Chapter 11: After

After, the ramifications of defending and protecting yourself, family, friends and tribe/clan, it too is a complicated complex issue and process. Know this folks, this is critical to know and understand let alone apply, YOU have to have done all the previous steps or the before and during parts to understand all that goes into the after. After all is said and done if you defended and protected you are going to be put into a blender and mixed thoroughly to the standards and requirements and most important the objectives of those within the legal system. Take note, the law and the legal system are not one in the same although complimentary to one another to a point that serves those who work within that legal system. 

It all begins when a person takes actions of a physical nature to defend and protect. What you did, do and say during and after matters a great deal for it will set a stage for what is to come. What you did to stop the damage and gain safety and security comes into play at the moment the first responders arrive. How you act and your demeanor along with reflected character and personality will definitely effect the way those first responders look at you, the other guy and the overall situation. Maybe and maybe not, the first responders may or may not have the authority to decide matters to either let you go home or, most likely, cuff you, put you in the car and take you to jail. You can’t know until they arrive and discover the facts of the situation. There are steps you can take to make things beneficial, as much as the system will allow, for yourself but hey, who knows until they arrive and they take actions themselves. 

Circumstances and other factors involving the defense of self-defense will dictate along with directions and mandates of those above first responders be they police leadership and/or prosecutor and possibly others in the “legal system.” This is a minefield and every step you take, every action you make and every attitudinal word and body language you display and put out there will effect how those first responders and others in the legal system act toward you and the attitude they will take toward you. It is truly complicated and a complex system whose sole purpose is to take actions that benefit that system and those playing within that system - not you. OH, and remember, often the guy you defended and protected yourself from often is also a professional and knows far better than you how to “work the system” to their advantage making you out to be the bad guy even if you stayed well within the legal realm of true acceptable self-defense. 

When you seek out defense-protection programs these all are things you must consider and ensure are properly taught as a part of said program. In truth, if any program gives such topics lip service should be avoided especially when you do a self-analysis and examine your exposure to threats, etc., you want the program to cover and teach, really teach, those things because, simply, your very life and life style is on the line. 

Another “after” is how all of this affects not just you but your family, your extended family, all your friends and any and all social as well as business connections because when someone applies defensive violence against aggressive violence those very folks will begin to, “see you differently!” Things will change for you and when you add on all those socially driven influential effects they tend to compound all the other ramifications you are going to encounter after. 

When I say after I also mean, it isn’t going to be just a few days and then all returns to normal. It is going to be months and years, possibly lifetime, and NOTHING is going to return to NORMAL - Nothing! Ask any professional who has dealt with such violence and aggression and I would bet all of them would agree that things change in you, in others around you and in all those other social contexts, expect it because that is all part of the after. Once you let that genie out of its bottle you CANNOT shove the genie back in. 

So, remember that to take up a martial art or karate for defense-protection carries a ton of baggage with it and it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY and YOURS ALONE to seek out, find, understand and apply all aspects of defense-protection of the before, during and after of self-defense. 

I repeat: “Oh, a little side note to take in, you can bounce in and out of the proverbial square that holds the self-defense criteria taking you in and out of self-defense thus leaving you liable to the legal system for breaking the law without that reasonableness necessary to achieve self-defense defense with the legal systems final approval. Then think of it, the legal system is two-faced, I.e., criminal and civil where even if you achieve legal criminal success those others associated with the guy who attacked you can sue you, successfully, in civil court - take heed.”