Blitz - June-July 2017

70 ƫđƫ333ċ(%06)#ċ*!0 | (^) FEATURE STORY
subconscious. Often when
people talk about situational
awareness, they’ll talk about
very specific things that we
should watch for, such as people
who are wearing winter coats
on a summer day, etc., as this
could indicate that they are
hiding a weapon, or concealing
a bomb...though it could also
be that this is a homeless guy
who is sick, and feeling cold
even on a warm day and/or
needs to keep his possessions
with him. The problem with
looking for specifics is that your
mental bandwidth will be taken
up and exhausted by trying
to look for things that aren’t
there, meanwhile missing those
things which do signal danger
but aren’t on your list. If you
are simply open to the actions
and behaviours of those in your
environment, your eyes will be
drawn to those people who aren’t
behaving as would be expected.
For example, the Boston
Marathon bombers were picked
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after the explosives went off
— at the finish line of the race,
not looking at the runners like
everyone else, but huddled
together over a backpack;
something that wasn’t consistent
with everyone else’s behaviour.
When you become aware of
the potential for danger, or the
possible presence of harmful
intent (due to a person’s actions
and behaviours), but have yet to
confirm that it is directed at you,
you have entered the conflict-
aware phase.
You might be alerted to the
presence of a threat by becoming
adrenalised. Our ‘fear system’ is
running in the background as
a subconscious process, all the
time. Although it is continually
perceiving and processing
information, if it isn’t pertinent to
our safety, it filters it out, much
in the same way your mind is
filtering out the background
noise as you read this article. If,
however, something that signals
danger is picked up on, you
will become adrenalised, and
through this shift/change in your
emotional state, you will become
aware of the presence of danger.
Unfortunately, most people when
they become adrenalised will
deny or discount the possible
danger. Has your fear system
ever alerted you to the fact that
somebody is walking behind
you by adrenalising you (you
express your ‘new’ emotional
state by feeling afraid; feelings
are the conscious expressions
of our emotions), but you
immediately began denying
that you could be in danger,
coming up with reasons why
you’re probably imagining that
you are being followed? Most of
the time, the person behind you
won’t have any harmful intent
towards you — but this doesn’t
mean that your fear system got
it wrong. It correctly identified
that the movement pattern of
the person behind you was akin
to the movement pattern of
somebody tracking and gaining
on you; however, it was unable
to discern whether the person’s
intent was malicious, nefarious
or benign. This investigation into
the person’s intent is a conscious
process in which you need to
engage. You must examine
whether the threat is real or not,
rather than simply denying it or
excusing it away.
When you enter the conflict-
aware phase, you need to make
a dynamic risk-assessment of
your situation. You need to
assess both the threat(s) and
your vulnerabilities, and how
these intersect. There are two
outcomes/conclusions that you
should end up with: you are
either in a high-risk situation,
or one that contains unknown
risks. Don’t categorise your
situation as being a low-risk
one, as this may cause you to
not take a threat seriously; if
any risk exists, it should be
treated as being high. If you are
unable to identify what caused
you to become adrenalised,
then the risk remains unknown
and should continue to be
investigated while you are in the
environment. Once you have
determined that the harmful
intent in the environment is
directed at you, you have entered
the pre-conflict phase. The
question that you need to ask
yourself here is whether you
are involved in a premeditated
incident or a spontaneous one.
Premeditated incidents are those
where an individual has likely
planned and/or orchestrated the
event, such as a mugger, who
acquires a weapon, chooses a
location, actively selects a victim,
etc. A spontaneous situation
is one where your actions and
behaviours, whether real or
perceived, cause somebody
to become aggressive/violent
towards you — for example,
you accidentally spill a drink
over somebody in a bar, cut
somebody off in traffic, etc. The
difference between the two types,
from a practical perspective, is
that in premeditated situations,
the aggressor has an outcome
in mind (they want your wallet,
they want to rape you, etc.)
"You must examine whether the
threat is real or not,
rather than simply denying it
or excusing it away."
Effective
awareness means
that any apparent
risk should be
treated as high