How well fine-tuned or keen is your situational awareness?

I am a big chicken with a very well-tuned situational awareness radar. I do not tempt the fates by going out into a dangerous situation without the tools (or clothes) to protect myself. I firmly believe there is a time and place for everything and wearing blue in Blood territory, or a deep cleavage and miniskirt into a meat market dance club is not it.

Theoretically, I do believe we have the right to wear what we want, when we want and do what we want where we want, but I also know gangbangers, muggers and predators are not interested in theory. There’s a big difference between theory and reason.

I might have my rights, but I know not everyone will respect my rights and need to be ready for that. If I expect people to always respect my rights, I’ll be sorely disappointed and will lose that leather jacket and Tiffany bracelet at 2 AM while walking around Coney Island. That’s an extreme situation, but it applies to even more subtle situations like—at work, I know people are not going to be respectful of my boundaries, so I have a choice of being proactive and protecting myself, or watching the inevitable happen.

Where I live, the worst crime I have seen in the 10 years I have been here is someone leaving a 10% tip. That said, I grew up in Chicago and knew very intimately the gang mentality and trouble that followed in their wake. Plus 6 years of Martial Arts continues to serve me very well as my Spidey sense for when I find my way back into situations that could present moments of ill will. I also know how to not make myself an easy target.

I know not to play Depeche Mode on the jukebox when the bar is full of cowboy hats.

When it comes to street danger, I am very aware. The other day I was sitting on a bench with a girl when some guys walking past stopped to ask me if I had a spare cigarette, before he had finished asking me, I had already decided how and in what order I was going to hopitalize them if they tried anything stupid, I had already anticipated where the attack would come, and was ready to block and counter attack before they where anywhere near me. I don’t go around thinking I’m superman, but I am a big guy and they were only some scrawny teenagers. I used to do a lot of martial arts, I used to hang around with shifty people, and I know me some big bad mofos.

However, my situational awareness is only any good with violence. If I am walking around a dangerous construction site, I could be in all kinds of danger and I would be totally oblivious to it. There could be a great big heavy something or the other about to fall on me, back in to me, land on me, run over me, or whatever, and I would probably not notice.

I try not to put myself in dangerous situations.
Having said that,there were some times where I had to drive to a police station because of being followed in my car,hiding in bushes during my walks and just flat out sprints because of a situation I was in. When I go for walks now,if my husband isn’t with me (he is a big guy) I take my German Shepherd.She does a good job.
Last winter though,I was out in the middle of nowhere,by myself,when a man on a snowmobile passed by very slowly.When I came back the other way,he was on the side of the path and tried to talk to me as I passed.He had a strange look on his face like he was sizing me up.That got my attention.It also had me thinking about concealed handgun permits.

I think I have pretty good street smarts if that’s what you are asking. I am small and a woman and have rarely been in danger except for unwarranted attention when I was a younger woman. Around family, it was a different story!

I’m only to aware that when the kids are out & i’m typing naked at the computer, my twitching penis can sometimes stray, leading to the occasional tYPo :¬)

Mine is totally off kilter. I looked up from my iphone while my husband was driving. and said, “where are you going? I could have sworn we were going east when we were going south. I am oblivious most of the time.
My husband on the other hand is great. He is always aware of his surroundings.
He is a pilot and doesn’t have to “study” the map to realize what is where. he can also translate what he sees from the sky to what he sees when he’s driving around really well too. I am constantly saying, “what’s that?” and he instantly can say, That’s ABC shopping center, or that’s the hospital. I don’t know how he does it.
He had a friend who was a retired air force Colonel who said that his situational awareness is sought after in fighter pilots.
After reading the details of your question, that’s probably not the kind of situational awareness you were talking about, but the same is true of him when it comes to awareness here on earth. While I am oblivious to whats going on around me, be can see all sorts of things going on. I would have missed a lot if I had not been married to him the last 20 years. (If I would have survived since I have a way of trusting everyone and he has kept me from walking into a few bad situations. )

While I am a fairly aware and observant person I simply don’t think, look for, potential negative situations. I am highly intuitive though, so, if I picked up a vibe of danger I’d pay attention. However, I must say that because I have not lived in a large city for the last 20 years I am not in red alert mode at all.

I live on 5 acres in a rural mountain summer tourist community with virtually no crime.

I do not lock my house, car, and sleep with the doors and windows open all night.

I have talked about my lifestyle before and have said I have not even seen my house keys in 5 years, not sure where they are. haha

I’d be a fish out of water if I ever had to live in a big city again, my mind is not programmed for constant paranoia.

Out here about the worst things that happen are kids running over your mailbox, escaped livestock in the road and kids tossing pumpkins off the bridge over our river. haha

It’s a great product of anxiety. I am hyper-vigilant..

I’m pretty aware, in general, although I feel that the level to which you can actually correctly and reliably read your environment is extremely dependent on your knowledge of, and experience with local culture.

I travel a lot and realize that in many places i am very poorly equipped to judge a situation the right way. My experience, though, is that with sense you can be safe in many, if not most places.
Some places require more sense.

There’s one situation not mentioned here—online. I am very aware of scams and strange emails- I always call my company rather than go through email links to fill out forms and have caught more than enough scams doing this. I just got one of those “send me a money order” crap from Craigslist this morning. One tiny “Nigerian style second language error” and I delete.

My take is to do what I need to do, why exercising wisdom and caution. I won’t let refrain from taking a night class, for instance, but I will be careful and extremely aware of anyone around me while walking back to my car at night…

I refuse to be dominated by fear…but I’m not going to act foolishly in the process…

Am I aware of my surroundings? Do I know what to do/wear or not?
I live in the #1 most dangerous city in the world.

What do you think?

@Porifera

Wow! But..Thailand is also an amazingly beautiful country..some happy buffalo in those poppy fields. lol :-)

@Coloma Hmmm I think you saw the list upside down, Bangkok, Thailand is actually #10. My city is #1 (at the bottom of the page, the MOST dangerous) and we don’t have buffalo or poppy fields…

@Porifera

Aaah, Caracas
Well…then you can be ONE of the ones that makes it less so.
;-)

@Coloma I know what you mean. But it isn’t funny at all. I don’t joke with that, nor can I see the bright side of it simply cause there isn’t one.