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Monthly Lecture:  03-2005

 

 

TALKING TO THE INDIANS

By:  Skip Gochenour

 

Note:  The following presentation was delivered at the Rangemaster Polite Society Match and Tactical Conference on 25-27 February 2005.

 

 

1)     Always interested in Gen. G. A. Custer.

 

a)     Little Big Horn Fight

 

i)        For thirty years after the fights the books written assumed there were no eye witnesses to the battle.

ii)      What was known of the battle was the result of scene reconstruction by those sent to do the investigation of the destruction of Custer’s Command.

iii)     Eventually, there were a few books written that were the product of interviews with the Indians who were there.

iv)    Prejudice of the times discounted the views of the Indians of what happened and how.

v)     Indians were regarded as killers with no useful input.

vi)    Dehumanizing terms were used to describe Indians.  They were “savages”.

 

2)     Today, VCA are regarded in the same fashion.

 

a)     VCA are regarded as savage killers.

 

i)        They are dehumanized by terms used to describe them.

(1)  evil

(2)  other human

(3)  various other less descriptive, though vile names.

 

ii)      Their value as contributors of information about the sequence of events that lead to the killing of people is derided and disregarded.

(1)  Some of this view is the product of the behavioral science approach to their actions that came out of the 60’s approach to crime prevention that saw criminals as “victims” of society.

(2)  That approach attributed their conduct to their inability to participate in society.

(3)  It made excuses for them and postulated they were compelled by outside forces to engage in their acts.

(4)  It was an approach that substantially rejected the role of individual responsibility and personal decision making.

 

3)     Much of what is known of killing incident today comes from the reconstruction of crime scenes.

 

a)     This approach is valid and revealing.

 

i)        Still, there is value to getting the input from killers to flesh out what happened, why and if there were circumstances that would have caused them to form “restraining judgments” before engaging in the attack.

ii)      It also helps the Practitioner understand when to use the various techniques and tactics they learn in our serious study.

 

b)     If we take what killers tell us about their motives and strategy we can learn to more effectively learn how to address them when they bring violence our way?

 

 

 

 

PRACTITIONERS STUDY TACTICS

 

 

4)     Practitioners make investments in their study.

 

a)     The invest money, time and energy studying and practicing techniques and tactics.

i)        Little examination is made of when these techniques and tactics are likely to be used in specific forms of VCA initiated actions.

 

b)     Today we will look at how the motives of VCA affect their strategy.

i)        We will look at how motive affects their willingness to form restraining judgments when their chosen target is other than compliant to their approach.

ii)      We will look at those operant motives which are likely unwilling to form restraining judgments.

 

c)     We will look at Practitioner response models that will be useful in handling the engagement and the legal aftermath.

 

 

 

TRADITIONAL STUDY MODELS

 

 

5)     Practitioner training moves along a skill building continuum.

 

a)     Training model is layered and dove-tailed.

i)        Consists of:

(1)  Competent weapons handling skills.  Four Rules.

(2)  Hand skills and movement skills.

(3)  360 checks.

(4)  Dynamic shooting skills.

(5)  House exercises.

(6)  FoF exercises.

 

b)     House exercises and FoF are considered “advanced” skills.

i)        House exercises are predicted on a necessity to move through a hostile environment searching for aggressors who have taken a position there.

ii)      Unless you are part of a specialized unit with a duty obligation, you are unlikely to use this skill set for that type mission.

iii)     The value for house exercises to the Practitioner is to prepare him to read an environment quickly and adopt its parameters to his advantage.  There are two occasions in which this circumstance may occur.

 

(1)  When engaged in escape and evade actions from a hostile confrontation.

(2)  When compelled through extraordinary circumstance to proceed to the aid of those for whom the Practitioner is legally and morally responsible.

 

iv)    FoF work is to prepare the Practitioner for situational reading skills.

(1)  Well designed FoF exercises allow the Practitioner to practice reading the intentions of VCA and determine the motives and strategy operant in the confrontation.

(2)  The Practitioner can practice techniques designed to bring about restraining judgments in the VCA confrontation.

(3)  Such scenarios allow the Practitioner to practice execution of disengagement, escape and evasion.

 

c)     The role of House exercises and FoF is to develop “reading” skills in the Practitioner.

i)        They teach the reading of the environment and the situation.

ii)      They provide practice at executing the primary confrontation strategy for Practitioners.

 

 

 

STUDY MODELS PREPARE YOU FOR

 

 

6)     Practitioner Study Models prepare the Practitioner for two types of VCA confrontations.

