Cautionary tale + good advice

Bill Mattocks

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http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakpark/news/2641736,oak-park-beating-082610-s1.article

The victim, a retired teacher who lives on the 800 block of North Humphrey Avenue, is fitness buff who lifts weights and rides his bike 100 miles a week. He was out walking his dog on the 1100 block of Fair Oaks at 8:45 p.m. when a teenager ran up behind him and grabbed his arm.
“It had just turned dark,” his wife said. “It wasn't like it was 2 in the morning.”
The man fought back, “flipping” one of his assailants. Though physically fit, he could not ward off the multiple attacks. The other four thugs rained kicks and punches at his face, head and upper body, and someone hit him with a hard blunt object.
“My husband's a pretty strong guy, but no one can fight off five people,” she said. “They continued to just kick him and kick him.”

Here's the good advice part:

“We have to become more aware,” she said. “We've become too complacent in Oak Park.” She said that, to a large degree the village is a safe community, “but there are people out there.”
She noted that her husband was on his cell phone and that he had seen the thug who first grabbed him, earlier as they passed, and was suspicious at the time. She said she sees other people all the time who are oblivious to their surroundings. Cell and iPods, she said, are the biggest distraction.
“I've been next to people with iPods in their ears so loud I can hear the music,” she said. She also said people can do things to avoid attracting attention from street thugs.
She noted that her husband almost always wear “scaggily” clothing when he walks their dog — torn jeans and a T-shirt and old ball cap. Sunday, though, he never took off his church clothes, expensive gabardine slacks and a good shirt.
“They probably thought he had money,” she surmised. She said people should take as little with them as possible when walking a dog, basically just a house key.
Don't wear anything like a purse or fanny pack,” she added. “Those are snatch and grab (targets).
“You don't need money. You don't need your cell phone,” she said. “I thank God he didn't have a house key and IDs on him. They could have come back and robbed our home.”
 

Gaius Julius Caesar

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All good points especially the part about Ipods and having one's head in the clouds when out in about. She also makes my point that even in nice places bad things can go down.

So I agree and I disagree, you have to balance these things with "I like nice cloths." I should be able to walk in my neigborhood at any time."
" I really like this ring and it means alot to me." and "I am not going to let the potential appearence of subhumans dictate my life by denying myself my rights and things I like."

It's a personal choice.
On one end I never use headphones outside my property.
I do not buy flashy jewlry for my lady, not just because it puts a target on her but I have other issues (Like what people go through for damn diamonds.)
I do keep myself in yellow out side and near red if I see things that are not right but I am not a robot, I know I can drop my guard.

On the other end, I sometimes take late night walks, I always have, even when I was a teen in lived in a rough area. I was not going to let scumbags deny me my right BUT I also knew I was walking a fine line and I had a higher chance of trouble and it did find me a few times.

I made it through it sometimes with taking a hard stand and not backing down, sometimes talking my way out, sometimes by counter violence , one time by escape and evasion. (Run like hell hide like a fox and hope they dont find and shot you.)

Where I live now, the chances for trouble are not high but there is a still a chance.

2 nights ago I could not sleep, so I took a walk. I do this alotand I take my wallet and ID (Because Cops here get pissed when you dont have one at 2am, no mater what the anti Arizona ALien law types say, we all get asked for ID and why we are out and where we came from.) and I also had a small flashlighrt, a knife and a 1911 in open carry.

Some cops dont like this but most know it's an open carry state.


Does not make me superman or Rambo but at least it presents a level of readyness and potential abiltiy to be fatal to a wuld be preditor and allows me to have a small measure of peice as I walk around , clear my head andf can go home and get to sleep.

So I am not poo pooing her at all, just pointing out the catch 22 of being safe versus being prepared. I'd rather have a personal capacity to meet violence with superior violence through training and weappns than let subhumans determin my movements.
 

derobec

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Because Cops here get pissed when you dont have one at 2am, no mater what the anti Arizona ALien law types say, we all get asked for ID and why we are out and where we came from

Aint that just the truth. But as we always say here in the UK "it's a free country"...

Best,
William
 

Ken Morgan

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but I have other issues (Like what people go through for damn diamonds.)

