safe, are the only strategies which most people need on a day to day basis. The tactics we use to do this will hopefully rarely, maybe even never, actually require violence.

The Herse principle is about law and order and keeping society as a whole safe. Those who act on the Herse principle may well have to face violence directly but they should have the necessary tactics at their disposal to cope with such situations. As we have seen, one of the most important tactics for the Herse is maintaining a relationship of trust and confidence with the rest of society.

The five principles are fundamental to all Stav martial training. Someone who is properly trained in Stav can demonstrate the five principles using a variety of weapons including the staff, axe, cudgel and spear. The key is to be properly trained which, with the weapons described means quite a few months, if not years, of weapon training. Five Principles Knife Defence is a training method which uses a simple stabbing attack as the basis for exploring the five strategies of combat. I believe that it does have some tactical value in terms of techniques for self-defence. Much more important is the strategic training which is provided and the cultivation of the ability to choose which tactics best support a particular strategic aim.

As with any training method the techniques learned are only going to be of value if they are trained with and practiced regularly. This continuation of practice is the responsibility of the student although I am happy to help with ongoing training if anyone is willing to make the commitment.

You can start training with the five principles at my seminar on the 6th of July in Beverley. Please see http://iceandfire.org.uk/train.html for more details.

regards

Graham

PS Not long to go until the Rune and Trees Retreat. I am sorting out the kit we will need and hoping the forecast of good weather turns out to be correct. It does not matter too much if it isn’t as we have a nice big barn to work in if necessary. We will have a good time either way. If you are not coming and want to know what you are missing see http://rr.stavcamp.org/