STREETWISE GUIDE TO SELF PROTECTION

For those of who must live and mingle among the just as well as the crooked

There is a higher risk today of being a victim on the street, at work or at home. The purpose of learning self defense is to protect yourself and your loved ones from physical attack. However, it is of the utmost importance that you also learn to avoid the worry and the consequences of a real crime if it can be prevented.

This guide lists some preventive measures against crime:

MUGGING

1. Walk facing oncoming traffic to reduce the chance of a car pulling up behind you unnoticed, keep to the middle of the sidewalk. Stay alert even in your own neighborhood, one third of all street muggings occur within four blocks of the victim’s house.

2. Traveling with companions cuts your risk by at least 80%. Robbers prefer lone targets.

3. Avoid stairwells and public restrooms in offices, hotels, shopping malls or other public buildings. If you must use a public restroom, keep your handbag on your lap, not on the floor or door hook where a thief can reach it.

4. Look around before your leave your car. If you notice someone loitering, park elsewhere. If you park during the day and intend to return after dark, make sure your car is in a spot that will be lit.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR HANDBAG

Your handbag is the likeliest target for muggers, who may come from behind, speeding by in bicycles or skates.

1. If you handbag lacks a shoulder strap, tuck it under your armpit, pressed to your side with your hand clutching it. Consider carrying it upside down, with your hand ready to open the clasp. If someone grabs or pulls it, you may be able to snap it open and spill the contents. The mugger will take off empty handed.

2. Keep your handbag on the floor while driving. Some thieves wait at traffic signals to reach through a window and grab what’s on the seat—even smashing the glass to do so. By always stopping half a car length behind any vehicle ahead and keeping your engine in gear, you can make a fast U-turn or surge forward to another lane if your car is approached or attacked.

3. A decoy wallet. You may want to carry a dummy wallet containing a few small bills and expired credit cards that you can hand over while your real wallet remains hidden. Once a thief gets any wallet, he’ll leave you alone.

WHAT TO DO IF A ROBBER IS ARMED

1. If a robber with a gun or other weapon confronts you, the safest course is to cooperate.

2. Surrender your valuables without talking. Threats or pleading may only worsen the situation, instead, concentrate on remembering a description that may help the police.

WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU’VE BEEN MUGGED

1. Do not touch anything to preserve clues.

2. Call the police, just say “I’ve been held up” to get a fast response.

3. Notify your bank and credit card companies immediately if checks or credit cards have been stolen. Keep a list of all your credit card numbers separate from your purse or wallet. Take a few minutes now to jot them down.

SECURITY MEASURE FOR YOUR HOME AGAINST BURGLARY

1. Lock your valuables in a closet and fix the hinges so the door can’t be lifted off. (To do this remove the middle screw from all hinge plates, drill the holes on the frame side deeper and drive sturdy headless nails partly into the opposite hole in the door side. When the door is closed, the nails will extend into the holes and pin it in place). The door should be solid, not hollow-core, so it is not easily broken.

2. Choose hard to reach or hard to find hiding places. Burglars know about laundry hampers and back sides of dresser drawers. Bedrooms make the worst hiding places because they are generally searched first. Consider the following ideas:

· Freezing your small jewelry in a plastic bag in an ice cube tray

· wrapping your valuables in aluminum foil so they will look like a package of meat and store in your freezer.

· Submerging them in a waterproof wrapping in your toilet tank

· Taping a packet to the underside of the kitchen sink next to the wall

· Using a coffee can with a plastic lid and hide it in the back of the kitchen pantry.

· Open the back of a stuffed toy, place your valuables inside and sew it back.

3. Do not keep cash at home. Travelers’ checks are a practical substitute if you need ready money and you are also protected if they are stolen. Be sure to record their serial numbers immediately.

4. Engrave your driver’s license number with your state abbreviation (never the social security number) on non-detachable parts of TV sets, cameras, tools, guns, appliances, stereo equipment and other often stolen items to aid their return if recovered. Keep a list of the items marked and the ID number used.

5. Keep a room-by-room inventory of your possessions with brand names, serial and model numbers and other identifying marks. Store it in your freezer compartment (which also happens to be the most fireproof place in your home) to expedite insurance claims. Photographs of these items are also useful.A peephole viewer with a wide-angle lens can be installed so you can see who’s outside without opening your door. Don’t rely on guard chains. Talk through the closed door.

6. Beware of people you are not expecting who claim to be repairmen, police officers or strangers needing help. Offer to call for aid for anyone in trouble while they wait outside. For the rest, call the office or company they claim to represent and check their names and descriptions before opening the door. Always look the number up yourself; if you call a number they give you, a confederate may answer. And remember: official looking identification can be easily forged.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU RETURN HOME AND DISCOVER YOU’VE BEEN BURGLARIZED

1. Leave immediately. The burglars may still be inside.

2. Call the police from a neighbor’s house and try to watch the exits of your house from a safe place, if possible, to see if anyone emerges.

3. Don’t touch, straighten or rearrange anything. You may inadvertently destroy important clues.

4. Notify your bank and savings institutions if your checks or passbook are missing. Jot down your account numbers and keep in a safe place.

HOW TO PUT OFF A PERVERT

1. Most non-violent offenders are seeking sexual kicks by upsetting or shocking you rather than physically harming you.

2. Men who rub against women in crowds should be dealt with forcefully and with strong eye contact. Say in a firm voice: “Don’t touch me again, or I’ll call the police.”

