As of: 06/17/2022 6:18 p.m
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The number of violent crimes in New York is increasing, many no longer feel safe. Self-defense courses are therefore becoming increasingly popular.
by Antje Passenheim, ARD Studio New York
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Your opponent has nothing to laugh about. Anna Muehlenhaupt’s punches hit his head and chest. A kick between the legs puts the man-sized doll out of action. “I can beat someone up and run away. The most important thing is to be careful first – but then stop someone from following you. And then you leave as soon as possible.”
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Antje Passenheim
ARD-Studio New York
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To learn all this, Muehlenhaupt signed up in a studio in Hell’s Kitchen – a neighborhood in Manhattan. And is immersed in the street fight. Krav Maga, her self-defense technique of choice, comes from Israel. This will make the people there fit for the army in just a few months. Muehlenhaupt balances:
I see more and more people doing this as crime increases here. Since the pandemic, it has become more visible. Many people continue to work from home – and the buffer zone between those who go out and those who want to do something for them has become smaller.
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“I can beat someone up and run away,” says Anna Muehlenhaupt.
Image: Miriam Brown
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Subway stations as a special problem
Shootings, robberies, violence in the subway: crime in New York has been increasing since the pandemic. According to police statistics, by the end of March there were around 37 percent more cases than a year earlier. 16 percent more murders, 60 percent more grand theft cases. But the threat grows above all in the head: According to surveys, three out of four residents feel unsafe in the metropolis.
The subways are a particular problem: there are reports of violence, stabbings and stabbings there almost every day. A young man suddenly pushed a 52-year-old woman into a shaft. And a 19-year-old girl was walking into a Lower East Side subway station with a friend when a man put her in a headlock from behind.
She reports: “I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought one of my friends was joking. I shouted: Who is that? And suddenly the friend in front of me turns around, sees what is happening and screams. He leaves me there Go ahead, stab me in the back and run away.”
Gym boss warns: Cell phone away, eyes open
More and more New Yorkers fear that they will be the next victim of violence, says Matan Gavish, boss of the gym “Fit Hit”: “I think the reason is that we see more aggressive behavior in areas where we used to do it didn’t do it. During the day – at one, two, three o’clock in the afternoon, when people don’t normally experience that.”
Self-defense classes are booming all over town. Whether in neighborhood groups in the middle of Central Park or in classes like Gavish’s. 90 percent of his participants are women, he says.
The face of the city has changed. Many have left them. You see increasing homelessness, drug addiction, mental health issues – all creating a new form of violence in the city.
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For a long time he was head trainer at the Krav Maga Academy and since 2018 CEO of “Fit Hit”: Matan Gavish
Image: Miriam Brown
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Mayor Eric Adams has made the issue a priority. The ex-policeman promised a lot, but little has happened. Gavish from the gym says New Yorkers need to be on their guard and rethink their habits. He advises his customers as the number one rule: “Put the phone down, open your eyes, look out for what’s happening around you.”
Krav Maga student Muelenhaupt also takes this to heart. “Where is the best place on the subway? Scan the carriage, observe what is happening around you in the window reflection, have everything in view. I do that everywhere, where I’m going.” In the past, they would have called their friends crazy for it. Today they wanted her address for the self-defense course.
New Yorkers in self-defense mode – arming themselves against rising violence
Antje Passenheim, ARD New York, June 16, 2022 10:48 p.m
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