How Not to Get Mugged in College Part Two; Exploiting Your Situation

Physical prowess or fighting ability may save your life in the worst of situations, but speed, planning and cunning will help you to avoid a life or death situation altogether. This second section of How Not to Get Mugged in College or Anywhere Else, will focus on planning and preparing to keep yourself safe in any situation.

Exploiting your situation means knowing your surroundings, and hopefully, knowing them better than your attacker. If you have read part one, available under my CP page, you will already know that my first suggestion is to avoid everyone and never put yourself in a position to be attacked. Unfortunately, this theory of mine, based on my first mugging experience, ran into a fatal flaw. I live in a large city, and there are some situations where I get crammed closer to other people than I like. I had to form an addendum to my theory, which would be delivered to me shortly.

I didn't expect to be mugged at three thirty in the afternoon, and I especially didn't expect it to happen on a city bus. There is a sense of absolute safety that goes with being in public, and for the most part, this assumption is correct. Unfortunately, there are individuals in the world who do not abide by this unwritten rule. Perhaps they believe that they are exempt from being caught, somehow invincible, or perhaps they believe that their intimidation tactics will silence their victim and allow them to proceed without a vocal disturbance.

These ideas are based on the behavior of my brazen, dim-witted bus mugger. It was winter in Cleveland, so coats and covered faces were not uncommon, but on the overheated bus, the man with his hood snapped over his mouth seemed odd. Also he was looking at me way too often. If you have this paranoid perceptive ability, you should trust it. It does sometimes turn out to be true.