Author: Keato

The Mission

I’ve been muddling along with this website for years. I need to clarify direction, content and intent.

This site is a reference archive, a library of real-world incidents involving use of force, restraint, self defence, and other kinds of violence. Each case links to open-source footage or reliable reporting and is categorised by variables that matter: environment, weapon type, number of participants, and outcome.

There are no limitations for users on downloading files – you should be able to right-click and download without issue.

This site is intended as a training and research tool, not entertainment. Use it to identify recurring patterns, tactical failures and so on, or to highlight methods that were used to good, proportionate and lawful effect.

I’ve provided my own analysis in some cases, but the purpose here is to provide footage of real events so you can perform your own analysis.

Always follow your agency’s policies, local laws, and use-of-force guidelines in training and operational contexts.

Caution

This material includes graphic violence and fatal outcomes. View it in the context of professional development and harm reduction.
Do not circulate clips outside education, training or investigative purposes without context. The goal is understanding and prevention, not spectacle.

Disclaimer

All material on this site is provided for educational and professional analysis.

It does not constitute legal advice, agency policy, or official training doctrine.

The purpose of this content is to improve understanding of real-world violence, reduce harm, and inform evidence-based practice.

Viewer discretion is advised — some material depicts fatal or severe injuries.

Always follow your agency’s policies, local laws, and use-of-force guidelines in training and operational contexts.

Featured post

Published
Categorized as Articles

The audible signs of positional asphyxiation

A man who is dying from positional asphyxiation will not speak at a normal, conversational pace.

He will speak in short, repetitive statements that fade and trail off at the end, in an obvious rhythm matching their short breaths; they are unable to breathe deeply enough to construct a longer sentence.

Typically, they panic and start pleading, their voice cracks and changes pitch, display acute fear and become less coherent over time.

They may make nonsensical statements, begin asking for help from people who are not there, ask for their mother, and so on.

When sudden tranquility follows vigorous resistance, there is an extreme risk of death.

These things emerge consistently during positional asphyxiation, but they are often disregarded or not recognised by police and other workers.

This can happen despite education and training on the matter.

However, the signs are easy to identify once you’ve observed the pattern across multiple incidents in real time and heard it for yourself.

For training and education purposes, this video depicts several instances where men have died in custody after being restrained. Viewers will hopefully notice a pattern emerging in each instance.

Aboriginal man dies in police custody – Kumanjayi White

On Tuesday 27th May 2025, 24YO Kumanjayi White was arrested after allegedly stealing food and assaulting a security guard who’d confronted him inside a supermarket in Alice Springs. He died in custody a short time later. What really happened, and who is at fault?

Related:

“I CAN’T BREATHE” – how cops accidentally kill, and how to stop it

Why is handcuffing so difficult?

Handcuffing is hard, and real encounters are dynamic and unpredictable. So why is police training scripted and linear?

This video looks into what makes the process of handcuffing both distinct and similar to the challenges we face in martial arts, the problem with current models of training for police, and how we should be training our police instead.

NSW police take down man armed with cleaver

NSW police confronted this man after he was seen brandishing a meat cleaver at Parramatta Train Station, about 12.45pm on Friday 13 June 2025.

A female officer can be seen following him and demanding that he drop the weapon. At this point, he could have turned around and struck her with the cleaver quite easily. Luckily he made no attempt.

Drawing guns would have carried a large risk to the public, who were milling about in large number around the armed man. There’s also the risk he could strike out to attack them. It’s a very difficult situation.

Eventually, he is tackled by another cop while looking back at the first officer.

The principles around either using or defending against multiple opponents are covered in detail here:

After he was taken down, the female officer questioned the man: ‘What were you planning?’

The handcuffed man replied: ‘What do you mean?’

‘With the knife,’ she said.

‘Fucking no plan,’ the man replied.

She said: ‘No plan? Just carrying a knife through the middle of Parramatta?’

The man was taken to Parramatta Police Station, where he was charged with carrying a knife visible in a public place – causing fear for safety, and hindering or resisting police officers in the execution of duty.

NSW police take down woman wielding machete on highway

VIDEO SOURCE

Shocking vision has emerged of police trying to subdue a woman who was threatening drivers with a large knife in the middle of one of Australia’s busiest highways.

A 52-year-old woman will face court on Wednesday, charged over allegedly threatening drivers and causing traffic to come to a halt on the M1 Motorway near Taree.

At about 4pm on Tuesday (26 November 2024), emergency services were called to the motorway at Koorainghat following reports of a concern for welfare.

Police vehicles descended on the area with uniformed and plain clothes officers surrounding the woman in an attempt to subdue her and remove her from the roadway.

Officers attached to Manning/Great Lakes police district confronted the woman who was armed with the knife and threatening other drivers who were speeding by.

Police blocked the northbound lanes of the Pacific Highway and negotiated with the woman who allegedly threatened officers with the knife.

After calls for her to put the knife down and move away from the roadway, a taser was used to slow here progress toward officers as another can be seen tackling here from behind and pinning her to the ground in the middle of the motorway.

The knife was wrestled from her grasp as a group of police officers fought to subdue her and place her in restraints.

She was taken to Taree police station, where she was charged with attempt stalk/intimidate intend fear of harm (personal), common assault, possess or use a prohibited weapon without permit and use knife in public place – cause person to fear for safety.

The woman was refused bail to appear before Taree Local Court on Wednesday.

ARTICLE SOURCE

Man shot by police while filming himself in gunfight

We tend to make a lot of assumptions about how people do or do not behave under stress, in a gun fight, after they are shot, and so on.

The “normative assumption” or “presumption of rationality” is the tendency to expect that other people will behave in a reasonable, logical, or rational manner in a given situation. This assumption often leads to misjudgments when others act in ways that are irrational and unpredictable.

This can result in poor tactical and strategic decisions.

You will never be able to understand what motivates some people, or the logic behind their behaviour, and that’s fine. Always leave part of your mind open to the possibility that things could go pear-shaped in an instant.

The gentleman in this video, for example, is completely irrational. You will not make sense of his behaviour. He will not respond to reasonable directions. He is not acting in his own best interest, he is not even responding to a gunshot wound to the chest the way you would expect.