SAFETY

How to Avoid, Deal-With, or Survive the Aftermath of

 Violence and Terrorism in the New Millennium

Richard Bruce Isaacs

Tim Powers

The program in this book is approved by the members of

The Association of Defensive Spray Manufacturers

and The ASR Instructors Council

2 February 2006, located at: www.lubrinco.com to: RBIsaacs@lubrinco.com .

THE

SEVEN STEPS

TO

PERSONAL

THE 

SEVEN STEPS

TO

PERSONAL SAFETY

The

Seven Steps

to

Personal Safety

How to Avoid, Deal With, or Survive the Aftermath of

Violence and Terrorism in the New Millennium

Richard Bruce Isaacs

Tim Powers

Designed by Catherine Nicodemo

Illustrated by D. F. Bach

This book is not intended to replace a training program approved by a

manufacturer of any self-defense item.

The Center for Personal Defense Studies

New York, New York
Published by

The Center for Personal Defense Studies

P.O. Box 1225, Brookline, MA 02446-0010.

Copyright © 1993-2006 by Stephen L. Isaacs

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced

in any manner whatsoever without written 

permission except in the case of brief quotations

embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The publisher and the authors disclaim liability

to any party for injury or loss incurred as a 

result of information contained in this book.

We have made every effort to trace the ownership of all copyrighted material and to secure

permission from copyright holders. In the event

of any question arising as to the ownership of

any material, we will be pleased to make any

necessary correction in future printings.

Library of Congress

Catalog Card Number: 93-90239

ISBN 1-883633-00-1

ISBN 1-883633-01-X (pbk.)

Design by Catherine Nicodemo

Illustration by D. F. Bach

Spanish-language edition also available.

For information or to order, address:

The Center for Personal Defense Studies

P.O. Box 1225, Brookline, MA 02446-0010.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

First Edition 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Thou preparest a shield before me

in the presence of my enemies

Dead Sea Scrolls

23rd Psalm

Table Of Contents

WHY WE WROTE THIS BOOK

AND HOW IT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE xiii

Understanding the Present Threat xiv

A Continuum of Plans and Strategies

for Personal Security and Safety xv

A Systems Approach to Personal Security 

and Safety xvi

The Seven Steps to Personal Safety xviii

How To Avoid Violence

STEP 1

BE AWARE OF YOUR VULNERABILITY 5

STEP 2

MENTALLY COMMIT TO DOING

EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO STAY SAFE 15

What Should You Do If Attacked? 15

The Four Priorities of Survival 17

"The Decision" 18

Reducing Violence 20
STEP 3

BE AWARE OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT

AND TAKE REASONABLE PRECAUTIONS 35

Violent Behavior 35

Anticipating Violence 38

Awareness 43

The Etheric Experience, Behavioral Warning

Signs, and Pre-attack Cues 45

Safety Tips 50

General Tips 52

Domestic Violence 57

In Your Car 59

At Home 62

On the Street 66

In Public Places 68

Workplace Violence 71

School Violence 73

Stalking 75

Random Violence and Acts of Terror 78

Kids 81

STEP 4

GET AWAY BY CREATING

AND MAINTAINING DISTANCE 87

Success Factors in Self-Defense 87

Physical Skills for Self-Defense 91
How To Deal With Violence

STEP 5

STOP THE VIOLENCE

AND THEN GET AWAY 107

Emergency Safety Tools and the Law 108

What Should You Use

to Protect Yourself? 108

Physical Skills 108

Emergency Safety Tools 111

Using Emergency Safety Tools 132

Techniques and Tactics 134

Using the Personal Defense Spray 139

Using the Defensive Keychain 156

Desperate Measures in Sexual Assault 175

Creative Visualization 

and Dream Practice 176

Psycho-Physiological Aspects of

Violent Confrontations 177

Psychological Aspects of Surviving

Violent Confrontations 180

And Don't Forget Our Goal 184
How To Survive The Aftermath

Of Violence and Terrorism

STEP 6

IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY

THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES 189

What the Police Will Ask You 191

Factors in justification of use-of-force 191

The Confrontational Continuum 194

What You Should Ask the Police 198

If You Are Sexually Assaulted 199

Do You Need an Attorney? 201

STEP 7

DEAL WITH THE POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS

OF TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE 207

CONCLUSION 213

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 215

TACTICAL WARM-UPS 225

Benefits of Tactical Warm-ups 225

Heating Phase 226

Stretching Phase 228

Tune-ups 230

Cool-downs 230

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 231


xiii

WHY WE WROTE THIS BOOK

AND HOW IT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE

We, the authors of this book, have invested much

of our adult lives in trying to understand violence. We’ve felt the horror, terror, and anguish

that violence causes. We’ve seen the needless

suffering of innocent people who could have

avoided or escaped a violent situation with just a

little knowledge and preparation. We watched,

from our window, the World Trade Center collapse, and knew that some of those who died

could have, with knowledge and forethought,

survived even this crime.

Violence has become more intrusive year after

year in this country. While the police do their

best, it’s their job to enforce the laws of the state

for the state. And while it comes as a shock to

most of us, it is not the job of law enforcement

agencies — nor the state — to protect us from

harm. It is, therefore, up to each of us to take

firsthand action to ensure our, and our family’s,

personal safety. This does not mean taking the

law into our own hands. It does mean developing

our own knowledge, techniques, tactics, and

strategies to guard against being the needless

subject of violence.

The focus of this book, therefore, is on

awareness and avoidance. It is directed toward

those who are aware that there is some potential
xiv

for “bad things” to happen in this world, and who

would like to know the options involved in balancing freedom and safety — particularly since

these options are minor and non-intrusive, much

the way wearing a seatbelt — a major life-saver

— is a minor inconvenience when contemplating

the alternatives in an automobile accident.

Our primary goal is to teach you to avoid danger; however, we will also deal with what to do if

all preventive efforts fail and you’re confronted

by an actual attack or disaster, as well as what you

should do after you have survived violence.

We hope you will read this entire book cover

to cover before you implement the strategies,

tactics, and techniques we present for your consideration. We have chosen to exclude dramatic

horror stories: Our job is to teach, not frighten.

Understanding the Present Threat

Most people have a fairly accurate view of the

relative danger and safety of their lives. But some

people, when looking at the potential danger, take

the attitude that “It will never happen to me,” or

say that “If it’s going to happen then it’s going to

happen,” or think “I just don’t have enough time

to take precautions.” In most cases it’s not a

question of risk, fate, or time: They just don’t use

common sense in taking the minimal precautions

that would allow them to avoid, get away from, or

survive the aftermath of terrorism or violence.
xv

If it ever happens, will you be prepared? Will

you have a plan of action? Will you have done

everything you could to ensure your personal

security and safety?

A Continuum of Plans and Strategies

for Personal Security and Safety

Our business is to analyze danger, whether from

terrorists, criminals, or the environment, and to

develop plans and strategies to lessen or eliminate

your risk. As professionals committed to developing improved safety techniques, we constantly

look for and try out new ideas and options that

will effectively get that job done for you, independent of your age, your sex, your size, your

strength, or your athletic ability. When we find

something that works, we add it to our repertoire.

Understand that there is no magic way of

avoiding being at risk. Human behavior — yours

or a criminal’s — cannot be predicted with any

degree of certainty, especially in a crisis situation, and our daily lives expose us to risks of fire,

flood, crime, disease, and accident, so we are

quick to concede that no technique is or ever can

be 100% effective every time for every person in

every situation.

In the final analysis, you have to do the best

you can with the options available to you, and the

more options you have, the greater your chance

for survival. We can’t say to you that our sug-
xvi

gestions will always work. We can only say that

— based on our expertise, training, and experience — the procedures outlined in The Seven

Steps to Personal Safety are realistic, effective,

and practical. They have stood the test of time

and are still standing.

A Systems Approach

to Personal Security and Safety

In designing a plan of positive action, we try to

think of everything that can happen before, during, and after a situation involving risk. Then we

design and test a series of plans for avoiding and

dealing with these events and behaviors. This

type of planning is called when/then thinking:

when this happens, then I will do that; when that

happens, then I will do this.

The key is to know clearly what your objectives are. Your objectives are to avoid being at

risk in the first place, to get away safely if you

are at risk, and to survive the aftermath if you

can’t get away. To achieve these objectives, you

will need a series of options that give you the

ability to change your personal security plan as

circumstances change. The more options you

have, the greater your chance for survival.

Not every option presented here will be

appropriate for everyone all the time. But, taken

as a whole, these options are intended to be
xvii

1. According to Taylor Buckner of Concordia University, even if

you exclude all gun deaths the United States still has a homicide rate two and one-half times higher than that of Canada.

effective whether you are a teenager or a septuagenarian, a dancer or someone in a wheelchair.

America is the greatest country on Earth. It is

also, even excluding terrorism, one of the more

violent.1 Dr. Peter DiVasto posits that this may be

a result of long-term post-violence stress disorder

resulting from the American experience in the

Civil War, and since institutionalized within our

culture. Whatever the reasons, if we are going to

stay here in the midst of the violence, let’s do

something about it!!!

The Seven Steps to Personal Safety will allow

you to be more aware of your surroundings, to be

more prudent when appropriate, and to weave a

system of personal security and safety into the

fabric of your everyday life. You will learn how

to gradually modify your daily behavior to

reduce your exposure to risk.

These changes in behavior should change your

attitude toward life in general, but shouldn’t lead

to a negative paranoia. Instead, since they help

keep you safer and feeling more in control, they

should result in an increase in self-assurance and

a renewed appreciation for the good things in life.

The following Seven Steps to Personal Safety

flow naturally from one to the next. The initial

four steps are the ranking priorities: avoiding

danger. The next step helps you deal with the

worst-case scenario of an assault or other incident.
xviii

The last two steps deal with the aftermath of

being involved in violence, whether from criminals, or the environment, or nature. While much

space will be devoted to personal violence, our

broad concern is your general safety.

And Our Other Goal

The information we present here will help keep

you safe. We hope that it will also allow you to

think critically about a variety of social, political,

and ethical issues relating to the use of power,

force, and safety on all levels. After all, the decisions you make about how to deal with threats

you face are the same as the decisions governments make about the threats countries face. The

process used to decide if choices are reasonable or

crazy, right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable

is the same. It requires you to ask five questions:

1. What problem are you trying to solve?

2. How can can your action, plan, policy, or

measure fail in practice?

3. Given the failure modes, how well does it

solve the problem?

4. What are the costs, both financial and social,

associated with it, and flowing from its unintended consequences (and there are always

unintended consequences)?

5. Given the effectiveness and costs, is the

action, plan, policy, or measure worth it?
xvii

The Seven Steps to Personal Safety

Step 1

Be aware of your vulnerability.

Step 2

Mentally commit to doing everything you can

to stay safe.

Step 3

Be aware of your environment

and take reasonable precautions.

Step 4

Get away by creating and maintaining distance.

Step 5

Stop the violence and then get away.

Step 6

Immediately notify the appropriate authorities.

Step 7

Deal with the post-traumatic stress of violence.

Best wishes and be safe,

Richard B. Isaacs

New York City, New York

How To Avoid Violence

BE AWARE OF YOUR VULNERABILITY

5

STEP 1

BE AWARE OF YOUR VULNERABILITY

Most of us are concerned about our personal

safety and the personal safety of our loved ones.

The big question is how we can live in safety, free

of confrontation and stress, and, failing that, how

we can protect ourselves. To a large extent your

first priority should be to judge how much potential danger you really face, and then decide what

reasonable and prudent steps you should take to

avoid or deal with this level of potential danger.

On first blush it would appear that violence

and post-September 11th danger has escalated

tremendously, and is totally out of control

throughout the country. Both newspapers and

television news broadcasts are filled, daily, with

horrible acts of senseless violence guaranteed to

scare any thinking person, and senseless violence

has become the staple of television and the movies. Excluding acts of political terrorism, the

National Institute of Justice released statistics in

1991 which indicate that every U.S. citizen has

an 83% chance of being violently assaulted (rape,

murder, or robbery) at least once in his or her

lifetime. And while we have had few acts of terrorism, we are certainly given the impression that

it is omnipresent and likely
6

This certainly inclines us to believe that violence is everywhere, and, to a large extent, your

analysis of risk will be determined by a combination of what you see in newspapers on

television, and in the movies, and by whether you

know people who have been assaulted, or have

been assaulted yourself. In general, your gut

feelings will be a fairly accurate assessment of

your risk1.

On the other hand, it is clear that reporting of

violence by the media is much better and more

active than ever before, and that violence has

become a mainstay of the media. Because of this,

it is important to examine the appropriate statistics to find out what is really going on: Is there

more violence, or merely more reported violence?

1. The exception to this is fear of rape among women (while

more men than women are actually sexually assaulted, this is

primarily in the correctional environment). Some studies have

claimed that one quarter to one half of all women will be

sexually assaulted during their lifetimes. In these studies

sexual assault is defined by the researcher, rather than the

women involved. In other studies, where women define the

event, the figure comes in at between 2% and 5%, which is in

line with Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that roughly two

out of every thousand women are the victims of rape,

attempted rape, and other sex crimes each year, including

both reported and unreported events. 

We note that unwarranted fear can unnecessarily circumscribe

the life and actions of the fearful person. Equally unfortunate,

inappropriate levels of fear can cause people to take social

actions which attempt to needlessly circumscribe individual liberties. Rene Denfeld posits in Kill the Body, the Head will Fall:

A Closer Look at Women, Violence, and Aggression (New

York: Warner Books, 1997) that “In this manner, the modern

women’s movements emphasis on victimization may have had

the inadvertant effect of popularizing conservative anticrime

efforts, thus setting the stage for class and ethnic hostility.”
7

In fact, according to “Criminal Victimization

1991” (Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin,

October 1992) in 1981 about 6.6 million violent

incidents occurred, while there were about 6.4

million violent incidents in 1991, confirming the

conviction of many professionals that levels of

violent crime have remained constant for

decades. U.S. News & World Report noted that

“In 1994, the death rate for teens age 15 to 19

was 27 percent lower than in 1970. More striking

— given all the news accounts about endangered

black, male teens — is that their death rate was

virtually identical in 1994 and 1970” (The youth

‘crisis’” David Whitman, May 5, 1997). 2

These figures are taken for the country as a

whole, but vary widely according to where you

live, work, and play. We know intuitively that the

average suburbanite is more at risk than the

average rural dweller, that the average urban

2. Note that one ought to take frightening figures with a grain of

salt. We have heard of, but not seen, two studies which indicated that huge numbers of children have been the victim of

childhood sexual abuse (62%) and incest (19%). These studies supposedly defined “children” to be as old as 18. “Sexual

abuse” was sufficiently loosely defined as to include suggestive remarks between 17-year-olds. “Incest” could include a

one-time voluntary passionate kiss between a 13-year-old and

her second cousin’s 19-year-old stepbrother, or a voluntary

long-term relationship between a 17-year-old and a distantly

related 22-year-old. 

Poorly drawn studies, facts taken out of context, and misquotes trivialize serious problems, and you should be

immediately suspicious of any study that produces dramatic

and startling results, especially if done by groups with a

political agenda, and if they conflict with your own experience and the experience of your friends.
8

dweller is more at risk than the average suburbanite, and that the average inner-city dweller

faces the greatest risk of all. According to

“Criminal Victimization 1991,” Blacks are more

likely than other races to be the subject of violence. Persons under 25 are more likely to be the

subject of violence than older persons. Those

living in households at the lowest income levels

are more likely to be the subject of violence than

those from households in the higher income

brackets. Men are more likely to be the subject of

violence than are women.

Actually, a look at homicide — the ultimate

form of violence in our society — in relation to

other potentially-preventable causes of death

helps put things into perspective. Major causes of

death in an average year include:

Tobacco3 419,000

Iatrogenic injury4 180,000

Alcohol (including drunk driving)3 105,000

Secondhand smoke5 53,000

AIDS3 34,000

Suicide6 31,000

Car accidents7 25,000

Homicide6 22,000

Foodborne illness8 9,100

3. Centers for Disease Control.

4. Journal of the American Medical Association.

5

. Environmental Protection Agency.

6. National Center for Health Statistics.

7. National Safety Council.

8. U.S. News and World Report.
9

Terrorism (2001)9 4,000

Terrorism (average)10 94

Put bluntly, even if you are a criminal (and

roughly 70% of the victims of homicide are

criminals) or an inner-city male youth, your risk

of homicide, including from terrorism, lies statistically somewhere between slim and none.

Unfortunately, there will always be some risk in

your life, no matter who you are, where you live,

or what you do. This is because we all do a lot of

different things in a lot of different places. Some

of these things are riskier than others, and some of

these places are more dangerous than others.

And where are the police during all this? Well,

assume for the moment that there are about

600,000 police officers in the United States. Of

these, 10% are administrative and another 10%

are detectives. This leaves 480,000. Assuming

three shifts, 160,000 police are potentially on

duty at any time. Now factor in vacations and

sick time, and you have well under 150,000

police officers on patrol throughout the country

at any given time, or more than 1,300 people for

each officer on street duty. Clearly, with the

police spread this thin, each of us has to take

responsibility for his or her own protection.

The good news is that, even in the ’90s, less

than 10% of all felonies committed are classified

9. Washington Times.

10. The Guardian. Includes soldiers killed overseas.
10

as being against the person. And even though

there is some statistical possibility that you may

be violently assaulted sometime in your life, this

doesn’t warrant being paranoid. What it does

warrant is accepting the fact that we live in a

violent world and should be prepared to deal with

it. Remember, being prepared is not the same as

being paranoid.

Our goal, therefore, is to have you consciously

develop a feeling for how much risk you, as an

individual, face in your circumstances, and

decide how much effort you might reasonably

wish to put into taking precautions to avoid

problems. Think of reasonable in the context of

driving: If you fasten your seatbelt, you have

taken a reasonable precaution and have greatly

reduced your chance of injury in an accident.

Reasonable precautions don’t require you to lock

yourself in a tower and isolate yourself from the

world. That would be unreasonable.

Here’s the bottom line with Step 1: Don’t adopt

the attitude that “It will never happen to me,” or

say that “If it’s going to happen then it’s going to

happen,” or think “I just don’t have enough time

to take precautions.” Understand, accept, and deal

with the reality and the risk of danger in your

unique circumstances.

Other Risks

Before you worry about the dangers of violence,

however, it is important that you consider other,
11

greater health risks that you accept voluntarily.

For example:

• If you smoke, you are voluntarily taking an

unnecessary risk.

• If you drink more than you should, you are

voluntarily taking an unnecessary risk.

• If you drink and drive, you are voluntarily

taking an unnecessary risk.

• If you don’t take preventive care of your

health, you are voluntarily taking an unnecessary risk.

• If your diet is built around a mixture of fats

and simple carbohydrates, and you never eat

your veggies, you are voluntarily taking an

unnecessary risk.

• If you drive without wearing a seatbelt, you

are voluntarily taking an unnecessary risk.

• If you take drugs, you are voluntarily taking

an unnecessary risk.

• If you buy or sell drugs, or if you engage in

other activities where you deal with violent

people, you are voluntarily taking an unnecessary risk.

• If you are sexually active and do not practice

safe sex every time, you are voluntarily taking

an unnecessary risk.

If you engage in these, or any other high-risk

/high-probability activities, we believe they

should be addressed before you concern yourself

with your personal security and safety.

MENTALLY COMMIT TO DOING

EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO STAY SAFE

15

STEP 2

MENTALLY COMMIT TO DOING

EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO STAY SAFE

What Should You Do If Attacked?

The first question you should ask yourself is

whether you should fight back if attacked, or if

you should just plan on giving in. Obviously there

is no one right answer that covers all situations.

But statistics1 do indicate that in a robbery you

face a 24.7% chance of being injured if you are

unarmed and submit, and that in an assault you

face a 27.3% chance of being injured if you are

unarmed and submit.

There are no hard statistics available for dealing with either terrorist attacks or with someone

commiting acts of violence on multiple people.

On the one hand, the attacker is at his (or their)

most alert during the initial attack. On the other

hand, these incidents go very quickly, and you

are likely to have an increasingly diminished

opportunity to attack later, after the terrorists

have taken control or the madman has finished

with his acts of criminal violence.

1

. We will be quoting statistics throughout this book from Gary

Kleck‘s Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America (New

York: Aldine de Gruyter 1991) and Targeting Guns: Firearms

and Their Control (New York: Aldine de Gruyter 1997).
16

So what do these figures mean you should you

do if, in spite of your best efforts, you are still the

unlucky subject of violence? Should you submit

or fight back? This is a tough decision, and your

response should depend on the particular circumstances of the situation, your degree of preparation, and your best educated guess at the

time as to the intentions of your attacker.

It is our belief that if you do fight back, proper

training will increase your chance of remaining

unharmed, as well as increasing your chances of

remaining unraped, unrobbed, and unmurdered.

In addition to helping you be prepared, training

helps develop the mental commitment and winning attitude that gives you the faith that is the

critical factor in surviving a violent confrontation. A winning attitude is critical to your

success. As Olympic champion Lanny Basham

put it in With Winning in Mind (San Antonio:

XPress Publications, 1988), ‘I am not saying that

everyone who expects to win will always win.

What I am saying is that “if one does not expect

to win, he has no chance at all of winning.’ ”

It is your winning attitude that allows you to fight

back at the appropriate time. It is your winning

attitude that allows you to fight back effectively. It

is your winning attitude that allows you to survive

against an attacker capable of defeating you physically. And it is your winning attitude that allows

you to come away from a violent confrontation
17

feeling good about yourself and what you did,

independent of the physical outcome.

On the down side, it is important to recognize

that criminals consider you their natural prey or

crop, and deeply resent your challenging their

God-given right to harvest you. If a predator has

decided to attack you, it is because he or she has

made the decision, as a risk-aversive businessperson, that you are an easy target.

According to many police and corrections officers with whom we have spoken, prison

interviews indicate that the two things that most

frighten muggers and rapists are dogs (they cannot reason with or intimidate dogs) and people

with guns who give the impression that they

might use them. There is no safe middle ground

between submission and shooting your assailant,

and, as we will see, neither of these alternatives

is totally safe, either.

The Four Priorities of Survival

When dealing with an actual confrontation that

cannot be avoided, your primary goal is survival.

The four priorities for surviving, in order of

importance, are:

1. Mental preparedness: You are more likely to

be able to avoid a confrontation if you’re alert

and prepared. If you are mentally prepared

you will be able to deal with an unavoidable
18

confrontation: You will be able either to avoid

the confrontation, to end the confrontation, or

to survive it and still feel good about yourself.

Thus mental preparedness is your top priority.

2. Tactics: Good tactics, in combination with

mental preparedness, will help you deescalate

a confrontation, and failing that, to get away,

and failing that, to survive.

3. Skill with your safety equipment: Even if your

tactics are good, if you are in a confrontation

and rely on emergency safety tools—but can‘t

make them work—you might as well not have

them. Therefore it is important to have a good

working knowledge of any equipment you

choose to carry. Training and preparation are

critical, since the outcome of an encounter

will usually be decided in the first 5 to 10

seconds.

4. Selection of optimum safety equipment: This

refers to choosing the most appropriate emergency safety tool. The equipment you choose

is less important than your ability to use it,

since any emergency safety tool used well is

generally better than a more powerful emergency safety tool used poorly.

"The Decision"

We hope that by now you have consciously

resolved to be able to defend yourself if appropriate, as well as to avoid trouble whenever
19

possible. If so, you must make The Decision. The

Decision is that you consciously vow that your

life—and the lives of your loved ones—is worth

fighting for, that you have a right and a moral

obligation to defend yourself and your loved

ones, and that you are willing to do whatever is

necessary to survive a violent confrontation,

whether this means submitting if it is appropriate, or harming your assailant if it is necessary.

If you do make The Decision, commit mentally

and physically to being a survivor. Make a firm

resolution to do everything within reason to prepare for an assault. If you have never had any

contact with violence, this will seem excessive

and frightening. But if you plan for it and someday it happens, you will have the mindset for

dealing with it and, more important, for surviving

it. If it doesn‘t happen, it may be because you

were prepared, so you lose nothing and may gain

in terms of both personal safety and confidence.

Part of making The Decision is resolving that

there is a line that you won‘t cross, an action you

won‘t take. Where this line is drawn should be

based on your realistic fear of being controlled

by a person who wishes to do you harm. It means

that you are willing to do whatever it takes to

stay safe. It means that you may have to harm

another person in order to prevent him or her

from harming you or someone you love. Thus,

for example, you may be willing to run away if

someone snatches your purse or gold chain, but if
20

your child is at risk, or if someone tries to take

you to an isolated area, you may be willing to do

them great harm.

Even if you can‘t make The Decision, and

decide to concentrate on risk-avoidance (which is

where most of your effort should go in any case),

we would still urge you to learn the physical

skills involved in self-defense, as some feel

strongly that to make a moral decision not to use

force, the potential use of force must be an

available option. And, of course, it would be nice

to have the skills available if you change your

mind later.

It is critical that we all—everyone, both man

and woman—come to an understanding of our

feelings in this area before a confrontation

occurs, since a timid effort at resistance can

cause the angry attacker to hurt you as punishment for resisting his attack.

Reducing Violence

Some say that there are two kinds of violent

people: those violent by nature and those violent

by nurture. There is little we can do in advance

about those who are violent by nature. But we

personally believe that there that there ought to

be something we can do about those who will

become violent because of poverty, social conditions, or poor parenting. Since 70% of all violent

crimes —mostly drug related—are committed by
21

6% of the violent criminals, every person kept

out of this group makes a significant difference.2

Therefore, while not directly related to the

short-term issue of personal safety, we believe it

is important that we all make a social commitment to dealing with those issues that foster

violence by disallowing more socially acceptable

aggressive outlets. Unless we, as a society,

commit to this, there is little chance that violence

will be reduced.

There are three fundamental parts to this

commitment. The first part is assuring that

members of society capable of participation are

given the opportunity to participate. Jobs with a

prospect for advancement must be made available for all who wish to work.

Sadly, changes in technology in our postindustrial world have rendered a significant

portion of our workforce, from agricultural and

blue-collar worker through many middle managers and above, redundant.

2. We note, however, that no action taken by law enforcement, the legislature, or the judiciary has ever had any marked

beneficial effect on crime, and that Daniel Patrick Moynihan

has noted in Miles to Go (Cambridge: Harvard University

Press, 1996) as Rossi’s Iron Law that “If there is any empirical law that is emerging from the past decade of widespread

evaluation research activities, it is that the expected value for

any measured effect of a social program is zero.” Thus,

although we touch on issues which seem to us significant, we

do not pretend to make weighty and authoritative statements

about social policy solutions for dealing with problems that

rage, uncontrolled, throughout not only our own country but

the entire postindustrial world.
22

In the past, as one area of the economy became

somewhat more efficient, workers could move to

another area. Thus, the invention of the cotton

gin, the steel plow, the tractor, and agricultural

defoliants forced agricultural workers from the

South to the new factories of the North. This

changed in the 1950s, when numerical process

control automated the factories, beginning the

decline of the blue-collar worker and moving

people into service industries. This in turn

changed in the late 1980s, when the availability

of affordable computers allowed the replacement

of white-collar workers and their managers.

For all practical purposes, we no longer need a

significant number of workers in agriculture: Most

farms are now highly efficient automated agribusinesses which employ relatively few farmers.

We no longer need large numbers of workers

in factories: Most manufacturing is now done by

highly efficient automated machinery and

requires relatively few employees. 

And thanks to the computer and modern communications, most modern service businesses are

now more efficient and automated, and need

fewer people. This is causing many companies, as

this is being written, to be looking at initial layoffs of at least 15% of their staff. In fact, between

downsizing and more efficient startups, some

estimate that within the next decade a minimum of

one out of every five people in the labor pool will

be both unemployed and unemployable!
23

We pay a serious price for this. According to

Effects of Diminished Economic Opportunities on

Social Stress: Heart Attacks, Strokes, and Crime

by Mary Merva and Richard Fowles (Washington,

D.C.: Economic Policy Institute, 1992), the following rate increases are the direct results of a 1%

increase in the unemployment rate:

Major heart disease mortality up 5.59%

Cerebrovascular (stroke) mortality up 3.05%

Homicide mortality up 6.74%

Violent crime up 3.39%

Property crime up 2.36%

Murder/non-negligent manslaughter up 5.10%

Robbery up 3.83%

Burglary up 3.67%

Larceny up 2.12%

These figures, quite possibly realistic for the

adult community, are nonetheless unacceptable.

