Of all the articles I’ve done for Backwoods Home magazine over the years, one of the ones that got the most requests for reprints for training use was the one many years ago on recognizing assaultive behavior signals in other people.
Thanks to our friend, master instructor Greg Ellifritz, here’s a link to a very good recent article on a closely related topic.
That article is excellent, and well-balanced. The photos help, too. I appreciate how it says reading people is an inexact science. We can misread them also.
Roger Willco, you are right that the possibility of misreading of people requires caution. Someone hypersensitive, which I believe that I am, can especially work for or against reading people accurately. No reason obtains to jump to conclusions and react unreasonably. For instance, in case that an aggressive crime has recently been committed in your area, you should not react with alarm just if a policewoman steps in front of you with gun hand on pistol grip and eyes you suspiciously. This is the best time for you to appear calm, which is probably all you need to do. Been there in an area where it turned out that homicide had occurred recently.
When someone is sizing you up on the street for a mugging, they will “interview” you for viability as a victim by simply watching you. If you appear distracted in thought or buried in your smart phone you are ripe for mugging. The mugger wants to close distance with you without your noticing and be on top of you before you know what is going on. In most cases that scenario puts the victim into total domination by the mugger and will most likely do everything they are told.
The way to fail an “interview” is to always indicate situational awareness. If this does not discourage the mugger, you will observe a potential mugger walking towards you. If they look left to right or back to front, they are assessing if any potential witnesses are present. This is a very good tell that you are marked and to get ready.
I spent 18 years working in downtown Houston and have a number of stories I could tell. One trick I used when walking alone down a sidewalk with a potential mugger approaching, was to keep watching him while verbally arguing with someone not there. This made me look like someone “missing the cheese from their enchilada”. The mugger would then assume that I was unstable and could not be depended on to succumb quietly to the mugging. Potentially drawing attention to a mugging will make you fail their “interview” immediately.
This all occurred in the before Texas allowed concealed carry. Today, I would be carrying, but it’s still to everyone’s advantage to fail that “interview” because the aftermath of a defensive shooting will still be Hell to go through. YMMV.
Good information. Predators generally look for easy prey. Being aware of your surroundings and sending the signal that you are aware by watching them and being composed and confident will usually make them look elsewhere, as well as mentally prepare you to respond. Our ‘lizard brain’ (amygdala) will warn us something isn’t right if we are paying attention. Trust your gut. Don’t ever turn your back on a potential threat and keep your head on a swivel. Not being there in the first place is the best plan, if you know it’s a risky area.
Yes, carrying is comforting, knowing you can defend yourself, but using your weapon will certainly have consequences and mental and financial stress for you. Great article and comments.
interestingly enough, when we do go “out” (seldom) i scan for who the actors are, the exit routes and will insist on seating that i prefer, not what is convenient to others. good article for those who don’t use critical thinking these days (frequently)…
Good advice TW.
BUT out of date.
“If you appear buried in your smart phone you are ripe for mugging”.
That”s practically everyone.
“verbally arguing with someone not there. This made me look like someone “missing the cheese from their enchilada”.
That’s half the street now with people wearing earpieces in conversation on the phone in their pocket.
Thank God for the street cameras. Because there’ll won’t be any eye witnesses if you are mugged.
Maybe most crooks have left the street, and go hacking and scamming on the Internet instead.
You make good points, nicholas kane. The goblin of the possibility of Computer-Generated Imagery, “CGI,” or “photoshopping,” though, engineered on the part of controlling “Watchers,” can discreetly add bias or falsehood to “street videos.”Inherently insecure E-busybody videos that I reflexively distrust.
Or you could forget the human awareness and simply shoot anyone you see with a gun.
NOT recommended!
This just popped up as a suggestion on youtube: So I’m clumsilly shoehorning it into this thread.
https://youtu.be/OCYT9Hew9ZU?si=tgvYa195jyCJoTbB
He breaks every rule in the book:(and this is a gun shop employee).
Obviously has no plan.
Uses his hands to protect his face initally.
Hasn’t reconnoitred the ground. Outside his OWN shop.
Keep close to each other.
Stands in the open.
Chooses a hangun to take on shotgun users.
Doesn’t keep moving laterally (never understood why this isn’t recommended more. Makes you virtually unhittable).
With 25 years to think aout it he makes the statement: “With anyone I saw with guns I didn’t hesitate to shoot them”.
Could so easily go on.
BUT he was standing at the end. A lot who took him on weren’t.
njk
nicholas kane,
That video is fascinating, and only 2 min 26 secs. Thanks for sharing. Lots of interesting stuff in there. I notice how he said when the cops heard gunfire, they left the scene. With the Democrats defunding the police, the police may be delayed, if they show up at all, nowadays.
I would have sought cover behind that white, rectangular pillar. I wouldn’t have the courage to stand out in the open parking lot with bullets flying at me. In hindsight, the rooftop with a scoped rifle was the place to be, maybe.