Posts Tagged sheepdog

Easy Situational Awareness

From USA Carry:

most violence that takes place in public happens in transitional spaces. There is violence in the home and in the workplace, both of which account for a great deal of overall assault and criminal activity each year, but outside of these specific locations, the most likely place for dangerous confrontation and criminal predation is within transitional spaces.

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The Four Must Have Items For Everyday Carry

From The Truth About Guns:

In order to address many of the frequently asked questions, several years ago I came up with a list that I dubbed “The Fundamental Four” of EDC. The Fundamental Four items that every armed citizen should have on their person before they walk out of the front door are; something Lethal, something Sharp, something Bright, and something Medical.

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Armed Neighbor Stops Shooter

From USA Carry:

Zachary Arnold, 26, was shot dead by an armed neighbor after he was yelling and attempting to lure the fellow residents of his apartment complex out to shoot them.

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Columnist Proves Sheep Can’t Tell The Difference Between Wolves And Sheepdogs

From The Atlantic:

Most people in the United States, allowing for wild variation in race, class, and education, are victims of violence only very rarely. Watching the videos, however, invites you to simulate violence at an extraordinary rate, much higher than we are mentally equipped to manage. (Correia himself has seen tens of thousands of them, and he posts a new one to his channel about once or twice a day.) The effect of these videos is to habituate viewers to that violence, to train them to imagine themselves in it. Training yourself to imagine something makes it seem more likely to happen, and primes your instincts to react to it—and, I suspect, initiate that violent reaction and overdo it when circumstances could be resolved more peacefully.

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Training For A Fight

From Monderno:

Instead of trying to rationalize the fact that a certain type of violence could never happen to us, we should spend more time thinking of ways to counter that violence. How would you react if your front door is kicked in and you’re home alone with your child? How would you react when confronted by 5 people in a gas station with malicious intent? You need to step outside your relative comfort zone and inoculate yourself with the idea that a worst case scenario type situation CAN happen to you.

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Modern Warrior Lifestyle

From The Loadout Room:

Today the United States of America as a whole lives a completely different lifestyle than our forefathers. Now I could reference all kinds of differences between now and then but in this article I’m going to concentrate on one subject in particular. The subject that I’m referring to is a warrior lifestyle.

This is something that I feel we have moved away from as Americans. Make no mistake our country use to be a warrior culture. Our country was founded by warriors; men that took cold blued steel and fought to the death to build our nation. Their ideology was far from “lets not offend” or “we might hurt people’s feelings”, etc. etc.

Our founding fathers were rebellious and courageous. They were men of principals. Principals that they would give their lives to uphold. They were warriors in every sense of the word.

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Countering Workplace Violence

Countering Workplace Violence is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

By Scott Stewart

On the morning of Aug. 24, Jeffrey Johnson returned to his former place of work, Hazan Import Corp., and waited on the street outside the building. Johnson, who was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, blended into the crowd of people on the street who were rushing to work that morning. As one of Hazan Import’s executives, Stephen Ercolino, approached the building, Johnson drew a pistol from his bag and gunned Ercolino down with no warning, making Ercolino a victim of workplace violence. Media reports suggest that Johnson and Ercolino had been involved in several confrontations, at least one of which became physical, and that Johnson held Ercolino responsible for his being laid off. Each of the men had also reportedly filed police reports claiming the other had threatened him.

Violence in the workplace is a serious security problem in the United States and elsewhere, although it is not nearly as widespread as the media coverage suggests. On average, there are around 500 workplace homicides per year in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, the latest year for which statistics are available, there were 518 workplace homicides, and only 12 percent were conducted by a co-worker or former co-worker. This means that while workplace violence incidents tend to get a lot of media attention — even more so when an incident occurs near the Empire State Building, like the Johnson incident — they are not common.

Still, while not all that common, incidents of workplace violence are serious. They are also, in most cases, preventable. Read the rest of this entry »

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Situational Awareness: How Everyday Citizens Can Help Make a Nation Safe

Situational Awareness: How Everyday Citizens Can Help Make a Nation Safe is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By Scott Stewart

Last week’s Security Weekly discussed the important role that grassroots defenders practicing situational awareness play in defending against terrorist attacks by individuals and small cells, what we refer to as grassroots militants. Anyone who reads STRATFOR’s security and terrorism material for any length of time will notice that we frequently mention the importance of situational awareness. The reason we do so, quite simply, is that it works. Situational awareness is effective in allowing people to see potential threats before — and as — they develop. This allows potential victims to take proactive measures to avoid a perceived threat, and it enables them or other observers to alert authorities.

