Out & About
NONE OF US IS INVISIBLE!
- It is folly to think we go unnoticed and it won’t happen to us.
•
Trust your intuition - if you feel scared or uneasy - don’t ignore but act on it.•
Be Alert when out and about.•
Don’t be out on the street if you have had too much too drink, Moderate your intake if you know you will be walking or ensure you have a known taxi company picking you up.•
Walk tall keep your feet slightly apart for good balance, keep your head up and your mind focussed on your surroundings. Keep your hands out of your pockets.•
know where you are going and how to get there.•
look confident without appearing arrogant.•
good posture, stamina, strength are all positive aids to good self protection•
If you think you are being followed, check by crossing the street - more than once if necessary, to see if he or they follows. If you are still worried get to the nearest place where people are•
a pub or anywhere with lights on and call the police. Again avoid using enclosed phone boxes in the street as an attacker could trap you inside.•
For women the advice is to wear flat heeled shoes at night if you know you may have to walk. If someone actually struggles with you high heeled shoes will not be an aid to balance or running.•
Walk down the middle of the pavement. Keep clear of alleyways, shrubbery and dark doorways. Try and think where someone could be concealed e.g. behind the rubbish skip you are walking towards.•
Don’t stop to help at a road accident, if necessary go for help.•
Always have your keys ready when you arrive home so as to minimise the time you are stood at the door fumbling in your bag or pockets. In London in 1997 there was a gang operating in wealthy residential areas which targeted people outside their homes to steal their watches.•
At your front door be even more cautious and aware than you have been all night.•
Avoid trouble makers well before by crossing over the road and ignore comments.S T R E E T S E C U R I T Y
•
Avoid long eye contact with strangers as it can taken as provocative. Remember your eyes show any vulnerability or weakness:-•
Don’t overburden yourself with parcels and if you do make sure you are well prepared to drop them if you are confronted.•
Don’t hitchhike.•
Keep your personal possessions like a briefcase or handbag close to hand in public places, make it more difficult to snatch. You should always be able to see or feel it.•
Keep your cheque book in a different place to your cheque card.•
We repeat cover up expensive jewellry and tuck any gold chain into you top or collar.•
Try to avoid reading in the street, particularly a street map as it indicates you are not familiar with your surroundings, if you must do it try and keep walking.•
If someone asks you any question and you feel you have to reply keep at least two arms length away, better still try and answer on the move - re: ‘a request for the time’ - don’t stop!! The use of force is only to be recommended in a self defence situation after you have exhausted certain other options . If attacked 3 options - Flight, Compromise, Attack.Flight - Get away as fast as you can .
Don’t stop to think ACT. Run to a place where there are people or a security - most large stores
Compromise - If you can’t get away
scream yell, set off your personal alarm and throw it out of reach. Remember though that resistance is not the same as defence!
Attack - Hit hard and break away to
run. Be furious and throw your weight into him and break away. Don’t stay to fight your tactic is ‘Hit and Run’
‘Hit and Run’ - that’s all you should be condi- tioned to do. If anybody’s teaching you anything more complicated, then they’re just making it up.
S T R E E T S E C U R I T Y
Alarms
If you often walk home in the dark get a good personal attack alarm. Carry it in the hand so you can use it immediately to, hopefully, scare off the attacker. Make sure it is designed to continue if it is thrown away and doesn’t sound like a car alarm which everyone now ignores. more more more.
Taxis
If you are going to be out late, try to arrange a lift home, or book a taxi.
•
Check that the taxi that turns up is the one you ordered .•
Ask for a description of the car e.g. make, colour and reg. If you gave your name when you booked it, make sure the driver can tell you it before you get in.•
When you book the cab get the company to tell you the drivers name.•
When you get home ask the driver to wait until you are in and have the lights on.There are many reputable ‘mini-cab’ companies or private hire cars, but must be booked either at their office or by phone. In some cases the driver will carry an ID.
•
Always keep the name and number of a reliable firm handy.•
Avoid mini-cabs and private hire cabs that tout for trade.•
Only a licensed Hackney Cab can pull up in the street in the UK.•
When you are in the taxi stay ‘switched on’ particularly to the way you are being taken to your destina- tion. If you have a preference as to which way to go then ask and insist. - If you are not happy ask to be let out out in a well lit area where there are a number of people.•
If you are unhappy make this known, insist on the route you want and always carry a mobile phone with you so you can call 999/911 if you are worried that things are taking a turn for the worse and he won’t stop. There have been enough incidents of rape and sexual assault by taxi drivers to make any lone female feel less than secure.•
Always sit behind the driver, not next to him if you are a female.•
If in any doubt DON’T get in, trust your instincts.•
If you are a woman try to identify a taxi firm which employs female drivers•
If you talk to the driver stay on general topics and give away no personal information.•
If you book a taxi from a public phone or in a public place like a bar, avoid being overheard when you give your name and address.Don’t let me give readers the wrong impression of all taxi drivers. The great
majority of taxi drivers pose no risk and are, in too many cases all to often the victims of violence themselves. Very few taxi drivers I know don’t ‘carry’ something with them in their cab to give them an edge. Only this year a taxi driver was seriously assaulted and bitten in the face 21 times by his assailant who has scarred him for life. The attacker bit two people who went to his assistance and, whilst on parole, stabbed someone else to death.
