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.
 
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.
 
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”.
