The guy with the knife MUST have had it held to someone's throat. Otherwise, the boyfriend should get some professional psychological help in understanding why he didn't defeat the rapist.

You know, you're right, to some degree, but in an existential sense only. The fact is, I have often bragged about what I would do if faced with such and such, only to realize later that I wasn't able to, just like everybody else has at one time or another; and I will again, because I am human, and so will everybody else, including you, like it or not. That is probably enough said, but I like ripping it to shreds, so...

But then again... a knife. Now, please let it be known that I don't know with 100%, absolute, all-knowing, third-eye including, crystal ball certainty, but unless he had that knife to someone's throat or other vital, I can't think of any reason not to attack him.
Maybe you can give me another situational example that might change my mind, as you are very right that it is wrong for a person to not think things through before feeling superior to another individual. Maybe I didn't think it through long enough. Maybe the boyfriend is a weak little cripple who couldn't help but jump even if all he faced was a toothpick, in which case he deserves our empathy, but also, in which case the girlfriend, if she had survived the jump, might seek psychological help in understanding why she didn't choose a boyfriend who could protect her against a very real scumbag possibility such as, let's say...a rapist with a knife. If you aren't willing to fight and even die for your girlfriend, then you aren't willing to fight for your children either, and you shouldn't even have a girlfriend.
Maybe he did fight, but decided in the end to jump out of a three story window instead of continuing the fight to victory. I don't know exactly what happened, but I do have an idea, even if you don't think so. The important point is that my words here aren't any kind of judgement. It's just my opinion, even if based on what must be a partially hypothetical situation because it is a given that I don't have all the facts. Neither does anybody else. But that doesn't mean that we must feel inhibited concerning sharing our opinions on a public forum. We have safegaurds called administrators who can quickly deal with any inappropriate entries; so not to worry.
I don't blame the victims, even though you said I did, I just think I would have chosen differently than they did.
Also, "terrible" is the wrong word. Things like rape are terrible, and equally so, to allow rape to happen without giving a fight. JMO, regardless!
The real question here, for me, now, is why is it that every now and then I'll get some total stranger who tries to tell me that I'm not his or her hero anymore. Because my opinion differs? If my response has let you down in some way, or does not reflect your understanding of things, then develop some self-esteem already.

Have a nice day.

Oof-da!

I had a thought earlier since reading what you said. I thought that maybe the rapist had one of the girls by the throat with the knife, and he told the boyfriend that unless he jumped he would not spare her.
So, he could be a real hero for jumping. It is impossible to tell either way.

Not everyone is built like Arnold and I don't know that many Bruce Lees in real life. It seems the bad guy managed to take the victims by surprise here. And though the victims did have a little time to react (calling 911) it seems pretty clear that they were overpowered quickly and failed to put themselves together to fight back for whatever reason.

At close range, a strong, motivated (high on drugs, psyched up or whatever) guy with a knife intent on cutting you apart is a lethal proposition. Bare hands vs. knife is a really bad idea. I've only done a little training in that direction but at least it was enough to dispell many common illusions. Especially when you realize that 95% of traditional blocks and disarms do not work under stress. Simply put, if you find yourself unarmed at close quarters against a motivated knife fighter you will most likely die. Unless you get very lucky or the bad guy makes a dumb move.

Without knowing the details of the incident, the bad guy may not even have needed to put a knife on one of the victims' throat to force the others into submission. Looks like they panicked and they certainly didn't believe they could defeat the bad guy, which is probably why they rather jumped through the window (basically commited suicide).

If they thought they couldn't defeat the bad guy, they were right. You can't win a fight if you don't believe in yourself. So the victims may well have lost the fight before it even started.

BigDaddyTX, please remember that we do not know these victims and do not have anything against them in person. We are discussing a SITUATION.

Tom-L, you are right about a Hi guy with a knife. But this guy wasnt in a strong inviciple position all the time. He wasn't , for example, holding one victim and ordering others to collect money and jewelry in his bag. In this story he was himself doing the raping which means very simply : there was MANY moments and chances when he could have been attacked.

Off course we all agree that we dont know what happened exactly.
And so our opinions are limited to whatever info is available.

I wonder if our society today has anything to do with that. When I was in grammar school, schoolyard fights were pretty common. Nowdays one will get you suspended. We had boxing and wrestling in high school PE, many don't anymore. Many many people, of both sexes, have never been in a physical confrontation of any kind, and therefore have no idea what to do, where to start, how to take a punch and ignore it (unless of course it is a real good punch), etc.

In a knife fight, even if you have a knife of your own, you have to expect to get cut. That is totally foreign to most people. But, at least in my opinion, far superior to trying to learn how to fly...

I am pretty sure that might have contributed in some way or another.

lessons I take from this incident.

1) Buy a big fire extinguisher

2) Buy a nice big machete. basically equip myself to stack the odds in my favor

3) Getting more acquainted with the idea of actually fighting. I hear the 'give in' mantra all the time. Time for visualization (and physical of course) exercises

I honestly think other human beings present the largest threat by far (in my situation at least). *shifts focus away from gadgets and gear*

The only thing that really matters is mentality. Suppose you wake up in the middle of the night at the sound of a burglar breaking into your house. Most folks would panic and freeze. But there are folks who would grab the nearest solid object at hand and proceed without hesitation to smash the bad guy's skull into a pulp. Everything depends on the attitude. That's why you can have a house full of machetes and fire extinguishers but it won't help diddly squat unless you are genuinely prepared to fight.

Those kids did not necessarily need a machete. They needed a lot of guts, some physical skills and attributes and a dose of common sense. Looks like they were out of luck. Had the bad guy picked the wrong apartment and pissed off the wrong people he would've ended up in a world of hurt himself.

I don't know if there are any quick ways to developing a proper self-defense mindset. I'm not confident I could handle myself in such a situation myself regardless of my previous training. Unless you are consciously developing that fighting attitude (and can back it up with hand-to-hand skills) it might not be there when you need it.

Uh, I know it is against the first three rules, but what about fight club?

To compensate for our communities obvious lack of interest in preparing us for such physical confrontations, in high school some of us used to spar with each other, sometimes bare knuckle, sometimes with various blunt weapons. We'd get beat up on occasion. I got my nose broke, and a couple guys got knocked out, but we had rules, and we were pretty mature about it all things considered. Some of the guys were martial arts trained, but no one was what you'd call highly degreed.

We learned some interesting things about fighting. One was that, regardless of how opponents are armed, at a certain level of proficiency he who strikes first almost always wins. Another observation was that hands, arms, and feet are poor defensive tools against just about any weapon. Another was that when you are fighting for survival, attacks must be fully committed; there is no such thing as a limited fight. Your best chance is to gain the upper hand and you fight until the opponent is unquestionably incapable of continuing the fight. When in doubt, keep fighting.

I am sure this sounds boastful to some. The facts are that the sparring probably saved me a lot of trouble in more than a couple confrontations later on (I can think of two events in the Navy while on liberty abroad), possibly conditioning me to a certain latent guarded level in public. Not that I'm anything special, but as with OBG's notion, a little training early on makes for a good dose of reality about how some things in life can go.