Personal Safety Information

CG,

From Cornell University
Cell Phone Security

Cell phones are more vulnerable than regular phones due to two dangers: eavesdroppers can listen in on your calls, and thieves can bill their own calls to your account.

Eavesdropping: Anything you say on an analog cell phone can be easily overheard by someone using a scanner. Digital cell phone transmissions are scrambled for better protection, but eavesdroppers with the right equipment may be able to unscramble them.

The best protection? Be aware of what you discuss on your cell phone. Remember that it acts as a handheld broadcast station. Don't give out your credit card number or other sensitive or confidential information; don't say anything you wouldn't say on broadcast radio or TV.

Other sources -
"Eagle's Realty Mining project logged 350,000 hours of data over nine months about the location, proximity, activity and communication of volunteers, and was quickly able to guess whether two people were friends or just co-workers....

He and his team were able to create detailed views of life at the Media Lab, by observing how late people stayed at the lab, when they called one another and how much sleep students got.

Given enough data, Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time."

 

When I was 17, I was the victim of an assault

On my way home from a night job, I would sometimes stop at a local pizza restaurant to get a bite to eat. Over a period of months, I got to know the guy who owned the small place. One night, he told me his wife had had a baby that day but he hadn't been able to see his baby because he didn't have anyone to handle the restaurant and he had to get home to his other kids who were there alone. I offered to follow him home and stay with his kids while he went to the hospital. As soon as we walked into his house, he locked the door and pulled a knife on me. As I screamed for help, he held the knife at my throat and threatened to kill me if I woke his kids. He assaulted me but I managed to avoid full penetration rape by telling him I had syphillis. It was the only sexual disease word I knew. I told him to go ahead, but he'd suffer the consequences. It was enough to make him stop and let me go. I ran out of the house and raced home.

For another decade, I NEVER TOLD ANYONE, not my parents, not the police, not my friends, no one. I was ashamed because I thought I had done some shameful when in reality, the only thing I had done was to assign trust to someone who hadn't earned the right to my trust which made me vulnerable. I was also afraid he would tell someone that I had this sexually transmitted disease and people would think I was what was then called a "bad' girl.

This event did not ruin my life, merely changed it a bit.

You may wonder why I am sharing this personal information but I have a reason, as I have every time I have related the story. I didn't do anything wrong except allow myself to be vulnerable and the story may help one young girl think about her personal safety and it may help parents as they try to relate safety information to the children at the center of their lives.

There are a couple lessons to be learned here.
1. When you talk to your children about safety, discuss specific scenerios they may encounter and help them plan how to handle it. Do some role playing so they can practice skills in a non threatening environment. This is the time to impart "you could' statements. Knowledge IS power.

2. Don't be afraid to relate events in your own life when you had made a decision that put you in danger and how you handled it. They will be empowed by the knowledge that even you, their first teacher and protector in life, sometimes made poor choices.

2. Reenforce the concept that being a victim of an assault is not something about which they should feel any shame.

3. Avoid all ":you should have" and "you could have' statements. If they survived, they did it right.

4. If the worst case happens and they are victimized, curb your first impulse to "kill the bast***" If you remain as calm as possible, you have the opportunity to support your child in a traumatic time. The last thing you want your child to think is that they have created upheaval in your life.

5. Encourage them, or anyone one who has been the victim of violence, to talk to someone less emotionally involved in the event. Don't ask for details unless they want to share them. Facts and feelings will probably come in drips and spurts so be open to them when they come and be non-judgemental in your responses.

6.. Stop thinking of your child as a victim and start seeing them as someone who has survived a potentially life altering event.

In case you are wondering, my survivor avatar has little to do with the assault and more to do with surviving all of the slings and arrows we all encounter in the course of living our lives.

 

Another everyday event - the ATM

I had no choice but to stop at a drive-up ATM tonight. I was the only car entering the s-shaped lane leading to the machine which is covered by a portico and ridiculously in the back of the building out of sight of any adjacent roads, buildings, etc. As I was approaching, I noticed two guys crossing the parking lot heading toward the drive up lane. Well, it's pretty cold here this week - around zero - so it's not surprising that they were in heavy coats with their heads covered in what looked like hoodies. Needless to say, I drove straight through without stopping and went around the block. With no one in sight, I drove the ess lane again and proceeded to conduct my transaction.

