This was sent to me today (names have been removed). Learning how to defend yourself is a REAL possibility and NO JOKE.

Awareness is our number one tool in self defense.

Our number two tool is the ability to run.

Our third tool is using whatever force is necessary to defend ourselves.

Be safe..be smart.

Ari Bolden

I just wanted to tell you this because all of us spend a lot of time downtown.

Last night at 8:30 p.m. my boyfriend and I went for an evening walk after dinner, downtown, in Victoria. It was a sunny evening. We walked down Government Street and were turning onto Johnson Street to go towards the bridge as we often enjoy a walk along the sea wall. As we were turning onto Johnson Street a man was shaking a parking meter. When he traversed into the middle of the street we walked by where he had been.

We walked a little ways down Johnson near to Market Square when suddenly the man started screaming and he charged at us. Most of his screaming was incomprehensible except for "You better run monkey."

We started running as the man charged at us with a speed that was incredible. I dropped my cell phone. My boyfriend went back to get it and he yelled at the guy to stay back. The man might have had a weapon. We did not know. The man momentarily stopped but as soon and Bill went to rejoin me he started his charge again. I was running down Johnson Street in Broad daylight screaming at the top of my lungs. There were a few other people out on the street.

The chase continued. My boyfriend was pulling me so fast I almost fell several times. We ran around the corner into Cafe Mexico. My boyfriend called 911 and observed the man with his comrades in front of the Salvation Army on Johnson Street. He was across the street from us by this point and he was gesticulating wildly to his comrades and pointing at us. We were inside the restaurant.

It did not end here. The man charged across the street again towards the restaurant with one of his comrades, and we made a dash for the centre of Market Square. We were still on the phone with the police. The police were dispatched and came to find us in the middle of Market Square. I was shaking and close to throwing up. I could not stop crying. The police had a description of the man and they kindly drove us home so we would not have to continue our evening walk after what had happened.

The police officers told us that there had been a batch of bad drugs going around in the last week and that there had been a rash of other incidents like ours. They said that the drugs make the people who take them extremely violent.

I did not sleep much last night and I am extremely shaken and sore today from running for my life.

I want you all to know that it was daylight, on the street, and both my boyfriend and I are around 6 feet tall. The police are looking for the man, with our description (he had disappeared when the police came to find us), but even if they find him who knows if this will happen to someone else.

Please be careful.

ARI:

This is one of several similar events that took place last week, and also appear to be taking place this week.  The writer is correct, there is a bad batch of heroin on the streets right now that are causing our IV drug population to go “ape” which is contra indicative of this population who usually like to go on the nod. Several of our officers had to restrain these people, all of whom have super human strength and needed to be transported to hospital for medical care.  One should also note that these people have no sense of “pain”, in fact, one female had cut her thigh down to the bone with a knife, again feeling no pain, while on this unknown drug.............

-Darren

Last week a similar situation happened to me while I was walking from my
place to the Y. I was on the corner of Vancouver and Fort when I saw a guy
take off his shirt in the middle of the street while screaming nonsense.
then he kicked some guys car and then proceeded to harass a little old lady.
The guy was screaming at her literally two inches from her face when me and
another fellow took notice of him from across the street and started yelling
at him stop. When he saw us he started to run away so we followed him while
calling the cops. Just a minute later the cops pulled up and arrested him
and we gave them our statements.

About an hour and a half later I left the Y and was walking back home when
guess who I happened to run into?? THE SAME GUY! The cops had released him
so soon after being arrested I couldn’t believe it. And he looked just as
agitated and aggressive as he did before... "Sigh"

- Luke

Late the other night, May 30, the cook from a local downtown restaurant was heading home via his usual route.

He and his girlfriend were walking a very familiar route in which they are comfortable as well as aware of every detail in the immediate surroundings and environment. One of the common denominators of this area is the fact that it is also the area in which the prostitutes, street level drug users and dealers hang out.

