Situational awareness has attained near mythic status amongst armed self-defense trainers. As well it should. The sooner you detect a potentially deadly threat, the more time you have to escape, avoid or engage. If an attack catches you on the proverbial hop, you may get so far behind the curve (a.k.a., OODA loop) that you’re unable to mount any kind of defense. But it’s not all about time. It’s also about space. If you trip and fall while trying to escape, evade or fight, well, that’s not going to be an easy day, is it? Situational awareness is also spatial awareness: what’s ahead, behind and to the side of you. When the S hits the F, as it does in the video above, tunnel vision can easily distract you from obstacles and impediments. So scan, plan and be the man. Or woman. Or transgender. [h/t Alex]

21 COMMENTS

  1. So what’s going on here? A few of those Italian words are easily translatable in the video description but a lot aren’t.

  2. Holy cow! This situation is unclear. If someone had a firearm pointed at me, however, you can bet I wouldn’t continue to advance. Suicide by cop?

  3. My attempt at using a free translation site:

    “A criminal armed with machetes, threatens the passers-by and the agents who have spoken on the spot. The German police solve the question in a few seconds. Nationalists from Friuli, click on on Facebook.”

  4. Notice the not so instant response to being shot. Several seconds for the “subject” to go down! Let’s argue about 45 vs 9mm. 🙂

    • More of an example why you keep firing until the threat is neutralized. German police must get in big trouble if they fire more than one shot. An American would have unloaded on him.

  5. Obviously it’s hard to shoot while you’re tripping over a wall but I would still think two or three shots before the wall would have been prudent. Maybe it is something with local rules and procedures that doesn’t allow for more than one shot. He did look like zombie though.

      • Looks like it to me. Shoots, trips recovers. Looks like th “suspect” was backing away from him by the time he recovered, so no second shot

  6. That cop took a chance. Of course we only have the video point of view. The guy might have stopped being a threat.
    Great example of real life vs movies. Shot people often continue to attack.

  7. click the youtube logo in lower right of embedded video.
    comments have a translate function under each.

    Its still not completely clear what was going on- a naked guy with a machete, playing in a fountain, is threatening bystanders- and then charges the cop, who trips and then shoots him?

    Where’s the riot? Where’s the MRAPs? WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE!

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