The Psychology of Home Security
Home security is an illusion.
For some people, it’s the new gun locked in the gun safe that gives them the illusion of safety. For others, it is the knowledge that their home has lights set on timers while they are away on vacation. The reality is that those lights just illuminate the way, leading the bad guys to your valuables, and that gun isn’t going to protect you while it is responsibly locked up in a safe.
There are a million things we do each day that give us the false impression that we have protected our homes, and another million things we do each day that allow criminals to bypass our efforts.
Read MoreFirst Aid and Fighting – a Normal Night
Just a few days after my most recent First Aid refresher, some of those skills got put to use … immediately followed by a different set of more aggressive physical skills … followed then by a reminder that our actions must always follow very particular laws. Here’s the quick look at how the night went down.
Florida Neighborhood Watch vs Guardian Angels
The Boston Herald this morning said, “George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who fired the shot that claimed the life of Trayvon Martin on a rainy night in Sanford, Fla., last month, has been painted as a racist, a vigilante and a murderer.”
As Guardian Angels, we are very proactive, with a hands-on crime deterrence action. How are we different from Zimmerman on Neighborhood Watch in Florida?
It’s important to know that our words, actions, gestures … anything we do is probably recorded somewhere these days. Traffic cameras, home surveillance systems, recorded phone calls (especially to emergency services like 911 in the United States) – every detail matters. And, everything really does get brought into question:
Read MoreApril 21st San Juan Capistrano
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3-19-2012
CONTACT: Lani, 949-328-4220, lani@ocguardianangels.org
GUARDIAN ANGELS PARTNER WITH ZEN DOJOS, BULLY BUSTER OC, CALIFORNIA KRAV MAGA, AND DIVA’S IN DEFENSE
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA.
Handcuffing Workshop [VIDEOS]
Citizens’ Arrests are certainly still rare, even among proactive groups like the Guardian Angels. Whenever something becomes particularly rare, it’s even more important to make sure we know how to do it properly if and when we need that skill.
Take a random skill category:
- We’re all pretty good at tying our shoes, since we do it all the time.
- However, I think most people would draw a blank pretty quickly if asked to show ten different knots.
Save Your Feet
Feet are going to make or break your success on a Safety Patrol … or even just working through your day in “normal” life. Chances are good that if you volunteer with the Guardian Angels, you probably work a normal job to support your ability to continue with your volunteer efforts. That job might already involve a lot of standing and walking.
Then on Patrol days, you spend at least two or three hours doing more standing and walking … and sometimes a bit of running, too. You probably have a good pair of boots, or at least comfortable appropriate shoes. Maybe you can find a perfect fit with new boots, that give amazing comfort and support … though that has never happened to me. But even with good footwear, it won’t last forever.
Read MoreWhy Volunteer? Professional Resume Builder
We’ve heard it all: “Why volunteer? You do this for free!? Just let the police handle it all. I don’t have time for that.”
Could it be that volunteering with the Guardian Angels could do something for your career? Forbes magazine certainly thinks so.
See how you can “Take it from the streets to the suites” with a little volunteer work …
Read MoreAngels in Your Neighborhood?
The Guardian Angels do not invade cities. They do not set up shop in a vacuum and expect everyone to take them or leave them.
The key to successfully solving community problems is to get as many members of that community involved and cooperating as possible.
Extreme importance rests in the support your neighborhood can build from all sides:
- Local Government
- Local Law Enforcement
- Neighbors
- Business Owners
- Civic Groups
The good results are clear – in this photo, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa receives the Key to the City of New York from the mayor.
Read MoreCitizen’s Arrest Workshop
This past weekend we had a workshop on Partner-Based Citizen’s Arrest. We covered:
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- handcuffing basics
- contact & cover
- legal aspects of self defense
- legal aspects of a “citizen’s arrest”
- team take-downs
- subject safety
- and a whole lot of little details
OODA Magic
In the world of military strategy, Colonel Boyd had a brilliant method for teaching a decision-making “loop” used in combat. Boyd taught that we Observe – Orient – Decide – and Act. It’s that order all the time, and if we can keep our adversaries always Observing new problems we give them, we can already be Acting while they’re trying to Decide what to do about it.
Boyd flew fighter jets, and used his ideas there, then in large-scale military strategy planning. We can do that without weapons, one-on-one, too. Here’s how.
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