It may sound touchy-feely, but if you can perceive the
emotions of others, you have a chance to turn them to your
advantage. The more you know about someone, the more
power you have.
TACTICAL EMPATHY
We had one big problem that day in Harlem: no telephone
number to call into the apartment. So for six straight hours,
relieved periodically by two FBI agents who were learning
crisis negotiation, I spoke through the apartment door.
I used my late-night FM DJ voice.
I didn’t give orders in my DJ voice, or ask what the
fugitives wanted. Instead, I imagined myself in their place.
“It looks like you don’t want to come out,” I said
repeatedly. “It seems like you worry that if you open the
door, we’ll come in with guns blazing. It looks like you
don’t want to go back to jail.”
For six hours, we got no response. The FBI coaches
loved my DJ voice. But was it working?
And then, when we were almost completely convinced
that no one was inside, a sniper on an adjacent building
radioed that he saw one of the curtains in the apartment
move.
The front door of the apartment slowly opened. A
woman emerged with her hands in front of her.
I continued talking. All three fugitives came out. None
of them said a word until we had them in handcuffs.
Then I asked them the question that was most nagging