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It is Best to Avoid or Prevent Violence
Why You Should Avoid Violence
- The attacker's friends may come after you later
- You may not win and you will be hurt or killed.
- Someone may get hurt out of all proportion to the conflict from a fall or the like.
- If you counter attack too strongly you may stimulate the perp's fear and thereby making fight back harder. Give them an exit route. Remember, if they wanted to work they would've gotten a job.
- Even if your self-defense action is viewed as self-defense by the authorities, the perp may sue you in civil court which will cost you money and aggravation for your defense, and that is even if you win in court.
The last point is probably why we hear little of successful, non-fatal self-defense situations. People who do successfully defend themselves don't want to expose themselves to possible civil suits.
Prevent Becoming the Victim
- Don't Look Like Prey: be calm and confident. Have a game plan for dealing with trouble.
- Respect yourself; respect others, make others respect you
- Try to deal with conflict verbally, be empathetic, open minded
- Be aware of the mental state of yourself and others
- Be aware of your environment: look, listen, smell
- Know where you are and potential escape routes
- Control distance between you and others. This gives you a bit of margin in case others get violent.
- Learn self-defense
There is a great deal more to the prevention of violence. This is just a taste. Besides neighborhood violence there can be violence in the workplace from fellow workers and customers, school board meetings [you don't see cops on patrol in biker bars, but they are at school board meetings], bars, and in cars and between cars on the road. Dealing with all forms of violence, or situations, comes down the same principles as above.
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