Take A Look Around

When you walked from your door to the car, to your mailbox, to the sidewalk, etc, did you take a look around? Would you notice what is out of place on the street where you live if it was out of place? Do you look at the ground when you walk with your thoughts somewhere else on something else? Or, do you deliberately move with a purpose, alertly seeing and perceiving while actively listening to your environment in order to know where you are and what is happening?

A Little What-If-ing

Consider the following scenario: You drive from point “A”, such as your job, the grocery store or your church, etc and then arrive at point “B”, your home or other dwelling you must enter.

During the drive you are relatively safe locked into your vehicle. You could be attacked intentionally or accidentally; but you have the advantage of the steel and glass exoskeleton to protect you. Someone would have to go to extreme and intricate measures or subterfuge to extract you from your vehicle while you are driving it.

It’s not until you arrive at point B that you expose yourself to a gap in your security while you make entrance to your “Castle”. If it is your own dwelling then you know it inside and out. However, point B could also present you with entering a structure you have never been to before. As you arrive at point B, what do you choose to observe, if anything? Do you look for vehicles that are unknown to you, or parked where they shouldn’t be? Do you see the doors and windows of the dwelling and their status? Is something out of place or “not quite right”. Do you look at the roof or various floors of the building? Is it on fire? Before you exit your vehicle do you check your mirrors and turn to check your peripherals to make sure no one is quickly approaching your vehicle to intercept you as you exit and if they are–are they a threat? Do you look at the vehicles on the street to see if they are occupied? Are you potentially under surveillance? Are people loitering in front of your house ( point B) or in the driveway?

Now you exit the vehicle and approach the entrance to point B.  What do you smell, hear, or see? Is there movement from your windows where there shouldn’t be movement? Are there things lying around the entrance that should not be there such as cigarette butts, beverage containers, tools, etc that are out of place. Do you read the doors and understand where the hinges are to know whether it will open in or out, and from what side? If the door opens suddenly will you already know where the threat (field of fire) will appear at? Then as you walk up to the door are you aware if you are being approached from the rear or sides by someone. It only takes a moment to check, to take a look around, to see the threat.

Never Happen To Me

Those of us who live in relatively safe communities may think this level of personal awareness borders on, or is, outright paranoia. For them, in their communities, they may have a point in this belief. However, the reality is that we fight the way we train. The person who discounts tactical awareness as a waste of their time may find them self in a situation in a “bad part of town” or a “bad part of the world” where such skills may protect them, prevent a bad outcome or even save their life.

Even here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, civilization can be a little more fragile than we think. I don’t hear a lot about asylums or sanitariums for the insane much anymore, do you? This is because the majority of these people are now free as long as their medications keep their behaviors in check. Sometimes this doesn’t turn out as hoped for and innocent people are assaulted or killed, even in the nicest of neighborhoods and communities. Also, in times of chaos such as social disturbance / riots or natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc the thin veneer of civilization can disappear entirely.

The Predator, Enemy, Surveillance Team / Opposing Force’s Perspective

If the goal is to penetrate the security of the target (me and you), however good or bad that security may be, then the target will be observed and kept under surveillance.  Information gathering will consist of maintaining “eyeball on target” to understand the target’s routine, personal awareness, security measures, etc. This information would create an understanding of what venue one could expect to have easier access to the target. This can be as formal as surveillance done electronically, in person on foot, rotating vehicular tracking, etc or as simply as a few street toughs watching for “marks” to come walking by them.

In the Point A to Point B scenario a likely choice for point B was the house, apartment, home or other dwelling where one lives. This works to the advantage of the predator / surveillance team, etc because sooner or later people come back to their houses, or leave their houses. If one plans to make contact with a target then their opportunity is better during the moments when they are moving between their vehicle and their home and vice versa. The good man sees three men fixing a flat in front of his house and reaches for a tire-jack to help. The wise man does the same, but doesn’t take the situation at face value and will have a force multiplier to spring into action. He who is forewarned is forearmed.

