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Swarming and Public Civility
Ottawa Sun-May 11, 2010
Morgan Duchesney

It’s a sorry thing when a man is brutalized for trying to encourage public civility.
Volunteer rink attendant and swarming victim Douglas Beardshaw paid dearly for confronting a group of six teenaged beer drinkers at an outdoor Vanier rink. He endured a host of severe injuries and I hope that he recovers and his attackers feel the full weight of the law. While I applaud Beardshaw’s civic initiative, I really wonder what could have inspired him to act so recklessly. The lesson in this tragedy is that swarming can best be avoided by vigilance and forethought. Human beings have a highly-developed sense of self-preservation and we usually get in trouble when we ignore this ancient early warning system. A simple 911 call would have sufficed to scatter the gang of boozy miscreants. Instead we witnessed an avoidable disaster of hopeless six to one odds. If a swarming really can’t be avoided, the victim has no choice but brutal self-defense. Training and experience helps but even after 20 years of serious Karate practice, I would have hesitated before confronting such a large group in a dark, isolated location.