Even though the drive up machine is safer than a kiosk or bank outer room, as I was driving home, I was thinking how vulnerable we are at those little convenience machines. We stop, and even though the car is locked, roll down our driver side window, lean out and start pressing buttons, usually with our left hand. I thought about how difficult it is to maintain awareness of what's going on around me when I'm using that machine. In addition to being distracted by the task at hand, if someone crept up on me, they could easily grab my left hand which is sticking out the window. I wonder how fast I could react if that very thing happened. Even with power windows, there is no way I could get the window up fast enough. I would certainly floor it in an attempt to escape, and try to lay on the horn, but would my body and my brain react fast enough to save me from harm?

I don't know the answers to these questions but it is a situation worth thinking about.

Another thing, the danger you don't see is worse than the potential danger you do see so why do they always have bushes around outdoor ATM's?

I don't live looking for the boogy man at every turn but in order to mentally prepare for the possibilities of assault, we all have to consider these questions.

 

Thanks for the support CRC. It is also helpful for me to revisit some safety issues because, like everyone else, I get complacent at times.

If anyone has any tips and strategies to share, please jump in.

 

You've made some very good points mm. I really like you suggestion about window reflections.

When rounding a corner, you always go to the farthest most point of the corner radius. That gives you a split second for observaton and reaction.

Regarding distance - this is from the 7 Steps to personal Safety by Richard Isaacs and Tim Powers:

"In most cases, however, an attacker is going to get as close to you as he can before the assault.
The most important thing to understand is how fast someone can get to you from distances that may seem safe to you, and that you believe — falsely — will give you enough time to act and respond. The average attacker can cover 5 feet in under a quarter of a second, 10 feet in under three-quarters of a second, and 21 feet in under one and a half seconds. A second and a half isn’t a lot of time. In fact, it’s less time than t takes most of us just to recognize, when we are not expecting trouble, that something is happening."

 

I have come across a great site, No Nonsense Self Defense by Marc Mac Young and he has given me permission to use some of his material here. His website is packed with information and strategies. I encourage you to visit his site for lots of helpful information.

I'll put together some of his points on vulnerability and defensive actions and post them here. Marc, thanks for your assistance

[center:ee61c1b4f6]No Nonsense Self-Defense [/center:ee61c1b4f6]

This is a little about Marc from his website:
"Growing up on the gang-infested streets of Los Angeles not only gave Marc MacYoung his street name "Animal," but also extensive firsthand experience about what does and does not work for self-defense. What he teaches is based on experience and has proven reliability for surviving violence. He is considered by many to be one of the most analytical thinkers on the subject of surviving violence and personal safety today.

He has taught police, military, martial artists and civilians around the world, his message is always the same: Hand-to-hand combat is a last ditch effort when other, more effective, preventive measures have failed. The best preventative measure of them all is not to put yourself into situations where you need to fight your way out. He knows that from personal experience and that is what he teaches, lest people find themselves in the same kind of situations that he did. "

"He lives in Colorado with his wife Dianna, where he writes, lectures, teaches internationally. He teaches personal safety and self-defense to the public, making your martial art street effective and knifework to martial artists, defensive tactics to law enforcement and he doesn't talk about what he shows the military. He spends the rest of his time raising his "kid" and trying to convince cattle (the only animal stupider than a gang member) to go from Point A to Point B."

 

The "parking lot" is familiar to all of us and another of those everyday events which harbor potential danger. The following is taken directly from Marc Mac Young's website No Nonsense Self-Defense and contains valuable information.

Fringe Areas
Fringe areas are places "in between." And it is here that criminals usually operate. This is where you are most likely to be attacked, mugged or raped.

It isn't until you begin to consciously look for them that you begin to see how many you pass through each day. A fringe area is not inherently dangerous, which is why we don't normally notice them. There is no reason to fear them; it is what lurks there that you need to fear.