There are other related things happening. For

one thing, many companies, in order to cut down

on overhead, are converting former employees to

“consultants,” to whom no benefits are paid, so

that the money that would have been paid for

benefits becomes profit. There are two problems

with this: First, a significant portion of investment capital comes from pension funds, which

will diminish in the future for lack of pensioners.

Second, and more important, many people who
24

would have retired with a corporate pension to

sustain them will now reach retirement age with

no pension (the benefits expenses having been

converted to corporate profit), creating an enormous new social problem as old-age benefit

concerns are cunningly moved from the corporate

sector to the public sector.

How does one deal with this difficult social

issue? This is obviously beyond our purview, but

intriguing possibilities for moving society from

unemployment to leisure are explored in Jeremy

Rifkin‘s fascinating book The End of Work (New

York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995). Taken all

together, they might help push back an increasing

tide of violence from one set of causes, and

would be a worthwhile social experiment.

The second part is assuring that all members of

society are equipped to participate in society in a

meaningful way as both workers and citizens.

When jobs are available, education is the

dividing line between the haves and the havenots. If we do not work toward having a

population with common values that can speak,

read, reason, and manipulate numbers in a

meaningful fashion, allowing gainful employment, we are condemned to a continuing cycle of

poverty, crime, and violence. Sadly, a 1993 study

by the United States Department of Education

indicated that almost half of all Americans were,

in effect, functionally illiterate.
25

In addition, if children do not grow up learning

shared cultural values, with a learned optimism

and desire to work and participate, they become,

in effect, culturally illiterate, and will have problems dealing productively with society.

The third part is reducing the glorification of

violence and the view that violence is an acceptable problem-solving tool. While the media do

not cause violent behavior, television, movies,

and videos do an excellent job of teaching new

behavior and showing that specific behaviors are

legitimate and appropriate. And they frequently

present violence as the most effective—often the

only effective—problem-solving tool. And our

largest selling class of video, pornography,

sometimes shows gratuitous violence toward

women as acceptable behavior.

Perhaps worse, violence is offered as a tool

that is free of consequences: On the screen you

can stab, strike, sexually assault, or shoot someone and they either die cleanly or are back to

normal by the end of the episode. What is never

shown is the lifetime of disability and dysfunction, or the million-dollar health-care bills.

Children see hate and violence presented about

once every six minutes on television. With this

much institutionalized media violence working to

desensitize them, there should be little surprise

that where there is no alternative set of values

being taught and learned at home, there is a
26

higher level of youth violence, which then grows

up to become adult violence.3

How do we deal with this last piece of the

puzzle? By voting with your dollars against violence: As an example, one of the authors of this

book will not pay to see any movie with a gun in

its advertisement. If more of us do this, maybe

violence as entertainment will be reduced.

In the same vein we must eliminate the predisposition toward violence that children develop

when growing up with domestic violence.

According to congressional testimony by Dr.

Beverly Jackson of the National Center for

Clinical Infant Programs, domestic violence can

be a significant factor in the creation of social

violence outside the home.

And we must each, by our own speech and

actions, and by our participation in community

activities, work to break the cycle of hate, prejudice, and rage that infects our society, and to

assure that merit is rewarded with advancement,

independent of sex, race, or creed. This means

not only avoiding bias ourselves, but also speaking out against prejudice and injustice when we

come across it, rather than passively ignoring it,

3. Moynihan notes that Elaine Ciulla Kamark and William A.

Glaston, in a paper prepared for the Progressive Policy Institute in 1990, cite Douglas Smith and G. Roger Jarjora in

discussing juvenile crime that “The relationship is so strong

that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and

crime. This conclusion shows up time and time again in the

literature; poverty is far from the sole determinant of crime.”
27

which is a tacit form of acceptance, or worse,

yielding to peer pressure and allowing ourselves

to believe it is right.

Finally, there is the critical subject of teenage

boy violence (girls and pre-teens commit virtually no violent crimes, nor do they successfully

commit suicide). We believe that much violence,

and particularly teenage boy violence, is largely a

matter of choice — a bad choice —on the part of

fathers, educators, and society. 

In Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotion Life

of Boys (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000),

Dan Kindlon, Ph.D. and Michael Thompson

Ph.D. discuss some fascinating issues which

relate both directly and indirectly to teenage boy

violence. We recommend this book highly to

every father and teacher, as well as anyone else

interested in children or the issue of violence.

One issue is that, unlike girls, most boys are

raised as emotional illiterates. As in other areas

of knowledge, it is unlikely that you will be able

to recognize, think about, or appropriately deal

with any subject for which you lack vocabulary.

Why do we have this problem with emotional

issues in teenage boys? Largely because our

society promulgates an image of manliness built

around physical prowess and silent — unemotional — suffering: We actively discourage

emotional fluency, and encourage, as has been

mentioned, a belief that violence is often an

appropriate problem solving tool for real men.
28

This is made worse by that culture of cruelty

which teenage boys inhabit, where they try desperately to fit into the existing social structure in

order to avoid fear and anxiety. Those at the bottom of the teenage social food chain tend to

suffer greatly, often with permanent emotional

injury because of their lack of those emotional

resources with would allow them to cope.

The problem is made worse still by the peer

pressure which discourages other teenage boys

from helping those unfortunates being pickedupon, an unfortunate characteristic that often

carries over into adulthood.

It is made worse yet by the fact that parents

and teachers fail to recognize the emotional

abuse of the social hierarchy — or consider it to

be somehow normal — and do not generally

make any effort to keep this from happening.4

Without adult intervention it is virtually impossible for it to be dealt with by most adolescents,

which means that levels of anger build up for

which there is no coping mechanism.

When you throw into the mixture fathers who

are emotionally distanced and non-participative

in their sons’ lives, a lack of boundaries on the

part of parents who have no understanding of the

4. This, by the bye, is a choice on the part of parents and educators, either by commission or omission. This author

remembers that, in his high school class, word came down

from above that no student would fail to attend a prom

because they did not have a date. To this day, our high school

reunions, which take place every five years, are attended by

pretty much the entire class.
29

needs of boys, and an inappropriate level of discipline, it is a wonder that more boys aren’t out

of control!

While there is a stiff long term societal price to

be paid for all of this, it is, fortunately, rarely one

that reaches the point of tragic violence: Out of

control is not the same as homicidal! Clearly

there has been bullying and unhappiness in boys

since the beginning of time, and it would be a

serious error to blame these factors for allowing

boys to believe that violence is justified as a

problem solving tool, or that the publicity that

follows these incidents justifies the actions.

Oddly, when we look at those anomalously few

truly catastrophic outburst of violence which,

when they happen, dominate the news, it almost

always appears that they involve the same group

of disenfranchised5 teen boys. Looking at these

incidents from the perspective of protective services professionals, the incidents are not,

retrospectively, a surprise. Nor do we see any

justification for the buildup to the events having

gone unnoticed. In virtually every case the problem ought to have been noticed and dealt with

long before it burst into violence.

In general, there is roughly the same cause for

surprise as when an automobile radiator boils

over after the warning light has been on for an

5. Disenfranchisement starts early — as early as elementary

school — so remember that kids need a friend their own age,

and if we see kids who don’t have any friends, we, as parents

and teachers, have a responsibility to do something about it.
30

extended period of time! Unfortunately, while

their peers may recognize that a fellow student is

out of control, it is sadly unlikely that they will

be in a position to tell anyone.6

 More sadly, is it

unlikely that parents, teachers, or the community

will recognize and deal with the most obvious

signs. More sadly still, although we know, as

protective specialists, what signs to look for, the

incidents are rare enough that nobody seems to

really want to deal with the issue.

These incidents happen because of our failures

as parents, schools, and local communities. They

are needless tragedies which will continue to

happen because of our general indifference, as a

society, to the developmental, emotional, and

social needs of our children.

Clearly terrorism is a somewhat different issue.

In many cases it starts as a result of either some

political goal or injustice (more often real than

political), but soon transforms itself into a tool

for power and wealth.

The exception to this is institutionalized religious terrorism, which many of us find difficult

to understand. Looking at the West, where the

predominant religion is Christianity and the

Western equivalent of institutionalized religious

terrorism would arguably be the Inquisition, we

6. This author had a classmate who became more and more disturbed, and so strange that most classmates were afraid to deal

with him. He subsequently killed several family members. It

never occurred to us to speak with an adult about this, and

discussions with counselors, years later, indicated that they

would not have known what to do even if told.
31

note that the Catholic Encyclopedia says

“Moderns experience difficulty in understanding

this institution, because they have, to no small

extent, lost sight of two facts.”

“On the one hand they have ceased to grasp

religious belief as something objective, as the

gift of God, and therefore outside the realm of

free private judgment; on the other they no

longer see in the Church a society perfect and

sovereign, based substantially on a pure and

authentic Revelation, whose first most important

duty must naturally be to retain unsullied this

original deposit of faith. Before the religious

revolution of the sixteenth century these views

were still common to all Christians; that orthodoxy should be maintained at any cost seemed

self-evident.”

For religions that have not undergone a reformation, it is therefore not unreasonable to

assume that we will see the same developmental

behavior that we saw in Christianity. While we

might expect that the modern world would ameliorate some of the worst excesses, we have seen

that this has not been the case with fringe groups.

How do we, as a world, deal with this larger

issue? Sadly, this is clearly beyond the competence of the authors of this text, and, thusfar, the

competence of our political, social, and religious

systems as well.
BE AWARE OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT

AND TAKE REASONABLE PRECAUTIONS

35

STEP 3

BE AWARE OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT

AND TAKE REASONABLE PRECAUTIONS

Violent Behavior

Before we get down to concrete preventive measures for reducing your risk of assault, you need

a basic understanding of violent behavior.

Four Elements of Violent Behavior

Background or History

The first element of violent behavior is background or history. There is nothing you can do

about a person’s upbringing and background, but

there are ways you can deal with people you

know have a violent, irrational past, or strangers

who give you reason to believe that they have a

violent, irrational past. If a person has a history

of violence and has a track record of irrational

behavior, or is exhibiting one or more of the

behavioral signs and cues we will list below, you

should consider having nothing to do with him

unless there are other, rational, people with you.

If you are alone with someone like this, you must

anticipate potential danger. Even if it is a spouse, a

parent, a sibling, a relative, a friend, a date, or a

new acquaintance, you may have to run away for
36

your own safety — even if it means running naked

and screaming from your own home.

Whenever possible, it is best to start dealing with

this problem when it is first observed. That is to

say, if, early in a relationship a spouse or potential

spouse becomes abusive, you should break off the

relationship. If you observe someone being abusive

to a child, or to a spouse or parent, you should

report them to the appropriate authorities. While

this may appear to be meddling, the truth is that

each of us has an ethical obligation to society which

includes caring for others.

Reinforcement

The second element of violent behavior is the

reinforcement available from the violent act.

In many cases you can’t prevent the positive

reinforcement that an attacker will get from

assaulting you. There are, however, two things

you can do.

First, conceal jewelry and other valuable items

that might attract a mugger or robber, and minimize the amount of money you carry with you.

This will reduce your attractiveness as a target

for thieves

Second, try not to precipitate an assault by

arguing with an emotional person (remember, the

reward for assaulting you is shutting you up).

This can be surprisingly difficult in cases where

there is a buildup to the assault, where you are

clearly in the right, and where the assaultive
37

party is clearly in the wrong. In these cases, our

tendency is to continue the discussion — or

smack the person — until we prove our point,

rather than just walking away. While satisfying

to the ego, there are several problems with this. 

For a start, you could well lose the fight and be

seriously injured, and endure a lifetime of suffering and medical expense. Alternatively, you

might injure the other party, and, since you were

an active participant, you might find yourself

liable either criminally or civilly for your opponents injuries.

In general, no matter what you have seen on

television, violence is not an acceptable problem

solution, and walking away from a confrontation

is generally the appropriate solution.

Opportunity

The third element of violent behavior is the

opportunity to commit an assault and the assailant’s risk in the commission of the attack. This is

a factor over which you can have a degree of

control. If you eliminate the opportunity for

someone to attack you then you can’t be attacked.

You haven’t affected your attacker’s desire to

attack you, just his opportunity. Since it is easier

to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble,

the ideal situation is to avoid confrontation.
38

Risk for the Assailant

The final element of violent behavior is the

risk faced by the assailant. Most violence that

occurs outside the home is usually committed by

the sociopathic predator. A sociopath is a person

whose behavior is largely amoral and asocial,

and who is characterized by irresponsibility,

perverse and impulsive behavior, and a lack of

remorse, shame, or sense of wrongdoing. The

problem with attackers of this type is that not

only are they opportunists, but they are also professionals in the sense that they have plans and

strategies for committing their crimes. Getting

caught, injured, or killed is a calculated risk they

have already factored in, with the potential gain

balanced against the risk of punishment. Unfortunately, the risk factor from our current criminal

justice system is low in most cases. It is estimated that for every 100 serious crimes only 5

criminals go to jail. And the average time served

on a life sentence is 7.75 years.

Anticipating Violence

As part of growing up we gain knowledge and

experience, and we predict and anticipate things

based on what we have learned. When it comes

to dealing with a person who might become violent, we can learn to recognize those

circumstances, behaviors, and bodily cues that

may come before an assault. In fact, after many
39

1. As an example, according to Donna Chaiet of prePARE, Inc.,

of New York City, over 50% of all rapes are categorized as

acquaintance/date rapes.

2. Lest you think that those close to you are most likely to do

you in, according to Kleck, FBI studies indicate that in

roughly 53% of homicides the relationship was unknown or

killer and victim were strangers, and about 28% involved

mostly-drug-related criminal acquaintances. Only about 12%

of homicides involve victims and offenders in the same family, a bit over 3% involve friends, and a bit over 3% involve

boy- or girlfriends. This means only 19% might be considered

homicide by intimates.

attacks we discover that there was some warning

which was ignored, so we need both to recognize

clues and to not ignore them!

Circumstances That Lead to Violence

Social Interaction

Both parties in most murder and rape1 cases

are members of the same social class and residential area. Murders2 and assaults are committed

by a mixture (in descending order) of strangers,

associates, friends, and family. They often occur

in private, without a prior break-in or illegal

entry. Where the assailant knows the person

being assaulted, it usually takes place in a house,

an apartment, or some other private area.

Danger Zones

Danger zones are distances between people

and things that jeopardize our personal safety.
40

3. In other cultures these distances are different. Thus, a European

is likely to consider Americans cold because we want to carry

on a social conversation at 4 to 12 feet, where they are most

comfortable at 2 to 4 feet. Americans may consider Europeans

“sexy” because they make social or personal contacts at distances that are personal or intimate by American standards.

We classify distances for normal American3

social interaction as follows:

Public: 12 or more feet away.

Social: 4 to 12 feet away.

Personal: 2 to 4 feet away.

Intimate: direct contact to 2 feet away.

We all lead busy lives in which we are constantly moving between work, restaurants, the

theater, sporting events, and home. We travel on

foot and on public transport with people we don’t

know. We have learned that in certain situations

— waiting in line, riding a full elevator, or taking

in a ball game — it is reasonable to be

shoulder-to-shoulder with total strangers.

Anytime people are within these distances,

whether you know them or not, the distance

should be appropriate for the situation. If not, you

should deal with them on your own terms, or at

least in terms that are appropriate for the situation.

We have also learned that in situations where

we’re not forced together by public congestion, it

is not reasonable for people to get too close to us.

Anytime we’re with people we don’t know, it

is a warning sign when someone is closing in on

us, unless we’ve initiated it. If you are walking

down the street or walking toward your parked
41

car and someone starts moving toward you, you

need to be on guard.

Attackers seldom tip their hand until they can

get close enough to grab you without having to

risk chasing you. They will try to appear as nonthreatening as possible until they think they are

close enough to surprise you. Strangers may call

for you to stop or “wait a minute.” They may ask

for you to come over and help them or they may

offer to help you, even when you don’t need help. 

Remember that you don’t know these people,

that you have no affiliation with them, and no

obligation to them. While people with bad (or

even good) intentions may try to swiftly engender

a feeling of kinship with you, keep in mind that

you don’t know these people. You need face no

embarrassment in not dealing with them.

Someone standing in a dark area, behind trees,

parked cars, the corner of a building, or in a

stairway, is indicating unreasonable — and

therefore suspicious — behavior. In this situation

it is wise to make brief eye contact, so they know

that you are aware of them, but not steady eye

contact, which may be considered a challenge.

When women are attacked, it is common for

assailants to stalk them, attacking from behind.

So stay alert!

If what is happening seems unreasonable, you

may feel that you are in danger. If you feel that

you are in danger of being assaulted, then you
42

need to be aware of the distances at which you

are vulnerable to specific attacks. If the attacker:

• Is unarmed: You are in danger if he is within

10 feet and you cannot react immediately and

head for your escape route.

• Has an edged weapon or club: You are in

danger if he is within 21 feet and there isn’t a

solid barrier between the two of you and you

cannot quickly head for your escape route.

• Has a gun: You are in danger if he can see you

and there is nothing between the two of you

that will stop bullets, and you cannot quickly

find cover.

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 it takes

most of us just to recognize, when we are not

expecting trouble, that something is happening.

And it’s not just you. In training police officers

it becomes clear that at 21 feet or closer it’s

unlikely that an officer under attack can draw a
43

4. One serial killer, Ted Bundy, reputedly said that his initial

selection was based on whether his potential victims were

alert and aware of their environment. If they were alert and

aware of what was going on around them, then he would look

for someone else.

weapon and fire if he or she does not immediately

create distance. Check this for yourself by performing a Tuller Drill, named for Dennis Tuller of

Salt Lake City: Have a friend stand 21 feet away

from you and see how long it takes for him or her

to run up to you and pretend to stab you. Then try

it again, but this time turn and run as soon as your

attacker starts moving toward you.

Awareness

The most important factor in avoiding confrontation is awareness. You must be aware of your

environment. The military color-codes levels of

awareness to make them easier to conceptualize.

The worst state of awareness you can be in is

Condition White: You are totally unaware of your

surroundings and totally unprepared for even the

prospect of danger. This state is the reason that so

many muggings take place between 4 and 6 p.m.,

when people are just getting off work and are in a

fog. Condition White seems to attract predators,

who are able to recognize this vulnerable state.

In Condition Yellow you are relaxed but alert.

You are not expecting trouble, but you are aware

of your environment, so you would recognize a

problem if it arose.4 This should be your normal

state; merely being in Condition Yellow should
44

allow you to avoid those few violent confrontations you might otherwise face in your lifetime.

Note that being in Condition Yellow does not

mean that you are always asking yourself “What

if this happens, what if that happens. It merely

means that you are aware of your environment

and alert to your surroundings.

In addition to making you aware of potential

problems, awareness of your environment makes

you equally aware of the good things happening

around you. This is important for a full life.

Condition Orange is a state of general alarm:

You are aware that there seems to be a problem,

and your body is reacting. You are trying to analyze and avoid the problem, and possible

defensive tactics are being considered.

In Condition Red the problem has occurred and

you are facing one or more opponents you reasonably believe might do you harm. You should

be taking cover and actively performing the

appropriate defensive tactics. If already under

attack, you are working to neutralize the threat.

Condition Black is a state of blind panic, where

you are unable to react to the situation because

you have developed neither the inner tools nor

the outer skills with which to react.

Awareness, however, is of little value unless

you know of what to be aware.
45

The Etheric Experience,

Behavioral Warning Signs,

and Pre-attack Cues

Our bodies and their reactions have not changed

since cave dwellers first fought or ran from wild

animals. Back then, thousands of years ago, the

body went through both psychological and

physiological changes when its owner was

threatened. This is the fight-or-flight response.

Even today when we feel we are in danger of

being hurt emotionally or physically, or are anxious about something, we go through the same

changes in our emotional and physical behaviors

that our primitive forebears went through eons

ago. And we all learn to tell — often without

knowing how — that other people are upset,

angry, frustrated, depressed, anxious, afraid, violent, or aggressive. We can categorize the clues

that allow us to “read” other people as etheric

experience, behavioral warning signs, and preattack cues.

Etheric Experience

It is not yet clear exactly what the etheric experience actually is, but for practical purposes it

may be thought of as the feeling that something

is wrong. While a great deal of scientific effort is

being devoted to understanding the physical

characteristics of the etheric experience, especially by the Russians, from our point of view if
46

it feels as though something is wrong or as if

some bad thing is about to happen, assume that

something is wrong or that some bad thing is

about to happen, and take appropriate action.

Women tend to be more willing to act on these

feelings than men. In general, men wait until

there is some physical manifestation to evaluate,

and often end up having to deal with a problem

that might have been avoided. Women police

officers start out being sensitive to these feelings

but often end up badly influenced by their male

counterparts, learn to suppress these feelings, and

so get injured needlessly. In many cases where

something bad happens, you will have had a bad

feeling about the situation, and ignored it. Again,

if it feels wrong, assume that it is wrong.

Behavioral Warning Signs

If someone you know gets violent when he gets

upset or drunk, you should put distance between

the two of you when he drinks or gets upset.

According to Men, Women, and Aggression by

Anne Campbell (New York: BasicBooks, 1993),

such assaults escalate from verbal to physical

violence. They start with a disagreement followed

by a demand for apology, compliance, or absence.

When none of these happen satisfactorily there is

a threat, a counter threat, and finally physical violence. While in theory this pattern can be

interrupted, in practice it is difficult to detect or

stop by those actually involved. These assaults are
47

not the fault of the person being assaulted. However, if you can see what is happening, leave,

even if it means fleeing your own home. 

But even strangers can give valuable signs as to

their state of mind and intentions, which can give

you time to prepare or flee. These signs include:

• Deceitful speech: People with no ulterior

motive — particularly people you don’t know

— don’t usually say things like “trust me” or

“I promise,” throw in unnecessary detail to

take your mind off real issues, nor attempt to

quickly create the impression of a relationship.

• Increasing level of agitation: This indicates

that the individual is becoming more irrational, aggressive, and volatile.

• Excessive emotional attention toward you:

This indicates that you are the primary focus.

• Conspicuously ignores you: This indicates that

you might be being set up for a sucker punch.

• Exaggerated movements (such as pacing back

and forth, finger pointing, belligerent verbal

dialogue): These indicate that this individual is

losing rational control.

• Facial color changes to flushed: This indicates

that there is a great change in the body’s

internal and emotional functioning. (A flushed

face may be the body’s primitive way of

making itself look scarier.)
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• Ceasing all movement: If the individual goes

from moving and talking with anxious intensity to stopping all movement and talking, it

may be the “calm before the storm.”

• Changes from total lack of cooperation to

total cooperation: This may indicate that you

are being set up for an attack.

Pre-attack Cues

Pre-attack cues are even clearer signs of imminent danger. Some of these are:

• Shifting one foot in back of the other, often to

a boxer’s stance, so the body is more stable

and can move toward you more easily.

• Clenching the fists, to prepare for attack by

“lubricating” the finger joints, and to keep

under control.

• Shifting the shoulders back, a primitive body

sign designed to give you the message that the

individual means business, as well as providing a certain amount of protection, or as

preparation for striking you.

• Looking for a weapon to attack with or at a

specific area on your body. (This is called a

target glance.)

• Conspicuously looking elsewhere while talking with you. (The individual may be trying to

distract you prior to a surprise attack, or

checking out a post-attack escape route.)
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• Depersonalizing you, which may show as a

thousand-yard stare. (A good example of this

can be seen in the movie The Silence of the

Lambs, when Anthony Hopkins looks at Jody

Foster as if she weren’t even there.) The subject might be depersonalizing you so that he or

she is attacking a thing rather than a person. 

• Hiding or averting the face. (Sometimes

people who are on the verge of losing control

of themselves perform a facial wipe, by which

they attempt to hide the level of anxiety

they’re experiencing by physically moving

their hands over their faces. This may show up

as removing a hat, slicking back the hair, or

something equally innocuous.)

• Bobbing up and down or rocking back and

forth on the balls of the feet. (As people get

more upset, these movements act as a means

of diffusing the adrenalin and anxiety.)

• Growling. (At the peak of their fear or anger,

some people growl before they attack.)

• Lowering the body slightly, causing the head to

lower, just before moving in for the attack.

(This can be quite significant, as it is impossible

to move your legs apart without a simultaneous

downward shift of the body. Interestingly, even

cars sink somewhat before accelerating,

although for different mechanical reasons.) 

• Facial coloring changing from flushed to pale.

(Blood moves from the extremities to the

internal organs, to protect in case of injury.)
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• Verbalization stops before an assault begins.

Be aware of and look for these feelings, signs,

and cues, as they are clear signs of danger. When

you see them, you should try to calm this person

down, to create safe distance between you, or to

place a solid object between you.

Safety Tips

Most predators don’t like people seeing what

they’re doing, because it makes them conspicuous, easier to avoid, and more easily identified. So

you should function in a way that puts would-be

attackers at risk of being seen and then caught.

Places that are poorly lit and offer hiding

places, such as parks at night, walkways, empty

streets, parking garages, and lots, provide an

opportunity for a “crime against a person.”

Many apartment complexes, condominiums,

even private homes have been designed to look

inward on themselves, perhaps because airconditioning and television have reduced our

need for cross ventilation from open windows

and interaction with the passing world. As a

result, some streets have been deprived of natural

surveillance by residents, and sometimes turn out

to be unsafe for both residents and members of

the surrounding community. Many people now

stay at home rather than risk going out at night,
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making neighborhoods emptier and adding to

everyone’s feelings of insecurity.

Areas that have both residential and commercial use 24 hours a day are safer. Streets that have

pedestrian and vehicular traffic, small shops and

cafés open late at night, and residents living in

apartments or houses overlooking the street are

safer streets. Because they have multiple purposes, such streets “have eyes.”

Areas with multiple uses — restaurants, theaters, zoos, movie houses, art galleries — are

safer because they are more used, more populated, and, thus, have natural surveillance.

Natural surveillance creates an overall image

of a safer environment, and significantly reduces

the paranoia, fear, stress, and anxiety all of us

feel when we are put into a questionable situation. It is more than image, however. It is also a

deterrent against violence since this image

becomes reality when the predator, who is more

aware of the environment and the perception of

risk than you are, chooses to go elsewhere.

The goal is to spend your time in places where

there are lots of other people, all of whom are

going about their business safely and prudently,

just like you.

A way to extend contact with the world is to

get a cell phone, the civilian equivalent of a

policeman’s radio. Many police officers consider

their radio to be their most important safety tool,

and in an emergency a cell phone can be very
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important. these days cellular phones have

become sufficiently inexpensive to allow almost

everyone to acquire one for emergency use. Get

one, and carry it with you always.

In addition, you need to give thought to when

you will use it. Pilots, who work in what is by

definition a higher-than-normal-risk environment, have to struggle with the question of when

to radio in for help if there is a problem: On the

one hand there is a lot of help available; On the

other hand, most people — particularly when

involved in an activity as macho as flying —

don’t want to look silly by calling for help when

it’s not needed. Good pilots quickly learn that it

is best to call for help if there is any perception of

risk where help would be important.

We, too, should be willing to call for help if we

feel we are at risk, and that outside help might be

of value. There is nothing silly about calling for

help, and not to do so if you can is imprudent.

Circumstances don’t always provide you with

a highly public environment. In these cases:

General Tips

• Setting boundaries in nonthreatening social

situations should be done reasonably but

firmly, without confrontation and aggression

which could escalate to violence. You need to

name the behavior and demand that it stop.

Although the examples given below are more
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likely to happen to women than to men, our

desire here is to deal with boundary violations

without escalating to aggression or violence,

rather than offering dating advice.

For example, if someone puts his arm

around you, you can say — loudly if there are

other people around — “I feel uncomfortable

when you do that. Please take your arm

away.” This puts you in control of your feelings, and tells him what you want done.

If the person tries to make this seem like

your fault by saying something like “This

didn’t bother you before” or, in a sexual situation when dealing with an overtly

manipulative swine — whom you probably

shouldn’t be dating — “You would if you

loved me,” you can say “It’s not alright now,”

or merely repeat “I feel uncomfortable when

you do that. Take your arm away” as you

remove his arm.

