Attacked By Thugs (2004)

Urban city: Car accident. No personal injury? Other guy isn't drunk? Just drive away and if your insurance needs a report, visit the cops within the next week or so. They don't respond for robbery / burglary at all although again you can go to the station to make a report if insurance requires. Another incident, someone unsuccessfully tried to break into your car and damaged it, eh, whatever, its your fault for being a victim, you must have done something wrong.

Transitional office park: Car accident. "You will drive yourself to the station immediately and make a report, or we will go out and get you, and I assure you that you do not want us to go get you and bring you in"

Suburb: Minor car accident, neighbor boy learning to drive and wife's friend's car parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dispatched a unit, took photographs and wrote report, etc.

There's a big difference in attitude toward crime between urban and suburban living that goes way beyond car ownership or mass transit. Urban areas are downright dangerous and neither the cops nor the other residents care.

For the SV crowd, Paris = San Francisco, banlieue = Oakland.

About the police, as far as I remember, somewhere around 2003-2004 there was this huge push to keep uniformed policemen on the corners.

While self-defense is a useful skill, there isn't a good way to practice actual street fighting except to actually do it. (Martial arts sparring is not the same thing.) And, in street fights, even if you're skilled, you can die. So it's best to avoid the context in which those skills are gained.

The only sane option is to avoid street fights whenever possible.

Give the lessons some time and you should have enough to deal with multiple assailants, knife, stick and gun threats.

No martial art makes it safe to deal with a guy with a weapon. Even an idiot with a knife or a brick can get lucky. You're best off just not to carry a lot of money in unfamiliar places. If you're in a risky place, put a small amount of money in a decoy wallet (losing the cash isn't a big deal compared to losing ID, credit cards, passport) and, if you have them, some expired cards. Most robbers are junkies who don't care about the cards anyway, because you can't buy drugs with a card. Flash the bills (at least a couple of $20s preferably), chuck the wallet, and get the fuck out.

Likewise, with four assailants, no martial art is going to give you the upper hand. 4-on-1 is just a bad place to be. In the movies, putting serious hurt on one of them intimidates the other three and allows you to fight them (or chase them off) serially, Oldboy style. In real life, it doesn't usually work that way. They might run away, or they might get even more pissed off after you fuck up their friend. You're betting on 3 people all choosing "run away". Not great odds.

You're somewhat better off with the martial arts knowledge than without, and it probably gives you the upper hand in 1-on-1 when there is no weapon (even against a physically stronger opponent) but the thing about street fights is that you're making decisions in split seconds and you never know when a weapon will come out or friends will be called in. Again, even an idiot can get lucky and knock you out or kill you. With 4 people, it's even more likely that they'll continue to fuck you up after you're down.