There is no handling a predator. Remember, they are stalking you, using everyday camouflage to get close to you. By the time you realize there is a problem to handle, you are already in a fight for your life.
Your best bet is to avoid the situation altogether. Make yourself as much of a hard target as you can. Also work on threat recognition, and listening to your awareness alarm. Remember that the predator is counting on you not seeing him coming. If your awareness alarm bells go off, if a red flag goes up, if your instinct kicks in, then his camouflage comes off and you see
him for what he is. You don’t have to figure out exactly what he is going to do. You don’t even have to be sure that he is definitely a bad guy. You just have to know that something might not be right. Then you can take precautions.
If you have a funny feeling, that’s enough. Even if you’re wrong, you’re still alive – so you are also right. A lot of people are so anxious to avoid confrontation that they refuse to see anything wrong. They will rather believe that the reason some guy or girl is being exceptionally nice to them is because they are such a nice person themselves. They don’t want to confront a predator, so they completely ignore the possibility. Unpleasant though it may be, you need to realize when you’re possibly being set up. Remember, when somebody you just met is being overly nice, gathering too much information on you, wanting to know where you live, offering to take you home when you’ve had a couple drinks and you don’t have a ride – those are red flags.
You have probably seen the stories on the news, where intoxicated women walk off with men they barely know – sometimes several of them – and are found dead the next day. Men, as well. I recently heard of a kickboxer in Tampa, Florida who got into a fight and ended up being found dead in a pond. Just because you are a kickboxer, just because you’re a black belt, that does not mean you cannot be a target for somebody.
The predator does not care who you are. As far as he is concerned, there are a million of you. You want to make him see you
as a very, very difficult target to acquire, and hopefully he will eliminate you when he’s going through his selection process.
That is how you handle a predator.
C.O.B.R.A. Self-Defense South Africa teach men, women, children, groups and corporations both small and large how to realistically protect themselves in today’s world.
