5 important Street Survival Lessons

During a verbal altercations, stay out of range. This is particularly important when interacting with strangers during arguments and discussions. Think car accidents, altercations with neighbours, etc.
This happened in Argentina just a few days ago. The fat guy hitting the victim is a “trapito”, these are gangs of semi-legal criminals that charge you a fee, sometimes pretty high, for parking in public, no charge areas. The victim suffered a fractured jaw, hit his head when he fell and is still in critical condition.
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Notice a few things.
1)The victim is a pretty big guy. Taller, muscular and more fit than his attacker. Given that he continued the interaction rather than just getting in his car may indicate that he’s used to having the upper hand during arguments. This takes us to the main lesson, which is never to engage in a fight unless you have to. Insults, verbal taunts and gesturing means nothing. If you get into your car and just leave you won the fight. Lesson#1: The best outcome is avoiding the fight in the first place.
2)The attack is clearly overweight, and seems shorter than the victim, but none of that matters. Check out the speed. Turns out he’s got a black belt in karate. He’s very fast for his size and knew exactly the mistake the victim made by stepping too close Lesson#2: Never underestimate your opponent, big or small, fat or skinny. A bullet in your head or blade through the ribs kills you just as well.
3)A concealed carry firearm or knife or OC spray would have made no difference in this case. It’s not all about the weapon you carry, or even how good you are at shooting it. Its about fighting and being smart about it. Lesson#3: Gun fight, knife fight, fist fight. Fight is the key word. The verb is what matters, not so much the noun.
4)Keep out of punching/grabbing range. Distance gives you time to react, deploy weapons, get behind cover or simply run. Big, strong, being armed, even being a trained fighter, none of that matter if you get KO. Lesson #4: Keep your distance.
5)Lesson #5: Bring your hands up during a discussion. This is essential to avoid getting sucker punched and would stop 95% of the sucker punches you see in videos of attacks. Rarely will you see a perfect straight punch, let alone one with enough power to KO. Its rare enough in pro boxing and UFC, even more so in a street fights. A boxer stance may seem intimidating and probably escalate the level of violence. The boxer stance is what you do when you’re in the fight, not when trying to avoid it. It is usually recommended to bring the hands up to face level, palms forward in a “wow, calm down dude” attitude. This isn’t bad, a) it brings your hands up, face level in front of your which is what you want b) it is a stance more likely to deescalate the level of violence. c) It is instinctively perceived as conciliatory body language “Look, I’m unarmed, look, I mean you no harm”. In my experience it is very likely to deescalate the violence unless the attacker already made up his mind about attack you no matter what. The problem with this stance is that if this is the case, it leaves the underside of your wrists exposed. A sudden knife attack would damage your Radial and Ulnar artery as well as tendons, disabling the use of your hand and causing life threatening bleeding. You don’t want that. I suggest the “old lady stance”. Hands up but palms facing towards you. Imagine and old lady pleading with her grandsons “Boys, can you please stop fighting!”. Either that or the “lying fisherman” stance, perpendicular palms facing one another. It doesn’t protect your wrists as much but may seem more natural and would be faster for striking or grappling.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.