Playground Stabbing in France: Former Operator Shares 3 Steps You Can Take To Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones

Editor’s Note: The following piece was shared with us by SOFREP friend and former New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS) commando Damian Porter. Be sure to read his bio at the end of the piece. –GDM

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Many of you have seen or read about the playground stabbing incident in France in early June.

As a former Operator and Police Officer, I would like to offer some insights so that you can protect yourself and your loved ones better than what sadly happened last week. This is not a rant, and it’s not a preach at all. This article comes from a place of absolute kindness, empathy, love, and, more importantly- No judgment.

I think it’s a good parents’ job to keep their children safe, and I, and many of the SOFREP staff here, are fortunate enough to have been trained in dealing with violence, and it is with this that I would urge you to read on with an open mind.

Self Defence is all about Personal choice, right? No problem.

But this playground attack has brought it into the mainstream, and now you no longer get to choose and say, “That will never happen here.”

Last week there was an attack in a playground in Annecy that left four children and two adults stabbed. The victims are four children aged between 22 months and 3 years and two pensioners aged 70 and 78. These parents, kids, and grandparents were at a playground.

Now, a playground should be safe, shouldn’t it? A “Safe Space”

At a playground (at least when I am on Dad duty), you’re simply looking out for a random weirdo or a kid that’s not playing nicely, but you’re not expecting a knife-wielding attacker. That’s how it should be. You should not have to be thinking about a guy going to stab you, your baby, or your toddler with a knife. However, it’s now a fact. So we need to address it.

I’ll touch on 3 things:

1- FREEZE

The normal human response to violent stress is to freeze. You may have heard of fight, flight, and freeze. The normal, untrained human response to a violent attack or surprise is to freeze. Absolutely normal, and in fact- hardwired as a baby. That’s normal – in an untrained individual.

However, in this case, that was not appropriate.

Every one of those people that did not take action to save their child, they needed training. Anything would be better than doing nothing. Anything would be better than screaming.

Because the bottom line is they needed to put themselves between that knife and their child and evacuate the child. They had to be their child’s bodyguard.

Now, you do not have to be Jason Bourne – but you do need something.

2-TAKE ACTION

You need to have the MINDSET to TAKE ACTION.

Now let me give you an example from  Western Australia Police here. Police officers go through six months of training, and at the end of it, they’re supposedly fully trained, and they then go onto a probationary period (aka learning on the job).

This example involved a female and male police officer and a large male offender ( and yes, my USA friends, these cops all carry). They went to a domestic incident, and the offender there started fighting with them.

That female police officer, equipped ( I won’t say armed) with a gun and a taser, ran and locked herself in the police car while her partner rolled around, wrestled, and was punched on the front lawn. The offender was unarmed.

She watched until another police car with two more police officers arrived.

I do not blame her personally. This is not an attack on her in any way, shape, or form. That’s a training issue. She had not been exposed to that level of violence in the correct way. She needs further training if she wishes to be able to deal with that situation in the future.

But what I want you to take away from this is what I said in point 1, the normal human response to stress is to freeze.

You must, as a parent, be able to run towards that danger to save your child. To TAKE ACTION- I’m not saying you need to be a firefighter trained to rush into burning buildings.

You’re not a police officer, and you’re not a soldier trained to run toward the sound of gunfire. But you must, must be able to at least take some action to step forward between the attacker and your child and then get them away.

You don’t have to be John Wick. But you must take action to protect that child.

Now, if you have skills, BJJ, boxing, etc., or if you have a tool, these will all help you be an asset. As I write, I am literally on crutches right now, but will still be able to act because I have the mindset.

If you can use something against that attacker, then great. That’s an advantage. A milk crate, a chair, a pram, a Nappy bag- anything.

Watch here for a great example in Sydney after an office worker was stabbed during rush hour by a knife-wielding attacker.

3 SKILLS

Up-skill yourself with something, some form of education in self-defense. Anything is better than nothing. And if you have “tools,” all the better (think gun, knife, handbag, rock, umbrella, etc). Those tools will help you and then look for extraction of you and the precious cargo it is your duty to protect.

Anything that you learn can prepare you to get out of that “freeze” moment and step forwards. Anything you learn that’s a skill that can help you go hands-on against a bad guy. And then any tools you can use, anything that is going to help you gain an advantage.

Mums, dads, babysitters, and nannies, you can take away the information you have read right now and prevent much of what happened in France earlier this month.

Right now, you have more information that can save your life or other people’s than you did prior to reading this.

So thank you so much for reading and reaching out anytime. I’m here to help. I feel very passionately about this subject because little children are involved.

Go and do something to learn to have the MINDSET to step forward, TAKE ACTION, and save your life. And use tools to help you make that bad guy change his mind- if necessary, PERMANENTLY.