The shortest route is not always the safest, but on this night there was nothing to be concerend about as it seemed like any other night. As they walked through the hive of street people, there came a loud and confrontational voice from down the block.

The guy was actually yelling out and questioning what it was that they wanted. The street dealer proceeded to approach the couple and got louder and more beligerent. This attracted the attention of yet another street person, who now joined in the approach of the couple.

The couple just kept on walking and attempting to ignore the dealer and his friend, but were unable to walk fast enough to avoid the two guys.

Soon enough they were overcome and the "in your face" questioning started, "what do you want man" to which the male counterpart of the couple replied, "nothing, we dont do that crap".

No sooner did he say that, that one fellow blind sided him with a punch that left a bit of an indent and a cut from a ring. The fight was on and the street dealer was left laying in a bloody pile on the ground, but with all the attention focused on the initial attack the second attack was almost missed.

The street dealers buddy had pulled out a knife and was lunging forward to stab. The female counterpart of the couple saw this and yelled, jumped on her boyfriend to pull him away from the fallen street dealer, and start the dead heat sprint to the safest palce possible.

There was no warning or indication of the attack.

What they did in the end is what they should have done in the beginning RAN. The signs taht this was not a normal night were already apparent when the street dealer started to approach.

- Randy Martin

I was the first hand witness the other night (June 2nd) to what could have been a bad situation turned deadly.

Kelowna can be a bit of a party town at times and it draws many poeple from all over the world this time of year. What with its great weather, beaches, california like attitude and open welcoming arms to the homeless and the "less fortunate" alike.

It was 1 am and I had just completed a protective services detail when I heard a girl yelling at someone.

I looked around the corner to see a group of 6 people (4 guys 2 girls) in a standoff with one fellow.

I got in my vehicle and did a drive by to see what was really going on.

I had originally thought it might be a bit of a domestic as the only yelling was coming from the one girl. The rest of the group was just standing there and not seemingly concerned or even wanting to get involved.

As I drove past I saw the lone fellow was holding a broken bottle in his right hand and was jestureing in a threatening manner and was increasingly getting more and more hostile.

He demonstrated his intent to use the broken bottle as a weapon o stab one of them and encouraged them to attack him.

After seeing this, I realized that the one girl who was yelling was not letting the situaton go, and was actually antagonizing it by telling the guy with the broken bottle to go away and he was telling them to go away.

I listened for a bit and then got the attention of the fellow with the broken bottle.

I was both hoping that when he saw me he would just move on as he wouldn't want any witnesses to his stupidity and that this would allow the others to move on as well. But that only fuled the girls fire and made the guy come towards me.

I reasoned with the guy to just move on and one of the girls in the group got on her cell phone to call the police, but the other girls would not let it go, she was constantly up in the guys face and making it hard to reason with him.

I verbally got him to drop the broken bottle into the bushes but did not secure it as he had cut his hand wit it already. It would have had blood on it. You get the point.

Now the group could have moved on, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOO, that one girls saw this as her opportunity to get even mouthier and it was at this time taht I found out what this was over.

The fellow had accused them of tipping over a couple of garbage cans and that his 81 year old grandma would hurt her back when she tried to pick them up. HE wanted to protect her from any injury.

No get this, it is 1am, his grandma wasn't there and by the morning at 6am the city clean up crew would not only have emtied the cans, but also erected them as well.

So to help his grandma all he ahd to do was NOT TELL HER, this way she wo0uld not rush out first think in the morning to stand them back up.

This guy did not care if he got into trouble or even if he hurt someone, he was not thinking correctly or even rationally at all.

Well soon enought the group did move on and start walking away, the police arrived and then the guy started to argue with them.

By the time I left I counted 6 Police officers. HE did not run or nothing he just walked up to the officers and started to argue with them.

NOW THAT IS SOME REALLY BAD DRUGS.

-Randy Martin

Various