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What to do when in a suspicious environment:
1. Pretend to make a call, in the call you'll make sure the people around are hearing you, then describe the car, the driver and the people around.
Eg.
"Are you people behind us? Oh ok.
I am in that blue BRT in front. Yes. I'll tell the driver to drop me now so I can join you guys ..."
Or "Yes, I am still inside, the brown building with a red roof, can you see it from where you are? Wait for me outside, I am coming right away."
2. Turn on your phone location and share your live location on WhatsApp to someone close.
3. Situational awareness, if you suspect that you are about to be attacked leave the environment immediately, or at least turn and face the potential attacker.
It's better you are attacked from the front where you can fight than from the back where you won't have a fighting chance.
If someone is walking behind you, you can side step, turn and face them then motion them to move past you.
Better to appear like a scared freak than to be hurt.
4. Avoid night outings. Always make sure that 6 O'clock finds you at home except in situations where you can't avoid it. More bad things happen at night than in the day time.
As much as possible, avoid early morning jogs. Many have been robbed and killed doing it.
5. Learn self defence. Self defence is an essential life skill like driving, eating, writing, speaking.
Everyone alive should be able to defend themselves in times of danger.
Here are some super easy self defence lessons:
1. Fingers to the eyes: if someone is attacking you, plug your fingers into their eyes as hard as you can and as many times as you can.
If you have nails, try to get those nails in there. If you can't, scratch the hell out of their face.
2. If it's a man,grab the balls.
3. If you are held in an arm lock, try to grab one of the fingers and pull it backwards really hard. Everyone's fingers are painful when pulled the wrong way nomatter how strong their biceps are.
4. Run, run like hell.
Check my writeups on medium.com/@davepartner
5. Scream on top of your lungs. When in danger, most people forget to scream. Even if it's a fight you can win, scream first, really loud. A loud scream is demoralizing, that's one of the reasons the military uses it during charges.
6. Situational awareness again: avoid getting into a dangerous spaces where you will be helpless.
If you are in a dangerous space, always keep your eye in the direction where danger is most likely to come from.
7. Bite.
There is a reason you have teeth; to bite. When attacked, bite anything your teeth can clamp on.
Some people instinctively try to bite the fingers or arms, the best place to bite is actually the torso, neck or face. That's where the most pain is.
8. Use any object around you to strike the attacker. The easiest one round is your phone. Women who have high heel shoes can use the heels. A stick, a table etc.
9. Get behind a barrier, for instance put a table in between you and the attack, run behind a car, run into a room and lock the door
10. Create a distraction, start spoiling something else of value that belongs to the attacker.
Eg. If someone is trying to choke you in the car, pull the gear handle, drag the car steering.
If a restaurant manager is trying to attack you, break their glass, turn over their table.
A small distraction can help you escape.
11. Deescalate to buy time.
Pretend to agree with whatever they are demanding so that they won't see the need to use a deadly force any longer.
If it's just a robbery, allow the robber to rob and go.
If it is something else, you can create a story that has a promise of a bigger reward just to buy more time.
Someone about to rob and kill you for a 100k may be interested to know that you have 500k in the bank if only you guys can get to the ATM down the streets. Making the journey to the ATM buys you some extra minutes and introduces new opportunities to escape or call for help.
11. Get some pepper 🌶️ spray. You can buy one off online stores or you can make one yourself. Grind some pepper, mix with water and pour it inside a spray bottle.
Have it in your bag, if you sense danger, arm yourself with it and get ready to spray in the face of the attacker.
Check my writeups on medium.com/@davepartner
