And we’ve heard how many stories over the years about crooks that tuck tail and run at the first sign of effective resistance from their victims?
The video goes into this, with the important term being, "effective resistance". Someone who looks like they know what they're doing, and is going to be more trouble than they're worth, versus running into say, the wife from the St Louis couple holding her gun out like an accessory. No offense to her for wanting to protect herself, but she looked like someone who might fumble if rushed at close range. The crooks said that if they ran into a tough (or tough looking without being aggressive) hombre, they would quit.
It also goes into attitude. Another thing they said is avoiding someone who "looks military", which could mean a lot of things. Between my size, how I dress, etc., I look a bit military/copish. My modis operandi is first, avoiding problem areas, but if somehow I failed at that, I go into "leave me alone" mode and take a bearing that is neither scared victim nor "just try it ahole". I don't look away and I don't stare down. More of, "I see you. Do you see me?" if that makes sense. Also keeping or making distance if I'm walking as long as it doesn't look like I'm "retreating".
Though I have yet to run into this in Idaho, where I'm always armed. I certainly ran into it in CA far too much. Most often because work meetings were sometimes in a bad-ish part of a city, like LA/LB harbor area. Of course then I always looked "military" in the gov blue polo/tac pants/tac boots attire and was often accompanied by military (or at least Coast Guard
) in uniform if we were going out to lunch or dinner, so we were probably a "not worth the trouble" group.
