Subscribe to Feed
A female prison officer was able to thwart an attack from a gypsy man in Rome in this story. This Italian lady was also a karate champion. The guy asked for cigarette and then grabbed her neck. Lara Liotta struck the gypsy with jabs, knocking him down. she ran for help and the guy was detained by police. Miss Liotta stated that no one in the plaza came to assist and luckily she was able to fight off the attack with her karate skills.
Anyway my bias is apparent now if it was not before. I think women cops will have a much better chance at any altercations if they become great fighters of whatever martial art of their choice. I also think if women hang their hat on equal employment and do not do the extra work to excel at hand to hand combat, they may have an issue if Murphy’s Law comes into play. My choice would be the extra training above and beyond what the police academy requires.
As far as I can tell Miss Liotta did everything right, she was in a crowded plaza, approached by a man. She did not have a cigarette and was accosted without warning. She was able to mount a counter attack from her karate training and got away. She found the police who arrested the guy. I think had Lara not had the karate background – she would have been hard pressed to end the attack so quickly. It is sad that people are not willing to assist a lady being attacked in broad daylight. I salute this Italian woman – karate champion for her great application of self-defense! I will speak about karate and women police in this post. Here is a picture of Lara Liotta competing in karate.
I started thinking about the challenges women police, parole, and prison guards face in their jobs and decided to explore this topic. A woman officer dealing with another woman should be able to fall back on her training as there is probably not a strength or size issue. But what about if a woman cop has to arrest an unwilling man? Is this a safe scenario for the cop or the nearby citizens?
I am guessing that any police departments stance will be that there are a number of tools available to any police officers such as a night-stick, tear-gas, pepper-spray, taser, gun, and the radio so a woman officer’s personal safety should not be as much of a concern. Well now, I am a realist and agree with this stance but in fights and police actions (such as apprehending a suspect) things can go wrong. If a cop had to fight with a suspect to gain control – would not a cop with extensive karate, judo, boxing, wrestling, or jiu-jitsu have a better chance?
I know many cops that might read this are thinking they go through hand to hand combat training and they are not really supposed to punch out their suspects as they are arresting them. But my point is women are at a physical disadvantage if they are taking on men. I think the reasonable approach if I was a woman would be to training extensively in fighting so I could hold my own with most men. That is what I am arguing here. I think the fact that this Italian prison guard was able to defend herself so readily was in a large part due to her karate training. Take a look at this Russian woman cop video I found on youtube.
Now thats what I am talking about. The Russian cop has a good reverse punch and has apparently mastered critical distance. If I could only learn two things to win fights… that would be what I learned. I taught my youngest son these concepts when he was a kid and helped him defend against a gang of bullies. I fought against six opponents and knocked out the first three with my critical distance and counter punches!
I think women cops should take martial arts instruction beyond the hand to hand combat offered in the academy. This way if the situation digresses to a struggle for control – the women can draw on their karate training to in addition to their police skills and overcome an opponent. If women depend on equal status or some such principal when entering police work, I think if Murphy’s Law comes into play – things might not go well. As you can see in this post, some women are indeed taking martial arts to supplement their day job.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
[...] Sport news by John W. Zimmer [...]
October 21st, 2008 at 10:06 am
Nice post! ALL women should be studying some form of self-defense/martial arts to protect themselves in case things “go bad”. Women need to learn to fight as women and understand how to use their phsyiology to their advantage.
The more prepared you are, the more options you will have available to you should violence find you.
Stay Aware & Be Safe,
Angie M. Tarighi
CEO & Founder
Women’s Self-Defense Institute
http://www.self-defense-mind-body-spirit.com