Criminal Assault Pre-Incident Indicators Video

[HCountyGuy]

Excellent presentation and gave me a bit to think on as well as imparted information on other indicators I hadn’t considered.

I think one of the most effective ruses presented was the “Hey, you dropped this!”, because I would think most folks would initially divert brainpower to thinking “crap, what did I lose now?” since we’ve likely all dropped something in public settings and wouldn’t immediately recognize a seemingly helpful gesture as an indicator.

Rich made a good point in that there’s not much time to key up on these things given the shown examples. Some of the attacks come within a second or two of any potential red flags and unless one walks around a metro area bordering on condition orange the show’s started before you even realize you “bought a ticket”.

What really gets me thinking is the frequency of multiple actor incidents and the problems dealing with them. How does/can one set themselves up for success, or at least better prepare for, some of those incidents?

I know quality FoF training can help, but I wonder about the different mindset in knowing you’re in a training environment and to be expecting a fight versus just walking down a decently-busy city sidewalk and getting confronted by a band of miscreants you happen to be walking directionally opposite.

[GuanoLoco]

I had shared this video with my wife.

Just minutes ago we were sitting down for a late breakfast she prepared for me - eggs over easy on bagels slathered with creamed chipped beef - a favorite of mine, plus fresh-sqeezed OJ. I was pretty hungry and plowed through mine super fast while she was taking her time.

As I was scraping the last of the sauce on my plate I must have given the big pile of food still on her plate a look. She was on me like a hawk about my targeting glance and strongly suggested that if I didn’t want an ‘incident’ that I’d best keep my eyes and paws under control.

[John Murphy]

One observation after thinking about all the videos is how little time the victims have to recognize the assault.

Usually 4 to 5 seconds.

John/all you guys that deal with interviewing victims, is this pretty much typical?

There is definitely a very narrow window from when the behavior is displayed until the assault begins. At that stage the pre-assault cue is potentially their last second confirmation before initiating the attack.

When Tom Givens relates his experience with interviewing crime victims the phrase he most often heard was, "He came out of nowhere!"

[RJ]

As I was scraping the last of the sauce on my plate I must have given the big pile of food still on her plate a look. She was on me like a hawk about my targeting glance and strongly suggested that if I didn’t want an ‘incident’ that I’d best keep my eyes and paws under control.

Heh; if I tried that with my wife, I'd pull back a bloody stump.

[RJ]

There is definitely a very narrow window from when the behavior is displayed until the assault begins. At that stage the pre-assault cue is potentially their last second confirmation before initiating the attack.

When Tom Givens relates his experience with interviewing crime victims the phrase he most often heard was, "He came out of nowhere!"

I remember that discussion from my class with Tom. As well as that, he related "Why is this happening to me?" as being commonly expressed.

It is a challenge for those of us who live in the civilized world, to understand that harm can come to you, soon and without warning. As a civilian, it would be hard I think for me to "flip that switch" in order to deal with an attack like this.

But like Tom also said, what difference does it make why it's happening; it's happening, so get ready to deal with it.

[todd]

Looks well done. I do agree need little more perspective of the "Identification/WE". I typically explain it this way, "Growing up in society we often are raised to be part of the collective. When a person comes up and state "Do we really want to do that?" or "We are not going to let this happen", this triggers our response to be identified as part of the whole, and our sub-conscious switches to go along".
I am no expert, but I think you have a good format.