“Life In Jail For Pretend Taxi Driver”
On October 22nd 1997, a Judge at Manchester Crown Court sentenced ‘glue sniffing, drug dealing Duncan Bermingham to life for the sex attack and brutal murder of 22 year old Rachel Thacker. Rachel, a graduate and campaigner for womens safety failed to follow her own advice, following a night out when, after too much to drink, and despite the efforts of her friends to convince her to the contrary, she flagged down Bermingham in the mistaken belief he was a ‘cabbie’. The next day her naked body was found behind a pub, having been battered around the head with a breeze block, disfigured beyond recognition and then set on fire after Bermingham had poured petrol over her. Her friends were unable to convince her that it wasn’t a taxi, but the assumption is that
drink had very sadly clouded her judgement.
Jogging
•
When jogging don’t wear a Walkman and if female don’t jog in deserted parks, wooded and bushy areas and always face oncoming traffic. Don’t jog habitually at the same time of the same day each week and the same applies with cycling - vary times and routes. Stay to well lit roads and pave- ments. On commons and park lands keep to main paths and open spaces where you can see and be seen by other people.•
Always choose well lit and well populated streets.•
Plan your route.S T R E E T S E C U R I T Y
Avoid counting or handling money in the street, particularly if you also have your purse or wallet in your hand.
S T R E E T S E C U R I T Y
•
If you perceive a group of males make your decisions sooner rather than later.Automated Teller Machines (ATM’s)
ATM’s are an exposed location. Whilst you are unlikely to be attacked at the ATM if other people are around you can be targeted there.
•
Keep a good look around you and don’t take your card out until the last minute.•
Don’t withdraw anything other than small amounts, which means you don’t have to stand around exposed whilst you count it.•
Don’t use the machine if there is any- one there you don’t like. Play the game - remember the face and watch out for it again.•
Don’t let people stand directly behind you.- they have been known to mark your coat with chalk which identifies you to their cohorts!.•
Also avoid dispensers when the street is very quiet.•
Make sure no-one can see you enter your PIN.•
If at all possible try to avoid using dispensers at night - they can be very dangerous. Drive through ones are regular venues for robberies.•
Generally avoid handling cash in the street.Dogs
(Judith Weis Home Page - Internet)
1.Don’t Run.
2 Stand still and be calm.
3 Don’t scream at the dog and run. 4 Don’t stare at its eyes - this is a challenge.
5 Let the dog sniff you.
6 In a low voice NO GO HOME. 7 Stay until the dog leaves.
8 Back away slowly until it is out sight. 9 If it attacks try and fend it off with a jacket, or your briefcase or better still brolly - always be on the lookout for any improvised weapon.
10 If you fall, roll into a ball and keep hands over your ears, face, throat and neck. Don’t scream and don’t roll about.
What Men Can Do!- Women's Safety
Men can help by taking the issue of women's safety seriously in their daily lives. Bear these points in mind- If you are walking in the same direction as a woman on her own, don’t walk behind her - this may worry her. Cross the road and walk on the other side. This can reassure her that you are not following her.
•
Never sit too close to a woman on her own in a railway carriage.•
If you are thinking of talking to a woman at a lonely bus stop, say, remember she doesn’t know that your intentions are benign.S T R E E T S E C U R I T Y
•
Realise how threatening actions such as staring, whistling, passing comments can be when you are one of a group of men.Security on the street is the basis for all good ‘Safety Practises’. Much of this chapter has been about what to do and what not to do, but I have gone to great lengths to make it very clear that obeying these ‘common sense rules is not how the battle is won. Not walking with your back to the traffic is OK, but if you are walking along with a ‘head full of seagulls’ you are still a victim in the making. It is only ‘awareness’ of your surroundings and people that make all the ‘rules’ effective. Remember your attentional distractors, remember how we shut out stressful stimuli, remember our narrow internal focus of attention, remember our reduced or non-existent attitude to expectation and finally remember how we are convinced by statistics that ‘it won’t happen to me.’
If you acknowledge all the many factors that prevent us staying alert and aware then we are getting more ready to win the battle.
Now all we need to do is embark on our ‘commentary’ work. Try and make ‘people watching’ an interesting pastime. If it takes a banal and
simplistic game such as ‘occupations’ i.e. trying to give everyone you see an occupation from your impression of them, then all well and good. Anything that makes you ‘see’ people and forces some recognition of dress, features and demeanour then you are starting to become aware.
Remember the men with the large sheet of wood and the changeover. If you had said to someone that you could fool people with this ploy no one would have accepted it. The camera recorded quite graphically, however, that people do not in fact take in any information at all about others. So don’t fall into the same trap yourself. The villains you should be capable of seeing on foot or in a vehicle are camouflaging themselves amongst everyone else and the mass of stimuli you may be unknowingly excluding - Switch On !