reposting from Dog Brothers forum (not sure what happened to #1):
"Forwarded to me by my sister at the CT Department of Public Health and Safety. Some suggestions are quite good.
Tips on Staying Safe
2. Learned this from a tourist guide to New Orleans: if a robber
asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away
from you ..... chances are that he is more interested in your wallet
and/or purse than you and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD
IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car: Kick out the
back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start
waving like crazy. The driver won't see you but everybody else
will. This has saved lives.
4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping,
eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or
making a list, etc. DON'T DO THIS! The predator will be watching you,
and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger
side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU
GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.
5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or
parking garage:
a. Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the
passenger side floor, and in the back seat.
b. If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the
passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by
pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting
to get into their cars.
c. Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle,
and the passenger side. If a male is sitting alone in the
seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall,
or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. IT IS
ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)
6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs.(Stairwells
are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot).
7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control,
ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100
times and even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital
organ. RUN!
8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP IT! It may get
you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was
a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies
of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked
"for help" into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he
abducted his next victim."
GREAT POST!!! I printed this out for my wife!!!!!
Hey, I've seen a bunch of these lists of tips going around on email, but for once someone actually sent stuff that is CORRECT! Thx sticky!
One or two of the worst ones are on Snopes, as are a lot of the thingies about gang initiations, etc.
Good post Sticky.
being aware of your surroundings is the #1 safety tip. If you look like a victim you will become a victim
When my wife has to unavoidably walk through "suspect" places...........I always say to her walk briskly as if your angry at something.......pretend we just had an argument.
Also, she always carries a small edge weapon in her hand already.
When asked for the time from a stranger, don't look down at your watch........instead raise your watch so that he can read it himself.
When someone approaches your car for directions, only wind down the window 2 to 3 inches.
before this gets any further, pls don't call me sticky LOL but i guess by posting this, i will be called sticky forever.
sticky is like icky, you know what i mean?
---------
awhile back, there were stories/urban legends in the news of the bloods and crips and gang initiaion rites. they would ask for the time and as the unsuspecting victim looks at their watch, they would get slashed with a razor in the face.
if you are wearing an expensive watch, don't raise your hand and show them your watch. they may try to grab your watch.
ppl call me simply STICK or SG but i guess my "friends" call me STICKY ;-)
Additon to 7, pepperpot, dont run straight, higher chance of hitting a linear moving target than one which changes direction at random.
"awhile back, there were stories/urban legends in the news of the bloods and crips and gang initiaion rites. they would ask for the time and as the unsuspecting victim looks at their watch, they would get slashed with a razor in the face"
I heard this is what Turkish gangs in Berlin do - they line up in a queue, stick the guy in front of them, then run like Hell.
johnnypayne, nope. This had long been assumed, and USMC experiments showed that ppl actually ended up getting hit less if they ran straight. Shooting the zigzag guys didn't turn out to be that difficult.
shen, that's good stuff, thanks, can you tell us more about the fixtures in the trunk? I'm going to go check in mine...
I'd only add- do NOT get into the elevator if the guy getting in there/already in there gives you the "hebe jebes". Only human beings are stupid enough to get into a sound proof box with a predator. Try and shove a rabbit into a sound proof box with a hungry fox, you'd never now rabbits are so tough.
MS
MS, haha those are Gavin DeBecker's exact words I think! But no less true for the retelling!
I'm generally not a fan of long lists of rules, I'd rather have five or fewer principles that can be applied to a variety of situations to know what to do. The Three Kings of Self-Defense--Blauer, Strong, and DeBecker--were always very good at that. To me, three of the key principles which cover most of the "rules" have always been:
1) Deny access
2) Deny privacy
3) Don't present as a suitable victim.
and the primary objective, always: GET TO SAFETY NOW.
This past year I took a CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) course with the local police service and was delighted to find that three nearly identical principles are taught in CPTED, I believe they're called access control, visibility (in environmental psych, we used to say "prospect") and pride of ownership.
I like to tell people that when you take away all the martial arts superstition and paranoid "tactical" hyperbole, self-defense is the simplest thing in the world to do, because people are created, instinctively, to protect themselves! This gets people feeling better about the whole thing from the outset. :) A good thing!