 

a)     Active Incidents

 

i)        In active incidents the VCA is operational and for the moment, is directing his killing activities at another person.

ii)      That person may be someone for whom you are legally and morally responsible.

iii)     You may be compelled to adopt an aggressor response to go to their aid.

iv)    You become the hunter.

v)     Environmental reading skills will be of value in this situation.

(a)  Most training problems require you to check each room and door in the problem.

(b)  The imperative is never passing by a room or door you have not checked.

(c)  More realistically in this operative circumstance you will pass by portals without checking them because your mission at the moment will not allow that amount of time.

(d)  You will apportion an amount of your attention to that unchecked area, monitoring it for changes in condition that require your response.

vi)    A variant of this model will be circumstances where a VCA is operant in a location and you must use environmental reading skills, coupled with other techniques to effectively exit the killing venue.

 

b)     Reactive Incidents take two forms.

 

i)        Anticipatory Reactive.

(1)  In anticipatory reactive incidents, you have time to identify the VCA aggressor and his intentions

(2)  You may have time to attempt restraining judgments in him.

(a)  The definition of a fight is any engagement with a VCA in which every decision is worth you life.

(b)  Does not necessarily mean that blows are traded.

(c)  Causing a redefinition of the circumstances as the VCA sees them such that he decides against continuing the confrontation is a higher grade of skill execution than trading blows demonstrates.

(3)  You will have time to load a response technique from your repertoire of skills and execute it when required.

 

ii)      Real-time Reactive

(1)  In real-time incidents the VCA has gotten within arms reach of you and is executing his attack.

(2)  You must execute a technique designed for that form of confrontation instantly.

(a)  There will certainly be such occurrences.

(b)  You must have techniques pre-loaded and ready for execution.

 

c)     Current employment practices, combined with VCA strategies place VCA in first class hotels, restaurants, caterers and government employment.

 

i)        They use the women in their lives to gather intelligence and means of access to facilities.

ii)      Avoid presenting an image that will mark you.

iii)     Adopt Master John Farnam’s “Stealth existence”.

iv)    “Fed Faux Chic” will invite attention to you and your room.

v)     Everyone engages in personal “projection models”.

 

 

UNDERSTAND VCA STRATEGY

 

 

7)     Purpose is to learn a general navigation system for maneuvering through VCA confrontations.

 

a)     This is not a lesson in applied psychology.

i)        Discussion is designed to position you as an informed consumer of training.

ii)      Discussion designed to allow you to assess your training regimen for useful techniques in addressing the various forms of VCA confrontations.

 

 

 

VCA LIFE EXPERIENCE

 

 

8)     Predatory Skill Set Building

 

a)     Predatory skill set building evolves over a lifetime.

 

i)        Age 4, while at play he learns to out maneuver and overcome the desires of his peers.  It is the center piece of his interaction.  He is not cooperative at play.

ii)      Age 6, he learns to use lying for its tactical advantage.

(1)  It is not used as a tool to avoid embarrassment.

(2)  He learns to control people by active misleading.

(3)  It is first used on those who trust and acre about him the most.

(4)  He learns to spot vulnerability and bewilderment.

(5)  He learns to use a person’s desire to erroneously believe something despite the evidence.

(6)  He realizes there are people who want to suspend reality and learns how to spot and cultivate them.

(7)  He learns the first reaction to obviously conflicting signals is bewilderment and therefore he acquires time to further develop tactical superiority.

(8)  He learns to use lying as a weapon.

 

iii)     Age 8, he learns that physical coercion can be used to get his way and develops a cold-blooded use of this bullying skill as a weapon.

(1)  Bully’s show-up on the playground between 2nd and 3rd grade.

iv)    Age 10, he learns to use charm and courtesy to deceive, maneuver and ingratiate.  He learns to use these qualities as a weapon.

v)     Age 12, he selects associates with the same value system.

(1)  Parents often comment that their child took a wrong course in life when they started “hanging with the wrong crowd”, at age 12-14.

 

b)     By the time the Practitioner meets him on the street, the VCA has decades of experience using a combination of coercion, charm and deception to maneuver and manipulate.

 

 

 

VCA MOTIVE MODELS

 

 

9)     General categories of VCA motive models.

 

a)     Each VCA motive model has hallmarks.

i)        Instrumental

ii)      Expressive

iii)     Instrumental/Expressive.

 

 

 

INSTRUMENTAL

 

 

10) Hallmarks of Instrumentally Motivated VCA.

 

a)     While there are exceptions, this is a common street encounter motive model.

i)        Willing to use violence and enjoy it.

ii)      Low weapons skills.