While threats can emanate from a number of very different sources, it is important to recognize that terrorist attacks — and other criminal acts, for that matter — do not materialize out of thin air. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Terrorists and other criminals follow a process when planning their actions, and this process has several distinct steps. The process has traditionally been referred to as the “terrorist attack cycle,” but if you look at the issue thoughtfully, it becomes apparent that the same steps apply to nearly all crimes. Of course, the steps in a complex crime like a kidnapping or car bombing are far more involved than the steps in a simple crime such as purse-snatching or shoplifting, where the steps can be completed quite rapidly. Nevertheless, the same general steps are usually followed.

People planning attacks are vulnerable to detection during various phases of this process, and observant people can often spot such attacks developing. Therefore, situational awareness serves as one of the key building blocks of effective personal security, and when practiced collectively, national security. Since situational awareness is so important, we thought it would be helpful to once again discuss the subject in detail and provide a guide that can help describe what situational awareness is and explain how it can be practiced at a relaxed, sustainable level. Read the rest of this entry »

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“I always ALWAYS carry a knife”

“I always ALWAYS carry a knife. I have a few that I mix it up with. A nice 4 inch Gerber, a small Swiss army, a jack knife I got from my grandfather.

My reason is a little sad so be forewarned. When I was young (8-10) My brother and I were friends with these kids across town named Rob and Tom. We were over at their house or them at ours at least 5 nights a week. One night we were building a bridge out of sticks and boards across some water in a shallow ditch after a big rainstorm. It couldn’t have been more than half a meter deep. We hear brakes squeal and see a car flip into the ditch a ways down the road.

We ran over to see what happened and recognized the car. It was Rob and Toms father. He hit a puddle going a little to fast and lost control. This was not an abandoned road so 2 other cars had stopped to help by the time we bolted down to the crash.

The car was upside down in the water and we could see him struggling with his seat belt. Everyone tried to get him loose but the belt was twisted and no one had a knife on them. We tried to fray it with keys and burn it with a lighter but to no avail. I watched with my brother, my best friends and 3 adults as said best friends’ father drowned in front of them in half a meter of water because no one had a knife to cut him loose.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/crocy/how_many_folks_carry_a_knife_on_a_daily_basis/

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Watching for Watchers

This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR

By Scott Stewart

In last week’s Security Weekly we discussed how situational awareness is a mindset that can — and should — be practiced by everyone. We also described the different levels of situational awareness and discussed which level is appropriate for different sorts of situations. And we noted how all criminals and terrorists follow a process when planning their acts and that this process is visible at certain times to people who are watching for such behavior.

When one considers these facts, it inevitably leads to the question: “What in the world am I looking for?” The brief answer is: “warning signs of criminal or terrorist behavior.” Since this brief answer is very vague, it becomes necessary to describe the behavior in more detail.

Surveillance

It is important to make one fundamental point clear up front. The operational behavior that most commonly exposes a person planning a criminal or terrorist act to scrutiny by the intended target is surveillance. Other portions of the planning process can be conducted elsewhere, especially in the age of the Internet, when so much information is available online. From an operational standpoint, however, there simply is no substitute for having eyes on the potential target. In military terms, surveillance is often called reconnaissance, and in a criminal context it is often referred to as casing or scoping out. Environmental activist and animal rights groups trained by the Ruckus Society refer to it as “scouting.” No matter what terminology is being used for the activity, it is meant to accomplish the same objective: assessing a potential target for value, vulnerabilities and potential security measures. Surveillance is required so that criminals can conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Primer on Situational Awareness

This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR

By Scott Stewart

The world is a wonderful place, but it can also be a dangerous one. In almost every corner of the globe militants of some political persuasion are plotting terror attacks — and these attacks can happen in London or New York, not just in Peshawar or Baghdad. Meanwhile, criminals operate wherever there are people, seeking to steal, rape, kidnap or kill.

Regardless of the threat, it is very important to recognize that criminal and terrorist attacks do not materialize out of thin air. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Criminals and terrorists follow a process when planning their actions, and this process has several distinct steps. This process has traditionally been referred to as the “terrorist attack cycle,” but if one looks at the issue thoughtfully, it becomes apparent that the same steps apply to nearly all crimes. Of course, there will be more time between steps in a complex crime like a kidnapping or car bombing than there will be between steps in a simple crime such as purse-snatching or shoplifting, where the steps can be completed quite rapidly. Nevertheless, the same steps are usually followed.

People who practice situational awareness can often spot this planning process as it unfolds and then take appropriate steps to avoid the dangerous situation or prevent it from happening altogether. Because of this, situational awareness is one of the key building blocks of effective personal security — and when exercised by large numbers of people, it can also be an important facet of national security. Since situational awareness is so important, and because we discuss situational awareness so frequently in our analyses, we thought it would be helpful to discuss the subject in detail and provide a primer that can be used by people in all sorts of situations. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Modern Warrior Reading List

Sheepdog Reading List:

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace

Living The Martial Way

Philosophy of Fighting

Kishido: The Way of the Western Warrior

Living Behind The Shield

U.S. Marine Corps Close Combat Manual

Krav Maga

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