Tactical Mindset

When we come to understand why, when and where our security becomes the thinnest then we are able to move to fortify these moments and situations with a heightened tactical awareness to watch out for and minimize these potential threats. While these skills are honed from playing the “What If” game; it is our life experiences that usually leads us to choose to “live” in the mindset. Think of a time when you were a little more naive to the dangers of the world. Was there an event that occurred in your life when you had a near miss or hit with crime, danger, menace, deception, etc? For example, a salesman entered your home under false pretenses pretending to be an apartment maintenance man only to start pitching you a sale. You may have felt fear, anger or that visceral “oh shi*” feeling that hits like a punch to the gut when you realize your personal security was violated. Or something much worse could have happened to you to change your view of the world, such as a mugging or assault. Have you come to understand that the predators of society prefer that their prey doesn’t see them and their actions for what they are until it’s too late? Will it take you not seeing the two or three predators first converging onto your position, then not comprehending what is happening when they interview you with “What time is it?”/”Do you have a cigarette?” and finally not perceiving that you are about to take a beat down?

That sounds like a very hard way to learn to be more tactically aware.

 

Why I Can’t See What’s Not There

I’ve had a few mortality reminder type experiences in my life. These incidents were not in the “I saw the afterlife” sense (although I am a believer), but in the sense where you have to survive the present moment to make it through to the next and also the observation of those grim life lessons that teach you the immediate results of bad decisions.

I’ve seen a stranger bleed out on a Guatemalan highway after stepping in front of our van, there was nothing anyone could do and it took way too long for the ambulance to get there. It’s true that my time spent in the 3rd world opened my eyes and elevated my gratitude for this American life we have. A life that hangs so precariously, and depends with such fragility on the system we have. A life where I’ve woken up in the grassy median on a Texas freeway my foot pushing the accelerator to the floor, my mind suddenly revving up to unnatural speeds to deal with the situation. I have no memory of falling asleep, but a nice couple stopped to make sure I was OK, chastised me a little, told me they had thought I was a “gonner”, then gave me a Dr. Pepper. We never know when these times are upon us until we are very much in our own present, just trying to survive. Even on a relaxing vacation alone in nature, I slipped and fell, knocking myself out while fly-fishing and then waking up in the river.

I also think of the many times I ran towards danger in my previous career, not knowing what I would face. I remember the day I was told my coworker had eaten his gun when the SWAT team arrived during a child custody dispute with his wife. He always had a quick smile and something uplifting to say, then he was just gone and we stoically did our work. Many times I still feel that tense, ready, calm that you feel and see in the eyes of your team members before you make an arrest or execute an operation as we all played our part, never choreographed like you see in the movies, just men and women working through the situation. I can’t forget all the lessons I learned from the many, many interviews I did with people who had made the worst decisions in their lives.

Even the surreal events that happened from childhood, like a speeding drunk driver brushing my body with the side of his car when I walked home from elementary school or watching a crazed doper sick a pit-bull on my mother all indicating to me that life can change so quickly. The things that happened and we weren’t sure exactly how it came out alright. I can’t be the only person who grins in relief after these situations. I can only thank God I’m still here, and I do.

All these experiences are a reminder, to those that heed, that actions have consequences and that it’s very important to know what is real and what is not. I’ve never had the luxury to be creative with reality because that takes a lot of people around you shielding you from it. That is the life of a child. I guess some people have those kind of lives where the world they see is that ideal shining from their mind. I just know that I look back at times when if I hadn’t accept the Real, I wouldn’t be here.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t live in a world where everyone is good, and “nobody will ever hurt you sweetie, I’ll protect you”. I live in a world where survival is on my mind on a daily basis. I don’t live in a world where bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. I just live here, in this world of beauty and ugliness, light and darkness, and I do keep my head on a swivel. I no longer Ask, Tell or Make people do what I command. I’m not a sheepdog anymore. I’m even more honest with the reality of myself now. I’m the wolf I always was.

 

I can’t guarantee I won’t wax philosophical in future posts, but I will try for more instructional, educational, observational and maybe a little political (Oh noes!). Thanks.