Defend U. newsletter Oct. 2000


Welcome to the newest members of the group who signed up in September.

Here’s what up for October:

A Leopard Doesn’t Change His Spots
New York Neighborhood Tests Panic Buttons
Millionaires Can Be Rapists Too
Submit your Self-Defense Questions
High Tech Key Access
Training Your Awareness
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Leopard doesn’t change his spots

Damian "Football" Williams, who spent four years in jail for attacking
trucker Reginald Denny during the 1992 riots, was charged in a recent
southwest Los Angeles murder.  You probably remember the graphic video of
Football Williams trying to kill Denny by bouncing a large chunk of
concrete off of Denny’s head.  Williams, 27, could face the death penalty
for the July 18 shooting. In a 11-page felony complaint, prosecutors said
Williams and Tyrone David "T" Killingsworth, a 34-year-old with
convictions for bank robbery and forcible rape, killed 43-year-old Grove
Tinner at a West Gage Avenue drug house.  This seems to be another case
that justifies the use of incarceration to separate the bad guys from the
rest of society.  Perhaps it is no coincidence that the American crime
rate is down as the prison population has grown.

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City Block Puts Its Thumbs to Work as Crime Busters

By BLAINE HARDEN, New York Times

If a perpetrator on the Upper East Side were to track a woman home
late one night, follow her past the Pookie & Sebastian Clothing
Boutique on 77th Street and pounce just as she enters her building,
then that perpetrator could be in for an unpleasant evening of
crime.  A thumb-detonated electronic alarm attached to the victim's key
chain would trigger the following wake-the-dead chain reaction.  From the
top of a nearby building, a loudspeaker - loud enough to ruin the sleep of
everyone on an Upper East Side block would proclaim: "Intruder on the
block! Call the police!"

At the same time, a police siren would go off and a series of
strobe lights would begin to flash. A central alarm would alert the
local police station house to the address and name of the victim.
Neighbors would move to their windows, having been instructed by
their block association to pay careful attention to how the suspect
is dressed. Then they would call 911.

This device, the first of its kind to be tested in New York, is
soon to be part of the crime-stopping arsenal of about 100
residents on East 77th Street between Second and Third Avenues. 

indicative of a block where a perpetrator might have some easy
activity," said Nikki Henkin, the founder of the 77th Street Block
Association, which last night showed off the crime-busting
technology to local residents. "Hopefully, this is going to scare
the hell out of a perpetrator and he is going to take off. This is
a deterrent."

On 77th Street yesterday afternoon, other East Side residents were
not quite so confident that a cacophonous medley of recorded shouts
about an intruder, screaming sirens and flashing lights - which
could be turned on by any neighbor with a twitchy thumb - was a
perfect solution for big-city peace of mind.

"It is hard enough with the car alarms," said Natalia Kissel, 50,
who lives on 80th Street and is a researcher for an investment
bank. "You could end up with a bunch of elderly women who claim
they are being accosted and have nervous trigger fingers. I
wouldn't want to have it on my block."

The alarm system found its way to the Upper East Side courtesy of
Richard Soloway, chief executive of Napco Security Systems, a
company in Amityville, N.Y., that makes electronic sirens, panic
buttons for banks, and other alarm systems. After a free two-month test
period starting in October, Mr. Soloway said, he will sell his key-chain
panic button citywide for
$69.95, plus a monthly charge of $5.95. He said that to pay for the
block-by-block installation of receiving equipment - the large gray
panel housing a loudspeaker, siren and flashing lights - his
company would need at least 50 customers per block.

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Millionaires Can Be Rapists Too

If you have a preconceived notion of what a rapist looks like or in what
socioeconomic group he might  reside, you should check them at the door.

Andrew Luster, 36, is being held in Ventura County Jail on $10-million
bail for 50 counts of kidnapping and rape in connection with alleged
assaults on three women. Officials say he is a millionaire rapist who
preys on young women by slipping sedatives into their drinks before
attacking them. Then he likes to videotape his assaults so he can watch
them over and over. Luster is part of the family which were the heirs to
the Max Factor fortune and has lived a privileged life.  Prosecutors claim
he had dozens of videotapes of himself raping women rendered unconscious
with the date-rape drug GHB.

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Submit your Self-Defense Questions

We get questions.  And now Defend University is posting the most recent
questions on the Defend U. site for others to peruse.  Although each
individual self-defense situation is different, there are some general
principals that can apply across the board in many situations.  That’s why
many black belts and protection professionals trade “war stories”.  First
of all, some of them are really funny.  But mostly, it is a way to trade
information about possible solutions and tactics.  Stories are traded
about what worked and, sometimes, what failed miserably.  If you have a
particular question, you can e-mail us at defenduniversity@yahoo.com.

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High Tech Key Access

A variety of computerized tracking systems - KeyTrak and
KeyWatcher are the best known - provide a way to control access and
follow a key's path to help ensure that it does not fall into the
wrong hands. Apartment and residential building tenants can monitor
distribution of keys and request paper trails when they want to know where
a key has been.

With the KeyWatcher system, there are no spare keys floating
around the concierge desk. A copy of the key to a given apartment
is locked inside a metal compartment and cannot be retrieved
without a code. The tenant can give different codes to the
housekeeper, dog walker or contractor, granting each person access
only within certain hours. Another layer of security is provided by
an outer box that can be opened only with a code given to building
employees. 

With the KeyTrak system, keys are locked in a drawer that can be
opened only by a computer that is programmed to give specific
people access to specific apartments at specific times.

With Intellikey, a highly sophisticated system used at Kennedy
Airport, a battery-powered lock right in each tenant's door
recognizes a coded house key.

Intellikey can run $700,000 for a large residential complex. KeyTrak,
which requires a
concierge to have his own "fob," or metal tag, to enter the system, costs
around $10,000, and KeyWatcher costs between $5,000 and $10,000 or more,
depending on the number of keys held in each metal box. 

Excel Security Corporation of New York is a source for the systems.

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Training Your Awareness

Mark Twain said it best, “It’s easier to stay out of trouble than to get
out of trouble.” 

Martial artists, personal protection specialists and other professionals
practice a constant state of relaxed awareness – sometimes called
“condition yellow”. They know that an attack recognized is an attack
halfway foiled.  

To train your awareness level you can play a little game with yourself.
Set up your game however you would like.  You can deduct points every time
you are “surprised” by someone when you turn a corner, “surprised” by a
car traveling in your blind spot, or when you allow someone behind you in
the store.  You can give yourself points every time you notice someone on
the street before they notice you, you correctly predict someone’s
maneuver on the highway or you don’t give someone your back on the
elevator.

Other professionals I know play the “what if” game.  They mentally
rehearse where they would seek cover if a gunman opened fire.  They
rehearse where they would drive if there was a confrontation at the next
light.  

Rekindle etiquette in your daily activities.  Hold the door for people and
insist that they precede you.  Let other drivers ahead of you on the road
(you can see their license plate from here).  These small gestures are a
pleasant surprise for most people, but you give yourself a tactical
advantage, which is where most of our etiquette started in the first place.


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Until next time remember, you have one life, fight for it!

Brad Parker
Defend University
www.defendu.com