Do tactics change? Yes. Depending upon things like terrain, circumstances, and our adversary’s ability to adapt his Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP). You have to watch your adversary so that you can figure him out. What’s typical in an unjust aggressors robbery, vehicular hijacking, or home invasion? As an unjust criminal aggressor adapts his TTP’s you then must improvise, adapt, and overcome these by tweaking your own TTP’s.
In a recent tactical breakdown I did on YouTube we see and hear a common sight today – police officers stuck in a Goofy Loop; ‘Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife down!’ That’s a Goofy Loop. Goofy loops are abdications of one’s decision to protect over to the unjust aggressor to permit him to decide potentially who lives and who dies. There are many and various reasons for this today but a big one is politics.
Criminals observe example after example of Goofy Loops on the nightly news. It is so common today that bad guys have become conditioned to expect this. Thinking in terms of the late John Boyd’s OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) a criminal’s orientation becomes formed to the idea they’ll receive a lot of warnings. They develop a kind of entitlement mindset expecting to have police point firearms at them and to receive endless warnings in the same way a permissive parent speaks to a badly behaved child. Permissive parents likewise provide numerous warnings that if the bad behavior doesn’t immediately cease then that child will suffer the consequences. However the consequences and accountability never actually happen.
Here’s a short clip from the video where I’ll show you the unjust criminal aggressor’s lack of reaction to having the police point a firearm at him. The expectation is there will be more warnings. Two seconds is plenty of time for a defender (in this video the police) to stop the threat. I also draw a line from where I believe the officer’s dominant eye-line is and this shows the officer looking over his sights at the high ready position. Why is that important? In my opinion it shows the officer’s decision is to continue to monitor while giving warnings (which is precisely what he does) rather than begin actually defending the grandfather by shooting the unjust aggressor to stop his already escalated imminent threat of great bodily harm or death.
Typically an unjust criminal aggressor who has come to expect numerous warnings doesn’t expect a defender to immediately begin shooting. Where this expectation exists the defender has an advantage.
What’s the advantage? The unjust aggressor’s expectation (more warnings) means the defender has the element of surprise. Surprise, speed, and violence of action are underlying fundamental principles as it relates to tactics. Action beats reaction is another underlying fundamental principle. Underlying fundamental principles don’t change; they are like the bed of a river. Think of a river bed like a solid rock bed which lies beneath the river. That solid rock bed remains the same – no change. We know over time the appearance at the surface level or the shape of a river or stream does change due to things like erosion, deposition, and transport of sediment.1 You could think of this like the flow of a river. The level and speed of that flow can vary depending upon rains or drought. When it comes to tactics they will change frequently as the enemy reacts to and adapts especially to losses. In other words your enemies watch how you solve violent problems and eventually they’ll figure you out. Unjust criminal aggressors adapt and then innocent people of good will must improvise, adapt, and overcome. Back and forth adversaries go in effort to dominate and secure victory.
Below is a short excerpt from an older video of retired USMC General James “Mad Dog” Mattis where he synthesizes three things he’s learned over thirty five years with the United States Marine Corps:
1) https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/rivers-and-streams-water-and-26405398/