- If you've ever been on the internet,
I mean you're here right now,
you probably wound up in the comment section
of at least one article about a mass shooting,
some other kinda killing spree,
and seen dozens of assholes make comments like,
- [InternetBadass69] Dude, if I was there
I would've totally stopped that guy.
I totally know kung-fu
and I'd just like knock the weapon out of his hand
and then break his neck with a spin kick and
then my mom would finally love me.
- My name is Joe Lozito, and one day in 2011
my morning commute was interrupted by the tail end
of a 28-hour long stabbing spree.
The reason that spree ended is because I stopped it,
and I learned
the stabber Maksim Gelman
was already famous across the city.
I didn't know any of that though because
I had gotten up too early to catch the paper.
So when an obviously high person
staggered crazily into the train,
I just kind of figured morning in New York, you know?
That creepy guy who I'd later learned was Gelman
started banging on the door of the engineer's compartment.
- Let me in.
- I was sitting right by the door.
The only thing separated the engineer and myself was a wall.
It turned out there were two cops
on the other side of the door.
Lying in wait in case Gelman hopped on this train.
I found out later they'd recognized him
but they didn't charge out to stop him.
Instead they asked him a polite question.
- Who are you?
- I'm the police.
- You're not the police.
- You'd expect two armed cops to,
I don't know, maybe do something
about a wanted fugitive spree killer
that they were on the train specifically to arrest,
but they'd stayed put.
So Gelman walked up to me,
whipped out an eight-inch knife and told me,
- You're going to die.
- Then he stabbed me.
I was in the sort of situation
every man thinks about at least twice a day,
suddenly thrust into a life or death situation
that required me to become a badass.
Unfortunately, I had no badass training,
but I have watched a lot of MMA,
and when he brought back his arm to stab me again,
I decided to dive in for a single leg takedown.
It should have looked like this
but in reality I shot him too high
and wound up tackling him by the waist
rather than getting him in the leg.
So he stabbed me repeatedly in the skull.
The good news if you aren't a badass
is that you can have no idea what you're doing
but still succeed on dumb luck and balls.
I outweighed Gelman by a lot so he went down
despite the power of a knife on his side.
So we're both on the ground.
I'm on top but he still got his stabbing machine in hand.
I tried to grab his right hand
which held the knife with my left
but I missed and he sliced me good in the thumb.
I tried to catch him a second time and failed
so he slashed me again in my left tricep.
My third grab was the charm though.
I caught his hand and slammed it into the ground.
He dropped the knife.
Once I had him pinned, I was, you know, dying of blood loss.
The cops decided it was safe enough to arrest Gelman.
Next thing I remember is a cop tapping me on the shoulder.
- You can get up now, we got him.
- I thought that was being charitable but that time
I didn't exactly feel argumentative.
There was no pain yet, just this warm feeling
from the blood gushing out of me.
It was like standing in the shower
with warm water spraying the top of your head
and flowing down the back of your neck.
And again when you'd expect the police
to jump to my aid, they didn't.
None of them even touched me.
The only guy to render aid was another passenger.
Alfred Douglas a.k.a Napkin Man
because he staunched my bleeding injuries with napkins.
I think Napkin Man probably saved my life
but at this point I'd been stabbed roughly
all the times a person can be stabbed
while remaining conscious
and so I passed out.
When I eventually came to in the hospital,
it was kind of frustrating to realize
that none of the early coverage mentioned me or Napkin Man.
The police gave all the credit to the two officers
who'd been in the subway train with me,
only neither of them actually even left the booth
until I disarmed Gelman.
During the grand jury hearing,
one of the cops testified.
- I started to come out, I opened the door,
but I thought Gelman had a gun,
so I closed the door and stayed inside.
- I can see how in a stressful situation
you might mistake a knife for a gun,
but that also that kinda makes it more infuriating.
If you, Mr. Cop, a police, thinks this insane
drug-addled murderer has a gun,
and he's sitting on a train bound for Time Square,
don't you wanna stop him at all costs?
So yeah I decided to sue the NYPD.
The first case I brought got dropped.
So I acted as my own lawyer for the second case
and finally made it to a judge.
The judge said,
- Mr. Lozito's version of the story sounds highly credible
and his version of events rings true.
- But I still lost the case.
Here's how that was justified in its original legal ease.
- No direct promises of protection were made to Mr. Lozito,
nor were there direct actions taken
to protect Mr. Lozito prior to the attack.
Therefore a special duty did not exist.
- It turns out there was a major piece
of legal precedent in my way.
In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled on Castle Rock v. Gonzales.
In that case a woman sued the Castle Rock PD
after they failed to respond
when she complained that her estranged husband
had violated a protective order and abducted their kids.
He eventually murdered them.
The Supreme Court ruled in the police department's favor.
It turns out it's literally not their job to protect people.
So to the internet badasses
who are about to comment on this video
and claim they'd totally nail the takedown,
you should make a note of a few things.
First my insurance
had me in and out of the hospital in two days,
and the hospital didn't give me any AIDS or Hepatitis test
after I've been stabbed with a knife
that had stabbed other people.
Apparently that's not medically necessary.
Second if you ever get the chance
to confront a dangerous armed madman,
don't trust in the police having your back,
don't expect to get the credit,
and hope like hell there's another Napkin Man
waiting in the wings to help you.
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