Note that initially saying “Please take your

arm away” shows control with politeness,

while saying “Take your arm away, please”

has an imploring quality lacking control.

This technique works in a wide variety of

situations, from annoying siblings or roommates who come into your bedroom without

knocking, to maiden aunts pinching your

cheeks at weddings.
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Setting boundaries in nonthreatening public

situations also requires naming the behavior

and demanding that it stop.

For example, if you are on a crowded bus

and some stranger puts his hand on you, you

might grab the hand, lift it up, and say, loudly

so everyone can hear, “What is this hand

doing on my body?” 

Debra Dickerson, in an article in US News

& World Report, suggests that at work, if

someone touches you, say, so that all can hear,

“Please don’t touch me: It makes me very

uncomfortable.” You may also consider discussing the issue in a meeting (without

mentioning names), and asking if you are right

to feel troubled.

• Boundaries apply to us, too. Often our

response to aggression is a clever, deprecating,

or instructive remark. Thus, if a woman with a

child curses at you and you respond with

“Fine example you’re setting for your child”

you may think you are non-confrontational,

while she may think this is an insult requiring

her to hit you. It is, however, acceptable to

think lots of clever things: Just don’t say them.

• Be definite about your limits and decide

beforehand where you will draw the line.

Make it clear that you mean what you say. If

the individual does not comply with what you

say, then it’s time to get up and get away, even

if it means leaving your own home.
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• When you are assaulted, your assailant may

try to convince you to go with him to some

other place, promising that you won’t be hurt

if you comply. Or if you’re near your car, he

might want to get into the car with you. In

general, assailants want to take you from a

place that’s too public for them to a place

that’s too private for you.

Current wisdom says that going to a more

private place significantly increases your level

of risk, and, therefore, is crossing the line.

Since if you leave with them you’re likely to

be hurt anyway, this is probably a good time

to start fighting back.

• It is very important to trust your gut feelings. If

you feel that somehow things just don’t seem

right, they probably aren’t, so get out of there!

If you have a bad feeling about a flight, change

it, or cancel it if you can’t change it. If you

have a bad feeling about your hotel room, have

them give you a different room.

• Try to avoid following set patterns: Don’t

leave your home at the same time every day,

or travel the same route every day, or come

home the same way at the same time every

day. This unpredictability may induce a

predator to go after someone with a more

predictable lifestyle.

• Whenever reasonable, let someone else know

where you are and what time you should be

somewhere else. Maybe have someone call
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you, or you call them. This type of procedure

will provide a very tactful message to an

individual who is unexpectedly putting you at

risk. If you’re at a party, for example, and

someone asks you to go somewhere, tell other

people where you’re going and with whom. If

you later end up in a bad situation, you can

always remind this person that several people

know you left together.

• Avoid traveling alone, particularly at night.

• Develop and practice verbalization skills. Say

things to the individual that mean exactly what

you say and say exactly what you mean. We

will discuss this further in Step 4 in the

“Physical Skills for Self-Defense” section

under “Verbal Stunning.”

• Be aware that Westley Allan Dodd, a serial

rapist/killer who preyed on prepubescent boys,

said in public interviews that at least four of

his potential victims, in the 4- to 6-year-old

range, remained unmolested and alive because

their parents had taught them to run away,

yelling, from bad people.

• If you are a woman, try not to go out with men

who are disrespectful of women, or whose

lives are based around breaking rules.

• Since violent crimes — many of which are drug

related — are committed by violent criminals,

you should not involve yourself with criminal

activities, or with drugs, or with anything else

that puts you in contact with criminals.
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• When teaching children about not dealing with

strangers, remember that, from a child’s point

of view, any adult with whom they have spoken for even a few minutes is not a stranger.

• People who are in good physical condition

survive better than those who are not. Keep fit.

• Fires can occur in buildings, airplanes, and a

host of other places. Carrying a small smoke

mask in your bag, briefcase, or knapsack is a

prudent idea.

• By the same token, it is possible that you might

somehow be injured and need to attract attention. Yelling will soon leave your hoarse and

unable to yell. We recommend you carry a

safety whistle in your bag, briefcase, or knapsack. Modern safety whistles create more than

100 decibles of sound to attract attention, and

lead your rescuers to you.

Domestic Violence

In domestic violence — either spousal or child

abuse — cognitive dissonance theory practically

forces you to say “I must really love my

spouse/parent because I am putting up with this,

and therefore, while horrible, I should stay

because [fill in a seemingly valid reason here].”

In effect, the victim is simply unable to recognize

the victimization. This is an inability and not an

unwillingness. It can slowly overcome the

strongest of people, and it is inappropriate to

blame the victim for what is being done to them.
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There is also a tendency to be unwilling to talk

about this out of a sense of embarrassment. It is

also difficult to leave if you have nowhere to go

or are a child. As violence escalates, it is quite

common for the abuser to more and more restrict

the abused partner’s contact with the outside

world, making it even more difficult to leave. But

domestic violence is never justified, and domestic violence is one of the major causes of injury

to women: Please try to get someone to help you

break this cycle.

• If you have been isolated from friends and

family, be aware that your local social services

agency, the police, or the National Coalition

Against Domestic Violence (currently located

in Colorado) can help get you moving in a

safer direction.

• If you believe someone you know is being

abused, ask them if they are in a safe relationship, or if they are being abused. In addition,

you need to look for and pay attention to signs

of spousal abuse (as well as child abuse). The

signs can be observed if you look, and are

fairly explicit. Do not assume the abused is an

adult, and capable of taking care of themselves, or that they will ask for your help if

they really want it. You need to intervene: See

something; tell someone; do something.

• In some cases the abused is able to break free,

and the sociopathic abuser moves on quickly

to a new victim. In this case you will antici-
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pate that the victim will be relieved, but this

will, sadly, often not be the case. You should

expect that for a period of months or years the

poor victim will be tearing herself apart wondering what she did wrong, and what she

should have done to keep him. Victims of

abuse require a lot of kindness and support for

a much longer period than you can imagine.

In Your Car

• Keep your car in good repair and full of gas.

• Carry a cellular phone with you so you can

call the police from your car in case of trouble.

• If you plan to talk while driving, get a handsfree car kit: They are now reasonably priced.

• Park in well-lit areas. Don’t frequent stores

where there’s no safe parking.

• Keep your car locked at all times: Carjackers,

kidnappers, rapists, and other criminals can

slip into unattended cars in mere seconds.

• Frequent stores that offer a carry-out service.

• Don’t hinder movements by carrying packages

in your arms. Use a push cart instead.

• Be cautious if there’s a van with sliding doors

parked next to your car in an isolated parking

lot: You should get into your car from the side

opposite the van.

• If there is a man sitting in the car next to

yours, in the seat closest to your car, consider

walking back out of the parking lot and asking
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a guard or a cop or someone else to come

walk you to your car.

• Before getting in your car, look to make sure

that no one is hiding in it, including in the

back seat. If possible, check that no one is

hiding under it as you approach.

• Immediately lock the doors and raise the

windows once you get in, and then leave

without delay.

• Keep your car doors locked at all times, and

the windows up as much as possible.

• Reduce the risk of a smash-and-rob by keeping

packages on the floor, not on the front seat.

• Don’t pick up hitchhikers for any reason.

• Drive in the middle lane, to make it harder for

another car to force you against the divider or

shoulder of the road.

• Leave enough space in front of you when

stopped so that you can escape by driving

around the car in front in case of trouble.

• Drive to a safe place before changing a flat.

• If you think you’re being followed by another

car, make a few turns randomly to make sure.

Don’t stop and don’t get out of your car. Don’t

turn into a dead-end street. Use your horn and

lights, and your ability to keep driving, to try

to attract attention. Look for help — a police

car or police station. Call for help on your cell

phone. If possible, see what make, model, and

color the car is, and get the license number if

you can.
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• If someone bumps into your car in an isolated

area, or if someone in another car points and

tells you something is wrong with your car,

don’t get out of the car to discuss the incident

or check, as they may be robbers or carjackers

setting you up. Instead, tell them to follow

you, while you drive, flashers flashing, to a

place where there are a lot of people around.

• If stopped by a plainclothes policeman in an

unmarked car in an isolated area, you have a

right be very suspicious, since, as one television report indicated, there are roughly 25,000

crimes committed by fake cops each year. It is

better to drive to an area where there are

people around, then deal with the problem.

Call the police from your cell phone as you

drive to a more populated area.

• If your car breaks down in an isolated area,

call for help on your cell phone. Remember

that your car is not a fortress, and that anybody with a rock can get into the car and get

to you. This means that while waiting for help

you may wish to consider hiding someplace

where you can see the car, yet not be seen

yourself. While spending the night sleeping in

the bushes could be cold and uncomfortable, it

is safe. 

• Even on a busy highway, being out of and

away from a stuck car protects you if some

careless, tired, or drunk driver rams into you.
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• If you are somehow captured and thrown into

the trunk of a car, see if the taillight assembly

is accessible to you. If it is, try to kick it out,

then stick your arm out and start waving it.

Other cars will see this, and hopefully call the

police for you.

At Home

• The best burglar alarm you can have is a dog.

• If you have an answering machine, don’t leave

messages with your name saying that you

aren’t home or indicating that you live alone.

Instead, say something on the order of “We

can’t come to the phone right now, but if

you’ll leave a message after the tone signal,

we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

This gives the impression that you may or

may not be home, but that if you are home you

aren’t home alone. 

• Don’t put your name on your mail box.

• Don’t put your name in your return address.

• Don’t discard mail with your name and

address on it in public trash cans.

• If you live in an apartment building and

someone walks in behind you, don’t assume

the doorman knows them and that they live in

the building. It may well be that the doorman

thinks they are with you, and that you could be

bringing your own attacker into the building.

• If you come home and the door is open, or if

you suspect that someone has been in your
63

home, don’t go in to check. Instead, call the

police and let them check. You may feel foolish if no one is there or if your kid brother has

come to visit, but feeling foolish is better than

being attacked by a prowler.

• Place secondary locks on all windows and

interior doors. Check to make sure your children haven’t left them open at night.

• Before you leave home, check to make sure all

doors and windows are locked. This includes

doors and windows on higher floors, which

are inaccessible to you, by may not be inaccessible to second story men, and the

connecting door from an attached garage.

• Put locks on your fuse, circuit breaker, and

electrical panels.

• Make sure all cellar window wells are covered, so a burglar can’t hide while breaking

into your home.

• Have dead bolts on all exterior doors. If you

live in an apartment, where management has

keys to the apartment, install keyless dead

bolts. This will allow you to lock yourself in,

and protect you from both errant staff members and from burglars who break into the

management office and steal keys. Leave the

management-office keys in a sealed envelope,

so you can detect if it has been opened.

• Don’t leave your car unlocked in the driveway. Don’t leave your garage door opener in

the car: Once a bad guy has your garage door
64

opener he owns everything in your garage,

including the ability to get from an attached

garage into your home unobserved.

• For this same reason, don’t leave your garage

door open or unlocked.

• Don’t open your door to everyone who rings

your doorbell. Look through the peephole, then

open the door. Have children do the same.

• When you answer the phone or door, don’t tell

the caller that you live or are alone. Instead,

say that you don’t want to disturb your resting

companion, spouse, parent, or whatever.

• Don’t let a stranger into your home. If someone attempts to get you to let him use your

phone, offer to call for him if you believe his

request is legitimate. If not, call the police.

Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to call for

assistance if you might need it, and don’t be

embarrassed to say you don’t let strangers in.

If you do let someone in but become concerned, leave the house immediately. You can

call the police from somewhere else. Teach

your children that if they let someone in —

which they shouldn’t, but might — they can

always have the option of running away to a

neighbors and calling the police. Remember,

and tell your children. that there is no thing in

your house worth protecting at the cost of life.

• If someone calls while you are not home,

teach your children to say “Please give me

your number and my mother will call you
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back.” And to hang up if the caller tries to get

more information.

• If someone breaks in at night, lock the bedroom door and call the police (if possible, on

your cellular phone so you can’t be cut off).

First give the police your exact address, then

your name and the problem. Stay on the phone

until they tell you to hang up. When the police

arrive, toss them your keys from a window.

You may wish to keep a set of keys on one of

the cold light sticks, that you bend to illuminate, so that the police can see where they

have been thrown.

• Make sure you have a place where your children (or even you) can hide if someone breaks

in and they can’t slip out. It should have a

light, a phone (or even better, a cell phone)

and a list of numbers to call, starting with 911.

This could be a closet if necessary.

• Leave lights on in different areas to confuse a

potential attacker about your location.

• Use lights on timers all the time, not just when

you go on vacation.

• If you light the outside of your home, have

lights aimed toward the house. This allows

neighbors as well as the police to see people

trying to enter.

• Have an alarm system, and use it. Turn it on

when you leave home. Get an alarm that

allows you to be inside with the alarm on to

protect you from intruders. Use it when you
66

are home as well as out, and during the day as

well as at night. Modern alarm systems allow

you to have multiple alarm codes. Set separate

codes for guests and household staffs as

needed. Erase these when not being used.

• When you go on vacation, have a trusted

neighbor pick up your mail and newspapers,

rather than calling some stranger at the post

office and newspaper delivery service, and

telling the stranger that you will be away.

On the Street

• Make an effort to travel in areas that are well

lit and provide high surveillance opportunities.

• Walk near the street side of a sidewalk (but

not too near), rather than the building side. In

case of problems you can run into the street,

and it’s harder to drag you into a doorway.

• Get into the habit of walking on the side of the

street where you will be walking toward the

oncoming traffic. It is harder for anyone on

your side of the street to follow you in a car.

• When going around a corner, go around it as

widely as possible. If you cut too close to the

corner and there is someone lurking on the

other side, you will walk right into them. It is

better to have space to allow yourself to react.

• In some environments a personal alarm, which

makes a very loud noise, can help create

unnatural surveillance where no natural surveillance exists.
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• If you’re leaving a building such as a theater,

museum, or mall and you feel that you may be

in danger, go back into the building and try

another exit, or get someone such as a security

officer to walk with you or get you a ride.

• Avoid shortcuts through vacant lots, deserted

parks, empty parking garages, and unlit areas,

especially at night.

• Many confrontations start with making eye

contact. If you wear sunglasses it is more difficult for aggressors to initiate eye contact.

• If accosted, consider tossing money in one

direction while you run, yelling, in another. It

is very important that you begin moving away

from your attacker as soon as you throw the

money, as often these people will grab the

money and either hit you in the face or slash

you with a knife so that you will be distracted,

terrified, upset, and not remember what they

looked like. It may be worth carrying a few

dollars separately, just to throw.

• Consider carrying a pocket-sized highintensity flashlight. If there are dark or

shadowed areas, illuminate them so that you

can see.

• If you’re walking, jogging, or running and

someone is stalking you in a car, consider

running back the way you came — it may be

hard for them to turn around or back up. Use

your cell phone to call the police.
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• Be aware that if you are in public wearing

headphones, you may not hear anything going

on around you and may become significantly

less aware of your environment.

• If possible, don’t put keys, money, credit cards,

or anything else you don’t want to lose in a

knapsack, bag, or purse which can be snatched.

• Remember, if you stop and turn aggressively

toward someone who turns out to be an innocent

citizen “doing his thing,” you shouldn’t care if

he thinks you’re crazy. At least you’re safe and

didn’t take an unnecessary risk. Whenever in

doubt, take the necessary precautions.

• Don’t carry anything you don’t absolutely

need on any trip.

• When using a pay telephone on the street, turn

around and face outward after dialing.

• Purse snatchers — who grab bags from men

as well as women — tend to be violent if

thwarted. It might therefore make sense to let

your bag go rather than get into a fight.

In Public Places

• Don’t assume that the operators of a public

place have taken adequate security precautions. They haven’t!

• Check out the layout of the facility you are in.

Look for your escape route.

• Don’t put ID down on a counter where other

people can read your name and address.
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• Don’t put your address or telephone number

on checks. If asked for these, put a post office

box (if you have one) or your work address

and telephone number. Some recommend that

a Post office box should be used as your

address on all identification.

• Don’t sit near the cash register in bars and

restaurants, as these are the most likely places

for robberies. Instead, sit near a service exit if

possible. This will allow you to make a break

for the kitchen, and then out the back door, in

case of an emergency.

• Don’t get into an elevator if you feel uncomfortable about the people already in, or getting

in, with you. Don’t worry about hurting their

feelings — after all, you don’t know them and

have no relationship with them — just don’t

get in. One woman of our acquaintance won’t

get into an elevator alone with any man she

doesn’t know.

• If you work in a store, don’t put both your

first and last name on your name badge.

• In hotels, which have become more dangerous

over the past few years, be sure to use the

chain lock on your door: While hotels are

supposed to change the lock when a key is

missing, they frequently don’t.

• When you go into your room, check all the

doors and look in all the closets.

• Don’t let anyone you don’t know into your

hotel room. If you receive a call saying that
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there’s a problem in the room and that a

repairman is coming up, call the front desk to

make sure there really is a repairman coming;

the “repairman” could turn out to be a robber.

• If there’s no big price difference between a

single and a double, it’s worth taking the room

as a double, saying your companion will arrive

shortly. This will tell an “inside” person that he

and his accomplices should look elsewhere for

a single occupancy. And if you get a call asking

if the room is single or double occupancy,

always say that it’s a double with two people.

• Most hotels offer safety deposit boxes. If you

are obvious about putting valuables into the

safety deposit box, this tells inside robbers

that it is not worth breaking into your room.

• In a public men’s room, use a stall with a door

rather than a urinal: Standing preoccupied at a

urinal with your back to the world makes you

very vulnerable.

• Before leaving a bathroom stall, check under

the door to see if there are any feet lurking.

• Before entering any public — or private —

establishment, pause at the door and check

that there is nothing bad happening inside.

• When your life is at risk, keep calm, and try to

reduce the likelihood of your attacker being

panicked into thinking he has to kill you.
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Workplace Violence

Workplace violence comes in three generic varieties. 

• The most common variety is what most of us

think of as street crime. This would include

robberies in all-night gas stations, grocery

stores, and convenience stores (sometimes

referred to by police as “Stop ‘n Robs”),

which tend to be robbed in the middle of the

night. Also included in this category would be

police officers and security guards shot or

injured by criminals during the commission of

a crime. While these fall into the category of

workplace violence because they take place in

the workplace, their prevention and treatment

fall into the class of ordinary crime.

• Next is domestic violence which spills over

into the workplace. If you are the victim of

domestic violence, you should have some

expectation that your abuser could show up at

work and do something that would hurt you.

And that your co-workers could also be hurt.

Your employer has an obligation to keep

you and your co-workers safe from a violent

domestic partner. But they only have this

obligation, and can only do something about

it, if they know about the problem. This means

that, embarrassing as it might be, you have an

obligation, to yourself and to those with whom

you work, to let some appropriate person

know that you have a problem. So you must

tell someone in a position of responsibility.
72

Mere office rumor doesn’t count here: Someone has to be told. Should your employer feel

that this is not his problem, remind him that

OSHA disagrees, and that he has a legal, as

well as moral, obligation to help.

• The third category is unexpected violence by a

fired or disgruntled co-worker, or an irate client. This category is the one we normally

think of as workplace violence. It is startling

because it seems — and is — so unexpected.

In fact, after a tragic event we almost always

recognize that the person’s behavior was

troubling or bizarre, and that there was, in

hindsight, a recognizable potential for trouble

which disturbed us but upon which we did not

act. In many cases there was bizarre and violent

behavior, threats of violence, and a widening

group of people who were more and more

afraid of contact with the individuals.

Therefore, if you feel concerned that a

co-worker might have the potential for violence, or are merely uncomfortable or

frightened in there presence for no identifiable

reason, you should discreetly tell a supervisor

your fears, so that the appropriate steps can be

taken. If your warnings are ignored, they

should be repeated, and repeated to others in

authority. Discretion is important here,

because you do not wish to needlessly harm

someone’s reputation. On the other hand, it is
73

imperative that management be aware that you

have a concern.

School violence

• It is important that in a school environment we

separate out normal behavior (fighting among

students, for example) from both crime and

disturbed behavior which can, in certain rare

circumstances, lead to tragedy.

• After a tragic event in a school we almost

always recognize that the juvenile’s behavior

was troubling or bizarre, and that there was, in

hindsight, a recognizable potential for trouble

which disturbed us but upon which we did not

act. In many cases the youths turn out to be on

antidepressants, and that there was bizarre and

violent behavior, sometimes including ritual

animal mutilation, threats of violence, and a

widening group of fellow students — or even

family members —who were more and more

afraid of contact with the individuals in question. In many cases.

• Most often this behavior is overlooked and

ignored. If reported by another student it is

ignored under the theory that the complaining

student has an axe to grind or is himself

troubled. Complaints by oft-desperate parents

are ignored under the theory that they are

merely bad parents unable to cope with a difficult child.
74

Therefore, if you are a parent, you should

make your children understand that if they feel

concerned that a fellow student might have the

potential for violence, or are merely uncomfortable or frightened in their presence for no

identifiable reason, they should tell you. You

can then discreetly tell a teacher, or some

other school authority about your child’s fears,

so that the appropriate steps can be taken.

• If your warnings are ignored, they should be

repeated, and repeated to others in authority.

Discretion is important here, because you do

not wish to needlessly harm someone’s reputation. On the other hand, it is imperative that

school authorities - and perhaps other authorities as well, be aware that you have a concern.

• When a child is the victim of bullying, there is

a temptation to tell him or her to fight back.

This seems like an intuitive response to anyone - any adult - who has ever seen a western.

Unfortunately this has rarely proved a good

choice to anyone other than the bully. Rather,

it is necessary to change the environment in

such a manner as others recognize that this is

wrong, and are empowered to step in and

make it stop.

• It is also a good idea to try to make sure that

aggressive children be made to understand that

somewhat better behavior will reduce their

problems. Obviously, as shown by the penal

system, this cannot be achieved with punish-
75

ment. In some cases there seems to be a level

of success with this approach that is not

achieved by trying to build empathy. What we

try to develop is social skills, rather than sincerity. Unfortunately, we have not yet seen

enough research to make practical recommendations, but there is some promise here.

Stalking

An ultimate form of boundary violation is stalking, where someone becomes pathologically

involved with you. Stalking becomes obvious

because the behavior is obsessive and inappropriate. If you meet someone who calls you the

next day, the behavior is appropriate. If you

receive ten or fifteen call at work and at home,

demanding your time and presence, that is inappropriate behavior. Stalking may go on for a long

time. Indeed, some stalking cases have lasted

more than a decade.

• As with less threatening boundary violations,

it is critical that you make it clear — without

confronting, without making them feel too

special, and without embarrassing them —

that you are not interested in this person’s

attentions, and that you will not be interested

in the future. It is difficult for all of us to say

“No!” But it is critical that “no” be the message, because if you try to cushion your

message with some excuse, your stalker is
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5. When dealing with the police, work to build a personal relationship with the officers involved. Even more important,

build a personal relationship with the supervisors of those

officers. These supervisors can give your case priority.

6. When you receive calls or hangups, you need to mark them in

the telephone company’s computer for later retrieval by the

police. If you do not mark the calls, subsequent retrieval can

likely to consider this excuse to be merely

another hurdle that must be overcome.

• Once “no” has been ignored, cut off all contact with this person. This means never be in

contact with them: If they write or call you

once, or ten times, or a hundred times, or a

thousand times, do not respond, as this merely

tells them that a certain level of contact will be

the price of a response. This means that,

depending on the circumstances, you may

need to resist the temptation of having a

friend, the police, or a private detective contact the person to warn them off, although any

or all these may be involved in helping deal

with the problem.

• Certain things may be of value in some cases:

A restraining order early on may be a good

idea if there is no history of violence and a

casual relationship, while an arrest may be the

best idea if there is a history of physical abuse

and a long-term emotional investment. Other

things, however, should always be done. 

• Do keep written records5 of all contact, letters

received, times you observed the person,

messages left on your answering machine,

crank phone calls and telephone hang-ups6,
77

be very expensive. Marking is done by entering a code such

as *57. Check with your telephone company to find out what

you need to do on your system to mark these calls.

7. As with domestic violence, should your employer feel that

this is not his problem, remind him that OSHA disagrees, and

that he has a legal, as well as moral, obligation to help.

and any other events which are unusual or

destructive, and may be, in retrospect, part of

the problem. Give copies of these records to

the police and to whomever else is helping

you with the situation.

• Because stalking is such abnormal behavior,

any intervention you take can make things

better, or worse, or do nothing one way or the

other. Because of this, dealing with stalkers is

not straightforward, and there is no single

approach that one can take. You really need

the help of a professional, or a team of professionals including police, corporate security,

psychologists, and private investigators, when

dealing with a stalker.

• Do not take this situation lightly. Laura Black,

herself the survivor of a homicidal stalker,

feels that you should not let the stalker drive

the situation: Someone must handle it who is

not intimidated. This could be the police, or

someone from your employer’s security or

human resources department,7

 even if the

stalking doesn’t occur at your workplace and

doesn’t involve other employees.

• If you are forced to move or change your

telephone number, it is definitely time to get a

post office box listing for all your identifica-
78

tion, and to tell your close friends never to

give your real address to anybody without

your permission.

• Do not discount any information you receive:

Analyze it. Take all threats seriously, and pay

attention to your intuition and feelings. Notify

the police when you think you can predict a

violent event, even if it is only a gut feeling, and

you cannot back it up with anything specific.

• Stalking, though horrible and frightening, is

rarely as lethal as TV and movies show, with

some experts indicating homicide rates of

about 2%. Other forms of violence appear

more often, with estimates from 3% to 36%.

The best predictor of violence is past violence.

Random Violence and Acts of Terror

• If shooting starts near you, whether during a

robbery, a drive-by shooting, an assault, or for

some totally unknown reason, immediately

drop to the floor or ground, keep as low as

possible, and crawl to safety if possible, or

under something or behind something.

• If appropriate, throw something through a

window and escape.

• Many shootings go on for a relatively long time,

and in some cases the shooters stop to reload,

often taking a relatively long time to reload,

during which time they are, in essence, unarmed.

If possible to escape or disarm the shooter while

they reload, it may be worth trying.
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• If a bomb goes off in a stadium stay seated if

there is no other danger. Your are more likely

to be hurt by the stampeding crowd than by

the criminals.

• In some cases where someone is trying to

capture you, there is a chance that you might

be able to escape before the capture is complete. If you are in a car, you might be able to

run-over the attacker, even if they have a gun,

or have shot out your tires (the car will run on

the rims). In other cases there might be a

window of opportunity to run away. Try to

think about the various possibilities for escape

if bad things start to happen. Try to imagine

what you might do to escape in normal situations, just to get used to the thought process.

• As with most criminal activities, terrorists will

generally feel a great deal of anxiaty before an

attack, and are likely to look out of place and

distracted. If something or someone seems

somehow “wrong,” leave and tell someone.

The motto here is “See something. Tell

someone. Do something.”

• If you are captured by terrorists, it will likely

be in a place where the government has made

it difficult or impossible to have weapons, so

fighting back may be difficult. Nonetheless, if

it appears clear to you that the goal of your

attackers is to kill you and others, and that

hiding or not resisting will only lead to your

death and the death of others, we would urge
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you to attack them with whatever tools you

have at hand. Hopefully others will follow in

your lead, and you will be able to prevent the

attackers from fully achieving their goal.

• During the first five minutes the attackers will

be very anxious and on edge, and at their most

alert for a reactive attack, so a successful

unarmed attack may be difficult. If it will not

endanger some larger group, it may be better

to wait for a calmer situation, or sit it out if it

appears that a rescue is likely to take place.

• The desired end result of terrorism is terror.

Your captors may be looking for someone to

kill or injure as an example to the others.

Because of this, the common wisdom is that it

is best to be as non-confrontational as possible. This includes things as simple as not

looking directly at them directly in the eyes.

This is particularly true at the beginning, so be

particularly careful until things have become a

bit more calm.

• While we may think of terrorists – particularly

terrorists willing to kill themselves, as well as

others – as being crazy, they are not stupid. Do

not underestimate them, and do not expect that

their behavior to you will become, by your

standards, normal

• When a rescue is launched, there is likely to

be a lot of shooting. Drop to the ground,

crouch down, or crawl under something until

the shooting stops. Your rescuers don’t know
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who is a good guy and who is a bad guy, and

are likely to treat you and all the others as

potential terrorists until everyone is identified.

