Controlling Your Assailant & Controlling The Situation
Evasion & Escape have failed. The assailant is unrelenting.
Imminent danger means just that – if someone threatens to harm you in the future, then you don’t have the right to strike them in the present.
If the threat is imminent, you do not actually have to wait to be assaulted. For example, somebody is coming toward you and you feel that they are going to harm you, then you can act in self-defence.
You prepare to use your Karate techniques for self defense. There will be moments of chaos within moments of control. Your Karate techniques will provide the mechanisms to obtain control.
The law allows a person to defend themselves from attack.
The defendant must have honestly believed it was necessary to use force to defend themselves, while the force must have been reasonable in the circumstances, meaning the force must not have been excessive.
There are three strict conditions for this defence to succeed.
“There must be an imminent danger to the life or limb of the accused.”
“The retaliation that he uses in the face of this danger must be necessary for his own safety.”
“If the person assaulted has means of escape or retreat, he is bound to use them.”
In other words, threat + no escape + proportionate response = self defence
Your response to attack should be proportionate to the danger that you are in. For example, if somebody were punching you, it would be disproportionate to continuously hit them with a walking stick or if they have fallen, to continuously kick them.
What constitutes proportionality will depend on the circumstances, but the courts take into account peoples decision-making processes taken in the heat of the moment.
Potential factors to take into account could be:
the nature and seriousness of the initial attack
whether the attacker persisted with the attack after an attempt to repel them had no effect
• Whether a means of escape became available during the attack
• Whether the attacker had already been disabled by the accused
• If the attacker has been knocked down, it is unlikely to be proportionate to kick them repeatedly