"It Was Unthinkable Not To Act"

He saw. He believed. He acted. That’s what it takes.

Henri d’Anselme. Not all heroes wear capes or uniforms.

By now, most, if not all of you, have heard about the horrific mass stabbing in Annecy, France, which took place Thursday, June 8, 2023. A crazed knifeman, since identified as a refugee from Syria, randomly stabbed (but didn’t kill) two adults and four children before being stopped by a citizen and arrested by police.

There exists video of the incident, which I will share in the comments section instead of the body of the post, due to it’s particularly disturbing nature. Twitter has attempted to remove the video; I understand why they felt the need, but I also think it’s useful in terms of convincing everyone of the horrendous violence people are capable of and how ignoring it or relying on authorities and “professionals” to handle it aren’t options.

Today, however, I want to focus on the citizen who stopped the attacker. He’s a 24-year-old Frenchman named Henri d’Anselme, who was on a year-long pilgrimage touring all of France’s cathedrals. Dubbed the “Backpack Hero” for reasons that’ll become obvious, d’Anselme is chronicling his journey on Instagram, which you can follow here.

Caught on video is d’Anselme engaging the knifeman, using one of his backpacks to disarm him. Unfortunately, d’Anselme didn’t escape injury - he was cut twice - but he wasn’t hurt badly and undoubtedly saved lives and prevented further bloodshed. The knifeman was chased off and eventually ran into police who took him into custody.

What did d’Anselme have to say about the incident? From The Guardian [bold mine]:

He said on Friday he had acted on instinct to prevent further bloodshed.

“I didn’t even think about it. The brain turned off,” he told French television.

“It was impossible to let people be attacked by this person who seemed to be a furious madman. He tried at one point to attack me, our eyes met and I realised it was someone not in any normal state, there was something very bad in him that had to be stopped.”

In another interview, D’Anselme, a devout Christian and former Scout leader, told CNews: “I don’t think it was an accident that I crossed this man … I acted instinctively and did what I could to protect the weakest. It was unthinkable not to act.”

I remarked several entries ago, in response to the Nashville school shooting, that no amount of training or schooling serves as a substitute for sheer bravery and courage. They’re the X-factor: some people have it, some don’t. Note what he said: “I didn’t even think about it. The brain turned off.” What d’Anselme is saying is that his fight-or-flight response took over, but he didn’t allow fear to overwhelm him. If anything, his brain became more focused than ever, concentrating on the single task of neutralizing a threat in front of him.

D’Anselme is a Catholic and there’s no question the role his faith played in his actions. People in the West bristle when they hear religion invoked, especially Christianity, but the inconvenient truth is that believing in a higher power and the higher values that come with it correlates with a greater degree of selflessness. It’s not the thought of being a “good person” which motivates a person to take action the way d’Anselme did, but the belief in something greater than oneself and that there exist fates worse than death. You decide that whatever fear you feel in the moment will be nothing compared to the coward’s shame you’ll feel later if you did nothing, to say nothing of the judgment that ultimately awaits you in the end. A person who feels no shame, who feels they answer to nobody and nothing in the end, has no incentive to act, aside from maybe the foolish hope of boosting their social credit and having the world know them to be a “good person.”

We often look to our strongest and toughest to handle our problems, but d’Anselme proves it takes something else: conviction. Even those who know him revealed appearances aren’t that deceiving:

One of his friends from the Marseille business school told the Journal du Dimanche: “If you were going to get into a fight you wouldn’t pick him from first impressions. He weighs 50kg soaking wet and is a beanpole who is afraid of heights. But on Thursday, he put his fear of danger to one side in a flash.”

He saw. He believed. He acted. That’s what it takes. Having lots of muscles on you, wearing a uniform, or even bearing arms, none of it means a thing without the willingness to put it all on the line. This incident should remind us all bravery exists in our hearts; you cannot fake it and, when forced to show it, you and everyone else are seeing what you’re truly made of.

Initially, some were critical of how d’Anselme confronted the attacker. They found it inadequate and ineffective, but the thing about the critics in these sorts of situations is that they have no clue how they’d react if they found themselves in the same scenario.

Twitter account Chad Crowley said in response to the critics:

I’ve said once before: until you find yourself in that moment, with high doses of adrenaline coursing through your veins, and your fight-or-flight response threatening to paralyze your decision-making, you have no clue how you’re going to react. The fact d’Anselme reacted at all and chose to confront the attacker means he did more than most of us would if we were there. Humans, like all animals, have self-preservation as a first instinct, meaning we tend to run from danger more than run towards it. As Crowley explained, what makes d’Anselme’s actions remarkable is that they weren’t the product of training, but of conviction. He didn’t act because that’s what he was trained to do, but because he believed it’s what he needed to do. That’s more than can be said for most people.

