If and when you realize he’s recognized you’re looking at him, offer a greeting in passing. It can be very disarming. But I’d still have my POM pepper sprayer secured in my left hand ready to go.
7 Likes
Truth!
I once was aware of a threat early on, Walking and Holding hands w/ my Wife… Stainless Water bottle in the other hand, He approached, I saw a blade, heard the ‘snik’ and struck him upside the melon w/ the bottle! CRANG! Second time in my life Stainless steel objects saved me either a potential beating or a blade stick!
It was like a shot heard round the World ! Cops were right there (again) don’t know why Blind Melon didn’t see them?
My hand vibrated I hit him so hard! Albuquerque State Fair (Warzone 2020 !)
5 Likes
Or, “Not much”.
4 Likes
You can have situational awareness without inviting aggression. Case in point: I was in the Dominican Republic on a business trip with a friend of mine and we had decided to walk to a restaurant that was just under a mile from our hotel. Unfortunately that mile took us through a pretty sketchy neighborhood. At one point we looked up the street and there were about 20 members of a Haitian gang hanging out outside of a nightclub. My buddy, who had never traveled outside the US before, starts freaking out, saying that we should try and find another way around. That would have taken us blocks out of the way. As for me, I’ve been in a lot of dangerous situations, both in and out of the military, and knew how to handle it. These were my exact words: “Chill out, man. Let me tell you what we’re going to do: We’re going to walk right through the middle of them like a couple of bosses. Anyone that looks at you, you make brief eye contact with, smile and give a quick nod but don’t stare, though, because they’ll see that as a challenge.” And that’s exactly what we did. They looked at us like we were crazy for having the balls to walk through the middle of them but not a one said anything. My buddy’s legs were literally shaking by the time we got to the end of the street but they didn’t mess with us. lol!
11 Likes
How’s Main Street, Payson?
1 Like
Kiddo lives in Payson, Very Cool Place but it’s growing up. Still have pick up trucks and red necks and the occasional horse tied up at the Salon. We’ve actually looked at a couple spreads down there just out side of Payson.
3 Likes
I started “exercising” my peripheral vision some years back and, over time, I started picking up more detail in the peripheral. It’s a very useful tool as well as taking advantage of reflective surfaces when they’re available. The more you practice these, the more you seem to see when using them.
Then when looking directly at someone for more detail, facial expressions are important (as well as other body language). You’re going to get a different response if you look at that sex chunker and start laughing vs more of a friendly smile or if you manage to give the impression, “Wow! She’s hot!” 
Based on your description, I likely would have started laughing.
5 Likes
Also why you stomp on their heads in cqc…
3 Likes
Hahaha, some states use dummy deers on the side of the road at night to catch poachers. I bet we could put out some dummy goats and catch hamas terrorists, .
4 Likes
I was at a wildlife meeting and the ranger reported catching a poacher like that. It was a setup and they were trying to catch them for a while.
3 Likes
Thought this might be relevant!
6 Likes
I Love This guy. I just ran into his stuff recently.
5 Likes
This guy has great information and states it well. I have definitely used many of these tactics that have kept me safe.
4 Likes
As for me, I do not bother with situational awareness. If you look for troubles, you’ll likely find them. First off, avoid the pitfalls. Stay away from criminals and criminal activity and avoid contact–even eye contact–with them; evade cop road blocks (yes, it’s legal to do so); if someone or something concerns you–start recording; don’t go to a city council meeting wearing a “f*ck all the pigs” T-shirt; don’t answer your door when a cop is on the other side of it and you have a pistol in your hand–in fact if your door has a cop on the other side of it don’t open it at all! No, you legally don’t have to. But, if the cop has a warrant, you may want to open the door for him, otherwise he’ll break it and come in anyway. You get the idea. Don’t intentionally draw negative attention to yourself.
What I do is much simpler and easier than situational awareness. I pay no attention to anyone. I act like I could care less about anyone or anything wherever I go. What this does is cause people to think in one of three ways: I’m armed and dangerous, I’m highly skilled and dangerous or they think I’m crazy.
And no predator wants to mess with any of the above.
And thats about it. And I don’t have any problems.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
4 Likes
It could be. So far so good though.
I look for the beauty in the world and you are right, I often find it. It is still situational awareness.
1 Like