[John’s note: I received this story of first-person self-defense in Chicago today from a former student and thought I’d share. He didn’t handle it perfectly, but he handled it well enough he and his boss were able to escape unharmed and without property damage.]
I was in the heart of the Southside of Chicago (near 3000 block of Ogden Ave) and was returning to my office with my boss. At a stop sign, an “upstanding” Chicago citizen (not pictured above) tried to use the parking lane and “beat us off the line” to get in front of us.
Unfortunately for him, there was a truck unloading his wares and he was unable to pass us.
Somehow he viewed this as slighting him based on his skin color and decided to share a few words of wisdom with us at the next stop light. At said stoplight, he pulled up next to us on the passenger side (where I was sitting) rolled down his window and started yelling at us.
We told him that it was no fault of our own and that he should learn to drive (which in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea).
Apparently, this further inflamed him. He put his car in park, and got out of his car to continue berating us. He was a BIG, physically intimidating guy, too. Not yet getting the reaction he wanted with screaming, he upped the ante by banging on the windows, hood, etc. Because we were on a narrow one way street with cars on both sides we could not drive away without damaging property, I was immediately nervous and started to move my hand towards my firearm. At this point, the enraged “citizen” attempted to wrest open my door.
In what seemed like minutes (when in all actuality was seconds) I ran through the AOJ checklist.
Ability: Yes. I was confined to a car with limited range of movement in a seated position facing a fellow twice my size highly agitated, with no way to escape.
Opportunity: Yes. Had he opened the door ( which was thankfully locked) or broken the window, he could have done serious physical harm to me. (I immediately recalled the officer’s injuries from the Michael Brown fiasco).
Jeopardy: Yes, the minute he attempted to open my door.
Once he tried to open my door, I drew my firearm and told the guy to step away and get back into his car. He muttered some colorful language about how I was less of a man for “hiding behind a gun” and started to walk away. I don’t know what changed his mind but he decided to turn back and start walking towards the car again, at which point I yelled for him to return to his vehicle and that I will fire if I had to.
Finally, the light turned green and we were able to flee and get away safe and unharmed.
It was because of your training I was able to remain calm and keep myself and my boss safe without panicking. Now, there is always room to learn and improve, so I must ask you if you had any additional pointers/comments about what happened and about how the situation was handled.
Thanks you again for everything you have done and for all the training that you have given me!
That finger is in the picture is “how much it’s in the gene pool”.
If it was necessary enough to draw the weapon hopefully they called the police to report the issue with a description of the road rager and his car or been calling as soon as he came up to the car.
I don’t know if brandishing the gun was such a good idea and the comment made about his “bad driving” was definitely inflammatory given the situation at hand even if it wasn’t meant to be….I have always wrapped my mind around the idea that the gun only comes out when that split-second decision is made because you now fear for your life AT THAT MOMENT…..it is said there are some soothing words or phrases that you can communicate in a low voice that may help diffuse or de-escalate the situation but I would totally ignore the potential threat and not make eye contact as a means of de-escalation because by totally ignoring the threat, he or they do not know what you are thinking and you have not added fuel to the fire….it may even buy you a few extra seconds to find an escape route …I would also instruct my passenger to do the same and have him/her start to call 911….as for me I would remove the seat belt and have my left hand on my cover garment ready to clear for action should it come to that.
You got off lucky, the probability that he was armed or had a gun in the car is pretty high. The ghetto thug has no control over his violent nature. Usually what happens is they follow you and call their boys over to surprise you and shoot at you from an unexpected source. But if you had shot this choir boy on his way to church, you would have been the bad guy. Gunning down a poor victimized black man who was trying to address a wrong that you committed. And there would have been plenty of witnesses to say that you cried out racial slurs while you gunned him down while he was pleading for his life. You would have faced criminal charges and a civil suit.
Welcome to Obama’s world of police work. Best thing to do is avoid the ghetto and drive around. Takes longer but you avoid some of the dangers of Chicago. If you had called the police, by the time they got to where you were it would have been long over and done. One thing to remember is someone gets shot every two hours in Chicago, and they don’t check to make sure they only hit what they shooting at. You could be driving on any Street in Chicago and catch a bullet. The world of the Democrats.
Well in Missouri starting Jan.1 we will have STAND YOUR Ground,NO Retreat,and Constitutional Carry.
This whole senario is a DEFENSIVE gun use.
While your comments did not help,they also did not hurt. the Thug in question would be enraged provoked NO MATTER WHAT you did.
Honestly you have the same RIGHTS to your comments as he did to his.
ANYONE whom argues that you are not entitled to respnd his verbal tirade is in fact a full of it. That view is exactlly that of a rapist blaming the victim for for the rape usually due to the way the victim dressed………….( which is what liberals do)