Kids

Roughly 100 children are kidnapped and murdered in the United States each year. A natural

reaction after such a tragic event – besides a

wave of parental terror – is parents wanting to

teach children self defense. We think this is a bad

idea for two reasons.

First, most children who go missing are runaways, so the issue of self-defense does not come

up. In the next largest group, family abductions,

self-defense by a child in a custodial battle is

probably an inappropriate response. It is only in

the case of acquaintance kidnapping (don’t confuse acquaintance with friend) and stranger

kidnapping – and most particularly in the hundred kidnappings that result in homicide – that

self-defense might play a valid part. Since, in the

end, our after-the-fact wish for self-defense

involves the hundred cases that lead to death, do

you want to change the quality of your child’s

life by instilling a fear of being kidnapped? We

believe a more appropriate choice is to add preventive measures to the child’s repertoire.

Measures that might further reduce the alreadyslim probability of abduction, without terrorizing

the child, are available from The National Center

for Missing and Exploited Children
82

(http://www.missingkids.com/), the most

authoritative source on missing children.

Second, self-defense may well involve the

injury or death of the attacker. Frankly, we are

not sure that we want to empower children to

injure or kill others. Nor are we convinced that it

is necessary since there are, even in abductions,

some alternatives available.

The non-self-defense options are based on the

fact that for a child, as for an adult, being taken

from a public place to a more secluded place is

not in her best interest. This is particularly true in

retrospect for those hundred cases a year where

the kidnapped child will be murdered.

Because of this, it is important for the child to

try not to go with the abductor. This is true even

for a juvenile, where the abductor has a gun and

is threatening to use it if she doesn’t come with

him. The risks are so high (in three out of four

cases that end in death there is a scant three hour

window between time of abduction and time of

death) that it is safer to be shot in public than to

get into the car.

What can be done to deter the abductor by

increasing their level of visibility, and therefore

their level of risk? Two things.

• The first is to make a lot of noise. The perception of passers-by is much different for a child

getting quietly into a car than if the child is

screaming, “Help me, help me!” or “You’re
83

not my daddy! Leave me alone!” We have

learned from long experience that you must

train to yell and scream under stress. As with

adults, if children do not train to make a lot of

noise, they will go quietly. 

• The second thing that can be done is to make

it physically difficult to be taken. There are at

least three versions of this.

The first is to simply go limp, while yelling

and screaming. Depending on the size of the

child (and this author knows some elevenyear-olds who are larger than he is!) this will

make it difficult to be dragged away, and virtually impossible to be dragged away with

nobody noticing.

The second variation is to thrash about

while yelling and screaming, which can work

for a smaller child

Finally, if it is possible to break free, rolling

under a parked car while yelling and screaming will make it extremely difficult for

someone to do an unnoticed abduction.

GET AWAY BY CREATING

AND MAINTAINING DISTANCE

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STEP 4

GET AWAY BY CREATING

AND MAINTAINING DISTANCE

Attempting to get away from your assailant has

two virtues. First, you will hopefully get to

safety. The second, and more important, virtue is

that it creates distance and puts you in a better

position from which to defend yourself if you

can’t get away. However, this is not totally free

from risk: Gary Kleck indicates that nonviolent

resistance, including evasion, gives you a 34.9%

chance of being injured in a robbery and a 25.5%

chance of being injured in an assault. These rates

are worse for you in a robbery, and marginally

better in an assault. What this means is that even

if you choose to run away you may still have to

deal with the assault, especially in a robbery.

Success Factors in Self-Defense

Having made the decision to take positive steps

to ensure your personal safety, you now need to

take a look at those factors and techniques that

will help keep you safe, as well as the physical

skills necessary to make these techniques work.

Understand that techniques don’t exist in isolation. You must think of how each of them would

apply in real life. You must ask yourself how
88

they would apply if you were having an argument that turned violent, if you opened the door

and someone pushed his way in, if you were

walking down the street and someone followed

you or confronted you for money, or if you were

at work or on a date and your partner forced

sexual attentions on you.

Once it’s clear that you can’t avoid a confrontation, the most important thing to do is to immediately implement your self-defense plans —

which we will begin developing in this step —

rather than hesitate and react unproductively.

There are four factors that influence the success

of these plans.

Reflexive Response

When you are attacked, your fight-or-flight

mechanism kicks in, preparing you to either fight

to stay safe or run to safety. It is estimated that

over 144 psycho-physiological and 1,400 psychochemical reactions take place simultaneously

during this period of intense stress. One of the

most critical reactions is that your brain gives

over conscious thought to reflex action, assuming

that you have training on which you can fall back

reflexively. Anything less than a reflexive response by you in an attack situation will cause

you to think consciously — and conscious

thought takes time you just don’t have. If you

have no training on which to fall back, then
89

you’re likely to fall into the blind panic of Condition Black.

The best way to successfully stop an assault is

to respond reflexively. This is because if you’re

being attacked you have to either recognize that

you’re under attack (which takes time) and

reflexively react or recognize that you are being

attacked (which takes time), decide how to

respond, and then respond — which takes too

long if you need conscious thought. When you

counterattack, your attacker in turn has to overcome the time lag required to identify and react

to your counterattack. Remember, your attacker

is counting on surprising you, with no anticipation that you will fight back. When you

counterattack it’s unexpected and disconcerting

to your attacker, and with some luck you will

catch him off guard.

Intensity

Defensive action should be an all-or-nothing

response. You are more likely to perform at 100%

output capacity if your response is reflexive. That

means reflexively running as fast as you can,

reflexively striking as hard as you can, or reflexively yelling a command as loudly as you can.

Technique

To make any technique work you need to be

able to do three things: First, you need to be able,
90

under stress, to reflexively choose an appropriate

technique from the many that you know.

It’s also a good idea to know the specific name

of the technique you employ. This is important

for your legal survival if you’re taken to court for

defending yourself: Being able to cite the name

of the technique you utilized will add credibility

to the fact that you were trained and competent.

Second, you need to be able to reflexively

perform the technique under stress. Be aware that

in a dynamic situation you may have to reflexively change techniques as the situation changes.

Finally, you need to know what the technique

is supposed to do. This allows you to know if it is

working, and gives you a self-fulfilling expectation for your technique. 

Practice

The only way to achieve reflex action and do a

technique properly under stress is to establish

and excite an appropriate neural pathway in that

part of your brain where reflex action and physical movements are stored. It is estimated that it

will take between 300 and 3,000 repetitions to

achieve the beginnings of reflex action under

stress, so you’ll need to practice the techniques

you learn in this book until you are comfortable

with them.

We all know that practice makes perfect. What

we sometimes forget is that it is only perfect

practice that makes perfect. In order to success-
91

fully do a technique under stress, whatever

practice you do must be as near-perfect as possible, since what you do under stress will be done

faster and worse than what you do in practice.

Some of the practice must be physical repetitions. The rest can be a mixture of visualization,

where you practice (perfectly) in your imagination, and dream practice, which tends to allow

more realistic scenarios than does visualization.

While it takes a bit of practice to learn to direct

and control your dreams, stopping and replaying

them, it’s a skill well worth developing. We will

deal with practice techniques again in Step 5.

Physical Skills for Self-Defense

In order to safely get away from an attacker you

need to develop physical skills related to your

personal safety. But before you practice these

skills you need to prepare your body and your

mind. This preparation is called a tactical

warm-up, because the heating and stretching

movements used are the same as those used for

defense. While you won’t have time for this sort

of preparation when attacked, a tactical warm-up

is important before practicing to prevent injury

during training, as well as to put you in the right

frame of mind.

And, after training, it’s important to drink some

water and go through a cool-down period, where

you do simple movements such as walking in
92

place while swinging your arms lightly, while

your blood pressure moves back to a normal

range. While a warm-up is designed to protect

your muscles, a cool-down allows your dilated

blood vessels to contract to normal size. Without a

cool-down it is possible for the blood pressure to

fall rapidly as your pulse decreases, causing fainting or worse — much worse! Like a heart attack!

A detailed tactical warm-up is in Appendix A.

Weapon Hand and Reaction Hand

Throughout this book we will be using the

terms weapon hand and reaction hand. In general, the weapon hand is the hand in which you

would hold a gun: the right hand if you’re

right-handed and the left hand if you’re lefthanded. The reaction hand is your other hand,

and is used, as implied by the name, to react to

the subject, to keep him at a distance, and for

other supplementary tasks. The reaction foot,

weapon foot, reaction side, and weapon side are,

obviously, on the same sides of your body as the

reaction or weapon hand.

Verbal Stunning

Speaking is also a physical skill, and under

stressful conditions you want to say things that

you have trained yourself to say. Practice saying

and yelling such one- or two-word commands as:
93

1. Your verbal commands might also attract attention, letting

others know that you are in trouble and not merely having a

discussion or argument.

No!

Stop!

Back!

Stop! Back!

Stay back!

Loud, repetitive verbal commands can often

shock or stun your attacker, who is expecting

nothing other than compliance from you.1

 Verbal

stunning is a critical part of your defensive

actions: Techniques that may work perfectly in

conjunction with verbal stunning may not work

alone. Verbal stunning is so important that we will

discuss it further in Step 5 in the “Techniques and

Tactics” section under “Verbal Stunning.”

Stance: The Pyramid Base Foot Position

and the Centering Concept

Proper stance gives you a look of confidence and

assertiveness (which may help to avoid a conflict) and achieves a secure foot position from

which it is easy to move to either escape or to

defend yourself if necessary.

To find your correct stance you’ll need to form

a pyramid base with your feet, and then lower

your center, keeping your head vertically over

your hips. Your center is your body’s center of

gravity. A male’s center is about three fingers
94

below belly-button level, and a female’s center is

a little lower, about at pelvis level.

So when we say “Assume a pyramid base and

center yourself,” we mean:

l. Put your reaction foot forward and your

weapon foot back.

2. Turn your weapon foot out 60 degrees.

3. Put a slight bend in your knees.

4. Place your body weight on the balls of your

feet but keep your heels flat.

5. Keep your head directly over your hips. Avoid

leaning forward, backward, or to the side

because this unbalances you and makes it hard

for you to regain your balance. (You can check

your balance by bouncing lightly on your

toes.)

6. Hold your hands up at least as high as your

lower ribs. Keeping your hands down at your

sides slows your response time because of the

extra distance your hands have to travel.

The Benefits of a Pyramid Base

Besides giving you a more assertive image,

there are other benefits of assuming a pyramid

stationary base:

• Increased balance and improved response

time: Having your feet wide and deep — still

keeping your weight on the balls of your feet

— will give you stability front, back, and side,
95

while putting you in a stance from which you

can move without readjusting your body.

• A smaller target is presented: By turning your

rear foot out 60 degrees, your body turns too,

and from the front you present a smaller target

to an attacker.

• Vulnerable organs are protected: This stance

protects such vital areas as your throat,

solar-plexus, abdomen, and groin.

• Impact deflection: If the attacker is grabbing

or striking at you, your angled body will

deflect his energy away from you.

• Common stance: During an attack, you need

to respond reflexively without conscious

thought. By having one stance (even though it

may have varying width and depth), you’ll be

able to both defend and escape without needing to worry about changing foot position.

Stationary Stances

When you’re standing still, you should be in a

pyramid base foot position and centered. Now,

depending on your assessment of the threat being

presented, you should increase the width and

depth of your stance, which will lower your center. The wider and longer your pyramid base, the

harder it will be to move you (and to move yourself), and the easier for you to defend yourself.

There are three variations in stationary stance:
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Conversational Stance

In this stance you are standing inconspicuously

in a small pyramid base with your feet placed

slightly less than shoulder width apart and about

the same amount deep, and with your body

turned to your weapon side (i.e., with your reaction foot forward). Make this your normal

everyday stance. In this stance you are prepared

to act, but nobody else knows it.

Ready Stance 

If you’re in a situation where something

doesn’t feel right, or you see behavioral warning

signs, it’s time to anticipate potential danger and

get ready to deal with it.

For the ready stance, simply increase the width

and depth of your pyramid foot position by about

an additional half foot over your conversational

stance. Still keep your weight on the balls of your

feet. Depending on what is happening, you may

have immediately assumed a ready stance, bypassing the conversational stance.

Defensive Stance

Once you’re actively in danger or actually

being attacked, shift to the defensive stance. This

is the stance to be in when you’re physically

keeping an attacker at bay. Increase the width

and depth of your pyramid base as much as you

comfortably can while still keeping your weight

on the balls of your feet, thus retaining the ability
97

to move. Bouncing lightly on the balls of your

feet will help keep you centered and will provide

a moving base from which to start running. It

may also confuse your attacker.

As with the conversational and ready stances,

you may have to immediately assume a defensive

stance based on what’s happening at the time, for

example if you’re walking to your car and are

suddenly assaulted.

Patterns of Movement

The purpose of the pyramid base foot position is

to help you to fend off an attacker or to get away

from an attack. Obviously, this means that you’re

not going to stand still. If you are under attack,

you should be thinking, “Feet do your stuff and

get me outta here!!!”

Getting away involves going from standing

still to running. Whether you’re under attack and

are actively defending yourself, or you’re struggling to get away, or you’ve broken free and are

running, you need to be able to move while still

maintaining the stability of the pyramid base. So

even if you can get away without having to

actually fight with your attacker, your best bet to

overcome the inertia of standing still is to start

your escape from a pyramid base foot position.

This is as true for a small woman in a dress as it

is for a 200-pound male in pants.

You will go from your pyramid base to motion

through use of patterns of movement. The rule of
98

thumb for patterns of movement says that the

foot closest to the direction you want to go takes

the first step, and the other one follows.

Step-and-Drive Escape

Assume you are facing an attacker and your

escape route is straight behind you. If you’re in a

pyramid base with your reaction foot forward,

you should just step back with your weapon foot

and start running. When you take the first step

with your weapon foot — the foot closest to the

direction you want to run — you will naturally

drive your body weight off your reaction foot as

you escape. Avoid crossing your legs in front of

you, where one leg steps over and across the

other — crossed legs are very unstable, and can

cause you to lose your balance and trip.

This step-and-drive pattern of movement is

how you should move your feet as you get away

and then run away from the attacker. Step-anddrive escaping is the pattern of movement you

will use most often. However, there are times

that, depending on the position or angle from

which the assailant is coming toward you, you

may need to use a different initial movement.

Pivoting and Stepping Through

If you are facing an attacker — again with your

reaction foot forward — and your escape route is

behind the attacker to your weapon side, you will

have to run past him to get away. Slash at him
99

with the closest hand to distract him if he is too

close and start running. In this situation you will

pivot on your forward reaction foot — the

movement a smoker performs when he puts out a

cigarette on the ground with the ball of his foot —

as you step through with your weapon foot.

Obviously, if your escape route is in back of

your attacker on the other side — your reaction

side — you would do a step-and-drive escape

past him starting with your reaction foot.

Sweep-and-Go

Sometimes an attacker may get so close to you

that you need to create distance from him with

some initial, but minimal, contact. If the attacker

is close enough to grab at you, but not so close as

to eliminate your ability to get away, you may be

able to sweep his incoming hands away from you

as you simultaneously run to your escape route.

Here’s how to do the sweep-and-go:

l. Get into your pyramid base stationary stance.

The width and depth you choose — ready

stance, conversational stance, or defensive

stance — should match the spontaneousness

and seriousness of the assault.

2. Bring both your hands up and sweep the

incoming attacker’s hands and arms away

from the direction you want to escape to. This

sweeping movement is a crescent arcing

movement which forces the attacker’s arms up
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and away from you. You may sweep to the

right or to the left, depending on the direction

you want to go in your escape. If you want to

escape to your left, sweep the attacker’s

incoming arm to your right. To escape to the

right, sweep the attacker’s arms to your left.

As you sweep the incoming assault away from

you, shout at the assailant “Stay back!”

3. Run to your escape route while you shout

“Help! Help! Fire! Fire!” (Shouting “Fire!” is

more likely to bring help because people need

to confirm that they might be in danger, too.)

4. Keep running until you’re safe.

Step-and-Drag Stepping

If the attacker grabs you, you have to keep

from falling or being pushed to the ground. 

If your attacker is pulling at you or pushing

you, perhaps trying to drag you somewhere, you

need to keep a stable upright posture: If he

pushes or pulls your upper body from over your

hips, you are more likely to fall down. So during

the physical struggle with the attacker, in order to

keep your hips under your head, you need to do

step-and-drag stepping.

Step-and-drag stepping is the same movement

as step and drive, except that instead of stepping

with the foot that’s closest to the direction you

want to go and then driving your weight off the

other foot, you step with the closest foot and then

drag the other foot on its ball to bring your feet to
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a comfortable position. Step-and-drag stepping

ensures that you always have both feet on the

ground in a pyramid base foot position.

If an attacker pulls at you, step-and-drag forward toward him so you don’t lose your balance.

If he pushes you backward, step-and-drag back to

keep from losing your balance to the rear and

being knocked over.

By doing step-and-drag stepping, you’ll be

more likely to keep an assailant from knocking

you down. Remember that the longer you can

keep the assailant struggling with you, the greater

the risk he has of being seen, and of someone’s

coming to your aid, or of your escaping.

In spite of your best efforts you may end up on

the ground. If you do go down, swivel on your

buttocks so that your feet are facing your

attacker, and try to kick his legs and knees. As

soon as there’s room, get back on your feet.

Being on the ground is very disadvantageous: It’s

very tiring, and even a person well trained in

ground fighting has a very limited amount of

time before his or her strength runs out. This is

why, in police training, we say “If you’re on the

ground and aren’t handcuffing the subject, then

you’re losing!”

If you feel that someone is following or coming toward you:
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l. Run to your escape route. Keep running away

from the attacker until you feel safe.

2. Then find help, such as a police officer, a

security officer, or some other authority figure.

If you know that you are definitely being followed and see an attacker coming toward you:

1. Shout at the person to “Stay back!” Simultaneously run to your escape route. 

2. While running, yell “Help! Help! Fire! Fire!” 

If you haven’t identified a clear escape route,

you may have to:

1. Turn toward the assailant and assume a

defensive stance.

2. Raise your reaction hand toward the subject to

keep him an arm’s length away as you shout

“Stop! Back! Stop! Back!”

3. If you can, immediately look for an escape

route and run to it. Begin shouting “Help!

Help! Fire! Fire!”

These patterns of movement, simple though

they be, are the foundation for getting away from

an attacker. They must be practiced until you can

do them comfortably, without having to think

about them.
How To Deal With Violence

STOP THE VIOLENCE

AND THEN GET AWAY

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STEP 5

STOP THE VIOLENCE

AND THEN GET AWAY

Your ultimate objective is to get away from your

assailant without engaging him physically and, if

that’s not immediately possible, to get to a position that’s more to your advantage if you need to

fight. Hopefully you will avoid confrontation

entirely, or escape and reach safety, or someone

will hear you and come to your aid. Unfortunately, you can’t rely on any of these things

happening, and you may not be able to avoid a

confrontation. If this is the case, you will need

realistic, practical, and effective options that will

allow you to stop the assailant’s attack and incapacitate him long enough for you to get away.

In Step 5 you will learn to combine simple but

effective hand-to-hand combat techniques with

the use of emergency safety tools. There is a

wide range of emergency safety tools available,

and, hopefully, one will fit your needs.

Hand-to-hand combat skills are extremely

simple movements far removed from martial arts

films. They’re probably already more familiar

than you think, especially the ones that we’ll be

sharing with you, such as a slap, or a kick to the

attacker’s leg, or a knee to his stomach.
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Emergency Safety Tools and the Law

The tools we discuss in this step are considered

weapons by the legal system, which is concerned

about citizens misusing weapons. Each jurisdiction has its own laws governing those tools, and

none may be taken on airplanes. It is imperative

that you check with your local law enforcement

authority about carrying and using any emergency

safety tool. Although we have included generally

accepted guidlines in Step 6, we are not attorneys,

and we can not and do not provide legal advice.

You must check with local, state, and federal

authorities about whether you can carry a particular emergency safety tool, and you must comply

with all appropriate laws. These laws can and do

vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

What Should You Use

to Protect Yourself?

Physical Skills

Martial Arts

If you’re young and strong (and watch too

much television), the idea of martial arts or some

other form of physical skill for self-defense is

appealing. Unfortunately, use of martial arts for

self-defense presents four problems:

First, martial arts require a near life-long dedication to be effective, even in training sessions.
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1. On the other hand, spending a month or so studying a martial

art such as Aikido — which makes little pretense of being a

good choice for self-defense — can help you learn to recognize an impending attack, get out of the way, and move well.

Second, they are arts, and are not generally

aimed at dealing with the kinds of attacks that

happen on the street.

Third, they are often taught by artists, without

reference to the realities of combat. Since you can

go for years without even being hit hard in training,

they may not prepare you physically, emotionally,

or psychologically for a confrontation.

Finally, all things being equal, since professional predators generally attack only people they

think they can defeat, a predator will attack you

only if he is larger than you, or for some other

reason thinks he can control you. The larger,

younger, stronger person has the advantage in a

physical confrontation — that’s why sports1 from

boxing to judo separates competitors by weight.

When you combine all these factors, it’s no

surprise that Kleck indicates that if you use

physical force to counter a robbery you have a

51% chance of being injured, and that if you use

physical force to counter an assault you have a

52% chance of being injured. This means that

when you decide to fight back, what you do must

work for you to remain safe, because the alternatives to fighting back will be worse than the risk.

While the martial arts require engagement, the

techniques discussed in this book have as their

aim avoidance of and escape from engagement.
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Our interest is in survival and safety, not in demonstrating fancy moves. It is important for readers

— especially men — to understand that winning

does not always mean getting into a fight.

The Seven Stepssm

An exception to “larger wins” is the program

based on this book that is available from instructors certified through the Center for Personal

Defense Studies. The program is a full-day course

(often presented in two half-day or evening sessions) which includes lecture, as well as training in

the use of personal defense sprays and defensive

keychains. Like this book, the course emphasizes

avoidance of confrontation. We believe that the

Seven Stepssm program is the fastest way for the

average person to develop adequate personal safety

skills and techniques. We recommend this program as an adjunct to the book.

The IMPACTsm and Model Muggingsm Programs

A second set of exceptions to “larger-wins” are

the IMPACTsm and Model Muggingsm programs.

These are not martial arts, but similar 20-hour

programs which teach women to fight all-out

against attackers. The programs were developed

when it was realized that female martial artists

were losing fights in the street.

A significant goal of these programs is to help

students realize that nobody has the right to

assault them, and that they have the right to
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defend themselves — in essence, The Decision.

The programs develop a realistic sense of confidence and competence through street-realistic

scenarios; trainers wear protective gear, permitting full-contact fighting on the part of the

student. This role-playing generates great stress,

which in turn allows the release of focused

adrenalin strength (the kind of strength one sees

when a mother picks up a 2,000-pound automobile to save her child).

IMPACTsm, Model Muggingsm, and similar

programs supply a valid feeling of empowerment

and confidence that comes from good technique.

These are excellent, albeit demanding and

stressful, programs, which we highly recommended for all girls and women.

Emergency Safety Tools

The next appealing idea is some sort of defensive

weapon which can be used as an emergency

safety tool. Tools are critical, since your ability

to exert maximum effort will last no more than

20 to 45 seconds before you run out of short-term

endurance. For most people this means using a

gun, a knife, a personal defense spray, or a club.

Guns

This book deals with violence, not guns. But

guns are so widely owned, so widely used for self

defense, and cause such harm when misused, that

we must discuss them in depth. To understand
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2. Which brings us to gun control. Since only a small fraction of

1% of all guns are ever misused — primarily by criminals and

other people with predictable misbehavior patterns — reasonable restrictions of access by high-risk groups (without an

easy-to-follow track of gun ownership by low-risk groups)

should allow all but the most zealous pro-gun and anti-gun

believers to coexist, because neither side wishes people who

misuse guns to have them. If there were no permanent central

record kept of gun ownership, an instant background check

for violent criminal histories (including juvenile violence) and

histories of violent or potentially-violent mental instability,

spousal abuse, substance abuse, psychoactive medication, or

this emotionally-charged issue well enough to

make policy decisions we must know what is

really happening, which means we must look at

actual numbers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control,

of the 13,000 American children (infants through

age 12) who die each year, 250 are killed with

guns: About 110 of 5000 fatal childhood accidents and about 140 of the 800 homicides of

children involve guns. Although the number of

children’s deaths caused by guns may seem

small, the death of any child is a tragedy, and we

should take whatever steps we can to prevent it.

Guns are involved in 18,000 of America’s

25,000 annual homicides. The majority of homicides involve criminals, with prior arrest records,

as both aggressors and victims, rather than ordinary citizens. Criminals or not, up to 19,000

Americans die each year in homicides and accidents involving guns. Guns are involved in

enough deaths to require careful scrutiny.

Two questions must be asked: What is the

benefit to society2 — philosophical or practical
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multiple automobile accidents, should be acceptable to all

sides in keeping people already forbidden from gun ownership from making purchases through legitimate retail

channels. This is, in fact, more or less current federal law,

which will undoubtedly need to be fine-tuned to ensure that

fair and reasonable checks for high-risk subjects are inclusive,

but not abusive, and to cover private transfer of guns. Mustissue concealed-carry permits combined with mandatory

penalties on unlicensed gun carry, and discretionary add-on

penalties for commission of a crime with a gun, would allow

legitimate users to keep guns for self defense or sport, and

provide the maximum restriction possible on criminal use.

Must-issue state licensing of firearms dealers would allow

closer supervision of gun distribution without restraining

legitimate trade. Neither waiting periods nor other legislative

measures have shown any indication of effectiveness in

reducing violence.

— of civilian gun ownership, and do the benefits

outweigh the costs. To many gun owners, the

benefit to society of civilian ownership of guns

lies not in self defense or sport, but in the conviction that armed civilians are the ultimate

long-term guarantor of the security of a free

state. Short term, however, few Americans

expect the Canadian army to pour across our

common border, or that the president or a general

will seize power. Therefore, after any tragic

shooting involving non-criminals as victims —

particularly if it involves children or multiple

victims — it may seem reasonable that we should

simply ban guns in hopes that fewer guns might

produce less violence.

Kleck, however, shows that “gun levels generally have no consistent impact on violence

rates, and in some cases reduce violence.” What

does this mean? It means that more guns might
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3. Every year Americans use guns 1,500,000* to 2,400,000**

times to stop crimes. 15.7% of the intended victims believed

someone “almost certainly” would have otherwise died. An

additional 14.2% believed someone “probably” would have

otherwise died. (* Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms, National Institute of

Justice, 1997) (** Kleck and Gertz, preliminary study, 1993.).

4. “Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed

Handguns,” Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago

Law School, January 1997.

5. “Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities,” Department of

Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, 1979.

produce less violence. How could this be? Honest

citizens rarely kill each other, and cause little

violence, whether armed or unarmed. Criminals

(who may be unaffected by gun laws) are frightened of guns in the hands of citizens. Because so

many crimes are stopped by armed citizens in

areas where there is widespread civilian ownership of guns,3 criminals, rather than risk being

shot, change to less-confrontational nonviolent

property crimes.

This was documented in a study by John R.

Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard of the University

of Chicago4

, which makes a convincing case that

“If those states which did not have right-to-carry

concealed gun provisions had adopted them in

1972, approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes,

and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have

been avoided yearly.” And a Department of Justice study5

 indicating that the chance of an

attempted rape being completed drops from 32%

to 3% if you, the person being attacked, have a

gun. And Kleck notes that if you use a gun to

defend yourself in a robbery you have a 17%
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6. According to Kleck the typical gun owner is a conservative

married middle-aged middle- or upper-income white male

Protestant who doesn’t live in New England or the Middle

Atlantic states. According to Lott, even celebrities such as

Bill Cosby, Cybill Shepard, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein,

Howard Stern, Donald Trump, William F. Buckley, Arthur O.

Sulburger of the New York Times, Laurence Rockefeller,

Tom Selleck, and Robert De Niro have concealed-handgun

permits. This prompts the cynical to believe current gun control efforts are a continuation of the historical tradition of

restricting access to arms by the less-desirable social classes.

chance of being injured, and in an assault the

probability drops to 12%. 

