Barry Eisler: Rain Storm aka Choke Point

Another example: personal protection from an overseas kidnapping attempt. As with everything else, this form of protection starts with you thinking like the bad guy. Your objective is to kidnap a foreigner. Not a certain Jim Smith, for example; high-value targets are a separate problem (although, again, subject to the same principles). Just any old foreigner, perhaps in particular an American. Now what do you need to do to carry out your plan?

First, you need to pick a target. This part is easy-any foreigner will do. Next, you need to assess the foreigner’s vulnerability. Where will you be able to grab him, and when? To answer these questions, you need to follow the target around. If he’s punctual, a creature of habit, if he likes to travel the same route to work at the same times of day, you are going to start to feel encouraged.

But what if instead, during the assessment stage, you watch the target go out to his car and carefully check it for improvised explosive devices. Your immediate thought will be: hard target. Security conscious. Too difficult-kidnap someone else . As the potential target, your display of security consciousness becomes the outermost layer of your security.

But suppose the would-be kidnapper wants to assess a bit further. Now he learns that you never travel the same route to work. You never come and go at the same times. He can’t get a fix on your where and when . How is he going to plan a kidnapping now?

Note that, by putting yourself in the opposition’s shoes, you have identified a behavior pattern in which he must engage before carrying out his crime: surveillance. Before you are kidnapped, you will be assessed. Assessment entails surveillance. Now you know what preincident behavior to look for. If you were trying to follow you, how would you go about it? That’s what to look for.

Perhaps the would-be kidnapper will discover choke points-a certain bridge, for example-that you have to cross every day on your way to the office. This would be a good place for him to try to lay an ambush. But, because you know this, too, you will be unusually alert as you approach potential choke points. As he watches your “choke point” behavior, he realizes again that you are security conscious, and thus a poor target. Again, deterrence. If he is rash and acts at this point anyway, the possible inner layers of your security-locked and armored vehicles; defensive driving tactics; presence of a bodyguard; access to a firearm; again, most of all, preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for danger and possible violence-all have time to come into play.

Other examples: If you needed fast cash, where would you look to rob someone? Maybe on the victim’s way from an ATM? If so, what kind of ATM would you pick? Where would you wait? What about if you wanted to steal a car? Assuming you’re not a pro who can pick locks and hotwire ignitions, where would you go? Maybe outside a video store, or a dry cleaner, somewhere people leave the keys in the ignition because they’ll “only be gone for a minute”? Now, armed with a better understanding of the criminal’s goals and tactics, how should you behave to better protect yourself?

One common element you might see in all of this is the vital need for alertness, for situational awareness. Understanding where threats are likely to come from and how they are likely to materialize will help you properly tune your alertness. If you are not properly alert to a threat, you almost certainly will be unable to defend yourself against it when it materializes.

Notice that so far the discussion has been devoid of any mention of martial arts. This is because martial arts, self-defense, fighting, and combat, while related subjects, are not identical. The relationship and differences between these areas is outside the scope of this article; for more, check the suggestions for further reading below, especially http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com. For now, suffice to say that martial arts can be thought of as an inner layer of self-defense. If you are called upon to use your martial arts moves, then almost certainly some outer layer of your security has been breached and you are in a worse position than you would have been had the outer layers held fast.

To put it another way:

Thinking like the opposition; taking threats seriously and not being in denial about their existence; and maintaining proper situational awareness, is infinitely more cost effective for self-defense than is training in martial arts.

Note that I have been doing martial arts of one kind or another since I was a teenager. I love the martial arts for many reasons. I do not dispute and am not discussing their value , but rather am emphasizing their cost effectiveness in achieving a given objective-here, effective personal protection. No matter what his martial arts skills, the person who recognizes in advance and can therefore steer clear of an ambush has a much better chance of surviving it than does the person who wanders into the ambush and then has to fight his way out.

John Rain and his author are particularly indebted for much of what appears in this article to the wisdom and experience of Marc Mac Young and http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com. There is much, much more to this subject; this article is only a start. To learn more, I suggest: Gavin DeBecker, The Gift of Fear , http://www.gdbinc.com/home.cfm; Marc Mac Young, Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons , http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com; Peyton Quinn, A Bouncer’s Guide to Barroom Brawling .

If you’re interested in going deeper on the mechanics and psychology of violence, then: Tony Blauer’s tapes and courses, http://www.tonyblauer.com; Alain Burrese, Hard Won Wisdom from the School of Hard Knocks, available through http://www.burrese.com; Loren Christensen’s books and videos, available through http://www.lwcbooks.com; Marc MacYoung’s books and videos, available through http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com; Peyton Quinn, Real Fighting http: //www.rmcat.com.

If you want to go beyond self-defense and into the realm of combat and killing, then: Dave Grossman, On Killing and On Combat http://www.killology.com.

Barry Eisler’s thrillers, featuring the half-Japanese, half-American freelance assassin John Rain, have been included in numerous “Best Of” lists, including Publishers Weeklys Best Books of 2002 and Amazon.com’s Editors Picks of 2003; have been translated into over a dozen languages; and have been optioned for film by Barrie Osborne, Oscar-winning producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The fourth book in the series, Killing Rain , will be published in July 2005. http: www.barryeisler.com.

[Originally published in issue 4 ofCrimespree Magazine,

http: //www.crimespreemag.com.]