Tom Patire's Personal Protection Handbook: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Keep Yourself, Your Family, and Your Assets Safe - Brossura

Patire, Tom

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1400049075 ISBN 13: 9781400049073

Casa editrice: Three Rivers Pr, 2003

Riassunto

A leading American personal protection expert offers a comprehensive and practical guide on how to keep safe in any situation, describing real-life scenarios in which a crime can occur and a variety of effective, preventive measures to take to avoid becoming a target or defend oneself in an attack. Original. 35,000 first printing.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

TOM PATIRE has more than 20 years of experience in providing security to celebrities, diplomats, and corporate executives, and has trained federal law enforcement professionals in protection techniques. He is the creator of CDT® and the CDT® Family Protection Training Centers, with more than 1,000 locations around the country, as well as the Training for Life™ program and video series. His work has been profiled in dozens of media venues, from Good Morning America to the Wall Street Journal. He lives with his family in New Jersey. Visit Tom’s website at www.tompatire.com for more information.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

DON’T BE A VICTIM

A well-dressed woman shopping at a local mall one afternoon was quietly being targeted by a savvy pair of thieves who, having identified her as a person of means, were following her on her rounds, trailing her from one shop to the next.

When her hands were full of shopping bags as she returned to her car, which was parked in the enclosed garage, they saw the opportunity to make their move. They waited until she was backing out of her space and bumped her car with their van, just hard enough to cause her to stop and get out to inspect the damage. At that point they grabbed her, put a knife to her throat, and threw her into the back of the van, where they robbed her of more than $1,000 in purchases, $500 in cash, and all the jewelry she was wearing, including her wedding ring.

And then, because she made the foolish mistake of talking back to them instead of keeping quiet, they had the last word by pouring a cup of cold coffee over her head and forcing her to lie on the floor of the garage while they made their getaway. When the police arrived, the first thing she did was to berate them for not being there when she needed them.

Later that evening she called me in to track down the robbers, which turned out to be virtually impossible, since she was unable to furnish any identifying information about either her assailants or the van.

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There are several lessons to be learned from this cautionary tale. The first and probably the most important is that no one should ever consider himself or herself immune from this kind of attack. My client, as she told me, had felt she was “safe” because she was relatively affluent and wasn’t traveling in the kind of neighborhood where she’d expect a robbery to take place. Her misapprehension is all too common, but my answer is simply this: If you were to think about robbing someone, would you do it in a place where your victim was unlikely to have much money, or would you go someplace where you’d be more likely to find a person carrying cash and wearing valuable jewelry?

Second, when you’re out shopping, wherever it is, dress unobtrusively, don’t wear flashy jewelry, and be aware of your surroundings. Had this woman been more vigilant, she might well have spotted her would-be assailants before they had the chance to accost her in the garage. Had she not been so clearly a person with money—as signaled by her jewelry and clothing, not to mention the amount of money she was obviously spending—they might have chosen someone else. And had she sent them a message through her body language that she was alert to what was going on around her, she might have made herself a less attractive target.

Finally, if you do have the misfortune to be the victim of a robbery, keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. There’s nothing really to be gained from verbally “dissing” your attackers, and, as was the case with this woman, you might just get them angry enough to want to humiliate or harm you further. In any dangerous situation, your main goal should be to escape unharmed, not giving the bad guys a piece of your mind. And, as my client later confessed, she was silly enough to be more concerned about preserving her freshly manicured nails than about memorizing a description of the thieves or their van, thus rendering herself totally useless as a source of information, to either the police who responded to her call or to me.

CHECKLIST FOR CONFRONTATION

· Concentrate on the positive. Think about what you can do, not what might be done to you. Remaining proactive might just prevent you from suffering even further harm. Feeling sorry for yourself or falling prey to self-doubt isn’t going to help you. Instead, listen, follow directions, and watch what you say as well as how you say it. All situations, no matter how desperate, provide a window of opportunity for survival or escape. You need to buy yourself time and be alert to that opportunity when it comes.

· Focus on the moment. The danger is that fear will prevent you from thinking clearly. Physiologically, fear causes the nervous system to send adrenaline rushing to the brain, putting us into panic, or what is commonly known as fight-or-flight mode. The resulting neuro- logical changes can affect our vision, our hearing, and our ability to think clearly.

