Keeping distance from strangers...

[ShooterMcGavin]

I read a lot of posts here about awareness and preventing someone from getting too close to you. In a suitable situation, I fully understand this, but keeping distance as a rule?? Some of you have said that letting someone get 20 ft or 10 ft away from you is close enough (I think I have even read the word "never"). Maybe I don't understand how this is possible. If you have made that type of a claim, ... do you walk on the sidewalk in towns, or are you constantly stepping far clear of people walking past you? Do you go into malls or supermarkets? Do you live in extreme rural areas, or maybe you know everyone in your town?

I live in a small city. I pass closely by most people on the sidewalk, I pass people in aisles in the supermarket, and I try to be aware of my surroundings the best I can. I grew up in a small town, with parents who did not lock the door at night. Even as their child, I NEVER understood that! As I have moved out and moved on, I have made changes in my life. Still, I would like to learn more about situational awareness.

 

[Rattlesnake]

Unless I know them and feel comfortable with them being close to me it's a minimum of an arms distance. If they get too close I step back and let them know to stay away. They do it some more they get shoved. Even before i became a CO and later LEO, I did not like people getting too close and even touching me.

 

[CWL]

The principles of being aware of your surroundings means identification of threats. This means separating 'safe' from potential 'threats'. Don't forget to connect your brain to your actions.

Not everyone that you will meet or walk by during the course of your day is going to be a threat to you. (I don't think that you are going to get shanked if you reach for the OJ in the supermarket.) You maintain condition yellow in order to pick out potential threats so that you can reassess and decide whether or not to escalate to higher rate of alert/response.

If you live in a small town, most likely the people you pass by are going to be familiar to you so you will know the threat level thay may or may not present. What you want to identify are the people that stand out because they look or act differently than everyone else around them; ie. they do not seem to going about their business but are intent on finding potential victims, or they appear to be going out of the way to walk towards you on an empty street, etc... This is noticeable if you are maintaining the proper level of alertness.

No one is telling you to become so paranoid that you cannot leave your house.

 

[Declaration Day]

I have a comfort zone regarding strangers that varies, depending on the situation.

If I'm in line at a store, I expect someone to be just a couple of feet behind me. But in a parking lot or while walking on the sidewalk, I see no reason for a stranger to come near me.

I don't normally give a verbal warning if someone violates my comfort zone, but I'll glance at them to let them know I'm aware of their presence. The look on my face is not a threatening one, but it implies that I am not easy prey.

I have, on rare occasions, ordered an approaching stranger to stop and not come any closer. Trust me, in those instances, those words were justified.

 

[DesertShooter]

Like your folks, my parents could have cared less about locking the doors on their home, day or night.....UNTIL they had a break-in!

It's next-to-impossible to have a continuous "safe zone" around you. We all have a "privacy zone" of about 2', though. That's a comfortable distance when conversing with someone.

The 20' "safety zone" theory is, I believe, based upon the time element that it would take for an attacker to reach you. If the attacker is closer than 20', your reflexes won't be fast enough to assume a "fighting stance" or to flee before the attacker reaches you. Of course, not every person that you come into close proximity of are "attackers".

I have always hated standing in lines at stores, but I figure that I'm not alone. What I will NOT do is, whenever purchasing from a "fast food" place, is to drive into the "drive-thru" lane. Your vehicle becomes "boxed-in", and you're limited in what you can do while sitting in your vehicle, waiting for your food. I always park, go inside the restaurant, and order food "to go"!

Want an example of how dangerous the "drive-thru" can be? A few years ago, two gang members robbed several "drive-thru" customers at gunpoint, while they were "boxed-in" by other vehicles. One of those customers/victims decided that he wasn't going to hand over his wallet....and was shot to death!