Fringe areas are usually places that you pass through on you way to and from the crowd. In the middle of the crowd, there are too many people for the criminal to operate safely. Too far from it, there is nobody for him to attack. At the fringes, there are enough people going through that the criminal can find victims, but not enough to effectively hinder him.

The main thing to remember is any fringe area is transitional. It is a place that we pass through on our way to something else from something (e.g. from a crowd to your car). This is a large part of why we don't notice them; We are focused on getting somewhere else or on something other than what we are doing. It is that focus on "elsewhere" that the criminal exploits to successfully develop what he needs to attack you.

The best example of a fringe area is a mall parking lot. There are too many people in the middle of the mall for the criminal to be successful. And by the time you are in your car and driving away, you are beyond his reach. A parking lot, however, meets the criteria he needs. There are enough people to find a victim, you are out of reach of immediate help, he can still get to you *and* he can easily escape after he has mugged you.

You don't need to be paranoid about entering a fringe area, but you have to look around when entering one. Things that are "out of place" in fringe areas carry far greater weight than they would in other circumstances. Developing the habit of scanning a fringe area is a critical component of creating your Pyramid of Personal Safety.



Learn to recognize when you are in a fringe area.
Most fringe areas are transitional but, that is not always the case. A fringe area is any place that you are beyond "immediate help." That means: Would it take longer than 30 seconds for help to get to you?

That is all the longer it takes for a mugger to rob you. Granted, when you are staring down the barrel of a gun, 10 seconds seems like 10 years, but the reason most robberies are successful is their blitzkrieg nature. They happen blindingly fast. By the time help reaches you, the criminal is speeding away.

Another standard: Would anyone hear you if you screamed?

Many a young woman has been raped at a party, but, because she is in another room with the door closed, nobody hears her cries for help. Many assaults happen in stairways for the same reason.

It takes no more than a week of paying attention to learn to immediately spot a fringe area. Once you know what to look for, they become glaringly obvious. The next step is accomplished at the same time.



Know what is normal for that area
What is the normal behavior for people in that area/situation?

Before you can accurately assess when something is wrong, you need to have a recognized standard of what is right. While that may sound obvious, most people have never really thought about it. When they see something is out of sync with the norm, the best they can muster is, "I don't know what is wrong, but I know something isn't right." It is during this confusion that the criminal gets into position to successfully attack.

The best example of this is - before reading on further - answer this question: What is normal behavior for people in a parking lot?

Don't be surprised if it took you a few seconds before answering "walking to and from cars" -- or if your answer wasn't that specific. In many ways the answer is so obvious that it is hard to shift gears to recognize something so basic.

Parking lots are transitional places: You are either walking or driving in/out of them -- you are not loitering. If someone is not moving, there is usually an immediately identifiable reason. The car hood is up, they are unloading or loading their vehicle, preparing to drive or gathering something up, getting something out of the trunk, fussing with a problem before they walk out of the parking lot.

It is not normal to loiter in parking lots -- except for very specific circumstances. People will walk to a car and spend a few moments talking before departing. These groups tend to be insular and exclusive. That is to say, they are turned in and talking to each other ignoring what is going on around them.

These are both common and normal behaviors for the average parking lot. You see them so often that you probably don't even pay attention to them anymore. Now, what is abnormal for a parking lot?

First of all, someone loitering is showing wrong behavior for a parking lot -- especially if he doesn't have an immediately identifiable reason for being there. People who are waiting for someone tend to wait right next to their car. And in fact, if you think about it, it is rather obvious if it is his car or not. (People who sit or lean on cars, don't tend to have nice cars). More common however, is that the driver waits for the person by sitting in his car.

Unless their car is broken down, people don't generally wait for other people to pick them up in a parking lot. Usually they wait inside an establishment, or if they are waiting outside, they wait by the door or on the corner. If they do wait in a parking lot it is either near their broken down car or at the driveway for easy pick up and in plain sight from the street. You don't loiter in a "generalized way" in the depths parking lot. That shows something is not quite right.