(1)  Rarely have any gun handling training.

(2)  Shots fired experience often is limited to criminal incidents.

 

iii)     Poor quality and maintenance of weapons.

(1)  .32 auto in .32 Short.

(2)  .38 Spc in a .38 Spr.

 

iv)    Limited ammo supply.

(1)  Rarely have additional ammo on them.

(2)  Often the gun is not fully loaded.

(3)  They are there to kill, not fight.

 

v)     Multiple assailants raise the probability of weapons and attack.

vi)    Expects to survive the encounter unscathed.

vii)  Survival expectation means the VCA using this motive is susceptible to restraining judgments.

(1)  You have a chance to change his actions by causing in him a re-definition of circumstance.

 

b)     Experience is usually evident in the approach.

 

i)        The smoother and more controlled the approach; the more experienced the VCA at that activity.

ii)      Aggression level does not mean the VCA is not smooth and controlled in his approach.

iii)     Highly skilled team attacking a facility would be an exception.

 

 

 

EXPRESSIVE

 

 

11) Hallmarks of an Expressively Motivated VCA.

 

a)     The purpose of their act is directed violence.

i)        Means there people in that venue they intend to kill.

ii)      They will likely have brought multiple weapons to the killing venue.

iii)     They will be of good quality and well maintained.

iv)    They will likely have weapons skills.

v)     They will likely have substantial additional ammunition supplies.

vi)    They will often have barrier breaching capabilities.

vii)  They know the killing venue and how to move to their intended targets.

viii) Often do not expect to survive the incident

(1)  May expect to be killed by responders

(2)  May intend to commit suicide during or at the conclusion of the incident.

ix)    If they have an escape plan, it is often to move on to another killing venue.

 

b)     Are probably not willing to form restraining judgments.

i)        They are there on very emotionally driven personal business

 

 

 

INSTRUMENTAL/EXPRESSIVE

 

 

12) Hallmarks of an Instrumental/Expressive motivated VCA.

 

a)     They are a mixture of the two models.

i)        They redefine the circumstances through interactive interpretation model.

ii)      The redefinition will likely be as a result of your actions or the actions of someone in the object group.

iii)     The redefinition is to move the motive from instrumental to expressive.

(1)  Usually because they feel they have been disrespected in some fashion.

(2)  They are often looking for an excuse to interpret actions as expressing disrespect.

(3)  Often are in the company of others when the confrontation occurs.

(4)  Often intend harm as part of the confrontation.

 

iv)    They may be susceptible to restraining judgment.

(1)  Usually expect to escape their violent incidents unscathed.

 

 

 

KILLING MOTIVES

 

 

13)  VCA killing motives by category.

 

a)     Instrumental

i)        The killing is instrumental to a gain motive operating within the VCA.

ii)      Adventure

(1)  The killer kills fir the simple adventurism of killing.

 

iii)     Theft/Gain

(1)  The VCA kills for theft or other gain.

(2)  Theft can be any kind of financial/goods/chattel gain.

(3)  Gain can be anything of value to the VCA.

(a)  Could be a gain in status to themselves or within a cohort group.

 

iv)    Sex

(1)  Could be an attempt to cover a sexual assault.

(2)  Sexual serial murder.

 

14)  NOTE:  Any of these could change to an Expressive motive depending on circumstance and the personality of the VCA.

 

a)     Expressive

i)        Fear

(1)  Often the motive for self-defense incidents.

(a)  Self-defense is the motive in 20-25% of killings even when the action is not legally justifiable.

 

ii)      Anger

(1)  Anger is just that. 

(a)  May be imperfect self-defense.

 

iii)     Love

(1)  Is mercy killing.

 

iv)    Revenge

 

v)     Honor

(1)  Gang killings.

 

15)  NOTE:  Expressive motive is emotionally driven.  It is the irrationality of the emotional content that drives the action.  It is the reason that VCA so motivated are usually not amenable to restraining judgments.

 

 

VCA PLAN PROGRESSION

 

 

16)  VCA follow a progression in their work up to the killing incident.

 

a)     This process can take moments or months.

i)        Marrying of the motive and the target.

ii)      Rumination

(1)  He works himself up mentally and emotionally.

iii)     Fantasy

(1)  He fantasizes over how he wants to do the target harm.

(2)  Fantasy is not planning, but it does involve some visualization.

iv)    Gathers his tools.

 

17)  NOTE:  To this point there is often a good chance the VCA will voluntarily form a self-generated restraining judgment.

 

i)