Do we, the authors of this book carry guns?

Since the level of risk we face in day-to-day living is low, neither author of this book keeps or

carries a gun for personal protection. We recognize that this country has more guns than

automobiles, that a gun is used every 13 seconds

by a private citizen to stop a crime, that there is a

gun in half of all households and one out of eight

women has a gun, and that ownership of a gun

may be an obligation of citizenship much like

voting or participating in civic and community

activities. But the violence-reducing effect on

criminals depends on some potential targets having guns for protection, but not necessarily all.

Should you6 get a gun for personal safety? As a

law abiding citizen you need to balance the risks

of owning a gun (but having it available if you

ever need it), against the risks of not having one

if you do need it. You should make this decision

based on your personal value system, experience,

circumstances, and the law. After considering all
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7. The Centers for Disease Control, in “Violence in the United

States,” shows that in 1984 there 24,926 homicides of which

17,866 involved guns, and 31,142 suicides of which 18,765

involved guns. There were also 1,356 accidental gun deaths.

8. This also applies to those rare but highly-publicised homicides by disturbed people with no previous criminal history.

9. In a talk, the head of the Japanese Firearms Control Board

stated that in Japan, where there are for all practical purposes

neither guns nor homicides, the suicide rate alone is so high

that it exceeds our combined homicide and suicide rates.

the factors, guns may or may not fit in with your

lifestyle or beliefs or perception of risk

In addition, since half of all gun deaths are

suicides,7 it is totally inappropriate to have a

gun in the house if anyone with access to the

gun is depressed or otherwise mentally

distressed.

8 This may not prevent a suicide: It is

well established that suicide rates are independent of available instruments9, and that a person

who plans to commit suicide might do so

whether or not there is a gun around. Nonetheless, if you don’t keep a gun in the house you

will at least be relieved of the additional guilt

you would feel if someone you love were to use

your gun as the instrument of his or her death.

Also, on a practical note, you would have to

carry a gun with you all the time in order to be

sure to have it available the one time you might

need it. In some states and cities this is not

legally possible. In addition, guns are so heavy,

bulky, inconvenient, and uncomfortable to carry

that most people who can legally carry firearms

do so a few times, and then simply don’t bother.
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Finally, you must recognize that a gun is not a

magic talisman against evil, particularly in

unforeseen circumstances: If you haven’t mentally prepared for a situation in all probability

you will not be able to deal with it. Thus, many

who carry guns can imagine dealing with an

attacker, and, indeed, many do successfully deal

with a robber or an attacker every day.

But what happens in an unimagined situation?

As an example, after the October 16, 1991

shooting at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen Texas,

many said that had some patron had a gun the

shooting might have ended quickly.

And yet, when we look at similar situations in

which one or more other guns were present, this

doesn’t seem to be the case. In the December 7,

1993 Long Island Railroad shooting it is rumored

that there were two police officers and five nonlaw enforcement armed citizens on the train. In

the April 20th 1999 Littleton Colorado school

shooting a deputy sheriff was present and briefly

returned fire before leaving the scene. It appears

from these cases, and others, that if one is not

mentally prepared to deal with a given situation,

the situation will not magically be dealt with

merely because there is a gun present.

This aside, however, if neither you nor any

other person with access to the gun falls into a

high-risk group, and if after due consideration

you do choose to own a gun, you should get three

types of training:
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10. Most “accidents” fall into categories which training won’t

prevent. The first is misclassified homicides and suicides. The

second is horseplay (you already know, without training, that

Russian roulette, or getting drunk and shooting an apple off a

friend’s head, are dangerous). The third is gun misuse by

habitually reckless people, impulsive and immature, who

shouldn’t have guns (or drive cars), often have substance abuse

problems and histories of repeated automobile accidents. For

the rest of us — particularly for children, who are both interested in guns and willing and able at an early age to learn

safety habits which they will carry through their lives — training can help prevent accidents caused by lack of knowledge.

First and foremost, you must have training in

gun safety and use.

10 Courses in gun safety are

offered nationwide under the auspices of the

National Rifle Association.

Second, you need training in the moral and

legal aspects of using a gun. To learn about this

critical area, we urge anyone owning a gun to

read In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the

Firearm in Personal Protection by Massad

Ayoob (Concord, N.H.: Police Bookshelf, 1983).

Third, you need continuing training in defensive shooting, as opposed to target, practical, or

sport shooting. Courses in defensive shooting

develop the mindset, decision-making skill, and

tactics to use a gun under the stress of someone

trying to kill you.

Finally, if you do carry a gun, you should also

carry restraining devices in case your assailant

does not run away, and needs to be restrained. If

you have the misfortune to shoot someone, and

do not have a restraining device with you, the

prosecution is likely to claim that it was your

intention to kill, since you were not equipped to
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restrain. We ourselves favor TufftiesTM over

conventional handcuffs, as they are made of

nylon braid, and will tuck into your pocket.

Knives

Knives might seem appealing in the movies,

but in real life are infinitely less so in virtually

every respect. Knives are looked on with distaste

by a significant portion of the population: Nice

people — the kind who serve on juries — don’t

carry knives with which to cut other people.

Knives are very difficult to defend in court

because they are not used as defensive tools by

police. Also, knives require very close personal

contact in order to be effective. According to

Kleck, if you use a knife to defend yourself

against a robbery you face a 40% chance of

being injured, and in an assault you face a 30%

chance of being injured. This is notably worse

than doing nothing in a robbery, though about the

same as doing nothing in an assault. We don’t

recommend knives be carried for personal safety.

Personal Defense Sprays

Much like the six-shooter of the Old West,

personal defense sprays should be the modern

“great equalizer,” with the advantage of being

nonlethal. And, as of this printing, they are generally legal for civilian use everywhere in the

United States, with restrictions that vary from

jurisdiction to jurisdiction. You must, of course,
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check all local, state, and federal laws to see

what restrictions apply where you are. Personal

defense sprays fall into the category of “other

weapon.” According to Kleck, “other weapons”

used to defend yourself against a robbery have

yielded an injury rate of 22%, and in an assault

they have yielded an injury rate of 25%. These

are marginally better than doing nothing in a

robbery and in an assault.

There are at present over 100 personal defense

sprays on the market, some good, with a nearzero failure-to-control rate with trained use, and

some not so good, with up to a 60% failure-tocontrol rate for untrained users. How can you tell

which are good and which are not so good?

Without testing in the field on pain-resistant

subjects it’s hard to know for sure, but most

major manufacturers of personal defense sprays

for law enforcement also make civilian versions.

You can check with the manufacturer of a spray

you are considering to see if it is a member of the

ASR Instructors Council (which demonstrates its

concern for training) and the Association of

Defensive Spray Manufacturers (ADSM), which

indicates that it has conducted industry-standard

safety tests on its products, as agreed upon within

the association.

Note that while being sprayed yourself is an

unforgettable experience, it actually gives no

indication of how the product would work against
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a pain-resistant attacker — unless, of course, you

yourself are drunk, on drugs, or crazy.

There are two general classes of personal

defense sprays: teargas and aerosol subject

restraints (ASRs). Teargas was, perhaps because

of its military origin, traditionally considered

within law enforcement to be an intermediate

weapon used at the same level of force as a

nightstick. Many agencies, however, have

recently begun to place teargas lower on the

force continuum. It might seem logical that an

aerosol subject restraint would also be considered

an intermediate weapon, like teargas. However,

because of early wide recognition of its

extremely low propensity to cause lasting injury

(less injury than might be caused by hitting

someone), the law enforcement community generally considers its use to be on the same level of

force as merely restraining someone with your

empty hands when he is noncompliant and

expected to fight back, and on a lower level of

force than hitting someone with your hands,

forearms, elbows, knees, or feet.

There are two factors — after training — that

are important in a personal defense spray. The

first is the distance at which it can be used. When

you spray an attacker with a personal defense

spray, it should project out of the canister in a

form that allows it to be used close up. This is

very important because virtually all uses of personal defense sprays take place within a yard or
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less (arm’s length or closer). A properly designed

personal defense spray has no minimum required

distance to prevent mechanical injury from the

pressure of the spray. If you had to, you should,

with proper technique, be able to spray an assailant directly in the face even at point-blank range

— certainly closer than one foot — and get full

effect without putting out your assailant’s eye.

The minimum distance a personal defense

spray will reach depends on the model, size, and

spray pattern of the dispenser. Some personal

defense sprays project in a coherent stream

(primarily teargas, which will sublimate, with the

rising vapors being inhaled). Streams have the

advantage of being relatively unaffected by wind,

but make it harder to hit the target under stress.

Others, primarily ASRs, which do not sublimate,

project in a cone-of-mist. Mists have the advantage of allowing the atomized ASR to be

breathed in directly, and make it easier to hit the

target under stress, but are affected by the wind.

Still others come out in a burst designed to reach

great distances. It doesn’t matter what type of

dispenser is used as long as the product can be

used close up. Check the product’s instruction

sheet to make sure the spray can be used at arm’s

length or closer. If not, choose a different personal defense spray to carry.

Maximum distance, on the other hand, is of no

real concern. A personal defense spray will virtually always be used against an assailant who is
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within arm’s length of you. It’s extremely

unlikely that you will have any opportunity to

use a personal defense spray at any distance

beyond six feet. So anything beyond six feet is

pretty much wasted spray.

The second factor is the duration of spray.

Since you don’t want to run out of spray before

you run out of confrontation, there should be a

minimum of 10 seconds total continuous discharge (TCD) for a personal defense spray — if

you press on the actuator, a useful amount of

spray should come out for at least 10 seconds.

You can find out the total continuous discharge

time from the manufacturer. The TCD is a more

reliable indicator of how long the can will last

than an estimate of the number of one-second

sprays in the dispenser.

A third factor that may be of consideration in

the winter is whether the propellant is effective at

very low temperatures. The manufacturer can give

you the temperature range for which the product

has proven effective. Or, to test this yourself, put

a dispenser in the freezer overnight. Then take it

quickly outside and see if it sprays well.

Read the manufacturer’s instructions regarding

use, storage, and safe handling of the particular

personal defense spray you choose to carry.

Teargas: CN Following World War I, a

chemical agent called CN was adopted by law

enforcement. Its finely ground particles hurt the
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eyes and caused tearing (thus the name teargas).

It had mild effects, but was supposedly strong

enough to incapacitate for a short period.

One problem with personal defense sprays that

have CN as their sole active ingredient is that CN

works by causing pain. Anyone who is highly

enraged, psychotic, well trained, or on drugs or

alcohol will, in most cases, be oblivious to pain.

When CN does work, its onset time — the time

required until controlling effect begins — is

short, and so it works quickly. But, unfortunately, it’s so mild that it is often ineffective

against a pain-resistant person. Law enforcement

and the military have gotten mixed results with

CN, and, though CN has been widely carried, it

has been less widely used.

Read the label before you buy a personal

defense spray. If CN is the only active ingredient, we suggest that you don’t buy it.

Teargas: CS By the late l950s the United

States military dropped its use of CN for a newly

developed teargas called CS. By the mid-1960s

CS was adopted by American law enforcement

agencies as the riot-control agent of choice. Both

the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies

changed to CS because it worked better than CN.

It caused the eyes to close, produced heavy tearing, dermal discomfort, coughing, a feeling of

panic, and sometimes nausea or vomiting, and

disorientation and confusion. Once an assailant
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11. As a historical aside, the term “aerosol subject restraint” was

coined by William J. McCarthy of Indianapolis to differentiate ASRs from teargas, and quickly entered into the general

law enforcement lexicon.

has been properly sprayed with CS and it has

taken effect, anecdotal experience indicates that

it will prevent the resumption of further aggressive activity for up to 30 minutes.

A well-formulated CS will work virtually all

the time, even on most pain-resistant subjects.

But on truly pain-resistant subjects — those who

are drunk, on drugs, or psychotic — it can, with

old-fashioned mineral oil carriers, take 20 to 60

seconds for the full effect to kick in. This might

make some formulations inappropriate for spontaneous defense.

Most CS defense sprays are packaged in canisters that shoot the product out in a narrow

stream. This may require a minimum safe distance for spraying, and — as with a total

continuous discharge time of under 10 seconds

— may disqualify particular dispensers from

consideration. In addition, you should check on

whether the man ufacturer is a member of the

ASR Instructors Council and the Association of

Defensive Spray Manufacturers (ADSM).

Aerosol Subject Restraints (ASRs)11: Capsaicin

Animal-control sprays based on capsaicin have

been available for a long time — often in the

form of oleoresin capsicum (OC), which is

derived from New World red peppers not much
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different from the hot peppers used in cooking

and which is environmentally sound. In 1973 a

commercially viable capsaicin-based personal

defense spray hit the marketplace. It was not

actively marketed and remained virtually

unknown until it was introduced to the law

enforcement community at the 1988 conference

of the American Society of Law Enforcement

Trainers by one of the authors of this book.

The effect of this class of personal defense

spray with pain-sensitive subjects was that, on

contact, it had about the same speed as CN teargas combined with the effectiveness of CS

teargas. But it also worked on pain-resistant

subjects within a few seconds of inhalation.

Because it worked on both pain-sensitive and

pain-resistant subjects, it was particularly appropriate for law enforcement officers, who often

dealt with pain-resistant subjects. It so captured

the attention, interest, and approval of the law

enforcement community that by 1990 other

manufacturers began making similar products.

Capsaicin-based products are inflammatory

agents, and work on pain-resistant subjects by

inflaming the mucous membranes of the trachea

when inhaled. They do not work by affecting the

central nervous system, and thus causing pain, as

do the irritants used in teargas. This is important

because inflammation of tissues is a very lowlevel physiological response, and is unaffected

by factors such as training, stress, drugs, alcohol,
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psychosis, goal-orientation, or any other form of

pain resistance. And although not designed or

intended or tested for animal control, they have

been reported to work on dogs and other domestic animals, zoo animals, and wild animals.

Because capsaicin-based products work differently from teargas, this class of emergency

safety tools is categorized as an aerosol subject

restraint, or ASR, rather than as teargas. An ASR

is a generic class of personal defense sprays

whose sole active ingredient is capsaicin.

An ASR — whether in stream, cone-of-mist,

or burst units — will produce dermal discomfort,

just like teargas, although this is not a controlling

factor with pain-resistant subjects. It will additionally dilate the capillaries of the subject’s

eyelids, causing the eyes to close tem porarily.

The subject’s eyes and vision are not actually

affected. It is merely that the eyelids are clamped

shut for a brief period of time. Since, for sighted

people, the greater portion of our contact with the

world is visual, this can give you a significant

advantage in getting away.

But, unlike teargas, when a mist of atomized

ASR is inhaled it temporarily inflames the mucous

membranes of the throat. This induces a bout of

uncontrollable coughing which causes the subject

to double over at the waist, and produces a temporary loss of muscular strength and coordination.

The uncontrollable coughing (combined with

the closed eyes) drastically reduces your attack-
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er’s desire and ability to continue fighting, and

affects even the most hardened cases.

In our personal experience, with proper use an

ASR will prevent the resumption of further aggressive activity for up to 30 minutes.

Within a broad range, the strength of an ASR

is not significant. The original ASR was weak by

today’s marketing standards, containing only

.033% capsaicin. Nonetheless, in the hands of

trained users it gave a near-zero failure-to-control

rate which has been equaled, but not exceeded,

by later, more potent, products. Personal conversations with the FBI agents who evaluated

ASRs, recommending them as a supplement to

CN and CS, indicated they felt more than .5%

capsaicin was excessive. Therefore, any product

whose capsaicin content falls between .033% and

.5% should prove to be equally adequate in

actual use.

As with any personal defense spray, you should

consider whether a specific product can be used at

close range and has a minimum total continuous

discharge of 10 seconds. In addition, you should

check on whether the manufacturer is a member

of the ASR Instructors Council and the Association of Defensive Spray Manufacturers (ADSM).

Teargas: Teargas/Oleoresin Capsicum Blends

Some manufacturers have recently started to

produce personal defense sprays containing

teargas (CS) blended with oleoresin capsicum
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(OC). This was originally done strictly for marketing purposes. However, to everyone’s

surprise, it appears that the addition of a small

amount of OC somehow makes the CS about

twice as effective. This means, in practical terms,

that you get the same effect as straight CS while

hitting your attacker with half the amount of a

CS/OC blend.

Oleoresin Capsicum has also been added to CN,

but we have no personal experience with it yet.

A teargas/oleoresin capsicum blend is considered to be teargas, not an ASR. As with any

personal defense spray, you should check that a

specific blend can be used at close range, and

that it has a minimum total continuous discharge

of at least 10 seconds. In addition, you should

check on whether the manufacturer is a member

of the ASR Instructors Council and the Association of Defensive Spray Manufacturers (ADSM).

Impact Weapons and Defensive Keychains

Impact weapons are simply nightsticks, clubs,

or bludgeons. These are illegal in most jurisdictions, and even if you try to be clever by having,

say, a baseball bat on the front seat of your car,

it’s likely to be frowned on by the police.

A malacca or Irish blackthorn cane might seem

appropriate, but, in truth, few people carry canes

today. Also, proper use of a cane for self-defense

is more like using a sword than a club, and it’s

very difficult to get proper training. If you end up
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whacking someone with a cane you will likely be

charged with illegal possession and use of a club.

A special subset of the club is the defensive

keychain used in police work. Defensive keychains are small cylinders generally made of

plastic or metal. The barrel is about six inches

long and about half an inch wide, with keys on a

ring at one end. The design of defensive keychains varies somewhat among manufacturers —

some are a little thicker or thinner, some have

grooves and some have ridges, and some telescope open an additional few inches — but

they’re all used the same way. Defensive keychains have proven themselves to be effective

safety tools in police work, are completely legal

for civilian possession in most jurisdictions, and

are included as one of the emergency safety tools

taught in the Seven Stepssm training program.

In police work, defensive keychains are used

with a set of compression, leverage, and counterstrike techniques to gain statutory control, and

are considered to be higher on the force continuum than empty-hand control, but lower on

the force continuum than hitting someone.

For civilian use against a violent attacker, the

techniques include the higher-level force of

strikes and slashes to the face and other vulnerable areas. Striking someone as hard as you can

in the face, eyes, nose, mouth, or throat with the

keys on the end of a defensive keychain can

cause great bodily harm. And force that can
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cause death or great bodily harm is considered

deadly force. Because of this, civilian use of the

defensive keychain is at the same level of force

as impact weapons, and much higher on the force

continuum than personal defense sprays or

empty-hand techniques. The only justification

for using defensive force of this magnitude on

another person is that you face the imminent

likelihood of death or grave bodily harm from

that person!

Even though the use of a defensive keychain is

a viable option to stop a violent attack, and even

though it is used at a higher level of force than a

personal defense spray, the personal defense spray

should still be your primary emergency safety

tool. This is because even if you hit an attacker in

the face so hard that you put out his eye or rip off

part of his nose, he may still be able — because of

pain-resistance brought on by a rush of adrenalin,

or drink, or drugs, or training, or just plain craziness — to fight through the pain. After all, many

criminals have been mortally wounded in police

gunfights, only to continue to fight back for minutes that seemed like hours.

Therefore, we recommend that you use a

defensive keychain only in situations where you

can’t use a personal defense spray, or to buy you

time to access your personal defense spray.
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Using Emergency Safety Tools

By a stroke of good fortune, all safety tools are

used in a very similar way: First, you avoid the

immediate threat — referred to in police work as

“exiting the kill zone,” that area, usually directly

in front of the attacker, where you face the greatest danger. Second, you verbally “stun” your

attacker. Third, you execute the technique for that

safety tool. And finally, you leave to get help.

Because they are the easiest to describe in

written form, are the easiest to learn from a book

because they depend on gross motor skills, and

are legal almost everywhere, we will spend the

rest of this step dealing with the use of personal

defense sprays and defensive keychains: We

recommend that you carry both, so that if someone snatches your keys you still have your spray.

But remember that techniques not directly peculiar to the use of personal defense sprays or

defensive keychains are applicable to other

emergency safety tools.

There are a few rules you should be aware of

when using or carrying any emergency safety tool:

1. Carrying a weapon without training increases

the likelihood of getting hurt in a violent confrontation, because you can’t back up your

false sense of empowerment.

2. An emergency safety tool is a defensive

weapon, not a toy. Don’t play with it!
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3. Don’t let people know you are carrying an

emergency safety tool. It’s none of their

business, and could cause you harm.

4. Don’t use an emergency safety tool as a threat.

Thus, if you carry a personal defense spray,

don’t say “Stop or I’ll spray!” If you have time

to talk, you should either be spraying or taking

some other action. Also, you’re likely to be

disarmed before you finish speaking, since

most of us can’t act and talk at the same time.

5. Use of an emergency safety tool should come

as a surprise to your attacker, which will make

it all the more effective.

6. Federal law prohibits the carrying of weapons,

including personal defense sprays and defensive keychains, on airplanes.

7. You should not discharge a personal defense

spray in or from a moving vehicle, or on public transport, since the vehicle could go out of

control and wreak havoc.

8. You are responsible for your actions, particularly in public places, and your use of an

emergency safety tool must always err on the

side of safety.

9. If you have an emergency safety tool, you

have an increased obligation and responsibility to walk away from a confrontation if it is

physically and morally possible to do so.

It is important to remember that this book does

not take the place of proper training in the use of
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a personal defense spray, a defensive keychain,

or any other emergency safety tool. Approved

certification training for personal defense sprays

should be available through the product’s manufacturer. However, at the time of writing many

major manufacturers of law enforcement personal defense sprays recognize the training

program based on this book, which is offered

nationwide through the Center for Personal

Defense Studies.

Techniques and Tactics

You go to Step 5 only if you have not been able

to get away. Your goal is to stop your attacker’s

forward momentum and then incapacitate him

with your emergency safety tool. You can then

escape from the assailant and run for help.

You must realize from the start that an

escalation in your actions may generate an

escalation in the attacker’s response, and that

no technique works 100% of the time, even

when done perfectly. Only you can determine

the acceptability and risk of fighting versus not

fighting once it is clear that you can’t get away.

Exiting the Kill Zone

If the subject continues to move toward you, exit

the “kill zone” by moving to the right or left if

there is space. Think of an attacker as a train

rolling down the track toward you. You want to
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get off the track rather than try to outrun the

train. Let the attacker end up where you were,

while you end up to his side, or even back where

he was when he started moving.

Verbal Stunning

Studies have shown that when individuals are

experiencing a heightened level of stress and

anxiety, they don’t hear well what is being said

to them. They only hear how it’s being said. How

you say what you say, therefore, must match the

action and intensity of what you are saying, so

you must use loud repetitive verbal commands.

As the assailant is coming toward you, verbally “stun” your attacker with loud repetitive

verbal commands like “Stop! Stay back!” or

“Back!” Your commands must be assertive

ultimatums and not passive pleading such as

“Don’t hurt me” or “What do you want?” Use

verbal stunning to demonstrate that you are in

charge and in control.

Simultaneously, spray or strike him in the face

until he has stopped assaulting you, all the time

shouting such verbal commands as “Stop!

Down!” or “Down! Down! Down!”

Verbal stunning is very important, particularly

after the subject has been sprayed with a personal

defense spray or struck with a defensive keychain, because he will be in a state of confusion

and will be seeking instructions. The instructions
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you want him to follow are the ones you are giving him with your verbal stunning.

Distraction and Distance-Creation Techniques

It may be, however, that you can’t spray or strike

the assailant without first stopping his initial

charge. You will need to use a distraction technique, which will bring him up short, taking

advantage of the element of surprise. Distraction

techniques are intended to create time and distance in which to spray, or to strike with your

defensive keychain. If you are grabbed from

behind while your personal defense spray or

defensive keychain is in your hand, don’t drop it.

At some point you should have an opportunity to

spray or to strike.

One- or Two-Handed Check to the Chest

When someone is coming toward you and you

want to push him back, there is a technique more

effective than merely pushing him away. If you

press the top outside areas of your chest with your

fingers or thumbs, you will find a section on each

side that is sensitive. As your attacker closes in,

strike this area, using either the side of your fist or

the heel of your palm, in a 45-degree downward

strike. This should stun your attacker for a

moment, allowing escape, and will be more

effective than a mere push. As with any strike

designed to stun, you should leave your striking

hand in contact with your attacker’s body for a
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fraction of a second, to assure a full transfer of

energy.

Brachial Stun

The brachial stun is a slap to the side of the

neck with the palm or back of your open hand, or

the soft inside or back of your wrist. This excites

the brachial plexus nerve complex, momentarily

stunning your attacker. It needs under six

pounds of force, and you can safely try it on

yourself. This technique is considered lethal

force in some jurisdictions, and, as with many of

the techniques in this book, should be used only

when you are under attack.

From a stable pyramid base foot position,

quickly slap the side of the assailant’s neck while

shouting “Stop!” Let your hand or wrist stay in

contact with the neck for about an eighth of a

second, rather than bouncing off: This will allow

the maximum amount of energy to be transferred.

If you can, break away and run for help. Try to

step and drag to the outside of the assailant by

going to his right or left as you simultaneously

spray or strike him in the eyes, nose, and mouth.

Keep spraying or striking until the assailant stops

assaulting you, then break away.

Multi-Strike Forearm Overload

As the attacker moves in toward you (as you’re

facing him), shove your reaction hand into his

chest — or extend both hands to forcefully check

his forward motion — and command him to “Stay
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back!” If he continues to press in toward you,

bring your hands into your chest, making fists

with your hands and putting your fists together,

palms facing down and touching your chest.

Begin striking him with the elbow end of your

forearms. You must involve your whole body in

the strikes, using hip and upper body motion so

he is receiving the force of your entire body

weight. Do multiple rapid strikes, as hard as you

can, alternating forearms, to his chest and upper

body as you shout “Stop! Back!”

If you are grabbed from behind and your arms

aren’t pinned to your sides, do a reverse multistrike overload with the elbow end of your upper

arms. Do multiple rapid strikes backward, alternating arms as you shout “Stop! Back!” Get

away if you can. Otherwise, spray or strike your

assailant in the face and then break away.

Punch to Stomach

Using either hand, punch the assailant as hard

and as fast as you can in the middle of his stomach

and command him “Stop!” This could knock the

wind out of him. If you can, get away then. Otherwise, spray or strike him and then break away.

As a rule of thumb, most of us should never use

our fists to punch other than in the stomach: No

matter what you see on TV, there is a very good

chance that we will break bones in our hands if we

hit someone in, say, the face.
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Knee Strike

A knee strike can be performed with either

knee, depending on your position. Extend one or

both hands out and grab your opponent. As the

assailant presses in, pull him in toward you. Shift

your body weight over your hip and bring your

other hip and knee up to form a spear with your

knee: The heel of your foot should be touching

your buttocks by the time your knee strikes. Drive

your knee into the center of his stomach as you

simultaneously command him “Stop!” You may

have to bring the leg back to the floor and do

several knee strikes before you can break away.

The stomach is a better target than the groin:

First, it’s a bigger target area and easier to hit.

Second, a knee in the stomach will cause more

immediate incapacitation than will a knee to the

groin. Third, most men are very good at protecting their groin, and the attacker may be able to

block a knee coming toward his groin.

Kick to Lower Leg

If you have time, drive the ball of your foot

into the assailant’s shin or knee as he is moving

in toward you. Command the assailant to “Stop!”

Using the Personal Defense Spray

We have been talking about spraying the subject

in the eyes, nose, and mouth with your personal

defense spray. As easy as this sounds, there’s
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more to it than just pointing and spraying. While

it seems as if you should be able to just “point

and spray” or “follow the bouncing head,” police

use of personal defense sprays has shown that

effective spraying, combined with appropriate

ver balization while simultaneously avoiding the

attack, is a psychomotor skill requiring training.

In addition, you need to give some thought as

to where to carry your personal defense spray,

how to draw it, how to hold it in your weapon

hand, how to fire it, and how to ensure hitting the

target at which you’re aiming.

Carrying the Personal Defense Spray

In the Hand

In the best of all possible worlds, your personal

defense spray would be in your weapon hand at

all times when you might be at risk. To make this

more likely, if you follow our recommendation to

carry your keys on a defensive keychain, you

should develop the habit of picking up your personal defense spray whenever you pick up your

keys. Even though many manufacturers do attach

keyrings to their sprays, we don’t recommend

your attaching your keys to the spray: If someone

snatches your keys, he will get your spray, too.

