“At the moment of victory, tighten your helmet.”
Tokugawa Ieyasu
“Zanshin” is a Japanese word that loosely translates, “remaining mind”
Modern Operators use it to describe “maintenance of caution/guard,” particularly at the threshold when the fight appears to have reached its conclusion.
Immediately approaching a defeated/injured VCA, even for the purpose of administering trauma care, is thus highly not recommended!
I know there will be some push-back with regard to the foregoing, and many LEOs have been caustically criticized by the naive for failing to immediately approach an injured suspect, even one who appears comatose, for the purpose of rendering aid.
The issue is: when the “downed” suspect suddenly reanimates (sometimes more than just once!) and instantly counterattacks, officers are often unprepared to deal effectively with this unsuspected, unanticipated, maybe deadly, aggression!
Thus for the sake of officer safety, such approaches must be delayed until adequate lethal overwatch is in position, even then, measured, slow, and accomplished with extreme caution!
Unhappily, it is common to see LEOs straightaway “lowering their guard” the instant a violent suspect is “down”
Pierce Brooks called this phenomenon “relaxing too soon,” and he listed it among the “Ten Deadly Sins” routinely committed by LEOs
“There is only one kind of shock worse than the unexpected:
The expected, for which one has refused to prepare.”
Mary Renault
/John
