Fear and
Adrenaline......
The body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ response is
a natural primal instinct inbuilt into the sub- consciousness of all human
beings. The instinct that a mother has to protect her child is well
known and can endow her with superhuman strength. It may not be
recognised but without doubt we all have it whether or not we know it.
Before I had ever heard of it – and I
was 26 at the time – it was brought home to me in a big
way. I had only been a police officer for
about nine months and working in the East End of London.
The year was 1967 and it is putting it mildly to say that those times were
totally different from today. I was new
to London, having left Ireland like the millions of other young men and women
and to put it mildly, I was ‘as pure as the driven snow’.
Due to my inexperience and lack of local
knowledge I found that whenever I chased a suspect I would invariably lose him
and he would escape. In those days one did not admit to one’s Sergeant
or Inspector what had happened so after several such incidents I
had a private chat with an old reliable police officer with many years service.
It was then that he introduced me to the ‘fight
or flight’ principal, but added ‘fright’ before
it. He said “You have to understand Mike that the person
you are chasing has a lot to lose – in many cases they are looking at a quick
six months in prison. They are scared out of their wits meaning
they take ‘fright’. Secondly they have to decide whether to stand
their ground and ‘fight’ which is not a good idea because if they are caught
they would probably get two years for assaulting a police officer.
Their only other option is ‘flight’ – to clear off as quickly as possible and
not get caught at all”.
It all sounded very simple to me so I asked “So
what do you suggest?” He just smiled and
continued “You are a healthy and fit young man while they are probably
peeing in their pants. Don’t try to catch them in the first
few hundred yards. Just keep close and keep them in sight and you
will find that they give up after a few minutes. It’s as simple as
that”.
I thanked him for his help and made up my
mind to remember his advice when I next had to chase someone. Because of
the nature of the area I was working – post war slums and poverty at
its greatest level - it did not take long for the
opportunity to arise.
At about 3pm one afternoon, I received a
message that one of the local drunks was giving some of his beer/wine to
children whilst sitting close to the main-line railway tracks that ran through
our area. I volunteered and made my way there.
Sure enough, as I climbed the embankment some
children scattered and the male drunk stood up. I let the children
run away but decided that the drunk needed to be arrested for his own safety as
he was staggering around the side of the tracks. As I made my
way towards him he began to jog along the tracks away from me.
‘Hurray’ I thought, ‘a chance
to put the suggestion given to me into practice’. I then began
to jog along the tracks about sixty yards behind the vagrant type – and
he was as I said, obviously drunk and staggering from side to side.
It was quite easy in fact until we got about two hundred yards from where we
started. As I stopped to regain my breath, he too stopped and
bent over. As I began to run again he too began to run only
this time he was running faster than me. (I forgot to
mention that he was in his 50’s and there he was getting away from me).
It was at this precise moment that I
lost my temper slightly. I took out my truncheon and shouted at
him: “When I catch you, you old so-and-so I’ll beat the daylights out
of you”.
With that he picked up speed and ran even
faster. Of course I had no intention of using my truncheon
but I thought – wrongly as it turned out – that he would
stop and surrender. Oh no he didn’t; he was now running like an
Olympic sprinter. This made me totally lose control and I picked
up speed.............
We had now run about a mile and a half with
no sign of him stopping except when I stopped to get my breath then off again
we would run. I was knackered and could not understand how on
earth he was managing to keep going.
I put up a final spurt but could not close
the gap between us. At one stage I got onto my knees with a
stitch in my side and saw that he in fact now lay on the side of the tracks.
I screamed at him that I would definitely knock
his head off with my truncheon when I caught him so away he went again.
To cut a long story short as we approached
the next station down the line two other officers who had received a call from
a worried householder who had seen us, stepped out of their police car and the
drunk ran and hid behind them. All they did was laugh......
Not only could I have smacked the drunk but
the two officers as well. “What are you nicking him
for Mike?” one asked. “Drunk” I answered barely able to
speak. “And what are you going to tell the Magistrate when he
hears that he outran you for about three miles?” the officer answered
whilst laughing. I could understand his point and when it
came to it the drunk was allowed to leave with a stern warning not only about
giving drink to the children but about ever meeting me down a dark alley at
night on my division.
When I returned to my old friend who had
given me the original advice on how to catch someone when chasing them he too
began to laugh. He could hardly speak and with tears running down
his face he merely said “I think I must have forgotten to tell you
about adrenaline........................”
--------------Mike---------------
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