When reflecting on the role he played, he’s expresses tremendous grace:

“I hear lots of people calling me a national hero, but in reality I acted as any French person would have done. I just happened to be there, perhaps I was meant to be, but anyone would have done what I did. Everyone is capable of doing something similar.”

In this age of decadence, it’s inspiring to see men like Henri d’Anselme still exist. The humility he expresses, his appreciation for the real danger he was subjecting himself to, it all amounts to a bright silver lining in an otherwise horrific incident. The fact nobody died says nothing about the intentions of the attacker and everything about the fact someone stepped in and didn’t allow something so evil to happen.

What lessons does the Annecy attack and d’Anselme’s intervention hold for the rest of us? Let’s talk personal safety.

It’s my longstanding policy to never advise anyone to put themselves in harm’s way. It’s not my decision to make and the circumstances of every scenario vary so greatly, it’s impossible to come up with a one-size-fits-all response to every one of these contingencies. Sometimes, it may not be possible to intervene, or doing so could make the situation worse.

But in the case of Annecy, the choice was rather clear - either intervene, watch more people get stabbed, or run away. Two of the choices are understandable, but one is unthinkable. Let’s start with running away. Cowardly as it seems, for most of us,it could very well be the most rational choice. If you’re elderly, a child, or a parent with children, confronting an armed assailant may not be something you’re physically capable of, unless you happen to be armed, specifically with a gun.

Even then, an attempt at intervention may only lead to your demise without doing much to stop the attack, or your duty in that moment may be to protect your loved ones or those you’re charged with protecting. In that sense, there’s absolutely no shame in running away, if it means those for whom you’re most responsible for (like your family) are removed from danger. But then who stops the attack?

That’s where Henri d’Anselme-types come in. As an able-bodied male, with nobody except his own safety to worry about in the moment, it makes perfect sense for him to be the one to intervene. Again, I can’t tell someone they have to get in the fight, but if not a lone able-bodied man, then who? Don’t you dare say, “The police.” They’re not there when it happens. We the people are. It’s up to us.

As for how to engage a knifeman, there’s no good answer for that. Knives are regarded as less lethal than guns, but this is far from the truth. Guns pose risk from longer distances and it’s true that bullets can do more damage than knives due to their penetrative power. However, if someone gets close enough to start stabbing you, there’s no way to stop the attack without getting stabbed and slashed several times in the process. If it finds the wrong part of your body, a knife will prove just as lethal. Even if you survive, you can suffer long-term repercussions from stabbings and slashings just the same as if you survive a gunshot wound.

Best advice anyone can give you: if you choose to engage a knifeman, don’t do it empty-handed. If you end up in a struggle with them, you will be stabbed and slashed and your Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills can’t do much to prevent that from happening. Your only refuge is distance and the way to maintain distance is with a weapon of your own. If not a gun, then at least a blunt melee weapon like a bat. Use something; anything is better than nothing. Henri d’Anselme used one of his bags and, given the circumstances, it was probably the best weapon available. It allowed him to attempt to disarm the attacker without going hands-on, but even then, d’Anselme couldn’t avoid being cut. Such is the nature of knife attacks.

Even if you cannot disarm the attacker, if you can force them to cease their assault, as d’Anselme accomplished, that’s as good an outcome as any. Once the knifeman was put on the defensive, there wasn’t much he could do, especially with other men getting involved. Again, there are no good answers here. Fear and fight-or-flight are constantly pulling you in two different directions at once. Somehow, you have to overcome it all and act. If you decide you’re not the one, then get the hell out of there. Hopefully, you can live with your decision.

But if you cannot stand the sight of what you see unfolding in front of you, if you cannot bear to run away from it, then get in there and fully commit to stopping the attack. Like our hero said (yes, he’s a hero!), to do otherwise is unthinkable. You may only have one chance to save lives. Don’t just stand there unless you want to watch people die. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life otherwise, and rightfully so.

The lesson of Annecy, one becoming relevant all throughout the world but especially in the West, is that the proverbial “thin line” is us. As our institutions continue to fail, as our leaders become increasingly apathetic to our welfare, it’ll ultimately fall on people like Henri d’Anselme and Daniel Penny to protect the old, young, and vulnerable from the savages among us. This isn’t a call to vigilantism. I’m not telling anyone to venture forth and seek monsters to slay. It’s a call to stay alert, aware, and prepared to save lives when needed. No matter how badly our politicians and the media who cover for them try to unravel our civilization, our collective will to survive and thrive can never be broken as long as we are willing to hold the line. If we cannot be ourselves the protectors, then it’s up to us to stand by the protectors and not allow them to face the consequences alone.

It’s our duty as citizens and as humans. On June 8, 2023, Henri d’Anselme lived up to that commitment. May we all learn from his example.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

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