Actually Australia and Canada also have become large producers of diamonds too. Up here you can specifically request Canadian diamonds if you have an issue.

In the OP they mention not carrying a cell phone with you. To me that would be an essential, have 911 programmed into its speed dial, and not be afraid to hit the button if you feel threatened.
 

Gaius Julius Caesar

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I figure it's better to have the ID (and the gun and knife) and not need it than to need iot and not have it.

In the day time I walk around near home unarmed and many times without ID but at night and especially when I am armed I'm not trying to make the Cop's night any harder than it allready is.

No ID at night then he can run be down to the station.

No ID and a 45 claiber pistol and a knife, he will run me to the station.

Have ID and I can indeed let him know that it's a free country and I dont care about his opinion on me being armed at night. Respectfully of coarse.

(around here most would be jealous of the fact that no one makes me carry a gun with a 9# pig trigger. 5.5#s for my Glock, 3.5 for my 1911.)
 

Gaius Julius Caesar

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Actually Australia and Canada also have become large producers of diamonds too. Up here you can specifically request Canadian diamonds if you have an issue.

SHHH, I dont want her to know that. =)

In the OP they mention not carrying a cell phone with you. To me that would be an essential, have 911 programmed into its speed dial, and not be afraid to hit the button if you feel threatened.

I overlocked her point on cell phones, that one is frankly stupid.

As much as I cant stand the thing sometimes, it gives you another safety tool to summon police or other emergency services. I dont advocate using a cell as a weapon because i want it functional when the smoke clears.
 

Flea

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I find it interesting that someone so close in time and relationship to a violence attack would immediately turn around and use it as an opportunity to educate others. I think most people would simply Be Traumatized at that point. Good for her.

I learned the hard way not to talk on a cell phone out on the streets. I still carry one because sometimes I've had to call 911 on someone else's behalf. Otherwise it's just keys, scooper bags for Fido, and usually my stun gun. I'll usually also wear something practical in terms of SD, like boots and loose pants. Now that I'm in my rural hippie town the stun gun has gone by the wayside until I see evidence that I still need it. In the meantime, I do believe that a baggie of Fido lovin' is a legitimate biological weapon.
 
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Bill Mattocks

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I think *having* a cell phone is wise. Walking around talking on it falls under the same category as having one's head in the clouds with a Walkman type device plugged into one's skull.

I don't understand what would be so important that one needed to talk to someone on the phone at oh-dark-thirty anyway. I have a cell phone, if it rings I answer it (maybe), but I seldom make calls. There's no one I really want to talk to, if it's important I'll send them an email. I don't even have a home phone; I can find no use for talking to people on the phone.

But frankly, that's another rant for another day.
 

Tez3

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I agree with Ken on the diamonds point, there's good companies who don't trade in blood diamonds.

I think the point about the mobile phones may be not to walk along the road using one rather than not carry one discreetly. Some people are mugged for their phones others are mugged because they are distracted using them and aren't taking notice of their surroundings.


It's amazing how many people constantly think of the police as their enemies! If your house is broken into in the middle of the night and later it comes out that the police saw someone walking around the street just before you were burgled and didn't stop to check you'd be up in arms yet when you want to walk around in the middle of the night and the police check it's an outrage.
 

ATC

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Good stuff.

Wonder what kind of dog he was walking. If not one of the little hamster sized dogs, the dog should have helped out.

Also when I walk the dog I always carry a walking stick of some kind. This way I have something to ward off stray dogs with and now would be attakers as well.
 

Flea

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Nah, it's the size of the fight in the dog. I have a chow mix and in the presence of a threat he barks hysterically from behind me. I've seen many "bully breed" dogs that were very buddhist in personality. I also once met a 2 month old Dachsund that terrorized an adult German Shepherd from its owners arms. That's a dog I'd rather walk in a bad neighborhood.

None of which is a substitute for basic awareness. A dog, after all, can be just as clueless while it's absorbed in sniffing and whizzing.
 

Carol

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Don't states other than mine permit printing a non-residential address on one's driver's license? I can have a separate mailing address (ie: a Post Office box) on my license as long as I took the appropriate steps to prove residency and had my residential address on file at the DMV.

