Appear to be alert—don’t listen to music, use your phone, and keep moving. If you go so far as to run or jog to your destination, you will be a very unappealing target.
Sorry, the meaning here is a bit ambiguous, are you saying I should use my phone or that I shouldn’t?
Appear to be armed. Concealed weapons don’t help—they are only useful once you have already been selected as a target. Visible and obvious weapons such as guns and knives are usually too much trouble to be worth it. Ordinary objects that can be used as weapons, such as baseball bats and hammers may be best, as they act a deterrent without the hassle that traditional weapons bring.
I’m also worried about this, do you have a good reason to believe this will help, my intuition tells me you may attract more unwanted attention than you deter by carrying a baseball bat through a high-crime area.
I suspect the idea is that if you’re on the phone, someone offsite will be aware and may call the cops if you should suddenly cut off or make noises indicating that you’re being mugged.
Thanks, I was actually thinking it was the other way round, and that being on the phone 1) distracts you from your immediate surroundings and 2) makes you obviously worth mugging.
EDIT: Apparently it was the other way round. Oh well.
An exercise I learned from a martial arts class was to walk around at night, pretending that you’re an attacker. Stalk a few people, and try to get into the mindset of preparing for an attack by catching them unaware. Note down what types of people you are more likely to attack, and what types of people you are likely to skip.
The thing is, when you pick your target, you’re going to pick someone who is unaware of their surroundings. By the time you’re stalking them, it’s too late for them. They’re not going to notice you because you’ve selected for that.
They won’t exactly deter attention either, so it very much depends on you actually being able to reliably ruin their day to such an extent that they stop attack rather than just becoming angry. Bearing in mind here that there’s a good chance they have a knife or gun.
An exercise I learned from a martial arts class was to walk around at night, pretending that you’re an attacker. Stalk a few people, and try to get into the mindset of preparing for an attack by catching them unaware. Note down what types of people you are more likely to attack, and what types of people you are likely to skip.
Sorry, the meaning here is a bit ambiguous, are you saying I should use my phone or that I shouldn’t?
I’m also worried about this, do you have a good reason to believe this will help, my intuition tells me you may attract more unwanted attention than you deter by carrying a baseball bat through a high-crime area.
I suspect the idea is that if you’re on the phone, someone offsite will be aware and may call the cops if you should suddenly cut off or make noises indicating that you’re being mugged.
Edit: Aw, I failed at being confused by fiction.
Thanks, I was actually thinking it was the other way round, and that being on the phone 1) distracts you from your immediate surroundings and 2) makes you obviously worth mugging.
EDIT: Apparently it was the other way round. Oh well.
I meant to say don’t use your phone. Edited.
An exercise I learned from a martial arts class was to walk around at night, pretending that you’re an attacker. Stalk a few people, and try to get into the mindset of preparing for an attack by catching them unaware. Note down what types of people you are more likely to attack, and what types of people you are likely to skip.
Out of interest, what happened when someone noticed you were stalking them?
The thing is, when you pick your target, you’re going to pick someone who is unaware of their surroundings. By the time you’re stalking them, it’s too late for them. They’re not going to notice you because you’ve selected for that.
car keys draw no untoward attention, but can ruin someone’s day.
They won’t exactly deter attention either, so it very much depends on you actually being able to reliably ruin their day to such an extent that they stop attack rather than just becoming angry. Bearing in mind here that there’s a good chance they have a knife or gun.
I meant to say don’t use your phone. Edited.
An exercise I learned from a martial arts class was to walk around at night, pretending that you’re an attacker. Stalk a few people, and try to get into the mindset of preparing for an attack by catching them unaware. Note down what types of people you are more likely to attack, and what types of people you are likely to skip.