On Jeff Cooper's Principles of Personal Defense and Lessons Learned

NLPeaden · 09-22-2014, 01:08 AM

In his brief treatise on personal defense, Principles of Personal Defense, Col. Jeff Cooper defines his seven principles of personal defense. They are in order; alertness, decisiveness, aggressiveness, speed, coolness, ruthlessness, and surprise.

Two weeks ago, I was pressed into needing to utilize these concepts during a home invasion. I did not follow them, I did not prevail, but I did maintain my honor. At approximately 11:45 at night, I heard a knock on the door, and I went to look through the peep hole to see who it was. There was a pizza delivery man in uniform with a pizza bag. I suspected the man at being at the wrong address and undid the deadbolt and turned the door knob, and immediately the suspect push through the door, knocking my right foot out from underneath of me. I had my closed pocket knife concealed in my fist, and I began to wrestle with the first suspect, throwing him against the wall. The second suspect entered and pistol whipped me in the head with a pellet pistol. I immediately recognized the second suspect, and no longer escalated force, but kept wrestling with them. The two wrestled me to the ground and the second suspect held me at gunpoint. I had blood all over my left lens of my glasses, and running down my head. I was on my back, but I still had the advantage of being able to knock out the second suspect's knees while the first suspect search for what they wanted to steal. My personal cell phone rang, but it was under debris from their search to steal my property; the second suspect ripped my work phone off of my belt and smashed it with the pellet pistol. It was then that I realized that the pellet pistol was now out of battery and unloaded. I felt a great deal of anger, but I couldn't bring myself to kill someone that I had known, I couldn't act with decisiveness, aggressiveness that I had practiced with my knife in the past. I was prepared to defend against further injury, but not to deal it if not required.

I didn't get the shakes until after police responded and they called EMTs to check out my head wound. It was a rush of adrenaline like the time I had 0.5mg administered to me in the ER for anaphylaxis (now allergic to mammalian meat due to tick bites). I survived of course, but I'm different now, changed through my experiences. I have the stitches out of my wound; I'll have to wear an inch-long scar beside my widow's peak. Due to the fact that I recognized the second suspect, and a diligent police investigation by the major case division, both suspects have been jailed. The non-violent suspect has cooperated with police, written a confession, and returned my property.

Lessons learned: don't tip pizza delivery guys too much (only reason I was a target), be prepared at all times to engage in combat (your life may depend on it), keep serial numbers of everything (this made arrest on possession of stolen property easy for police), keep a small pistol ready and be ready to use it (my .357 in the nightstand did nothing for me that night).

I suggest that you keep video surveillance of your premises as it makes life easier in identification and prosecution.

All in all, I won't be fooled again.

**Rick_W** · 09-22-2014, 05:40 PM

Simply glad to hear that things didn't go any worse for you.

People can say anything they want - but we never know how we will respond to any situation until we are placed in it.

One question if you will - recognizing the perp, did you try to talk to him during the confrontation?

NLPeaden · 09-22-2014, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by Rick_W

One question if you will - recognizing the perp, did you try to talk to him during the confrontation?

Oddly enough, he was really talkative. He asked me for my wallet, my age, my job, where the video game console cables were, why my apartment housekeeping is such a train-wreck. I could ID him by voice alone. At the time I didn't really care about why I was being robbed, so I never thought to ask him anything. Then again, it could have been the concussion.