Make sure you can tell — by feel — which is

the front: It would be embarrassing at the least

and dangerous at the worst to spray yourself. The

clip or the shape of the dispenser’s top will provide a positive tactile indicator.
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As you carry the personal defense spray —

concealed in your weapon hand — make sure

that as soon as you perceive a threat, you place

your thumb on the personal defense spray’s

actuator. This way you’ll be ready to spray

without having to fumble around.

You should have the personal defense spray in

your hand any time you feel uncomfortable with

your surroundings. Since most personal defense

sprays are small enough to fit in the palm of your

hand, concealing them from plain view, it’s good

practice to have it in your hand going to or from

your car, coming toward the door when returning

home, in elevators, in deserted public transportation exits, in parking lots, and any other place

where you might feel at risk.

Have your personal defense spray in your

hand, not in your purse. Keep it in your hand

when you leave your car — don’t be too quick to

put it away.

If you feel that someone is following you, have

your personal defense spray in your hand, ready

to fire. Stop and turn toward him so you can see

what he is doing and choose the appropriate plan

of action. If it’s night and you have a highintensity flashlight (in your reaction hand), shine

your flashlight toward his eyes and blind him

with the light. Then look for his hands and palms

to see if he is holding any weapons.

The best defense against being assaulted is

awareness: Stay alert and thinking at all times.
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In the Pocket

Carrying the personal defense spray in a jacket

or coat pocket is acceptable as long as it doesn’t

get caught or hung up when you’re trying to

draw it in a high-stress situation. For the greatest

safety, carry your personal defense spray only in

a very large and unrestrictive pocket. You can

use the clip to hold it in a secure position.

In a Carrying Bag or Purse

If you carry your personal defense spray in a

bag or purse, it should be easily accessible so

that it can be drawn when you’re under stress.

Use the clip to attach it to the bag in a place

that’s easy to find. Don’t just dump it in a bag or

purse with all the stuff you have in there: You

may end up drawing out a brush or wallet instead

of the personal defense spray. If your bag or

purse has an open side pocket (inside or outside),

that’s a good place to put it. Alone.

On the Belt

If you use a clip to attach the personal defense

spray to your belt, the personal defense spray

should be concealed, rather than publicly displayed. Public display will make some good

people uncomfortable, and will eliminate the

element of surprise when dealing with bad

people who might mean you harm.
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Drawing the Personal Defense Spray

If you carry the personal defense spray in your

weapon hand, it’s already drawn and ready to go.

If you draw it from a bag, purse, or pocket, you

may need your reaction hand to turn it in your

weapon hand so that the spray nozzle is pointed

in the right direction. You should also practice

being able to tell by feel which is the front, so

you don’t accidentally spray yourself.

Basic Positions

Weapon Hand While Walking or Running

Your personal defense spray can be concealed

in your weapon hand as you walk or run to

wherever you’re going. Concealing your personal

defense spray adds an element of surprise if you

need to defend against an attack.

Ready Position

If you’re confronted and feel threatened, you

may want to further conceal your personal defense

spray: Tuck your weapon hand, with your thumb

on the actuator, slightly behind your weapon thigh

as you turn your body by moving to a pyramid

base, your weapon foot drawn back and turned out

60 degrees. The personal defense spray is in your

weapon hand, palm facing to the rear.

From here, you can move directly to the loaded

or firing position.
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Loaded Position

If the person is practically on top of you, you

may need to move into a position that unfortunately lets the assailant see that you have a

defensive weapon.

In the loaded position, you are going from the

ready position (carrying the personal defense

spray in your weapon hand and at your side as

you are running or walking) to a position in

which you bring your weapon hand up tight

against your weapon side next to your chest and

rib cage. Your thumb is on the actuator and the

nozzle is pointing toward the assailant. Your

reaction hand and arm are shoved out in front of

you to keep the assailant at least at arm’s length

as you spray. You should also be in a wide and

deep pyramid base foot position, with your

weapon foot to the rear.

This loaded position is primarily a means of

protecting the personal defense spray from being

grabbed while you spray, since you’re keeping

the assailant back with your reaction hand. Also,

if the attacker is so close and jammed into you

that you can’t go into the firing position, you’ll

have no choice but to discharge the personal

defense spray from this loaded position, with

your extended reaction hand creating distance.

This position may act as a psychological deterrent to the attacker, since it shows that you’re

armed with a weapon and are trained and prepared to use it. Because many predators are
145

risk-aversive, this may be a help. However, this

position is not intended as a deterrent: If you are

forced into the loaded position you should be

actively spraying, since you’ve now shown the

assailant what you have. This could provide him

with a means of countering your defense, especially since he’s close enough to knock you down.

Firing Position

If your attacker is far enough away that he

can’t grab your extended hand, shove your

weapon hand out at shoulder height. The extra

distance will help protect you from getting the

spray blown back if there’s any wind. Keeping

both of your eyes open, spray the personal

defense spray directly toward the subject’s face

as you simultaneously shout “Stay back!” If the

aggression continues, continue your defensive

action. If using an ASR which comes out in a

cone of mist, creating a curtain of mist which

your attacker must penetrate to reach you, don’t

advance into the mist after firing or you might be

affected, too. Move to one side or the other to

avoid firing directly into the wind. If some of the

mist blows back at you, it will annoy you but it

won’t incapacitate you. If you are running away,

this shouldn’t be a factor.

If you’re facing the attacker and not able to get

away, shove your reaction hand straight out to

protect your weapon hand. Both your arms are

extended straight out and your eyes are open so
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you don’t lose sight of your target. The spray

dispenser can move back toward the loaded position if necessary to keep it from being grabbed.

Personal Defense Spray Targets

and Method of Discharge 

A personal defense spray must be sprayed

directly at the attacker, either blanketing his face

in a mist or coating his face with a stream or

burst. Your targets are the assailant’s mouth,

nose, and eyes. Once the aggression has been

stopped, you should stop spraying. Legally, you

must stop spraying when an assailant stops

attacking you, since the threat has ended and you

can get away.

Spray Patterns

When the subject is closing in on you, he won’t

just move toward you in a straight line. A study

of the dynamics of assault reveals that an attacker

does a lot of bobbing and weaving to get past

your defenses. This means that the assailant’s

face, which is the only target for the personal

defense spray, is moving around a lot. Experience with police has shown us that hitting the

target without training is more difficult than you

might imagine.

Hitting the eyes, nose, and mouth of this moving target can be done if you’re using proper

spray patterns. All of the spray patterns start

from either the loaded or the firing position. The
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“secret” of spraying the attacker is that wherever

his face goes, the spray goes. Remember, the

target is the attacker’s face.

There are five spray patterns to learn. We

developed these spray patterns when we discovered in training police that, without the development of a specific set of psychomotor

skills, the effectiveness of use of the product

under stress was lowered. These “gross-motor

movements” are very much of the Karate Kid

“wax on, wax off” school, and each one is based

on movements that you’ve already performed

thousands of times. They are what we refer to as

multi-tap movements, since each movement

allows repeated sprays at your assailant by virtue

of the multiple passes of the dispenser past his

face as you move the dispenser back and forth.

In addition to increasing the likelihood of hitting the subject with stream dispensers, the spray

patterns allow a misting ASR to be used at closer

range than if you just pointed and sprayed. A

static spray allows the mist to turn liquid when it

hits the subject. While this will close the subject’s

eyes, he may not breath in the mist and thus may

not double over and lose strength and coordination. The spray patterns reduce this tendency of

mist dispensers to turn liquid, allowing constant

atomization down to about eight inches. If you

practice in front of a closed window or a mirror

with an inert training unit, you’ll get a good feel
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for how fast and over what distance the misting

dispenser must be moved for maximum effect.

After the initial training, you should practice

your skill techniques on a daily basis for a minute

or so until you’re comfortable with the techniques.

Once you’re trained, you can perform repetitions

of the technique using a mental visualization of the

attacker’s movements, or practice in dream simulations while asleep, which we will be discussing

in more detail later in this step under “Creative

Visualization and Dream Practice.”

Horizontal Sweep

If the attacker is moving from side to side as

he tries to come in at you, follow and spray his

face by firing the personal defense spray in a

side-to-side sweeping motion, left to right or

right to left. Remember, the assailant’s mouth,

nose, and eyes are the targets.

Vertical Sweep

If the attacker is trying to elude your spray by

squatting or ducking down, follow and spray his

face by firing the personal defense spray in a

down-and-up vertical sweeping motion.

Vertical Sweep — Serpentine

If the attacker is moving in an up-and-down

motion, you may reflexively follow and spray his

face with an upward and downward vertical

sweep that forms an S-type movement.
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Circular Sweep

For this spray technique, follow the attacker’s

face and fire the personal defense spray in a

clockwise or counterclockwise circular sweeping

motion. This is an excellent technique for surrounding the assailant with a curtain of mist.

Criss-Cross Sweep

If the attacker is making downward diagonal

movements, follow and spray his face with a

criss-cross movement, like printing the letter X.

This spray technique is excellent for covering

large areas as the attacker is moving toward you.

Treatment After Being Sprayed

Products vary, so it is critical that you check the

manufacturer’s instructions regarding treatment

after a subject is sprayed. In general, if you

inadvertently spray yourself or someone else, the

symptoms can be relieved by:

• Flushing the eyes with clear cool water.

• Exposing the face and body to flowing air.

• Washing hair, face, and hands with soap and

cold water to get the spray off the body, and

changing a shirt or other clothing if needed.

Left untreated, the effects of a personal defense

spray should go away in 15 to 45 minutes. If the

effects last longer than this, consult a physician.
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Decontamination

Since products vary, it is critical that you check

the manufacturer’s instructions regarding decontamination of the area in which a personal

defense spray has been discharged. In general,

well-formulated personal defense sprays do not

require any special decontamination. Normal

ventilation should generally remove the spray

within 30 to 45 minutes. This means that if you

accidentally discharge it at home or someplace

else, it will disperse with normal ventilation, and

no cleanup is normally required. Any clothing

that has been sprayed can be tossed in with the

regular wash.

Personal Defense Spray Training Simulations

You have been learning how to carry the personal defense spray and how to fire it at the

assailant. Now you need to practice so that the

proper responses will be so burned into you that

you do them under stress without thinking.

Becoming proficient in the spray techniques

will require you to perform the following simulations slowly at first, gradually building up

speed, intensity, and complexity.

Practice with training units, available from the

manufacturer of your personal defense spray.

Training units fire just like live units but don’t

contain any active ingredients, so they won’t

incapacitate anyone in the process.
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Level 1 Simulations

First practice moving into your two firing positions (loaded and firing — as discussed earlier in

the “Using the Personal Defense Spray” section

under “Basic Positions”) from the three basic

stances (conversational, ready, and defensive —

as discussed in Step 4 in the “Physical Skills for

Self-defense section under “Stationary Stances”).

Practice moving into each of the positions at least

50 times. The training unit should be gripped in

your weapon hand with your thumb on the actuator. Don’t discharge the training unit yet.

Next, exit the kill zone by “getting off the

track,” moving to the side as if avoiding a rushing attacker. Simultaneously perform one of the

five multi-tap spray patterns in the air slowly and

rhythmically, but don’t discharge the training

unit. Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal

commands as you practice.

Since you’re doing three things at once (moving aside, spraying, and yelling), start slowly and

work up to a faster pace.

Level 2 Simulations

Repeat the movements of Level 1 for each of

the five multi-tap spray patterns, but this time

simultaneously fire the training unit. For

example, if you are performing the horizontal

sweep, move your weapon hand laterally left to

right as you fire, and then come back right to left.

You can hold down the actuator the full time, or
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release the actuator each time you pass the

assailant’s face.

Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal commands and move “off the track,” so all three

actions take place simultaneously.

Level 3 Simulations

Level 3 simulations require the help of a training partner wearing a gas mask or a swimming

mask, who moves in to assault you from various

attack positions and with various movements.

As your partner moves in toward you, follow

and spray his or her face with the training unit

while verbalizing and moving to the side. You’re

not hitting the target if your partner’s face mask

is not dampened. If your personal defense spray

dispenses a cone of mist, you’re not doing the

spray patterns vigorously enough if your partner’s mask is dripping wet. If it dispenses a

stream or burst, there will be little direct atomization, and your partner’s mask will be dripping.

As you become proficient at spraying the face

of your moving partner, continue integrating patterns of movement to get away and run for help.

Dynamic Simulations

Finally, make up scenarios, little plays in

which you stage a scene where things escalate

until you are attacked and must defend yourself.

Practice these with a training unit and a partner.
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The dynamics of these scenarios will become

almost identical to real-life conditions of an

actual assault. To stimulate your imagination, we

include here five simulations designed by Jack

Strenges of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

Scenarios can be practiced indoors or outside.

Use your imagination when role-playing!

1. You have just gotten out of your car in a

parking lot at a mall. It is nighttime and the

parking lot is well lit. It’s close to closing time

and you’re in a hurry to make a quick purchase. As you walk through the mall, someone

suddenly blocks your path and attempts to

grab you from the front. You must:

• Create distance and try to retreat as appropriate, planning your escape route.

• Simultaneously, get your personal defense

spray in your hand in proper firing position.

• Use verbal commands to attract attention.

• Discharge your personal defense spray

using the appropriate spray technique.

• Spray until your attacker has ceased

aggressive activity or is on the ground.

• Utilize your escape route, escape, and call

the police.

2. A disgruntled customer confronts you at the

office door, forcing his way inside, physically

assaulting you. You must:
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• Create distance and try to retreat to a corner

or to where there are other people, planning

your escape route.

• Simultaneously, get your personal defense

spray in your hand in proper firing position.

• Use verbal commands to attract attention.

• Discharge your personal defense spray

using the appropriate spray technique.

• Spray until your attacker has ceased

aggressive activity or is on the floor.

• Utilize your escape route, escape, and call

the police.

3. You are inside an elevator and waiting to get

off, keys (and personal defense spray) in hand.

The door opens and you are forced back inside

by an ex-boyfriend. He menaces you and

attempts to attack you. You must:

• Create distance; since most elevators are

only eight feet by eight feet in size, back

into a corner.

• Verbalize your “Stop! Back!” commands.

• Discharge your personal defense spray with

an appropriate spray technique.

• Attempt to engage a floor button to stop at

the next floor.

• Spray until your attacker has ceased aggressive activity or is on the floor of the elevator.

• Get out of the elevator as soon as the doors

open, escape, and call the police.
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4. Your attacker has knocked you to the ground.

You must:

• Use verbal commands to attract attention.

• Try to get into a ground fighting position,

keeping your back against a wall, tire, curb,

or whatever is available to protect your

spine, while planning your escape route and

kicking at your attacker to keep him at bay.

• Simultaneously, get your personal defense

spray in your hand in proper firing position.

• Discharge your personal defense spray

using an appropriate spray technique.

• Spray until your attacker has ceased

aggressive activity or is on the ground.

• Get up as quickly as possible, utilize your

escape route, escape, and call the police.

5. You are jogging. Multiple attackers attempt to

stop you. You must:

• Use verbal commands to attract attention.

• Simultaneously, get your personal defense

spray in your hand in proper firing position.

• Discharge your personal defense spray using

the appropriate spray technique at the most

imminent attacker, and then the next....

• Spray until your attackers have ceased aggressive activity or are on the ground.

• Utilize your escape route, escape, and call

the police.
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Using the Defensive Keychain

We have told you to strike the subject in the

eyes, nose, and mouth with your defensive keychain. As easy as this sounds, there’s more to it

than just swinging with your weapon hand. As

with personal defense sprays, effective striking,

combined with appropriate verbalization while

simultaneously avoiding the attack, is a psychomotor skill that requires training.

In addition, there are other considerations,

such as where to carry your defensive keychain,

how to draw it, how to hold it in your weapon

hand, how to strike with it, and finally, how to

ensure hitting the target at which you’re aiming.

We recommend that you put your keys on your

defensive keychain, and carry your personal

defense spray separately. This allows you to have

the personal defense spray in your hand — albeit

your reaction hand — and accessible even when

your keys are in the lock or if someone tries to

grab them. Or to have the personal defense spray

concealed in your hand when, for whatever reason, you don’t want to be holding your keys.

Carrying the Defensive Keychain

There are a number of choices as to where to

carry your defensive keychain.

In the Hand

If your keys are on your defensive keychain,

the only time you might normally have it in your
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hand is when approaching or opening a door. In

this case, the barrel will be in the palm of your

weapon hand, and you will be using your reaction hand to pick out the appropriate key. Note

that if you feel uncomfortable in a situation there

is no reason not to have your defensive keychain

in your hand: They are only keys, after all, not a

weapon, so nobody will notice or get upset.

On the Belt

Most men and many women (depending on

what they are wearing) carry the defensive keychain with the barrel stuck inside the waistband

of their trousers, with the keys hanging out.

Either side is acceptable, and you should choose

what is most comfortable for you. You don’t

need to be as concerned with concealing the

defensive keychain as you would be with a personal defense spray, since all you have showing

are your keys.

In the Pocket

Carrying the defensive keychain in a jacket or

coat pocket is acceptable as long as it doesn’t get

caught or hung up when you’re trying to draw it

out in a high-stress situation. For the greatest

safety, carry your defensive keychain only in a

very large and unrestrictive pocket.
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In a Carrying Bag or Purse

If you carry your defensive keychain in a bag or

purse, it should be easily accessible under stressful conditions. Tuck it into a pocket in the bag in

an accessible location. (Don’t just dump it in a

bag or purse with everything else. You may end

up drawing out a brush or wallet instead of the

defensive keychain.) If your bag or purse has an

open pocket, that’s a good place to put it — alone.

Drawing and Gripping the Defensive Keychain

If you’re carrying the defensive keychain in your

weapon hand, it’s already drawn and ready to go.

If you draw it from a bag, purse, or pocket, you

may need your reaction hand to turn it in your

weapon hand so that the keys are at the thumb

end of your hand. If you draw it from your

waistband, you can use your weapon hand to

grasp the barrel with the keys at the thumb end of

your hand, or grab the keys with your reaction

hand and then grab the barrel with your weapon

hand with the keys, as always, at the thumb end.

The defensive keychain is gripped by making a

fist around the barrel, with your four fingers

around the barrel and your thumb wrapped over

your index and middle fingers. The barrel should

be gripped in the middle, with barrel showing at

the keyring end (where your thumb is) and the

bottom of the keychain. This will allow you to

strike with the keys or with the bottom of the

keychain. Also, the extra barrel at the bottom
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should help reduce the chance that the keychain

might slip through your (hopefully) vice-like grip.

Basic Positions

Weapon Hand While Walking or Running

The barrel is concealed in your weapon hand as

you walk or run to wherever you’re going. Even

though it is not obviously a weapon — only the

keys are showing — concealing it gives you the

element of surprise if you need to defend yourself.

Ready Position

If you’re confronted by an individual and feel

threatened, you may want to further conceal your

defensive keychain: Tuck your weapon hand

slightly behind your weapon thigh as you turn

your body by moving to a pyramid base, your

weapon foot drawn back and turned out 60

degrees. The defensive keychain is in your

weapon hand with your thumb at the keyring

end, palm facing to the rear.

Loaded Position

Unlike a personal defense spray, where you

may have some distance between you and your

attacker, a defensive keychain must be used at

close range. If you’re confronted by an individual

you believe to be a threat, you will need to

assume a position that unfortunately lets the

assailant see that you have a defensive weapon.
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In the loaded position, you are going from the

ready position (carrying the defensive keychain

in your weapon hand at your side) to a position

in which you bring your weapon hand up above

your shoulder. Your thumb is at the keyring end.

Your reaction hand and arm extend out in front

of you to keep the assailant at arm’s length as

you strike. You should also be in a wide and

deep pyramid base foot position, weapon foot to

the rear.

This loaded position is the primary position

from which you will be striking, while still keeping the assailant back with your reaction hand.

Defensive Keychain Targets

Your primary target is the center of your attacker’s face: the assailant’s mouth, nose, and eyes.

Striking to the center of the face increases the

probability of making contact with the face.

Severe damage to the face, particularly the eyes,

will generally greatly diminish your attacker’s

will to fight. If you can’t strike the face, you may

be able to strike your attacker in the throat by

thrusting with the end of the defensive keychain.

Once the aggression has been stopped, you

should stop striking and escape. Legally, you

must stop striking when an assailant stops

attacking you, since the threat has ended and you

can get away.
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Physical Effects

Unlike using a personal defense spray, where the

attacker will require no medical assistance, striking someone as hard as you can with a defensive

keychain may result in grave bodily harm. If you

strike your attacker in the face with your keys,

you should expect the result to be anything from

an abrasion to a large gaping wound with lots of

blood rushing out. You may rip the attacker’s eye

out or tear his nose off. If you strike your

attacker in the throat, you may crush, puncture,

or severely damage his throat. You could even

kill him!

This may sound excessive until you realize that

your attacker is trying to rape you, kill you, or

cause you some very serious injury. It’s not

pleasant to contemplate this possibility, but in a

crisis situation your primary objective is to survive, and the damage you might do to your attacker will be less than he would cheerfully do to

you! Remember that you did not make this person attack you: It was his choice, and if your

attacker is a professional predator he has already

factored in the risk of his being injured or killed.

Remember also that the only justification

for using defensive force of this magnitude on

another person is that you face the imminent

likelihood of death or grave bodily harm from

that person!
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12. Note that while the face is the primary target, you can also,

obviously, strike your attacker’s hand if it is a more reasonable target at any given instant, or any other easily accessible

part of his body if appropriate.

Striking Techniques

When the subject is closing in on you, he won’t

just move toward you in a straight line. A study of

the dynamics of assault reveals that an attacker

does a lot of bobbing and weaving to get past

your defenses. This means that the assailant’s

face, which is the primary target for the defensive

keychain, is moving around a lot. As with the

personal defense spray, hitting the target without

training is more difficult than you might imagine.

Hitting the eyes, nose, and mouth of this moving target can be done reflexively as long as

you’re using proper striking techniques. Striking

techniques are initiated from either the loaded or

the ready position. The “secret” of striking the attacker is that wherever his face goes, the keys go.

Remember, the target is the attacker’s face. 

After the initial training, you should practice

your skill techniques on a daily basis for a minute

or so until you’re comfortable with the techniques.

Once you’re trained, you can perform repetitions

of the technique using a mental visualization of the

attacker’s movements, or practice in dream simulations while asleep, which we will be discussing

in more detail later in this step under “Creative

Visualization and Dream Practice.”

There are five primary striking techniques for

you to learn and practice.12 Like the spray pat-
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terns, these “gross-motor movements” are very

much of the Karate Kid “wax on, wax off”

school, and each one is based on movements that

you’ve already performed thousands of times.

They are what we refer to as multi-tap movements, since each movement allows repeated

strikes at your assailant by virtue of the multiple

passes of the keys past his face as the defensive

keychain is swung in repeated movements.

Horizontal Sweep

If the attacker is moving from side to side as

he tries to come in at you, follow and strike his

face with your keys by swinging the defensive

key chain in a side-to-side sweeping motion, left

to right or right to left. Remember, the assailant’s

mouth, nose, and eyes are the targets.

Vertical Sweep

If the attacker is trying to elude your defense

by squatting or ducking down, follow and strike

his face by swinging the defensive keychain in a

down-and-up vertical sweeping motion.

Diagonal Sweep

Swing the defensive keychain in a 45-degree

downward arc toward your reaction side from the

loaded position, or up and around and then down

from the ready position, striking your attacker in

the center of the face with your keys. Swing the

keys in a 45-degree upward arc toward your
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weapon side as a follow-up to a downward strike,

or around and up from the ready position, striking at the center of the face.

Straight Thrust

Drive the keyring end into the center of your

attacker’s throat. You’ll need to tip your fist

down, your thumb at the top, to accomplish this.

A straight thrust can be done from any position.

Criss-Cross Sweep

If the attacker is making diagonal movements,

follow and strike his face with a criss-cross

move ment, trying to slash the letter X into the

attacker’s face with your keys.

Combination Strikes

Since you must continue defending yourself

until the attack has ceased, it may be necessary to

perform combination strikes until you are able to

escape. The most common of these will be a

series of downward or diagonal sweeps to the

face followed by a straight thrust.

If Grabbed from Behind

If you are grabbed from behind, the defensive

keychain is an excellent and effective tool. If you

are grabbed in a bear-hug, reach down and pull

the defensive keychain from your waistband. Jam

either end into the back of his hand as hard as

you can, using both hands if possible. This will
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cause intense pain — and possibly break some of

the small bones in his hand — which should

make him let go. Escape if you can, or pivot and

strike your attacker and then escape.

If you are being choked from behind, turn your

head so that your neck is toward his elbow. Pull

the defensive keychain from your waistband and

jab the end as hard a you can into his face, using

both hands if necessary. The pain should make

him let go. Escape if you can, or pivot and strike

your attacker and then escape.

Defensive Keychain Striking Simulations

You have been learning how to carry the defensive keychain and how to strike the assailant.

Now you need to practice so that the proper

responses will be so burned into you that you do

them under stress without thinking.

Becoming proficient in the striking techniques

will require you to perform the following simulations slowly at first, gradually building up

speed, intensity, and complexity.

We recommend that when you practice, you

pad your keys with cloth or paper, and then use

duct tape around the padding. You’ll need to

practice where there is enough room to swing

your key chain without hitting anyone or anything.

Two movements will help you strike harder.

First, rotate your hips in the direction of your

strikes, so that your entire body weight is behind

the blow. Second, simultaneously sink down a bit
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and then uncoil upward when you do an upward

strike, coil your body downward when you do a

downward strike, or step-and-drag forward

slightly when you do a thrust. This will also help

put all your body weight behind each blow.

Level 1 Simulations

Practice moving into the ready and loaded

positions (as discussed earlier in the “Using the

Defensive Keychain” section under “Basic Positions”) from the three basic stances

(conversational, ready, and defensive — as discussed in Step 4 in the “Physical Skills for

Self-Defense” section under “Stationary Stances”). Practice moving into each of these positions

at least 50 times. The defensive keychain should

be in your weapon hand, keys by your thumb.

Next, exit the kill zone by “getting off the

track,” moving to the side as if avoiding a rushing

attacker. Next, perform each of the five striking

techniques in the air slowly and rhythmically.

Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal commands as you practice. Since you’re doing three

things at once (moving aside, striking, and yelling), start slowly and work up to a faster pace.

Perform each single-direction movement until

you are comfortable, first slowly for form, then

faster, and finally at full speed and power, each

time integrating moving aside and yelling.

When you’ve become comfortable with the

single-direction techniques, move to combination
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techniques and practice these in the same way

until you’re comfortable with them.

Level 2 Simulations

Making sure that the keys are padded, find a

vertical object to strike. This could be a tree, a

pole, a heavy punching bag, a mattress, or anything that can be struck without damage. Perform

each of the five single-direction striking techniques against the striking surface, visualizing

your attacker. When you are comfortable with

this, add in the combination strikes.

Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal commands and move “off the track,” so that all three

actions take place simultaneously.

Actually striking something will provide you

with more realism and positive feedback about

how much power and shock you can generate.

You’ll be glad you’re not the one getting hit!

Level 3 Simulations

Level 3 simulations require the help of a training partner carrying a padded bag or some other

surface that can safely be struck, who moves in

to assault you from various attack positions and

with varying movements. It is very important

that you and your partner choreograph what is

being done so that neither of you gets hurt!

As your partner moves in toward you, holding

the striking surface well in front of the face, follow and strike the striking surface with the
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padded keys while verbalizing and moving to the

side. You can tell right away by feel if you’re not

hitting the target. Start with the single-direction

strikes and move to the combination techniques.

Be very careful when working with a partner. There is no need for these movements to

be done fast, or in a manner that can get out

of control or cause injury!

As you become proficient at striking the surface

representing the face moving in toward you, continue integrating your patterns of movement to get

away and run for help. As always, integrate verbal

stunning with your physical movements.

Dynamic Simulations

Finally, you should make up scenarios, little

plays in which you stage a scene where things

escalate until you are attacked and must defend

yourself. These may be practiced very carefully

with padded keys and a partner, or in your

imagination. Think through how you would

apply the defensive keychain to each of the scenarios used earlier with a personal defense spray.