3. Discourage men who expose themselves by ignoring them, moving away or being coolly disparaging. Such individuals are rarely violent.

4. Hang up immediately on obscene phone callers without comments. If one persists, notify the telephone company. Extreme measures include blowing a whistle full force into the phone.

HOW TO MINIMIZE YOUR RISK OF RAPE

On the street:

1. Anticipate danger. Be aware who’s around you. Keep any item that can be used as a weapon ready in your hand, for example, your keys, an umbrella, etc. Keep thinking what you would do if attacked “right at this moment,” given your surroundings.

2. Walk confidently and purposely, ready to look square in the face at anyone who approaches you. Rapists favor victims who seem distracted, afraid or unsure of themselves.

3. If you are harassed from a vehicle, turn and walk in the opposite direction or cross the street to put distance between you and the offender. If you are asked directions, send the driver to the nearest store or service station.

4. Light and companions are your allies and the rapist’s enemies. Noise, like screaming or blowing a whistle carried around your neck may help too. However, a whistle should be on a light, breakable chain, so the attacker can’t use it to choke you in your car:

5. Check the floor before entering the car for hidden intruders front and back. A small flashlight will help at night.

6. Drive with your door locked. Rapists alone or in gangs sometimes wait at intersections for a car to stop.

7. If your car is invaded while you’re driving, run off the road or ram into a parked car or some other stationary object. Leap out and flee at the moment of impact.

8. If someone is following you, pull into a service station or other public spot. If not possible, turn on your flasher lights, beep your horn intermittently, blink your lights and watch for a police car. Do not drive home or toward a more isolated area.

9. Beware of another driver who signals that you have a flat tire or other problem. This is a common ruse for getting an intended victim stopped. It is safest to slow down, but keep going, even if you ruin a tire. If you do stop, leave your engine running. Don’t get out until sure no one has pulled up behind you.

10. If your car breaks down where you feel it is too risky to get out, say inside with the emergency light (flashers) on, door locked, windows rolled up tight and watch for police. Set rear view mirror so you can see all around you. If someone stops to help, talk through the glass. Roll down your window just enough to drop money for him to call for aid.

11. Don’t stop at the scene of a breakdown. Some are staged deliberately as traps. The best help is to drive to the nearest phone or use your cellular telephone to summon help from the highway patrol.

AT HOME

1. Don’t give clues that you are female or living alone. Use your first and middle initials in the telephone book, omit address. Invent a roommate for your mailbox.

2. Wait for the next elevator if you’ll have to ride alone with a stranger. Always stand where you can control the buttons.

3. Have your keys out when you approach your door, to avoid being distracted while you search in your purse and to cut the time it takes to get inside.

4. If you feel threatened by someone you know (over half of rapes involve acquaintances), act at once to lessen your danger, even if it means leaving your own home.

SHOULD YOU FIGHT BACK?

Some feminist groups say “always,” they claim that when victims do resist, they almost always get away unharmed. Most police officers recommend to scout your surroundings first, your own capabilities and the attacker’s resources. A rapist is dangerous and unpredictable. If he’s armed, you may escalate a rape into a homicide by resisting. On the other hand, you may feel you have to fight to save your life. With rape, there is no one “right” way to respond, some rapists may be turned off by passive resistance, claiming you have venereal disease, or by forcing yourself to vomit or urinate.

If you do actively resists, GIVE IT ALL YOU’VE GOT. You need to prepare yourself psychologically ahead of time in order to respond effectively when you need to. Incredibly, some victims are capable of great strength if the situation calls for it and their lives are at stake. A solid punch in the stomach, a kick in the groin or the knee and/or poking the eyes of the attacker may give the victim a chance to escape.

TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN TO PROTECT THEMSELVES

1. Encourage companionship, provided your children’s friends are not troublemakers, there is safety in numbers.

2. Teach them to conceal valuables. They can carry money in their shoes, pack lunches with books in a small backpack. If lunch is served at school, see if you can pay for it in advance, so they do not need to carry cash. Don’t let them wear expensive jewelry to school.

3. Be cautious in warning your children “never” to fight back. If they are outnumbered with no chance of successfully resisting, that is probably the only choice. But a child who meekly caves in to any affront is only asking to be a victim again and again. Knowing some principles of self defense and fighting to win can sometimes discourage bullies.

4. If you are not home when you children get home from school, arrange to call them at the time they should arrive. If they are not there, know the names and phone numbers of the friends they walk home with and the teacher so that you can contact them immediately for information on where your children are.

ADVICE FOR BABYSITTERS OR CHILDREN LEFT ALONE AT HOME

1. Always answer the telephone. A burglar may be calling to see if there is someone in the house.

2. Tell them never to admit that you are gone. A phone caller should be told that you are “busy” right now and will call back when you are available.

3. Never open the door to anyone. The child or sitter can say you are busy and can’t come to the door. If the person persists, the police should be called and told “there is a man at the door who won’t leave,” your children or sitter should also give the police your home address, which may be jotted down near the telephone for quick reference.

IF YOUR CHILD BECOMES A VICTIM OF A SCHOOL CRIME

1. Notify the school principal and press for immediate action. The best way to keep a problem from escalating is to indicate forcefully at the outset that repetition won’t be tolerated. Administrators are often reluctant to act decisively, especially when an offender is a student.

2. You have the right to call the police if your child is robbed, beaten, threatened, molested or otherwise harassed, even in the school building. School administrators rarely involve the police voluntarily because of concern regarding their school’s image. But schools are public property and your child is entitled to the same police protection there as elsewhere.