sketchy characters....
CAnnoneer said:
Prevention:
1) stay away from sketchy characters
2) sit with your back to a wall or a window, close to an exit
Well thats always the trick isn't it? Sketchy characters dont walk around with a sign over their heads proclaiming them thus. Add to that, as much as we like to think we are special, sometimes a seat next to a wall or window or even a exit, just simply isnt availible to use at a public location.
On the sketchy character aspect, I really dont post a whole lot here and I tend to keep to myself but I am going to go ahead and tell you a story. From 1994-1997 I was part of the DoD Space Command HRT teams. Now people tend to think, "Wow, thats like NASA and stuff, why do they have a HRT Team?" Well I will tell you why Scientists and other professionals are just as capable of being the "sketchy characters" as much as your average person you assume is a sketchy character because of :dress, race, mannerism and behaviors.
In 1996 we had a call out to LaRC( Langley Research Center) for a baricade/hostage situation concerning a fairly well respected character, who had lost his 100k+ a year contract as a 1 meter titanium modeler simply because NASA decided to start using carbon fiber modeling for wind tunnel testing.
Imagine yourself as a man, who for the last 15 years has lived a very comfortable life because you are specialized in a application that really only has one market and one use, then be told we are phasing this out. You have no other marketable skills, and no where else is hiring a 1 meter tianium modelers( ya dont see that advertised much in the paper do ya?) So much for the comfortable life now huh? Anyway to make a long story short, somehow in the checmical depths of his mind he came to the conclusion he could get his job back by holding his office hostage.( Dont ask me to explain how he came up with that) Now this was a person, with no criminal background, no psychological history, no drug or acohol history. Something in his brain just went click and there ya go. He was just your average Engineer type, wore a suit, went to church, popular at the office parties kind thing.
After 6 hours of negotion, the assualt team had to go in and pull him out, it wasnt clean, it wasnt easy but everyone lived and we all went home.
I guess the point of this whole rambling story is, I cringe every time I see someone post about looking out for shady characters and such. Everyone is capable of violence, be it Joe Banker in the armani, or Dj Snazzy P in Urbanstreet wear, from the homeless guy in the alley, to the soccer mom who has been poked one to many times. Yes you can look at a person and say that person looks shady, he/she might be up to something, but that same shady looking person might be the one who comes in as your back up when things go pear shaped.
