Awareness
Gunsite is one of the countries top tactical schools. Many tier one guys go there to tune up their skills before heading out on deployment. In this video it shows how any one can become prey, even top tier guys who spend their lives training. During day to day activities it’s just as essential to be aware of your surroundings as during an emergency. At the end of the video Massad Ayoob goes over some techniques to use when approaching your vehicle in a parking lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJFfbPxvZE&feature=player_embedded
The video shows how out of 130 well trained individuals only 10 were judged to have survived the exercise. The simple act of looking in the back seat of your car and evaluating your surroundings before going forward. I have always believed in the saying “A life lived in fear is only half a life.” But there is oblivious and there is aware. I opt for aware. Evaluate the setting and the people in the area. As you approach your car at night hit the unlock button. In many cars the interior lights will come on. As you approach your vehicle drop your keys to scan under your vehicle and the vehicles next to yours. Look for large SUV’s and Vans next to your car and scan them as well. If there is a cargo van enter through your passenger side – you may look like a dork crawling over your interior, but you wont become a victim. It’s a good idea to have a LED flashlight on your keychain and use it to look under and inside vehicles.
These are good tips for when you are approaching your car, but when you get home it’s just as important to scan the surroundings. Look for any cars which seem out of the ordinary. Whether you live in an apartment or a house spend a little money on your own security. Buy some lights where you will be walking and also try to keep bushes where someone may hide trimmed. Try to created lit zones which you feel could be a place a bad guy would hide. At your front door make sure nothing seems tampered with. If your key does not go into the lock as smoothly as usual and perhaps stops before going all the way in and feels jammed immediately go on the defensive. Some rapists and home invasion artists have broken toothpicks off in locks to stall people at their front door. If you feel something is wrong, scan and assess. Make a choice to get to a neighbor or back to your car, but do so deliberately – do not move in a panicked way. Make your movements calculated and calm, if you appear panicked an attacker will pick up on your distress. If you have mace, have it out and by your side. If you only have your keys, have them out and the keys positioned in between your knuckles making spikes so you can eye gouge with them. Be aware of what is behind you. Move so that you have cleared what will then be behind you, it’ll be one less thing you will have to worry about. Perhaps choose a different route back to your car. A person may be expecting you to move along the same route hoping you will walk right past them making you an easy target. If you are walking down a sidewalk and you see something which doesn’t feel right in your tummy cross the street and keep that person(s) in you peripheral vision till you are well clear. If need be make a detour to where there are lights and people. Go into a store and stall. Show the threat you are on to them and evade – most people want an easy target. They don’t want someone who is going to be difficult. Make it as difficult as possible for them to get to you. Know where the local Police station is and how to get there so if you have had an altercation of road rage you know how to drive to the Police station.
If there has been a natural disaster or event and the infrastructure has been compromised there is a 24-48 hour period where people will come together and help one another. After that 48 hour grace period things can become hairy and all bets are off. If resources begin to dwindle people will do what they can to provide for their own and this is when you have to have your spidey senses on high alert. It won’t be the bogey man who comes to take your crap, it’ll be the man or woman who say they have their children in the car and need food and water. It may very well be that giving them something to help them may indeed give them what they want and they will move along but that is a calculation you are going to have to make. And you must know that they could be assessing you as well. Seeing how you react to a stranger, evaluating if they could come back a second time and then take what they want. These are not easy ethical and moral choices, you will have to take them on a case by case basis. Only you have the power to make these choices.
Remember 120 out of 130 of the nations top military and law enforcement personnel fell prey and would have been killed if it were not a simulation. Only two of them recognized the threat and were able to engage it before they became prey. You can employ these same tactics if you just keep on your toes and keep your awareness up. Stay alert at all times and know your surroundings.
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