Outdoor Safety
Overview

The biggest obstacle to outdoor safety is the average person's innocence. This naïveté of the prey takes four forms:
1st: carefree/careless (assuming no one wants to harm you, you act carelessly);
2nd: too trusting (if someone seems harmless or has a good story, you’re gullible);
3rd: mirror imaging (assuming a predator shares your morals, you try to reason with him rather than outsmart him), and
4th: location immunity (assuming you’re in a “safe” area, you turn off your danger radar and fall into one of the first three traps).

NEVER drop your guard, and NEVER let anyone get near you (in a vulnerable location) or isolate you – no matter how friendly he/she appears. See Friendly Predators below.

Most victims simply didn’t expect the depravity of a psychopath’s mind. Your new outdoor safety attitude starts with a glimpse of that depravity:

"Miss bates was stupid. She went to the slaughter like a lamb. She did not put up a struggle. but I did. It was a ball. I first cut the middle wire from the distributor. then I waite for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then. I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me. I told her that my car was down the street and that I would give her a lift home. When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. she asked me, "about time for what?" I said it was about time for her to die.... I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat...."
Excerpt of a letter from the Zodiac Killer to The Riverside Press-Enterprise (CA) – November 1966

If Miss Bates had had the chance to read this page, she’d have suspected that a “friendly” predator was trying to isolate his prey, and would’ve stayed in her locked car. But, alas, Crime-Safety-Security.com didn’t exist back then.

I’ve created this simple concept to give you a handy rule-of-thumb for outdoor safety: a violent criminal is either a Force Predator or a Friendly Predator. You’ll instantly know a force predator – he’ll suddenly attack you from the open or from ambush, though he might first play cat-and-mouse while deciding whether or not to attack you. However, a friendly predator will first try to get near you to isolate and trap you, then attack you. Many victims, afraid to appear rude, ignored their gut feelings and were trusting, easy, naïve prey for a friendly predator. Never forget that and you’ll never fall for a stranger’s lure.

It’s impossible to fully anticipate the panicky chaos of a sudden threat forcing you to make split-second life-and-death decisions. Nonetheless, understanding your options now will help your Intuition choose an option then.

Enhancing Your Options
Pepper Spray & a Noisemaker visibly ready will greatly enhance your first option – Posturing as a tough target – and probably deter a predator immediately. Your fifth option – Fighting – is enhanced as well.

For convenience, learn self-defense ONLINE:

KRAV MAGA, used by the Israeli military and many police forces worldwide, teaches you to defend yourself and the animal instinct for doing so. Not a martial art, it's a “self-defense system.” The difference: a martial art suggests an aesthetic sensibility and an underlying philosophy. Krav Maga is a practical, pressure-tested system of fighting options which can be applied under extreme stress. It's not flashy, just very effective for outdoor safety. I highly recommend it. See Krav Maga TV - Online Training. Their training videos are especially convenient to learn at home when your schedule allows or if you don't live near a training center.

Find Outdoor Safety for parking lots, city streets, suburban byways, country roads, and secluded paths by going to:
• Outdoor Safety - Overview (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE)
• Friendly Predators first try to get near you to isolate and trap you, then attack you. Never forget that and you’ll never fall for a stranger’s lure.
• Force Predators: ambush zones revealed.
• Predator’s Favorite Targets: how not to be one.
• Spotting Danger ahead of time, and sensing if someone is about to draw a weapon - and what to do before it's too late.
• Facing Danger: if you're already targeted in a robbery, purse snatching, rape or kidnapping attack, choose among the five outdoor safety options: Posturing, Fleeing, Outsmarting, Surrendering, or Fighting.
• Rescuing a Victim Safely: how best to be a hero.
• Dog Attack: facing an attack on you or a loved one.
• Pickpockets: stopping masterful thieves from stealing you blind.
• Recap of this section.
• Pepper Spray & Devices for Outdoor Safety.

Only a fraction of our 650,000 cops are on the street at any one time. Yet roughly six million paroled violent felons walk among us – including 800,000 paroled murderers. Another 630,000 parolees emerge from prison each year, with two-thirds re-arrested for new crimes within three years, so says the U.S. Department of Justice.

For every cop you see, you’ve also likely seen paroled muggers, burglars, carjackers, killers, kidnappers, stalkers, rapists, and molesters – along with all the up-and-coming young monsters – but you didn’t know it. The bad guys far outnumber the good guys, and if you or a loved one tempts a predator just once, your life may shatter forever. Hordes of heartless predators are always out there – somewhere – often where least expected, and the few good guys can’t possibly begin to always protect all of us. After all, when seconds count, cops are minutes away! Thus, you'll need to be:

S.A.F.E.:
Skeptical of anyone trying to get near you or trying to isolate you,
Aware of danger zones and escape strategies,
Flexible: being tricky, changing strategies as needed – and if worse comes to worst:
Exploding like a mad dog to fight for your life. Stun & Run. See Fighting Options.

Go to
Friendly Predators | Force Predators | Predator's Favorite Targets | Spotting Danger | Facing Danger | Rescuing a Victim Safely | Dog Attack | Pickpockets | Outdoor Safety Recap

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