Justifies being a nice-guy in tough situations
This is the first of a series of books on the same subject. The organization and central themes are a bit rough, random, and disorganized, but the underlying concepts are good. The author presents his notion of deflecting aggression by others so as to achieve positive results - inspired by the principles of judo - in multiple ways, for multiple scenarios. The author is a judo blackbelt, a Ph.D. English major, a former English professor, and a street cop. The underlying theme is The Golden Rule, with some clever tricks thrown in. It "gives permission" to law enforcement officers to be "forceful nice guys", which, if they did not already practice it, is definitely a good thing. The book and accompanying course have been widely embraced by US law enforcement agencies.
The examples used in the book are heavily drawn from the law enforcement and public safety venues, and have obvious great utilities in those areas, where there exists an asymmetry of authority, limits in time, and relatively simple [albeit potentially lethal] problems to solve. His allusions to much wider utility for the same principles, for example, in business and marriage, are thrown in almost as an afterthought, and are not well supported by this book.
I am glad I read it, of course, but unless he has other revelations in the rest of his 4-part series, I think its utility for situations in business, marriage, courtroom, boardroom, Congressional hearings, and the campaign trail is primarily on-background.
