No one has the right to take your future, your possessions, or your potential, but that’s exactly what happens when you become the victim of a violent crime. While we live in one of the safest countries in the world, our news media are filled with story after story of carjackings, rapes, murders and mass killings. Our society is further plagued by bullies, thugs and people who mean to do us harm.

In fact crime is around us everyday, we see it on TV, online, and we hear about it from others who have experienced crime first hand.

Please understand, I’m not suggesting walking around minute of everyday in some paranoid state, waiting for someone to attack or assault you. It’s not necessary to be in a state of paranoia to have an understanding of self-defense, personal safety, and situational awareness.

The point is that we don’t always do well learning from others. It’s easy to disassociate ourselves from from people we hear about or see on the news, because we don’t typically know them. We’re not attached to them emotionally so they’re not real to us and it leads us to the deadly statement, “That couldn’t happen to me.”

We often times place some blame on the victim for somehow being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For ourselves and our loved ones, we hope and believe that we can do better than others, and that someone will always be there for us. In our rushed life and culture of headline news, we many times miss the fact that victim on the news was in a good neighborhood, drives a nice car, makes plenty of money and doesn’t know their attacker…and yet still fell victim of a brutal crime by an uncaring individual.

Instead of taking notice, considering how we might avoid a similar situation, we go on watching our TV program, fixing dinner, or whatever it is we were doing, and we don’t give it a second thought.

Take a moment to think about all the different people you come into contact with on any given day. The average person comes into contact with dozens, if not hundreds, of strangers everyday. From the time you get up, until the time you go to bed, you’re interacting with other people.

And what is the source of the threat when it comes to self-defense?

That’s right….other people!

Yet when it comes to crime, most people choose to pretend it’s not there, to look the other way, and to ‘hope for the best’.

How does that even make sense?

Violent crime doesn’t have economic or social boundaries. Anyone, anywhere can be a victim if there’s other people around.

My encouragement to you is to take seriously your self protection.

My mission is to empower and educate as many people as possible to realize that they are the most important person in the world, and that there are easy and effective techniques and skills to keep themselves and those they love, safe.

You can check out our online self-defense courses for more information. Or if you’re a group in the Richmond, Virginia area and you’d like to discuss the possibility of hosting a self-defense course, then check our our local RVA self-defense seminars. There are certainly other options, but we believe we provide one of the best Self-Defense Training options available. Until next time….Be Safe…Be Smart…Be Prepared,

Mark Roscoe
Senior Instructor
Shoken Self Defense Academy