· Review the situation in your mind. You need to be prepared to assess all your options quickly, to ensure that your response will be the one most likely to get you out of the situation unharmed.

· Act, don’t react. This goes along with remaining proactive and taking the initiative, rather than allowing the criminal to be the one who “calls the shots.” Expect the unexpected by being aware and prepared.

· When in doubt, ease your way out. My philosophy has always been that there’s no point in being a hero if you’re going to be a dead hero. And there’s no shame in making self-protection your number-one goal—even if that means letting the bad guys get away. There’s nothing more valuable than life itself. In any potentially life-threatening situation, preserving your material possessions must come second to preserving your life.

· Whenever possible, use verbal rather than physical skills. Unless you’re extremely well trained, extremely skilled, and absolutely certain you can come out of the situation unscathed, getting physical with an attacker can really get you hurt. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should taunt your attacker, thereby adding fuel to his fire; your words should be aimed at dousing the flames, not inflaming his anger.

How to Talk to a Bad Guy

· Tone of voice can make all the difference. Keep it calm and consistent.

· Never talk down to the bad guy, and don’t attempt the approach that suggests you try to make him your ally by convincing him you “want to help.” He won’t buy it. Would you?

· Listen carefully and respond directly to questions. For example, if he asks, “Where is the cash?,” don’t reply, “The jewelry is in my top drawer.”

· Stay focused and attentive at all times. Keep your wits about you.

· Don’t make statements that could make the situation worse. For example, “I don’t want any problems; I am not going to give you a hard time” is okay. But saying “I’ll do whatever you want” could lead from a robbery to a rape.

· Pay attention, speak only when spoken to, and be attentive to his movements.

· Make sure you stress that you don’t want to create a problem.

Tom’s Tip

· Trust in yourself and follow your instincts. Again, this goes along with keeping your mind focused and responding rather than reacting. We all have an internal alarm system; when yours goes off, trust your gut and do what it’s telling you to do.

· Remember that trained movement is almost always more effective than irrational behavior. That’s what this book is all about. It will give you the edge you need to survive in any situation that threatens you or your family.

In the chapters that follow, I’ll be providing you with the specific tools you’ll need to begin your own Training for Life, which means training not only your body but also your mind so that you’ll be prepared to use the eight steps above in order to give yourself a chance to survive in any confrontation.

WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY VICTIM?

In researching this book, I spoke with many different people— victims and victimizers alike—and I discovered that there were, in fact, patterns of behavior that would make one more or less attractive as a target for criminal attack.

One thing I learned is that, psychologically, many people are unwilling to contemplate even the possibility that they might ever be targeted for a criminal act. They prefer to adhere to the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, and therefore they simply don’t take the proactive steps that might help to ensure their own safety and the safety of their loved ones.

The people I spoke with who had been victims reacted in one of two ways. Many “good” people were so incredulous that such a bad thing could have happened to them that they were incapable of moving past their sense of having been “wronged” to take the steps that would prevent the same thing from happening again. Others, however, admitted that the attack occurred at a time when they were too preoccupied to remain focused on what they were doing at the moment, and that their lapse in concentration had created the opportunity for the crime. The people in this second group are the ones who are more likely to make sure they do things differently the next time, and who are less likely to make the same mistake again. My goal is to help you learn how to do things right the first time, before it becomes necessary for you to learn from unfortunate experience.

The criminals with whom I spoke or corresponded gave me great information about what might make someone a victim. Their rationale for choosing a target was not so much “Why victimize this person?” as “Why not victimize this person?” The victim, in other words, more often than not, offers himself up as a target by appearing distracted, disorganized, and unfocused. Or, as one seasoned criminal put it, “We don’t pick our victims. They pick themselves.”

Criminals look upon our misfortune as their good fortune. They are really opportunists who look upon crime as a business, and their goal is to make the most profit with the least risk and effort. Mainly, they want to minimize their exposure to the possibility of being caught. And, like most businessmen, those who are the most successful are the best at what they do. If a &#...

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Three Rivers Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1400049075
• ISBN 13: 9781400049073
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 243