General Advice and Personal Protection Tips

• Criminals want three things from their victims: Valuables, Body, and Life (VBL)
• Criminals fear three things: Overwhelming Violence, Incarceration, and Drawing Attention (OVIDA)
• Keep in mind that criminals are not confined to shady neighborhoods; they can travel to “safe” areas and act upon opportunities there. Avoid fringe areas, locations that give attackers privacy and control, at all costs. Those include but are not limited to transit places such as parking lots, staircases, elevators, dark alleys, shortcuts…
• Some High Risk areas include Red Light districts, places with known drug or criminal activity, as well as unfamiliar neighborhoods
• Women, avoid shady and dangerous people: Sometimes, Danger adds some spice to life, but the buzz of being with a “bad boy” is not worth the potential trouble
• Avoid using any device who might limit your auditory sense while jogging or walking down the streets. Moreover, reading a book / newspaper in the streets / bus stops, playing with your cell phone, does nothing to improve your situational awareness. Criminals look for easy prey, and someone disconnected from reality is fair game for these people
• NEVER follow or let a criminal take you to another location; those are known as secondary crime scenes and that is where the bodies are found. Whatever the criminal wants to do, he cannot do it here, so he will threaten/ manipulate/ force you to go to a location more suited for his evil deeds
• Rape is mostly about power and control, and rarely about sex. Rapists need Privacy and Control to be able to rape. Deny them those things
• It is never the victim’s fault in the case of abuse or rape. Even if the victim makes mistakes, it is the criminal(s) who committed the crime, not the victim
• As a woman, you have the right to make your own decisions about your life, including but not limited to dressing up, choosing who to date / love / have sex with / talk to…
• As a woman, it is your right to say “No” to a man’s advances and refuse to have sex even if you were the one who previously initiated contact. If the man continues, let him know that it is rape. If he proceeds regardless, then shift behaviors and use violence preemptively when he does not expect it
• A wife batterer/ domestic abuser CANNOT be redeemed by his spouse, no matter how hard the latter tries. Batterers need PROFESSIONAL help
• Always follow your intuition, gut feeling, also called “little voice in your head”. It is better to feel silly and be wrong than to be assaulted or wake up in the hospital
• Criminals are lazy animals, looking for an easy prey. By being confident, you will send a hard target message to those around you, and decrease the risk of being picked on by a perpetrator. However, some criminals like challenges and might choose to attack “to teach a lesson”
• Awareness, avoidance strategies, negotiation skills, and proper verbal communication are more important any physical technique
• Martial arts and combat sports, no matter how hard they look, still follow the three tenets of Consent, Awareness, and Preparation (CAP) as well as a plethora of rules and traditions most criminals do not concern themselves with. A complete and REALISTIC self defense/ Personal Protection methodology needs to adequately cover, in full details, all the different ranges of combat (Hand striking, kicking, close quarters, grappling, ground fighting), modern weapons defense (Edge and Point tools, bludgeons, firearms, improvised weapons, etc.), multiple attackers (Armed and unarmed), and most importantly, the behavioral, psychological, and emotional aspects (Among these, the impact of adrenaline on one’s body, fear and anger management, verbal communication / de-escalation strategies / congruent dialogue, proper body language, etc.)
• Proper mindset has allowed untrained people to survive vicious attacks by criminals, whereas many “experts” and Black Belts, only relying on their martial prowess (But unprepared mentally and physically to deal with Real Violence) were helpless and became victimized
• It’s not “Survival of the Fittest” but “Survival of the Wittiest”: Do whatever you need to do to get home safety, including manipulating the opposition into thinking you were a coward, talking your way out of trouble, or using any method to physically terminate the attack(s).
• Never give up, no matter how grim the situation seems. People who get victimized have, at one point, given up on the situation. Remember: Don’t quit and you won’t die
• When in pubs, never accept a drink from a stranger unless you see the barman pour the drink in front of you. Even though, it is better to refuse a drink and order a sealed beverage (Beer, Smirnoff ice, …)
• When in pubs, NEVER leave your drink unattended, even for a few seconds. Two seconds is all the time needed for someone to drug your drink. If you feel drunk or disoriented after only one drink, then there is something wrong with it. Go immediately to the nearest hospital with a TRUSTED relative or friend, and tell them you think you have been drugged. Hospital staff will take blood and/or urine samples to confirm, and provide you with the necessary care protocols
• When walking down the street, walk against incoming traffic to avoid someone pulling up next to you and abducting you. Also avoid parking next to vans
• If someone off the street starts making crude comments about the way you look, IGNORE HIM. This is called Typecasting, and aims at obtaining a response from you; regardless of what you say, the person would have drawn you in and initiated contact
• If you think you are being followed, DO NOT GO HOME, go to a public place and lose the stalker, or proceed to the closest police station / Army barrage

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