Right up there with certain areas of Los Angeles, Detroit, New Jersey, and New York, along with a few dozen other places, I live in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. I have 26 distinct gangs identified by the police where I live. No, it's not Boston. I moved from Boston a few years ago to afford my dream house.
I bought a small mansion, an English Tudor, circa 1915 that is original to the period and historically persevered. Only, there are multiple shootings, murders, drugs, prostitution, rape, robberies, and domestic disputes every day. You don't want to walk around my neighborhood after 7pm. Living here, I feel much like Sean Connery when he played Forrester in Finding Forrester.
Yet, it's getting better. The police are making headway. We have a neighborhood crime watch and I joined the local civic association. Also, by exerting a bit of political pressure and getting my neighbors to sign a petition, we were able to close off our street and make it a cul-de-sac. Now, the only cars on my street are those who live here or who are visiting. Slowly but surely, we are taking back our neighborhood.
I've done all that I can do. My cars are alarmed, locked, and garaged behind a locked fence. My property is enclosed by a 7 foot fence. I have a dog that hears a cat walking by the house in the snow. My house is surrounded by security lights that brighten my side of the street, as would an airport illuminate their runway, and I have an alarm on every window and door, with locks on the windows that doesn't allow the windows to open more than twelve inches. I'm protected. Yet, if they are determined, to get in my house, the bad guys will somehow gain forced entry.
My girlfriend is a third degree black belt in Martial Arts and could kick my ass if I didn't out weigh her by eighty pounds and have the strength of weightlifter. An ex-boxer, I studied Martial Arts, too, but not to be belted, only to learn how to defend myself. Suffice to say, thanks in part to my training in the military, I know how to protect myself.
For those of you who are not physically fit, I have some helpful suggestions that may save your life. First, put down the donut and the cigarette. My advice to you is to get in enough of a general good condition that, if you were being chased, you can run a couple of blocks to safety without having a heart attack.
1. Don't be a victim. Know your surroundings. Don't walk with your hands in your pockets and your head down. The criminals are looking for people like that. Stay alert. Stay on brightly lit streets and keep away from darkened doorways and alleys. Walk with a friend.
2. If confronted, run. Don't be a hero. There are lots of dead heroes in the cemetery. Leaving the scene is always the best advice. Assume they have a weapon.
3. Carry a whistle with you or scream if you are a woman and yell if you are a man.
4. Have your cell phone handy. Only, remember, the police cannot trace calls to 911 when made from a cell phone, as they can when you make your call on a landline.
5. Get a federal identification card, FID, and buy mace or pepper spray and keep it in your pocket with your finger on the trigger. I don't recommend you buy a gun. Too many times your own gun is used against you because when the chips are down, the average person will freeze and can't take that extra step and pull the trigger. On the other hand, now the criminal has a gun, your gun, and he has no hesitation in shooting you to death.
The above is the best advice for those of you are cannot fight off an attacker. For those of you who are in shape and who are unafraid to do what you have to do in a kill or be killed situation, here is more helpful advice that just may save your life without having to carry a gun and use deadly force.