Defensive Keychain Decentralization Techniques

At some time during a confrontation you are

likely to have the opportunity to grab your

attacker’s hand or arm with your reaction hand.

This may happen either when you grab the hand

or arm directly, or when the attacker grabs you, or

your shirt or jacket, thus placing his or her hand
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within your reach, or grabs you from behind in a

bearhug from which you escape as previously

described. When this happens there are decentralization techniques, commonly taught to police

officers, that can be done with the defensive keychain, to take advantage of this situation and turn

the problem of being grabbed into an opportunity

for defense! These techniques allow you to drag

your attacker to the ground. This decentralization

will buy you time to create distance.

The decentralization techniques are compression-compliance techniques: You compress

the flesh between the hard defensive keychain and

an unyielding bone. The discomfort of the compression induces the compliance of your assailant.

There are five primary target areas for these

decentralization techniques:

• The thumb side of the wrist.

• The top of the wrist.

• The pinkie side of the wrist.

• The back of the hand.

• The fingers or thumb.

Note that while the techniques work on the top

and sides of the wrist, they do not work on the

soft tissue on the underside of the wrist.

Technique I: Thumb Up

The first technique is used when you grab your

attacker’s hand or wrist with your thumb on the
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upper side of the part held. This would normally

occur if the hand or arm were coming from chest

level or lower. As an example, when you shake

hands with someone, your thumb is on top.

Once you have grabbed his hand you want to

force him away from you. Using the defensive

keychain, poke your attacker in the ribs or armpit.

You can even scrape the end of the keychain up his

ribs into his armpit, which will generally raise him

onto his toes. This will help to keep your attacker at

a distance while you perform the technique.

Now place the barrel of the keychain on whatever body part you’ve grabbed, wrist or hand,

just above (but not on top of) your thumb).

Hook your thumb over the keychain. You have

made a sort of nutcracker, with the keychain one

half of the nutcracker and the bone the other half.

The nut will be the flesh between the two.

You now need to close the nutcracker by pressing down with the keychain. As you press down

with the keychain, you need to roll it about a quarter turn on the skin. You want to roll the keychain

away from you. This exposes the nerves in the

skin, enhancing the effectiveness of the technique.

As you compress the keychain, drop your

weight and drag your attacker to the ground

while yelling “Down!” When you pull your

opponent to the ground, you must move diagonally back away from his free hand, or in a circle

away from his free hand. This helps keep his

body between him and you. Once you have
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dragged your attacker to the ground, you can take

advantage of the moment to run away.

Technique II: Thumb Down

The second technique is used when you grab

your attacker’s hand or wrist with your thumb on

the bottom side of the part held. This would

normally occur if the hand or arm were coming at

you from chest level or higher.

Once you have grabbed his hand, you want to

force him away from you. Using the defensive

keychain, poke your attacker in the ribs or armpit.

You can even scrape the end of the keychain up his

ribs into his armpit, which will generally raise him

onto his toes. This will help to keep your attacker at

a distance while you perform the technique.

Now place the keychain on whatever body part

you’ve grabbed, wrist or hand, just above (not on

top of) your fingers, with your thumb underneath

next to your other thumb.

Hook the fingers of your reaction hand over

the keychain. You have essentially made a sort of

nutcracker, with the keychain (held by both sets

of fingers) one half of the nutcracker and your

thumbs the other half. The nut will be the flesh

and bone between the two.

You now need to close the nutcracker by

squeezing your thumbs and fingers together,

compressing the keychain against the bone. As

you squeeze down, the keychain will automatically roll about a quarter turn on the skin. This
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exposes the nerves in the skin, enhancing the

effectiveness of the technique.

As you squeeze your fingers and thumbs

toward each other, compressing the keychain,

drop your weight and drag your attacker to the

ground while yelling “Down!” When you pull

your opponent to the ground, you must move

diagonally back away from his free hand, or in a

circle away from his free hand. This helps keep

him between him and you. Once you have

dragged your attacker to the ground, you can take

advantage of the moment to run away.

Defensive Keychain Decentralization Simulations

You have been learning how to decentralize your

assailant. Now you need to practice so that the

proper responses will be so burned into you that

you do them under stress without thinking.

Becoming proficient in these decentralization

techniques will require you to perform the following simulations slowly at first, gradually

building up speed, intensity, and complexity.

We recommend that when you practice, you

use a soft and flexible training defensive keychain. You’ll need to practice where there is

enough room to decentralize your training partner without hitting anyone or anything. It is best

to practice on a soft rug to avoid scraping your

partner’s knees and hands.
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Level 1 Simulations

From a stable position in front of your partner’s practice grasping your partner’s wrist when

it is at waist level (so your thumb is on top of his

or her wrist), placing the defensive keychain on

the wrist, and hooking your thumb over the keychain. Practice this at least 50 times.

Once you have become comfortable with the

thumb-on-top grasp, practice grasping the wrist

when it is higher, so your thumb is on the bottom

of the wrist. Practice this at least 50 times.

Next, exit the kill zone by “getting off the

track,” moving diagonally back away from your

partner’s free hand. As you move back, roll the

keychain a quarter turn and compress it slightly,

allowing your partner first to gracefully drop to

their knees, and then be stretched out on the

ground. Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal

commands as you practice. Since you’re doing

three things at once (moving aside, turning and

compressing the defensive keychain, and yelling), start slowly and work up to a faster pace.

Perform each single-direction movement until

you are comfortable, first slowly for form, then

faster, and finally at full speed and power, each

time integrating moving aside and yelling.

Level 2 Simulations

Working slowly, have your partner reach out to

grab you from the front but allowing you to grab

his hand, either in front of you before he grabs
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you or after he has grasped your clothing. Perform

the appropriate technique depending on whether

the grasp is low or high, with your thumb on the

top or the bottom of your partner’s wrist.

Give appropriate loud, repetitive verbal commands and move “off the track,” so that all three

actions take place simultaneously.

Level 3 Simulations

Level 3 simulations require that your partner

move in a determined (yet slow) fashion to grab

you, strike you, or grab you from behind in a

bearhug. Block the hand and grab it, or grab it

once you have been grabbed, or detach yourself

from the bearhug by lightly pressing on the back

of the hand with the training defensive keychain

and grabbing the hand. Then perform the decentralization. It is very important that you and your

partner choreograph what is being done so that

neither of you gets hurt!

Be aware that if you have a pain-resistant

attacker you can move from doing the techniques

on the wrist to doing them on the hand or on a

finger or thumb. These small bones all break

easily, so be sure to practice with a training

defensive keychain, and with particular care for

your partner.

Be very careful when working with a partner. There is no need for these movements to

be done fast, or in a manner that can get out

of control or cause injury!
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As you become proficient at performing

decentralizations on a partner moving in toward

you or holding you from behind, continue integrating your patterns of movement to get away

and run for help. As always, integrate verbal

stunning with your physical movements.

Dynamic Simulations

Finally, you should make up scenarios, little

plays in which you stage a scene where things

escalate until you are attacked and must defend

yourself. These may be practiced very carefully

with your training defensive keychain and a

partner, or in your imagination. Think through

how you would apply the defensive keychain to

each of the scenarios used earlier with a personal

defense spray.

DESPERATE MEASURES

IN SEXUAL ASSAULT

While we like to think that all of the techniques

we have described may be usable, in part or in

whole, in all situations, sexual assault adds some

possible additional options because of more

likely access to the attacker’s genitals.

We have heard of cases in which a rapist has

been stopped when the attacker’s penis has been

grabbed with one hand and the scrotum grabbed

with the other, and each squeezed and twisted, as

if wringing out a cloth. This incapacitated the
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attacker, allowing the woman to literally drag the

attacker to the door and throw him out!

In addition, we have heard of cases in which a

person being forced to perform oral sex has bitten

into the attacker’s penis, allowing escape. It also

assured identification of the aspiring rapist when

he sought emergency medical treatment!

Creative Visualization

and Dream Practice

Not all practice has to be physical. You can also

visualize in your mind, or in your dreams, scenarios in which you defend yourself. The advantage is that if you make a mistake, you can

stop the visualization, go back, and then do it

over again until it’s perfect. As far as your body

is concerned, as long as you do some physical

practice, these nonphysical sessions will be

“thought of” as real, and will help to establish the

neural pathways required for reflexive action.

Dreams are an effective way to learn since you

can create scenarios that are virtually indistinguishable from reality — with the exception that

you can stop and replay them until their outcome

is the way you want, and that you can be frightened in a dream, but not hurt. To learn to control

your dreams, you can read Creative Dreaming by

Patricia Garfield (New York: Ballantine, 1985).

During a dynamic simulation, creative visualization, or dream practice you should feel some
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of the psycho-physiological effects of a violent

confrontation that are discussed next.

Psycho-Physiological Aspects

of Violent Confrontations

Between Conditions Orange and Red (which we

discussed in Step 3 under “Awareness”) a host of

psycho-physiological reactions start taking place

within the body. These unavoidable reactions are

caused by the fight-or-flight reflex. They start

when the body dumps adrenalin and other hormones into the blood stream, causing both heart

rate and blood pressure to rise. Blood is channeled

to the internal organs from the extremities (which

is why people go pale under extreme stress).

On the positive side, some of these reactions

increase your body strength and give you a

much-enhanced tolerance of pain. Both of these

can be a great help in a violent confrontation.

On the negative side, other reactions are less

helpful. Fine-motor coordination diminishes, first

in the reaction hand, then in the weapon hand,

then in the legs. This means that you will be able

to perform gross-motor skills such as the five

spray patterns and striking techniques, but not

fine-motor skills requiring fine coordination or

small hand movements, like multiple short sprays.

On a psychological level you may have an

imperfect and distorted recollection of what

happened, perhaps consisting of little more than
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images, emotions, smells, sounds, and recollections of movement. Amnesia about the details of

the incident can last weeks, or even years!

Because of this, you may simply not be in a

position to give any sort of accurate description

of what happened, while still retaining all the

emotions and feeling surrounding the incident.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be unreasonably

specific. It’s acceptable to say “I was attacked. It

happened very fast and was very confusing. I

know I was in danger, but I’m not sure I can be

accurate while I’m this upset.” Then shut up!

You may perceive a distortion of time (called

tachypsychia), where time is remembered as

passing quickly (usually if you were unprepared)

or slowly (usually if you were prepared).

Because of this it’s very unwise to discuss the

specifics of time immediately after a confrontation. Since time was distorted for you, whatever

you say will probably be wrong. If you’re wrong

about the timing and end up in court, you will

likely hear opposing counsel say something like

“You lied about how long the alleged attack

lasted. What other lies are you telling us?”

You may also suffer from tunnel vision, where

your brain allows you to focus only on the

immediate danger. If your attacker has a weapon,

you may find yourself seeing only the weapon.

This does two things: First, you’re likely to

become so fixated on the immediate danger that

you won’t see other dangers — or even people or
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things that might be of aid. You must train yourself to turn your head and look around you.

Second, as with a telephoto lens, objects — and

even people — can seem larger than life: A small

attacker might appear to be a much larger person,

a small knife might appear to be a huge knife, a

small gun might appear to be a cannon, and a long

distance may appear to be a short distance. This

means that any definitive descriptions you give of

weapons or attackers right after the incident are

probably wrong. Don’t discuss details prematurely. It’s acceptable (and true) to respond to a

question like “How close were they?” with an

honest “Close enough to hurt me!”

Remember also that when the light is low,

colors are distorted: The gray car, truck, or jacket

you saw might really have been blue or red.

Auditory exclusion is much like tunnel vision

in that the brain filters out sounds it doesn’t consider important. You might not hear your

attacker’s accomplice, or the person coming to

your aid. As you might expect, what you recall

hearing may not be what others recall hearing.

The moral of all this is that you should be very

careful about what you say after an incident: Be

aware that since much of what you remember

may not be exactly correct in its specifics, you

should stick to the most elemental facts until the

adrenalin is no longer pumping through your

system. Talk as little as necessary.
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Because you will undoubtedly be in a state of

shock at this point, you may want to adopt a procedure reputedly used by the New York City Police

Department. Having said that you were attacked

and that you feared for your life, tell everyone with

whom you come in contact that you are in shock

(which will, in fact, be true, even though you may

not be aware of it) and that you want to go to a

hospital. When you get to the emergency room

you’ll have a little time to recover.

And at this point it would be a good idea to call

your attorney, or call a friend who can call your

attorney. Sitting at the hospital — or even worse,

sitting in central booking — is not the time that

you should first be thinking of an attorney. It is

much better to call your attorney now to arrange

what will be done if you ever have the misfortune

to be involved in a violent encounter.

Psychological Aspects

of Surviving Violent Confrontations

When dealing with a violent confrontation, you

will be afraid. This is both natural and good, as it

brings about the psycho-physiological responses

just discussed, which will help you survive. And,

since you are now preparing yourself to deal with

the situation, you will be able to make use of

your fear in a positive fashion.

Deborah Gold of Tri-State Police Survivors

points out that your will to live is your most
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powerful weapon: When faced with death,

always choose life.

Part and parcel of your will to live will be your

sure faith and knowledge that you will survive,

no matter what is happening at any given

moment. It will allow you to ignore outside

events. You will be aware that what you see and

hear and feel will not affect your survival. As

many police officers have discovered, “bang

bang” doesn’t mean that you’ve been shot, or if

you are shot that you’re dying: It merely means

“bang bang.” You will survive.

The following story, which came to me over

the internet, emailed first by a gentleman in

Hawaii named Orson Swindle, and subsequently

by several other people, captures the importance

of a positive attitude:

“Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.

He was always in a good mood and always had

something positive to say. When someone would

ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I

were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from

restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters

followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He

was a natural motivator. If an employee was

having a bad day, Jerry was there telling him

how to look on the positive side of the situation.
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Seeing this style really made me curious, so

one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I

don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of

the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each

morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you

have two choices today. You can choose to be in

a good mood or in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in

a good mood. Each time something bad happens,

I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to to

learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every

time someone comes to me complaining, I can

choose to accept their complaining or I can point

out the positive side of life. I choose the positive

side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is about choices.

When you cut away all the junk, every situation is

a choice. You choose how to react to situations.

You choose how people will affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good or bad mood. The

bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.” I

reflected on what Jerry said.

Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to

start my own business. We lost touch, but I often

thought about him when I made a choice about

life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I

heard that Jerry did something you are never

supposed to do in a restaurant business: He left

the back door open one morning and was held up

at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying

to open the safe, his hand, shaking from ner-
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vousness, slipped off the combination. The

robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was

found relatively quickly and rushed to the local

trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and

weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from

the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in

his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the

incident. When I asked him how he was, he

replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna

see my scars?” I declined, but did ask him what

went through his mind as the robbery took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was

that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry

replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered

that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I

could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose

consciousness?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The

paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was

going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into

the emergency room I saw the expressions on the

faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really

scared.

In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew

I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting

questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was

allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors

and nurses stopped working as they waited for

my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled,
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‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I’m

choosing to live. Operate on me as if I’m alive,

not dead.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but

also because of his amazing attitude. I learned

from him that every day we have the choice to

live fully.”

Attitude, after all, is everything.

We hope you choose life.

And Don't Forget Our Goal

Remember that our primary goal is to keep you

from being attacked in the first place. Only if you

can’t avoid a confrontation do you need to put

into practice your strategies, techniques, and tactics to break 6away from an attack and get help.
How To Survive The Aftermath

Of Violence And Terrorism

IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY

THE APPROPRIATE ATUHORITIES

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1. An important secondary reason for calling the police right

away is to help them catch your attacker as quickly as possible. This will help get a predator off the streets, which is

good for both you and your community. More important,

your active participation in the process will help you recover

from the stress of having been attacked.

STEP 6

IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY

THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES

If you are on the receiving end of an assault, it’s

important that you notify the appropriate law

enforcement agency as quickly as possible. Your

primary goal here is to protect your status as a

law-abiding citizen.1

From the police viewpoint, there are three possible participants associated with any incident: the

complainant (the one who was attacked and files

the complaint), the defendant (commonly referred

to as the suspect), and the witness.

As a general rule the first party to contact the

police about an incident is the complainant. You

want to be the complainant, since there is a

near-universal impression that the complainant is

the good guy and the defendant is the bad guy. If

you don’t notify the police, it allows your

assailant to assume the role of complainant. The

following scenario provides just one example of

how this kind of misrepresentation can occur:
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You have been confronted by a potential

attacker. You have followed the rules and have

successfully used an emergency safety tool on

the subject, who is now bent over, dealing with

the effects of your defense. You decide that

there’s no more danger and so you leave.

Because you weren’t hurt, because you are

shaken by the incident, and because you don’t

want to even think about what happened, you

don’t call the police. Unbeknownst to you, the

incident was observed by a witness looking out

his second-floor window.

The witness was unable to hear any conversation between you and your attacker. Your

assailant had his back to the window, and the

witness could not observe any physical actions

on your assailant’s part. The activity observed by

the witness was that two people met on the

sidewalk, and one disabled the other and then left

the area. The witness calls 911 and requests both

police and medical services for the subject

doubled over on the sidewalk.

What story do you think your attacker will tell

the police and medical personnel? What story

will the witness tell the police and medical personnel? You should be aware that in most cases

your assailant will make up a story for the police

that will have you playing the role of the aggressor. In one recent incident, the attacker claimed

that his intended prey made sexual solicitations,
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and, when rebuffed, attacked. The assailant thus

claimed that he was merely defending himself.

This scenario is only intended to stimulate

your thought processes and to help serve as an

example of why we urge you to call the police

anytime you’re assaulted. There are many “what

ifs” associated with these types of incidents, and

we don’t pretend to have all the answers. However, we hope this provides some insight about

why you should contact the police.

What the Police Will Ask You

Law enforcement officers are trained professionals whose job is to apprehend criminals.

They will be addressing two primary areas during the initial interview stage. The first is: Has

there been a crime committed, and by whom?

Factors in justification of use-of-force

When analyzing how you used force, the law will

look at five factors, which are important for you

to understand.

Ability: Could the assailant hurt you?

There are some obvious factors that might give

your attacker the ability to hurt you, or you an

advantage over them. The most obvious is size.

Who is bigger? Larger people are generally seen

as having an advantage
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Another is a perception or knowledge of some

special skill, like knowing a martial art. You

must be able to articulate how you knew the subject had a special skill. This could be either

through previous knowledge, or deduction. Thus,

if your attacker drops into a boxer’s stance, you

can assume a greater ability to hurt you than

someone who was not a trained boxer.

Age is another factor. The average violent

aggressor is 19 years old. If you are much older

or younger this can be an issue. There is also a

presumption that a man has a physical advantage

over a woman.

Finally, if you are being attacked by multiple

attackers they have an advantage. If there are

three of you and one of them, you may be seen as

having the advantage

Opportunity: 

Can the ability be put to use?

Opportunity is different than ability. It is

mostly a matter of distance if there are no weapons involved, or if there are contact weapons like

knives or clubs. This is because if someone is not

near you – say they are on the other side of a

busy street – they will not have the immediate

opportunity to hurt you, independent of their

ability. With a gun, of course, if they can see you

they can hurt you.
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Jeopardy: 

Is there reason to believe you are in actual danger?

Ability and opportunity don’t automatically

mean you are in danger. Common sense plays a

factor here. If someone is coming toward you,

and they have a baseball bat in their hand they

have ability and opportunity. If they have a bag

full of softballs and a mitt in their other hand you

are probably not in jeopardy.

There are a lot of factors here. An obvious sign

is their telling you that they plan to harm or kill

you, or actually attacking you. If they have just

hurt someone else you might reasonably sense

imminent danger. If they have or are reaching for

a firearm or other weapon you might reasonably

believe yourself to be in jeopardy. You might

also have some special knowledge, i.e., you

know your attacker has a past history of violence.

There are also physical factors. If you are in a

fight and running out of steam – short-term

endurance only lasts about 20 to 40 seconds –

you face an increased chance of being hurt, as

you do if you start off, or become, injured or

disabled. And if you are knocked down, the rule

of thumb says the person in the ground is considered to be at greater risk.

Preclusion: What steps did you take to keep the

conflict from starting, from continuing, and to get

away from the conflict?
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As an example, if someone says “Your mother

wears army boots” and you respond “Your

father’s got a mustache” and he comes back with

a snappy “So’s your old man” and the next thing

you know there’s a fight, then you will be given a

big share of the responsibility for what happened,

since you kept the ball rolling. This is clearly a

case where being macho can cause you problems.

As a rule of thumb, you always, like the

knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,

want to “Run away! Run away!” if possible. This

is especially true if you have a weapon, or any

other sign of greater ability whose presence gives

you added responsibility.

We cannot overemphasize how important it is

to avoid a confrontation, independent of the

provocation, if you can safely do so.

Reasonableness: Was the amount of force you used

reasonable for the threat you faced?

Reasonable is what the average person would

do in similar circumstances with similar knowledge. The force you use to defend yourself must

be reasonable in comparison to the danger you

feel and can articulate that you face.

The Confrontational Continuum

What levels of force are there anyway, and how

can you respond to them? This is an important

consideration, because police and lawyers analyzing an incident will give close scrutiny to
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whether force was used maliciously to cause

bodily injury, or in good faith to control,

restrain, subdue, or allow escape.

Remember that force can be deescalated as well

as escalated. This means you must make an effort

to avoid and retreat from the conflict if possible,

and should think out the ramifications of using

force beforehand, rather than after the fact.

It is critical from both an ethical and a legal

point of view that, if you use force, you be able

to verbalize why the level of force you used was

appropriate. To understand use of force more

clearly, let’s look, from the perspective of law

enforcement, at the escalating continuum of

resistance and control used on both sides of a

con frontation: This is the context from which the

police will look at your use of force.

Levels of Resistance

Resistance — which is assault from your point of

view — moves up a scale of increasing likelihood

that your attacker will cause you physical harm.

Resistance (assault) falls into four broad areas:

1. Verbal dialogue (including psychological intimidation by the assailant, and verbal noncompliance to your directions).

2. Resistive actions (passive, even if threatening).

3. Aggressive acts (you are being physically

touched and assaulted, or it is clear that you

are about to be assaulted, such as when
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2. While personal defense sprays sound more like intermediate weapons than empty-hand control, they are included at

this level because they cause less harm than punching someone.

someone appears and yells “Give me your

money or I’ll kill you!”).

4. Aggravated active aggression (your attacker is

trying to kill or severely injure you).

As a civilian, you have the right to physically

defend yourself against aggressive acts and aggravated active aggression.

Levels of Control

Control — which is self-defense from your point

of view — moves up a scale of increasing likelihood of your causing your attacker physical harm:

1. Presence (behaving alertly and with authority).

2. Verbal direction (saying what you want done, with

the expectation that your orders will be followed).

3. Empty-hand control (including punching,

kicking, martial arts, personal defense sprays2,

and other defensive techniques).

4. Intermediate weapons (such as nightsticks and

defensive keychains).

5. Deadly force (any force that would cause

death or grave bodily harm, even if that harm

won’t actually kill your attacker).
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The following are some of the questions you

may be asked:

• Where were you coming from?

• Is this part of your normal route?

• How soon before the attack did you notice the

presence of the assailant?

• At what point did you realize you were going

to be attacked?

• What do you think drew the attacker’s attention to you?

• What did the assailant say?

• What was your response?

• Was he bigger, stronger, younger, in a group,

a male if you are a female?

• Were you injured, were you exhausted, or

were you knocked to the ground?

• Were any weapons actually displayed? If yes,

what kind?

• Did he appear, either from knowing him or

from observation of his actions, to be a boxer,

a martial artist, or otherwise more dangerous

than a “normal” assailant?

• Do you know, or have you ever before seen,

your attacker?

• What did your attacker look like? (Start with a

general description and then begin at the top

and work down with the specifics: “A white

male about 20 years old, weighing about 175

pounds, with long dark hair, no hat, no

glasses, and clean-shaven.” Start practicing,
198

now, how to describe people. Learn to zero in

on unique behaviors or mannerisms, and different manners of dress.)

• In what direction did the assailant flee?

• Did you notice the assailant interacting with

anyone else?

This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list

— it merely represents some of the general

questions that would be asked. If there are any

injuries to either you or the offender, these would

also be addressed, along with any other unusual

variables associated with the incident. It is

important to keep in mind that, as discussed in

step 5 under Psycho-Physiological Aspects of

Violent Confrontations, you may not be in a

position to adequately answer — or even discuss

at all — these questions.

The second area the police will be questioning

you about is: Are you carrying the emergency

safety tool in compliance with the applicable

laws? If you have followed our advice to check

out your local laws, you should have no problem

with this.

What You Should Ask the Police

No matter how upset or shaken you are after an

incident, there are some questions you should ask

the police. Start with the reporting officer’s
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name. This may seem foolish at first, but more

often than not this point is overlooked and several days after an incident the complainant is

trying to locate “the officer who took my report.”

The larger the police department, the harder it

will be to locate the unknown officer.

You should find out if the reporting officer is

doing any follow-up work concerning the case,

or if it will be transferred to some specialized

group, like the detective unit. You also want to

know the case number being used.

Additional questions would include: Who do

you contact — and how — if you think of more

information concerning the case? How do you

get copies of the reports? Are there any court

appearances you need to be aware of? How do

you contact the prosecutor and the court?

You should also ask what other actions you can

take to help apprehend your assailant. Aiding the

police in apprehending your assailant doesn’t just

help them. It also helps you deal positively with

the fact that you have been violently assaulted and

that your personal space has been violated.

If You Are Sexually Assaulted

While any assault is a violation, sexual assault is

particularly traumatic and full of uncomfortable

social overtones. Because of this, a sexual assault

survivor can be so confused and embarrassed that
200

3. In the past some police officers had a less-than-sensitive

approach to those who had been sexually assaulted. This is

changing, and you should expect — and demand — to be

treated with dignity, sensitivity, and respect.

she or he will, more often than not, want to delay

calling the police, or not want to call them at all.

Although this is natural, it’s not a good idea

for three reasons. First, delay increases the time

it takes for the emotional and psychological

healing process to begin. Second, delay reduces

the likelihood of there being physical evidence

that can be used by the police and prosecution

against your attacker. Finally, it is an unfortunate

truth that there will be people who won’t believe

your charges, particularly if your assailant denies

them. Sadly, the longer you delay, the more that

people who don’t understand the psychological

pressures involved will question why you didn’t

call the police sooner, and whether anything even

happened. You don’t need this additional stress.

Call the police immediately.3 At the very least

tell a friend. And for your own well-being you

must go to a doctor or the hospital as soon as

possible. If at all possible don’t drive yourself:

Have the police or a friend take you.

Physical evidence will be needed, so no matter

how distasteful it is to you, do not change

clothes, douche, or clean up. Don’t throw away

anything that might be evidence, and don’t take

any medication. Bring a change of clothes with

you, as the clothes you were wearing may be

needed by the prosecution for evidence.
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If the police come to your home and investigate, dusting for fingerprints, find out from them

how the fingerprint powder can be cleaned, and

try to have the police arrange for someone to

have everything cleaned up before you get back.

Do You Need an Attorney?

The last issue in this section is the question of

whether or not you need an attorney. We must

make it clear that we are not attorneys and do not

provide legal advice. So the only one who can

answer this question is you.

The judicial system does not provide you, as

the complainant, with an attorney. If someone is

arrested and charged based on your complaint,

the state provides a prosecutor, and a defense

attorney for the defendant, but nobody for you. It

would be wise at least to discuss the matter with

your own attorney, or one in whom you feel

confident. There are too many variables in the

law for you to risk going unadvised, especially if

you were injured or if your attacker suffered any

injuries during the attack and sues you.

If you do hire an attorney, try to find one who

has experience in this area: Just because an attorney can close on a mortgage doesn’t mean he or

she knows the criminal justice scene. And you

must speak with other clients so you can figure

out if the attorney is any good: Justice Renquist is

reputed to have said that half the attorneys who
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appear before the Supreme Court are unprepared.

If we assume that it is the best of the best who

make it to the Supreme Court, it is a safe guess

that things are much worse on a local level. 

Because of this, you will have to take responsibility for seeing that your attorney is prepared,

and is doing an adequate job on your behalf.

Be aware that the attorneys defending your

attacker are being paid to see that your attacker

goes free and unpunished, independent of his or

her guilt or the nature of the crime. They will

undoubtedly try to wear you down with constant

delaying tactics, hoping you will become so

inconvenienced and disgusted with the system

that you will drop the case. 