If the main concern is keeping the bad guys from getting your address - whether the bad guys are street thugs or ID theives - that seems to be one option.

Not sure how the LEOs feel about that option when stopping someone but I would think the residential address would show in the computer, would it not?
 

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Good stuff.

Wonder what kind of dog he was walking. If not one of the little hamster sized dogs, the dog should have helped out.

Also when I walk the dog I always carry a walking stick of some kind. This way I have something to ward off stray dogs with and now would be attakers as well.
I was thinking the same thing. I would easily back my german shepherd to take out at least 3 attackers, that leaves me two. Dogs will fight till they die and will continue to fight when in massive pain and they are very unpreictable and fast. If I walk alone at night I always take 2 of my dogs with me.
 

ATC

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I was thinking the same thing. I would easily back my german shepherd to take out at least 3 attackers, that leaves me two. Dogs will fight till they die and will continue to fight when in massive pain and they are very unpreictable and fast. If I walk alone at night I always take 2 of my dogs with me.
Yep. My favorite dog was my German/Belgian Shepherd mix. That dog would rip apart anyone that even looked like they were going to touch anyone in the family. Had a few friends that got bit just goofing off with me. Not to mention the 2 dogs he sent off yelping. Too bad I had to give him up. I miss that dog.
 

ralphmcpherson

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Yep. My favorite dog was my German/Belgian Shepherd mix. That dog would rip apart anyone that even looked like they were going to touch anyone in the family. Had a few friends that got bit just goofing off with me. Not to mention the 2 dogs he sent off yelping. Too bad I had to give him up. I miss that dog.
I love german/belgian shepherd crosses, Ive seen a few of them and they make a great personal bodyguard. Any dogs that were bread specifically for protection such as these breeds make great protectors of the family. I feel very safe walking with my big shepherd.
 

seasoned

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Our dog handlers have always had German Shepherds but are moving onto Belgian Shepherds, Thought you'd like the pics here of the new ones!
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/PeopleInDefence/ThePoliceDogsOfTheFuture.htm

Cute, I want one! (To take home not work)
"The Belgian Shepherd Dog is a medium-to-large size dog. All varieties share a similar underlying musculoskeletal structure, closely resembling the popular German Shepherd breed save for the hindlegs. All variants also share a close cranial features, having a domed forehead, a long, square-cut muzzle and black noses with their ears pointed and fully erect. One of the identifying characteristics of the breed is that it is square, with its height from the ground to top of the withers being equal to its length"
Cute puppies for sure.....
 

Gaius Julius Caesar

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I agree with Ken on the diamonds point, there's good companies who don't trade in blood diamonds.

I think the point about the mobile phones may be not to walk along the road using one rather than not carry one discreetly. Some people are mugged for their phones others are mugged because they are distracted using them and aren't taking notice of their surroundings.


It's amazing how many people constantly think of the police as their enemies! If your house is broken into in the middle of the night and later it comes out that the police saw someone walking around the street just before you were burgled and didn't stop to check you'd be up in arms yet when you want to walk around in the middle of the night and the police check it's an outrage.

If stoped and checked by the police while walking around at night, I have no problem as long as he is curtious, polite and knows the law. He can run my name, I dont care.

If he decides to try to lecture me about not needing a weapon, yadda yadda he can STFU and remember he works for US and my 2nd Amendment right and my God giving right as a free man to protect myself and others in my care trumps his opinion.

The former has happend way more than the later, most Cops are just doing their job and do them fairly well with what they have to work with in terms of complicated laws, training and the support (or lack there of) they recieve from their own departments and the rest of us.
 

xJOHNx

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Our dog handlers have always had German Shepherds but are moving onto Belgian Shepherds, Thought you'd like the pics here of the new ones!
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/PeopleInDefence/ThePoliceDogsOfTheFuture.htm

Cute, I want one! (To take home not work)
I used to own one. Very easy to train and very active dogs.

Now I have a AmStaff, crossbreeded by some idiot with a rottie. When I got her out of the shelter they gave me two weeks before I would return her.
After loads of training and tutoring she's finally becoming a normal dog (her previous boss wanted a fighting dog, but couldn't handle her).

But when I walk her, no-one comes near.
 

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