Situational (surroundings) Awareness

How did you know?

Situational awareness can extend beyond just one's own situation. I have always, as far as I can recall, exercised such situational awareness.

My only non-duty incident where I thought I would have to use deadly force did not involve danger to me or mine. I was still an LEO then, but off-duty. One night we were on Broadway in San Francisco at Enrico Banducci's coffee house. Broadway during that era had a proliferation of topless/bottomless joints. We were sitting on the patio at Enrico's watching the passing parade on the sidewalk, a theater of the bizarre. At one point a group of young women passed by us. Although not then dressed provocatively, their make up and general appearance gave us (my bride and I) the impression that they were performers from the local nightclubs. So far so good. However, right beyond them was a small man harassing them by loudly shouting obscene insults of a sexual nature. The girls were doing their best to ignore him. Even assuming they were local performers, there was no justification for what this individual was doing. While we were watching this, a Mercedes convertible, with the top down, arrived. The sole occupant got out, leaving his car in the street, reached behind the seat, withdrew a motorcycle chain, and started walking towards the harasser. The Mercedes driver, who I assumed to be a night club manager, was about my size, so any match between him and the harasser would have been completely one-sided, even without the motorcycle chain. The fact that the Mercedes driver even carried such an implement convinced me of his willingness and ability to use it.

The girls reacted to this imminent confrontation by running off. The Mercedes driver was focused on the small harasser. The intended victim was backing away from the Mercedes driver into the parking lot next to Enrico's. The problem was that this parking lot was surrounded on the rear and sides by buildings, so it was a box canyon from which there was no escape. I told my wife that I did not want to get involved in this situation, but I could not ignore it. I walked into the parking lot and closed with the confrontation by remaining off the flank of the assailant so he would not be aware of my presence until I announced myself. As I was almost in position, and the would-be assailant was now closely approaching the intended victim, San Francisco PD rolled up in two doubled units. That stopped everything. Since I had not yet interceded, all I did was turn around and depart.

The point to all this is that true situational awareness means you may encounter situations where the threat is to an unknown third party, and you will face the ethical dilemma of whether or not to act. I was convinced then, and still am now, that without someone interceding there was going to be, at the very least, an extremely violent assault with a deadly weapon (a felony), and worst case scenario, death as a result.

Under the law of deadly force, at least in CA, a person my use deadly force to defend themselves or third persons against assaults likely to produce death or great bodily harm. When teaching the law pertaining to this, I would use the example of a mother protecting her children, because even the most enlightened social justice warriors have a tough time making their self-righteous counter arguments. But it applies equally to unknown third persons, such as in my example.

The lesson I would derive from this is that while we can be as cautious as possible to not place ourselves in situations where we may have to use deadly force to defend ourselves or our families, that does not mean we may not have such an situation just dropped in front of us.

Then we will have a decision to make. Whatever we decide, we must do so quickly, and we must be right.

I have used this incident in my classes to underscore the responsibilities that one assumes when one decides to go armed.

That it was a motorcycle chain?
 
To anyone considering getting a concealed carry permit in any state where it is legal: get it. If you decide not to use it, that’s your choice, but you will never know your capabilities in going around legally armed until you do it.

Situational awareness is an important part of any personal protection plan. However, it has limits. If you are situationally aware that an active shooter has started killing children at your child’s elementary school while you are there, is that enough? No. Is being aware and armed better? Yes.

No one can predict what will happen, when or where. Being armed gives you legal options to deal with awful situations, even if you saw them developing and had the chance to avoid them. When something so heinous that it shocks your conscience is going on near you, having the legal option and capability to intervene with deadly force is important. In almost every situation, you will be the first responder, whether by choice or necessity. You will regret not being armed if you could have been—if you are alive to regret it.

The supposed downsides to concealed carry do not outweigh the benefits. That being said, the gun is not the solution. It is just a component of a more complete, responsible, personal preparedness plan that plays better in the legal realm.
 
Before coming to a practice based on incomplete information, know that year in, year out, murder victims, rape victims, and aggravated assault victims know their attacker at least 30% of the time, much more for rape. Ten percent of murder victims are related to their killer within the first degree of consanguinity. https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/shr



So, yesterday morning at the supermarket, a young thug-looking man came running out the front doors with his hand under his jacket. He ran right past the hood of my truck, never looked at me, but very quickly drew a stolen bottle of tequila without stopping and tossed it under my truck. He got to his getaway care and his buddy squealed the tires and drove away fast. No one was chasing him.



My reaction? I watched him come and go. Could I have whipped out my carry gun? Sure. But why would I?
That's all well & good, but did the bottle of tequila break or were you able to rescue it?

Sent with some arcane communications device.
 
I perceive potential vulnerability

As others have mentioned, you can't respond with a firearm, if you don't have it available.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to be omniscient, to what's transpiring around you. I applaud the OP's vigilance but caution that nobody is perfect.

I would recommend getting off the fence. A firearm just laying around for no reason is a recipe for disaster.
 
I spent part of my childhood in the US Territory of Puerto Rico in the early to mid-70’s. I’m Puerto Rican myself and love the island and my fellow Boricuas, but crime can get pretty bad in some places over there. So I’d like to think I grew up with some sense of situational awareness.

My wife, on the other hand, grew up in a small town in Texas. When I point out certain questionable characters when we’re out and about, she’s not only clueless but also disbelieving, claiming I’m just being paranoid.

Back in 2009, right around the time when the news started reporting about the swine flu that broke out in Mexico, we took a trip to Italy. One day, we arrived at the Naples train station, where she noticed some guys scoping out the backpack I was wearing. This time, I was the clueless one! Go figure. I think what saved us was when one guy, who could tell we weren’t locals, asked where we were from. Mind you, we look Hispanic. My wife’s a Naturalized American citizen born in Mexico. According to some of the Italians we had met, we don’t look like typical Americans. So we made it a habit to explain we’re Americans from Texas, but my family is originally from the US Territory of Puerto Rico while hers is from Mexico. When we tried to explain to the guy at the train station where we were from, as soon as he heard the word “Mexico”, his eyes widened and he blurted something in Italian about the swine flu. Sure enough, everyone ran away from us as if we were lepers, including the guys nearby scoping out my backpack.

Of course now, after two years of Covid and everyone fatigued from Covid safety protocols, I doubt we’d get the same reaction as we got in 2009, but I think hypochondria helped us that time. And next time, I need to try to blend in more and not advertsise I’m a tourist by wearing a backpack.
 

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