In addition, we have been involved in cases

where attorneys actively (and successfully) suborned witnesses to perjury. Sadly, this is so

common that nobody pays much attention to

perjury, except in the rarest of cases: The Fraud

Examiners’ Manual of the National Association

of Certified Fraud Examinors notes that “It

sometimes has been suggested that trials for

crime largely are resolved according to the preponderance of perjury.” Don’t do it, but expect it.

Because of all these factors, don’t feel that you

are embarrassing or insulting your potential

attorney by doing this investigation and followup: Since there is so much at stake once you get

involved with the justice system, you must be as

careful in selecting and directing an attorney as
203

you would be in selecting and directing a heart

surgeon or a brain surgeon.

 Someone once said that there are two equally

important parts to self-defense: The part that

happens in the street and the part that happens in

the courtroom. If you don’t choose your attorney

wisely, and if your attorney doesn’t do a proper

job, your experience with the criminal justice

system could be more traumatic than your experience with the criminal.

DEAL WITH THE POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS

OF TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE

207

STEP 7

DEAL WITH THE POST-TRAUMATIC

STRESS OF TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE

Being violently assaulted is strange and disorienting. The reality of dealing with someone who

is trying to hurt you is frightening on every level.

The raw intensity of the experience makes it hard

to believe that it really happened. But it does

happen, and you do survive. Remember, there are

no winners in a confrontation, only survivors.

If you are violently assaulted, you may suffer

no after effects or the trauma sustained may

affect you for a long time. Remembering the

attack won’t be a good thing, but it doesn’t have

to dominate your thoughts or your life.

The one thing on which everyone agrees is that

you should not try to bury the memory of what

happened. Instead, it is recommended that you

deal with it directly. Studies have shown that how

you deal with the aftermath of a violent confrontation depends on how you feel about what you

did during the incident, how others feel about

what you did, and on whether you are aware of

the effects of post-violence trauma. But, no matter what happened or what others say, it’s

important that you understand that it wasn’t your

fault, and that you did the right thing in defending yourself.
208

If you feel you did your best, you’re likely to

recover more quickly and with fewer effects than

if you feel you were unprepared. If you receive

support from your friends, family, and peers,

you’ll be better off.

You may be worse off if you find yourself

criticized in the newspaper, or are wrongly told

by others that the incident was somehow your

fault (“You should have known better than to be

there,” “You must have encouraged it somehow,”

etc.), or if you are sued by your attacker.

Being aware of the possible effects of postviolence trauma can create a certain inoculation

effect, allowing you to recognize that you’re

having a problem, and therefore be more able to

deal with it. Merely reading this book and others

like it starts the inoculation effect.

Individuals who have been violently assaulted

may experience at least some of the most common

potential after effects of a traumatic incident:

• Sleep disturbance is quite common. You may

suffer from an “adrenalin hangover”: While

your body is quick to dump adrenalin into the

blood stream, it’s not so quick to use it up.

You want to sleep, but the residual chemicals

simply won’t let you do so. You may also suffer, later, from insomnia, disturbing dreams, or

dreams involving generalized helplessness

caused by a natural preoccupation with the

traumatic event.
209

• Isolation is a two-headed problem. On the one

side, friends and family may not know what to

say to you, or feel you want to be alone, and

keep away. On the other side, you may feel

uncomfortable around people who don’t

understand what you’ve been through, and

keep them away. It’s important that you force

yourself to continue with as normal a social life

as possible. If you feel a need to be alone, it is

probably a sign that you need to be with others.

• You may additionally suffer from generalized

depression. Incredibly, you may not even

connect being depressed with the incident.

• Intrusive recurrent recollections of the incident may drift into your thoughts, or you may

even be caught in a closed-loop recollection of

the incident, where you replay the assault over

and over again in your mind with the same

unsatisfactory outcome.

• You may find yourself having flashbacks to

the incident, especially in circumstances that

remind you of the incident, particularly in

conjunction with alcohol consumption.

• Events that start similarly to your incident

may trigger anxiety.

• You may develop an exaggerated startle response, or hyper-vigilance. Checking the

doors and windows before you go to bed is

prudent vigilance; checking them a dozen

times during the night is hyper-vigilance.
210

• You may face the aggression/avoidance syndrome, where you behave in an inappropriately

ferocious manner in mildly confrontational

situations that should be nonthreatening: You

appear to try to provoke a confrontation so you

can win it. Or you may back away from normal

yet nonthreatening conflicts.

• You may have a temporary increase in compulsive behaviors, such as eating or drinking

too much, gambling, or whatever.

• If you are wrongly castigated by the press or

by other people, you may suffer from logorrhea. This is “diarrhea of the mouth,” where

you feel a compulsion to discuss the incident

and justify yourself in public. Don’t! You

should speak with your attorney and, if

appropriate, with your therapist or counselor,

and nobody else.

• Having recently suffered through a loss of control, you may be very unwilling to have others

behave in a manner you consider controlling.

Note that some people suffer none of these after

effects. You, yourself, may suffer none, some, or

all. The important thing is to be aware that they

might happen to you, and be able to recognize the

symptoms. It’s not abnormal to have a few problems in readjusting after an assault, but you can

and will deal with these problems.

It’s also important to realize that while it’s

normal to experience some post-violence trauma
211

after an incident, if the primary symptoms are

still going strong a month or more after the incident, you may have moved into post-violence

stress disorder, which is a problem that definitely

requires professional attention.

Even though we have received some training

in counseling those who have experienced traumatic events, the topic is not one that can be

dealt with in this book. We do know, however,

that by preparing yourself mentally, physically,

and emo tionally for a violent assault, you will

definitely deal with the post-violence trauma

better than if you had not been prepared. So be a

survivor! Ac tively prepare yourself for the reality

of what can happen and you’ll be better off for it.

If you are violently assaulted, we recommend

that you seek out, in a timely manner, experts

who are trained to help you deal with your

trauma. Please do this right away.

You can contact some or all of the following to

find help, but be aware that you might need to try

more than one support group or counselor before

you find the right one.

• Your local law enforcement agency: find out

to whom they send officers after a shooting.

• Survivors support group or therapy group.

• Counselor, psychiatrist, psychologist, social

worker, or therapist.

• Someone from the clergy — minister, pastor,

priest, rabbi.

213

CONCLUSION

It is painful, scary, and sad to have to deal with

even the concept of terrorism, personal violence,

or disaster, but by reading this book you have

done so. We, for our part, have tried to provide

you with tools and techniques that can help you

and your loved ones achieve personal safety.

In the best case, with care and a bit of luck,

you and yours will avoid confrontation and go

through life with great awareness and joy. In the

worst case, we hope you will survive a confrontation and go through life with an even greater

awareness, joy, and appreciation for life. 

While we can honestly say that we understand

the dynamics of avoiding, dealing with, and surviving the aftermath of a violent confrontation,

what we’ve shared is not the only possible plan

of action, and nothing will work for everyone

100% of the time, even if done perfectly. We

encourage you to read about and actively participate in other training concepts and programs:

If you can learn even one useful thing, it’s time

well spent.

Congratulate yourself! By taking to heart the

information in this book you have changed your

life by working to control your own destiny!

Thank you for listening to us, and hearing us out.

Stay safe!

215

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank publicly the following

individuals, organizations, and publications for

their knowledge, training, help, and assistance in

making this book possible. Where an individual

is named, the organization is given for identification purposes only. A leading “*” indicates

membership in the ASR Instructors Council.

* Aerko International (Michael Dallett),

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Geoffrey Akst, Ph.D., New York, N.Y.

Dan Allender, The Wounded Heart

(Colorado Springs, Colo.: Navpress, 1990).

* Craig W. Andersen, Clarkstown P.D.,

New City, N.Y.

D. F. Bach, illustrator, New York, N.Y.

LannyBassham, With Winning in Mind (San

Antonio, Texas: XPress Publications, 1988)

Ben Bohrer, Corporate Protective, London.

Alan Bosch, AFL-CIO, Washington, D.C.

Frederick E. Bidgood (who suggested expanding the civilian version of the ASR

Instructors Council personal defense spray

program into this more general personal

safety program), copy editor, New York, N.Y.

Laura Black, ESL, Sunnyvale, Calif.
216

Bruce Cameron, Law and Order magazine,

Wilmette, Ill.

Anne Campbell, Men, Women, and Aggression

(New York: BasicBooks, 1993).

Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)

John Cavello, New York, N.Y.

Donna Chaiet, prePARE, Inc. (IMPACTsm),

New York, N.Y.

Bill Clede, Wethersfield, Conn.

Arthur Cohen, Target Consultants International

Ltd., East Meadow, N.Y.

The Company of Women, Nyack, N.Y.

Larry Crabb, The Institute of Biblical

Counseling, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Joanna Cumberland, J.B. Cumberland and 

Associates, New York, N.Y.

* Defense Technology Corp. of America

(Chuck Oblich), Rock Creek, Ohio.

Rene Denfeld, Kill the Body , the Head Will

Fall, (New York: Warner Books,1997)

Debra Dickerson, “Simple rules to scare off

harassers,”US News & World Report, April

13, 1998.

Peter DiVasto, University of New Mexico,

Albuquerque, N.M.

Greg Epilone, Alison Graphics, Inc.,

New York, N.Y.

Dale O. Evan, Editor of Publications (Agriculture), University of Hawaii at Manoa

Linda Fairstein, Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit,

New York District Attorney, New York, N.Y.
217

* Federal Laboratories (Ken Blakey),

Saltsburg, Pa.

* Joe Ferrera, Southfield P.D., Southfield, Mich.

Fraud Examiners’ Manual (National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 1989)

Riva P. Freifeld, Riva Productions, 

New York, N.Y.

General Guidance on Personal Security

Measures (New Scotland Yard, London).

Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (Cambridge,

Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Deborah Gold, Tri-State Police Survivors,

Philadelphia, Pa.

Mark Greenglass, Ambassador Alarm,

Brookline, Mass.

Robert Grodin, TTI Group Ltd., Morrisville, Pa.

* Elliott Grollman, Federal Protective Service,

Washington, D.C.

* David B. Haas, Washington Township P.D.,

Sewell, N.J.

* Larry Hahn, Waterloo P.D., Waterloo, Iowa.

* Ricky Hale, Colony P.D., The Colony, Texas.

Phil Hannum, Shoreline Community College,

Seattle, Wash.

* David Hemond, Pawtucket P.D., Pawtucket, R.I.

Connie Horton, International School of Prague

Susan Horowitz, Ph.D., New York, N.Y.

* Bruce Howard, independent use-of-force

training consultant, New Britain, Conn.

Ken Howard, photographer, San Diego, Calif.
218

* Walter Hyzer (who came up with the name 

The Seven Steps to Personal Safety), independent use-of-force training consultant,

Cumming, Ga.

Shizuo Imaizumi, Shin Budo Kai,

New York, N.Y.

* Martin Imwalle, Arlington P.D., 

Arlington, Texas.

Harry Columbus Isaacs, Rye, N.Y.

Naomi J. Isaacs, IBI, New York, N.Y.

* William A. Jackson, Nassau County P.D.,

Mineola, N.Y.

C. Ray Jeffery, Crime Prevention Through

Environmental Design (Beverly Hills, Calif.:

Sage Publications, Inc., 1971).

Tony L. Jones, “Memory Impairment After

Critical Incidnts,” The Police Marksman,

July/August 1997.

* Peter Jonsson, Swedish National Police Board,

Stockholm, Sweden

* Kansas City Regional Police Academy (Mark

K. Hatcher), Kansas City, Mo.

Naheed Kazmi, New York, N.Y.

Brian Keenan, An Evil Cradling (New York:

Viking Penguin, 1992).

Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., Michael Thompson

Ph.D., Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotion

Life of Boys (New York: Ballantine Books,

2000).
219

Gary Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence

in America, (New York: Aldine de

Gruyter,1991)

Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns: Firearms and

their Control, (New York: Aldine de

Gruyter,1997)

Josh Konecky, Proof Perfect, Inc.,

New York, N.Y.

* Jerry Konrad, independent use-of-force

training consultant, Gainesville, Fla.

Gary Klugiewicz, Milwaukee County Sheriff's

Department, Milwaukee, Wisc.

Pat Kogan, Pat Kogan Productions,

New York, N.Y.

Tracey Lennemann, ALTRA International,

Munich, Germany

* Lethal Force Institute (Massad Ayoob),

Concord, N.H.

Michael Levine, Guerrilla P.R. (New York:

Harper Collins Publishing, Inc., 1983).

Jim Lindell, National Law Enforcement

Training Center, Kansas City, Mo.

Robert Lindsey, Jefferson Parish President’s

Office, Gretna, La.

John R. Lott, Jr., More Guns Less Crime,

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1998)

John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard, Crime,

Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed

Handguns, (Journal of Legal Studies: University of Chicago Law School, January 1997)
220

* Jerry Lucas, The Lubrinco Group, Inc.,

Morrisville, Pa.

* John Ludvigson, Newport Beach P.D.,

Newport Beach, Calif.

* Mace Security International 

(Tom Archambault), Bennington, Vt.

* Charles J. Mader (who contributed to Step 6),

Bloomingdale P.D., Bloomingdale, Ill.

Robert A. Marino, New York, N.Y.

* Earby Markham, independent use-of-force

training consultant, Fairhope, Ala.

Thomas P. Mauriello, Interagency OPSEC

Support Staff, Greenbelt, Md.

Jerry McCarthy, Wheaton, Md.

* William J. McCarthy (who coined the term

aerosol subject restraint), For Life Management, Indianapolis, Ind.

Tom McCoig, independent use-of-force training consultant, Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Mary Merva and Richard Fowles, Effects of

Diminished Economic Opportunities on

Social Stress: Heart Attacks, Strokes, and

Crime (Washington, D.C., Economic Policy

Institute, 1992).

* Hugh Mills, Oceans of Fun, Kansas City, Mo.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Miles To Go (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).

* D’Arcy R. Morgan, Security Communications

International, Washington, D.C.

John Negus, New York P.D., New York, N.Y.
221

Oscar Newman, Defensible Space (New York:

Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1973).

Catherine Nicodemo, designer/illustrator,

New York, N.Y.

* North Mississippi Law Enforcement Training

Center (Phil Goldsmith), Tupolo, Miss.

* Vince O’Neill, Oklahoma Council on Law 

Enforcement Education and Training, 

Oklahoma City, Okla.

Kevin Parsons, Kevin Parsons and Associates,

Appleton, Wisc.

* Tim Powers, Hawaii

* Curt Price, Fort Lauderdale P.D.,

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

* Pro-Aer Division, Personal Security Systems,

Inc. (Michael Carl), Bronx, N.Y.

Charles Remsberg, Calibre Press, Inc.,

Northbrook, Ill.

Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (New York: G.

P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995).

Joseph Scurto, DeSantis Holster and Leather,

Inc., New Hyde Park, N.Y.

Bruce Schneier, Beyond Fear (New York:

Copernicus Books, 2003).

* Charles Sczuroski, Jr., Pawtucket P.D.,

Pawtucket, R.I.

Stephen Selwyn, The Projects Group,

Napanoch, N.Y.

Ben Shalit, Psychology of Conflict and Combat

(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988).
222

Bruce Siddle, PPCT Management Systems,

Inc., Waterloo, Ill.

* Smith & Wesson Academy (Bert DuVernay),

Springfield, Mass.

Terry Smith, Monadnock Lifetime Products,

Inc., Fitzwilliam, N.H.

* The Smithsonian Institution (Fred Mobley), 

Washington D.C.

* State University of New York (Bill Dunn),

Albany, N.Y.

Jeffrey R. Snyder, “A Nation of Cowards,”

The Public Interest, Fall 1993.

Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole 

Feminism?, (New York: Simon and

Schuster,1994)

* Anthony Spector, Minneapolis Park Police,

Minneapolis, Minn.

Gail Stern, University of Illinois at Chicago,

Chicago, Ill.

Shane Steinkamp, independent use-of-force

training consultant, Ponchatoula, La.

* Jack Strenges, Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office,

West Palm Beach, Fla.

* William Testa, Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office,

West Palm Beach, Fla.

Alice Thompson, editor, New York, N.Y.

* Garner Train, Genesee County District 

Attorney’s Office, Clio, Mich.

* United States Army Disciplinary Barracks

(Edward J. Baldwin), Fort Levenworth, Kans.

* John Vazquez, Elizabeth P.D., Elizabeth, N.J.
223

Christine Long-Wagner, Law Enforcement

Alliance, Columbus, Ohio

Tom Ward, FBI, Portland, Ore.

Bay Wasserman, New York, N.Y.

* Tim White, U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks,

Fort Levenworth, Kans.

Robert Wilson, Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office,

West Palm Beach, Fla.

* Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy (Ernest

Johnson), Douglas Wyo.

225

TACTICAL WARM-UPS

Before you participate in any physical practice

you need to perform a tactical warm-up, which

in volves a series of heating and stretching

movements. While you won’t have time for this

when attacked, a tactical warm-up is important to

prevent training injuries.

You should consult a physician before beginning any exercise program, including this one.

Benefits of Tactical Warm-ups

There are two major benefits you get from a tactical warm-up:

First, your performance is improved because

when you gradually increase your physical speed

and intensity, heart rate, respiration, and circulation, the temperature of your entire body

increases, which makes your muscular/skeletal

anatomy more elastic and resilient against tears

and breaks. Your muscles, tendons, and joints

increase their ranges of motion, making you

more efficient in your movements.

And second, your chances of injury are prevented or reduced, because once your body is

heated and stretched out it has more flex and give

than when it was cold, stiff, and rigid.
226

Heating Phase

The heating phase involves a series of light

rhythmic upper- and lower-body movements that

relate to personal defense techniques, and should

last about five minutes. The following movements are a good example of how to heat your

body up:

Marching in Place: Swing your arms as you

lift your knees. Allow your heels to bottom out

so as to take the strain away from the calf muscle

and the Achilles tendon. This heats your hips,

thighs, knees, calves, and ankles.

Alternating Jabs and Punches: From a wide and

deep foot position, perform punching movements

to heat your frontal shoulders, chest, and arms.

Mentally visualize confronting an assailant by

striking him as he comes toward you.

Alternating Leg Kicks: From a wide and deep

foot position, perform alternating foot kicks

toward the legs and thighs of your imaginary

attacker. This will heat your abdominal and

lower-back muscles, and your hips, thighs, knees,

and ankles.

Reverse Forearms: Perform alternating forearm

strikes toward an assailant who has gotten you in

a bearhug from behind. These movements will

heat the back of your shoulders, your upper and

lower back, and the muscles over your rib cage.

Alternating Knees: From a good deep and wide

foot position, perform alternating knee strikes to
227

the lower abdomen of the attacker. Try to make

pointed spears with your knees. This heats the

gluteus muscles of your buttocks, your side

abdominal muscles, and your thighs and knees.

Forward Forearms: From a deep and wide foot

position, perform alternating forearm strikes to

the chest and abdomen of the attacker. As you

strike, make sure to hold your fists to your chest

as you extend your forearms out away from your

body as far as possible. This movement heats your

frontal shoulders, chest, and side abdominal

muscles.

Shoulder Shrugs: Rotate your shoulders up and

forward to heat your shoulder muscles and joints.

Then reverse and rotate them up and back.

Elbow Extensions: Extend your arms straight

out in front of you. Then bring your hands straight

back to your shoulders and press them back out.

This movement heats your elbow joints.

Wrist Rotations: Extend your arms in front of

you and rotate your wrists inward, then outward.

This heats your lower forearms and wrists.

Hand Compressions: Extend your arms straight

out in front of you, then begin closing your hands

into fists and opening them. This movement will

heat the muscles of your hands.
228

Stretching Phase

Once you have completed the heating phase,

you’re ready for the stretching phase.

To achieve the best results in your stretching,

hold each stretch for at least 20 seconds as you

breathe freely through your nose and mouth. Try

to avoid holding your breath as this causes your

blood pressure to rise unnecessarily.

Stretching should last about five minutes.

Reach-to-the-Sky: From a good deep and wide

foot position, cup your hands together in front of

you and then reach straight up as high as you can.

This movement stretches the lower and upper

back, shoulders, chest, arms, and abdomen.

Bent-over Shoulder: From a wide and deep foot

position, cup your hands together behind your

back and bend over so that your upper body is

parallel to the ground. Then lift your hands off

your back straight up as high as you can without

forcing the stretch. This movement stretches the

chest, shoulders, and upper back.

Rotational Forearm: From a wide and deep foot

position, make a fist with each hand, bring your

knuckles together, and tuck them into your chest

with your elbows splayed wide. Rotate your entire

upper body to the left and then to the right as you

maintain a stationary foot position. This stretches

your shoulder muscles over the rib cage, side

abdominals, and your upper and lower back.
229

Vertical Side Bend: From a wide and deep foot

position, put your left hand on your left thigh and

extend your right hand straight up. While maintaining a stationary foot position, bend over

sideways to your left. Change your hand positions and then bend sideways to your right. This

movement stretches your shoulders, rib cage,

side abdominals, and upper and lower back, and

secondarily stretches your arms.

Modified Toe Touch: From a wide and deep

foot position, bend your knees and lower your

body. Put your right hand on your left foot,

extend your left hand straight up in the air, and

look up at your hand. Reverse position, with your

left hand on your right toe, and look up at your

right hand. This movement stretches your chest,

shoulders, and upper back.

Groin Stretch: From a wide straddle base foot

position (as if you’re riding a horse), shift your

entire body to your right while keeping at least a

90-degree bend in your knees. Then shift your

body to your left. This movement stretches your

inner groin, thigh, knee, calf, and ankle.

Stretch Squat: With your feet placed shoulder

width apart and your toes pointed slightly outward, squat straight down, having your knees

follow the outward angle of your toes. Keep your

head up and your back arched as you squat down

and try to keep your heels flat. This stretches

your lower back, the gluteus muscles of your

buttocks, the hips, and the upper frontal thighs.
230

Bent-over Hamstring: With your feet placed

shoulder width apart, bend forward at the waist,

squatting down and placing your fingertips on the

ground. Now extend your buttocks up in the air as

high as you can without forcing. This stretches

your lower back and the back of your thighs.

Tune-ups

Whenever you take a break from your training or

activity and become inactive, even if it’s only for

a few minutes, it’s a good idea to reheat your

body. We call this reheating a “tune-up.” To perform a tune-up requires that you participate in just

the heating phase of the tactical warm-up. The

tune-up should last from three to five minutes.

Cool-downs

After practicing, it’s important to go through a

cool-down period, where you do simple movements such as walking in place while swinging

your arms lightly, while your blood pressure

moves back to a normal range. While a warm-up

is designed to protect your muscles, a cool-down

allows your dilated blood vessels to contract to

normal size. Without a cool-down it’s possible

for your blood pressure to fall rapidly, causing

fainting or worse. It is also very important to

drink some water after exercising, especially if

you have worked up a sweat.
231

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Richard B. Isaacs is a charter member of the

Aerosol Subject Restraint Instructors Council,

the American Society for Law Enforcement

Trainers, and the Tactical Response Association.

He is a member of the American Academy for

Professional Law Enforcement, the American

Society for Industrial Security (through which he

has been designated a Certified Protection Professional, or CPP), the Association of

Counter-Intelligence Professionals, the Business

Espionage Controls & Countermeasures Association (BECCA), InfraGard, the International

Association of Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, the International Association of

Personal Protection Agents, the OPSEC Professionals Society, the Protective Service Alliance,

the Reid Institute, and the Society of Competitive

Intelligence Professionals.

He has served on the board of directors of the

OPSEC Professionals Society and the Tactical

Response Association.

A student of Aikido and a competitive International 10 Meter Air Pistol and 50 Meter Free

Pistol shooter, he is a certified instructor in a

wide range of law enforcement less-than-lethal

emergency safety tools and techniques, as well as

being an NRA certified instructor.
232

Richard is senior vice president of The

LUBRINCO Group, an international vulnerability

management firm established to provide services

in three high-threat areas, too specialized to be

dealt with in-house, that can adversely affect

domestic and international bottom lines:

• Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 OPSEC compliance.

1. American businesses lose $300 billion

annually to competitive intelligence, economic espionage, and information theft.

2. Sarbanes-Oxley requires internal controls

tracking the costs, and impact on valuation,

of competitive intelligence, economic

espionage, and information theft.

o LUBRINCO provides private sector access

to OPSEC, the government-standard process for identification, valuation, and

protection of intellectual property and

critical information from competitive intelligence, economic espionage, and

information theft.

• International asset location and due diligence;

o Location of concealed assets in fraud, theft,

and divorce.

o Due diligence to prevent fraud and loss in

China, Central and Eastern Europe, Central

Asia, the offshore financial centers, Latin

America, the Caribbean

o Financial fraud and anti-money laundering

program development and training for
233

compliance with the US International Money

Laundering Abatement and Anti-Terrorist

Financing Act of 2001 and the EU Revised

Money Laundering Directive of 2001

• Protection of management, staff, and families.

o In the high-threat environments of Latin

America, Africa, the Mid-East, and Southeast Asia

o Traveling and living overseas

o Transporting items of substantial value.

Richard came across aerosol subject restraints

in 1986, when they were virtually unknown. He

began marketing them in 1987, and introduced

them to the law enforcement community at the

1988 conference of the American Society of Law

Enforcement Trainers (ASLET). Because ASRs

gained their early widespread recognition both

within the law enforcement community and the

general public based primarily on his efforts, he

is re sponsible for thousands being saved who

might otherwise have been injured or killed.

Recognizing that effective use of personal

defense sprays requires training, he was responsible for the development of the first law enforcement personal defense spray training course

aimed at street officers, rather than specialoperations teams. This course was introduced at

the 1989 ASLET conference and is now offered

through the ASR Instructors Council.
234

In 1990 Richard recognized a widening concern

with criminal violence, domestic violence, workplace violence, and campus violence. He decided

that the law enforcement personal defense spray

program should be adapted for “civilian” use, and

a civilian personal defense spray program, based

on the law enforcement program, was developed

in 1991 and introduced at the 1992 ASLET conference. It was expanded in 1993 into the program

on dealing with violent confrontations presented

in this book, now offered through the Center for

Personal Defense Studies.

An Eagle Scout who served in the Peace

Corps, Richard received his undergraduate

degree from New York University and his Masters degree from Columbia University. He has a

wide variety of outside interests and is a member

of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, La

Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, Mensa,

the National Rifle Association, the Society for

Technical Communication, the United States

Revolver Association, and USA Shooting. He has

been listed in Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who

in America, and Who’s Who in the World, and

appears regularly on television.

In his spare time he has worked as a volunteer

for the Samaritans Suicide Help Line and as a

supernumerary at the Metropolitan Opera. He

studies Argentine Tango and classical guitar, and

is engaged in an ongoing translation of Le comte
235

de Monte-Cristo as well as a book on the Dred

Scott and Plessy decisions.

Tim Powers has worked within the criminal justice system for over 16 years. He has held such

positions as organized crime research analyst,

prison sociologist, juvenile social worker, deputy

sheriff, marshal, and chief of police.

Tim has simultaneously integrated academic

training as well as practical experience from the

fields of exercise physiology, kinesiology, bioand body mechanics, and performance training

into his research and experience in the criminal

justice system.

Tim has designed and written training curricula, and has appeared on a number of national

television programs as an expert on use-of-force

techniques, tactics, and performance systems. He

developed a course and produced a video training

film called Tactical Aerobics which combines

specific emergency services job tasks and motor

performance skills with cardiovascular/ respiratory endurance conditioning.

In addition to his position as executive director

of the Fitness Institute for Police, Fire and Rescue,

Inc., Tim has held positions as the director of

training at the National Law Enforcement Training

Center, a member of the national board of directors of Armament Systems and Procedures, Inc.

(ASP Impact Weapons), and a member of the

national board of directors of RISC Management

System of Mechanics of Arrest.
236

Tim has presented over 325 seminars in the

United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe,

training over 52,000 people. He has trained personnel from many federal agencies including the

FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Border

Patrol, Department of Agriculture, Forestry Service, Treasury Department, Internal Revenue

Service, Postal Service, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Coast Guard, and Army.

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P.O. Box 1225, Brookline, MA 02446-0010