The idea of a "generalized manner" is important. Another indication that something is amiss is lack of "laser focus." It is a binary focus, there is your car and your destination, everything else is background and not worth notice. There is no casual meandering from car to car, taking the scenic route or hovering around a non-specific area. This is why someone who is wandering through a parking lot, looking into cars stands out like a sore thumb. While casual glances at cars occur, a methodical search is glaringly obvious.

When you walk into a parking lot and a group of young toughs are lined up against the wall and watching people pass, something is amiss. Normal people tend to cluster. While they may glance at you, they quickly return their attention to the group, dismissing you as unimportant. If they don't, something is wrong, and you better not walk into the middle of it. This is why watching who is watching you is such an important robbery avoidance tip.

Another point of normal is "how do people walk through parking lots?"

Generally pedestrians will follow the driving aisles. If they do cut between cars, it will be consistent with their goal (i.e., heading for the entrance). Cutting between cars is a "short cut" to that goal. What is important to realize is that they still have that laser sighting on their destination. A person who is meandering or changing his course to intercept you is not acting in a normal manner for the location. He should be considered dangerous or up to no good.

We unconsciously know what is "normal" for a great many situations. We see it every day. In fact, we see it so much that we don't see it anymore. It has become a part of the unnoticed background. Unfortunately, it has become so commonplace that we have forgotten why abnormal behavior in that situation is abnormal -- we know it isn't right, but we don't know why. It isn't until we consciously sit down and think that we can slowly explain what it was that we saw and knew...but couldn't figure out in time.

This is a small sampling of what is normal for parking lots. And if you think about it, there is nothing we have said that you didn't already know. We unconsciously know these things. Because we take them for granted, however, we are often at loss when things go wrong. It isn't until we spend time consciously paying attention to what we already know that we can immediately identify what exactly is wrong with a situation. There are many other situations and locations that you need to review -- especially the ones you regularly find yourself.

Parking lots
Although there are many fringe areas, we tend to emphasize parking lots. Simply stated there is no place more likely for you to be robbed than a parking lot. They are a hotbed of carjackings. And most personal robberies happen here*. The presence of vehicles also makes it easy for rapists to kidnap a victim and take her to a secondary location for rape.

Parking lots offer the best advantages of fringe areas. They are close enough to where people congregate to offer enough passerbys to choose the best victims. Parking lots are isolated enough that a victim will be beyond immediate help. And someone rich enough to afford a car will have money (or goods worth stealing). Most people are "wrapped up in their own head" while passing through the area and not paying attention to what is going on around them. This makes it easy to set them up for a violent assault or robbery. In addition, the areas offer easy escape routes for the criminal(s) in that they have easy access to the streets and they can obstruct your view (by jumping into a car the next aisle over and speeding away, odds are that you will not see the license plate).

We have already explained many of the identifiable behaviors that tell you something is amiss, but there are a few more refinements. It isn't just loitering in a parking lot that is a danger sign, but *where* someone is waiting. Although there is extreme paranoia about specifically targeted assaults (e.g., the guy hiding under the car and grabbing your ankle) those kinds of attacks are, in fact, so rare as to be almost statistically meaningless. An overwhelming majority of attackers are loitering by the pedestrian entrance of the parking structure or area.

Would-be robbers in parking lots most often position themselves in a place where they can observe people passing by and either follow them to their car or intercept them along the way. The criminal is not psychic. He doesn't know where your car is when you enter the parking lot. This is why loitering off at the far end -- which while good for drug deals and illegal drinking -- is not a winning strategy for mugging someone. If he were to take such a position, you likely get into your car and drive away before he can reach you. This means he or they usually take up a position at the pedestrian entrance or within the first third of where you enter the parking lot. From there, they can easily intercept or follow you to where ever you are going.

When you enter a parking structure and you see a loitering person or a group, the bells need to go off. This is a serious sign of not potential, but probable, trouble. Continuing on is literally walking into the lion's jaws -- especially if they focus on you. This is one of the reasons you need to pretend you are a mugger for a week. Once you have done this exercise, seeing someone in this position will scream danger to you.

It also is not uncommon for muggers to "hang out" at the mall entrance under the guise of smoking. Although not as common, selecting a victim who is in the mall and then following her out to her car also occurs. Both of these can be foiled by simply looking around -- and that includes behind you -- when entering a fringe area. If someone follows, return to the mall.

