If you’ve ever felt the hairs on the back of your neck rise, a gut feeling about a situation that just wasn’t right or actually had your home buglarized, you might want to sign up for a “Refuse to be a Victim” class.
The class, taught by spirited instructor Monica Cowles of Northwest School of Safety, is cholked full of safety tips, encourages you to listen to your intuition and provides great hints about preparations you can make to diminsh the threat of becoming a victim. The four-hour morning course also aids in helping you make a plan in case the worst does happen and how you should deal with it.
Of the seven students who sat at tables strewn with chocolate candies and a packet of safety information, six were women. Many of the students had been a victim of crime. Students recounted storis of stolen passports, bikes, cars and jewelry. The students were lead through different aspects of crime prevention and personal safety, including the psychology of criminal predators, common characteristics of criminals, preparedness, home security, lighting, deterrents, and financial, auto, travel and technological security.
“Refuse to be a Victim” is a national program by the National Rifle Association that started in 1993 as a women’s safety course, but four years later it was adapted to include men in the class, Cowles explained.
Cowles, who also teaches a Women’s Firearm Safety Course, is passionate about safety and is very well-informed about choices we can make to keep ourselves and our families safe in an uncertain world.
“I’m not paranoid, I’m prepared,” explained Mike Schmidt who, along with his wife Nettie, attended the personal safety class. At his home in Hoquiam, the septuagenarian has taken steps to protect his property, including motion detecting lights. He also realizes there is a balance. “I’m not going to put bars on every window and a Gatling gun in the living room,” said Schmidt.
Cowles and her students offered tips, such as clipping your purse with a carabiner to your shopping cart to make theft inconvenient for perpetrators.
“We need to make ourselves a (difficult) target,” Cowles said. “Criminals are opportunists.”
Like a predator in the wild, predators in communities tend to take advantage of the weak, the injured or those who are simply not paying attention, said Cowles. “We don’t want to look like prey to predators,” she said.
She also asserted that 90 percent of crime is committed by people we know which, she said, dispels the “myth of the bad guy” lurking in the shadows. In preparing for violence involving a person you know, Cowles says to listen to your instinct. Pay attention to red flags, she said, if the hair stands up on the back of your neck, pay attention. “It’s our instinct that knows,” she said.
When you do find yourself in a compromised situation, she said, use whatever means necessary to keep yourself safe including voice, fingers, fingernails, elbows, knees, feet and keys. “We have to be ready to explode,” she said, citing that you need to balance the pros and cons of an attack. She suggests that perhaps handing over $20 in your wallet is worth escaping the clutches of a perpetrator, yet entering the car of a perpetrator so he won’t hurt you, is not in your best interests and warned that “second crime scenes are never pleasant.”
“Don’t stand for it,” she says while explaining that criminals view niceness as weakness. Again pay attention to your red flags. Some places, such as grocery stores and the local hospitals, she said, will provide an escort to your vehicle if you feel unsafe at night walking to your car.
Being prepared is part of the solution. One student in the class suggested practicing scenarios in your mind like an athlete to be ready in case something happens.
She said she realizes we can’t live in a cocoon and that we need to balance our fears with our safety.
Cowles warns against allowing strangers into your home, even if they say they are in need. She suggests that if a person comes to your door needing to call 911, that you make the call for them.
She also said it can be tricky knowing how to react when one feels vulnerable. We need to be responsible for our own safety, she said, but if we misjudge and over-react, we’re responsible for our own actions, and that can mean ramifications, she said, “All of life is about choices.” And if you make the wrong choice in a heated situation, you are responsible for your actions.
In addition to keeping your house secure, she suggests replacing all chained locks with bar locks and or keyless locks and making sure that doors leading to the outside are proper exterior doors. The goal, she said, is to delay or deter the crime and not make it easy for the criminal. She warns against keeping your garage door open for long periods of time and using the obvious places for your hide-a-key.
She suggests keeping your property well lit because that deters crime and keeping the bushes around your house well-trimmed so that perpetrators cannot hide in them. If you do want bushes, she suggests barberries or rose bushes that make hiding uncomfortable.
She said the single most important thing one can do to keep safe from criminals while in your car is to lock the door. And don’t make your car a target. Remove everything from your car.
If you do get pulled over by a police officer and you feel vulnerable, she says to ask the officer to call for a second police officer.
Cowles also teaches a Womens Firearm Safety Course as well as the Refuse to be a Victim class. The Women’s Firearm Safety Course will be held this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call Cowles at 360-532-2132 for more information or to sign up. You may also register on her website at northwestschoolofsafety.com Cost for firearm safety is $115 and cost for Refuse to be a Victim is $30.
If you are interested in current crime in your neighborhood, click http://ift.tt/1ENaUfr. The website marks assault, breaking and entering, theft, registered sex offender addresses, robbery and sexual assault incidents in the surrounding areas.
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