November 5, 2024

First, the good news: a carjacker tried to carjack his second vehicle within about 3 minutes in LA and was stopped. A vanload of Judo instructors turns out to have been the wrong target for this criminal, who had just carjacked another vehicle, kidnapping a woman in it before pushing her out further down the street. This threat to everyone is behind bars thanks to the selfless actions of trained citizens.
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Now for the bad news: …said LAPD Officer Jack Richter. “Our department does not condone or recommend that people do that in a carjacking because you never know if the carjacker is armed.” This is on par with “stay in your seats, he’s probably not going to crash the plane into a building”. Some people still don’t get it: when you let someone else decide whether you live or die you are counting on moral, law abiding behavior in a complete stranger, usually one who has just committed a crime to be in that position in the first place.
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Flight 93 got it, Todd Beamer and the rest got it: giving in to criminals puts more than just you at risk. And a big thanks to the Florida International University of Miami Judo team from me; you probably won’t get one from the LAPD.

Update: Jon Stewart on Comedy Central comments: “Imagine, someone getting pummeled before the LAPD arrived”.