It is also important to remember that within a large fringe area there can be several smaller ones. For example, a wide-open parking lot can be checked in its entirety with two two-second glances (one when you enter, one when you reach your vehicle). However, a parking structure or a "wrap around" parking lot (the sort where parking is so vast that "wings" wrap around the building, obscuring your view of the front door) may require four or five checks as you enter into new "blind spots" or levels.

We mentioned earlier that there is a certain element that does "hang out" in parking lots. Generally speaking, such people are up to no good anyway. This is not to say that they are robbers per se, but if a police car were to pull up, their lives would get rather interesting. It is not uncommon to see these types hanging out near liquor stores or other places of interest to them. Basically the easiest way to handle this situation is to take your business elsewhere. In fact, you might want to take yourself elsewhere because you are not in a nice part of town if this kind of event is occurring.

Generally speaking, however, these types will not be immediately near the door of the business. A savvy business owner will run them off rather than let them linger too close to the door and chase away business. As long as you can park next to the door, they should not be much of a problem. It is when you have to walk by them that they can become a problem.

These people usually want to position themselves far enough away to see a police car approaching. That allows them to start wandering away and divest themselves of anything that would result in their being arrested (this also holds true in parks). As long as they stay over there, it is no problem.

While individuals will come and go from time to time, such a pack doesn't generally move without reason. If you enter such an area and the pack goes into motion GO BACK! That's right, turn around and return to where you came from. If you are wrong about their intentions then they will pass from the area. If they are up to no good you will have foiled their attempt to rob you. (If you see a pack following you from an entrance, obviously don't turn back into their midst, but instead loop around, putting obstacles between you and head for the entrance)

A serious danger sign is when you enter a parking lot and see a group spread out along a wall. Do NOT continue as it is a specific type of trap described in the video Safe in the Street. When present in a fringe area, you are literally asking to be raped, robbed or shot if you proceed. Return to the establishment and inform management. From there, the manager will decide if he needs to call the police.

 

good reading thanks
also welcome aboard Sojourner

 

BTT for noobs.

THanks again RH

 

BTT

 

I am constantly amazed at the things I have missed here. This is the first I have seen this. I will have my daughter and wife read this. Thanks RH, good stuff.

 

Update on the Crime that Started this Thread

Man pleads guilty to raping woman, tying her to tree near I-84 By:Jennifer Hoyt , Journal Inquirer
A Florida truck driver who raped a woman and left her tied to a tree near Interstate 84 in Ashford in February 2006 pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree kidnapping and aggravated first-degree sexual assault.
This conviction comes almost two decades after the man, Thomas Hooks, 51, was convicted of committing a similar crime in Florida.

Hooks entered his guilty pleas for the Ashford attack before Judge Harry Calmar at Killingly Superior Court.

Under a plea-bargain agreement, Hooks is expected to receive a 30-year sentence, which will be followed by five years' special parole.

Hooks was scheduled to return to court for sentencing on July 13.

The Ashford assault occurred on Feb. 6, 2006, when the 30-year-old woman stopped near exit 72 on the interstate to help Hooks, who was pretending that his tractor-trailer was disabled, police have said.

Hooks raped the woman at gunpoint in the sleeper cab of his vehicle, according to records in the case. Afterward he tied her to a tree in a nearby wooded area and fled the scene. The woman eventually managed to free herself, and she stopped a passing motorist for help.

The Department of Public Safety's Eastern District Major Crime Squad conducted a highway canvass of passing motorists to develop leads and witnesses for the case.

Hours of interviews with witnesses and information from the victim helped the investigators identify Hooks as a suspect.

The squad tracked Hooks to his employer, an Alabama trucking company. On Feb. 17, 2006, Hooks was arrested on a warrant at Route 372 and Industrial Park Road in Cromwell, where he was on business. He was driving the same truck in which he raped the woman.

In 1988 Hooks was accused of raping a Florida woman after he used his truck to force her off the road. Hooks was convicted that year of sexual battery, and spent 12 years in a Florida prison.

 

There's no such thing as too much safety information (IMO).