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On the front page of today’s San Francisco Chronicle is an article about how on a first date at Noe’s Bar in San Francisco, Joseph Szlamnik slipped a date rape drug in his date’s beer while she went to the restroom. The white powder was later identfied as zalepron, a prescription sleeping drug sold as Sonata.

An observant waitress and a bartender’s quick thinking averted a potential rape. Karri Cormican, the waitress, swapped out the drugged beer with another, on the guise that the beer was bad.

As the waitress talked to the woman, Tatiana K., outside the bar about what happened, Szlamnik dropped 2 pills into the new beer, which the bartender, Hannah Bridgeman-Oxley, saw, incredulously. The pills were later identified as alprazolam, commonly sold as Xanax, a central nervous system depressant prescribed to relieve anxiety.

Police took the 2 beers as evidence, and last week Szlamnik was sentenced to one year in prison.

The lesson here? Never leave your drink unattended. Date rape drugs are used to make victims unable to refuse sex, with no recollection of the sexual assault. The drugs are virtually undetectable and leave the body quickly. Read this article to learn more about date rape drugs, avoidance strategies, detecting whether you’ve been drugged and raped, and what to do if you think you’ve been a victim.

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A press release was issued by the Mountain View, CA police department warning about recent residential burglaries where suspects pose as utility or water department employees. These burglaries are similar to more than 30 incidents throughout the Peninsula and South Bay in Northern California.

Their modus operandi from the press release:

In most cases, two male suspects arrive at the front door of the residence and indicate that they work for the “water department” and are investigating a problem with the water service. The suspects enter the victim’s home and ask the victim to go outside to turn on a hose for flushing of the system. While the one suspect distracts the resident, the other suspect removes cash or other personal property from the residence. After the suspects depart, the victim uncovers the theft.

What’s insidious about this ruse is that it happens under the victim’s nose. Thankfully no violence is involved.

The police department offered the following safety tips to residents:

• Do not open your door to strangers - always talk through the door and view them through your peep hole.
• Create the illusion that you are not home alone - when answering the door make comments that would lead someone to believe there is someone else in the house.
• Verify the person is who they say they are. This can be through a combination of tests including: city/utility ID card, identifiable clothing, presence of a vehicle with identifying marks.
• If in doubt, call the utility the person claims to be from.
• If the person leaves without explanation call your local police department immediately.
• If the person leaves without explanation pay attention to what the person looked like and any vehicle descriptions.
• Report suspicious happenings to the Police Department.

Children especially should also be taught to never open or answer doors to strangers, even if they appear to be authorities, such as law enforcement, or need emergency help, such as using the phone to call 911.

Even I don’t open the door to strangers when anyone knocks on the door. Not even for children or women, as you never know if an accomplice is out of range of sight of the peep hole. I talk through the door.

Add this ruse and scam to your list to be aware of.

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So the Fort Worth, Texas school district that was training teachers and students to fight back against classroom intruders has backed down. In a “clarification” of their defense policy, students and teachers can throw objects at an armed intruder, but not to rush and physically attack him.

Greg Crane, the criminal-justice teacher at Burleson High School, co-owner of Response Options who developed who developed the defense program, and former police officer, has been reassigned from classroom teaching to working at home.

Looks like what has happened is that the school district is reacting to the outcry from poorly-informed citizens. And 2 weeks before voters decide on a $259 million bond package to build and renovate schools as well as enhance security.

Aubrey Turner has an excellent blog post on what happened.

Watch the news segment from the local news station Fox 4.

And a follow up news article from Star-Telegram.com about the policy “clarification” (registration may be required to access).

While I thought the strategy of rushing and attacking an armed intruder was controversial, it definitely had some merit. Why not have children learn to defend themselves? Resist and make it difficult for the the assailant to cause harm.

Technorati Tags: texas, fort worth, fortworth, burleson, greg crane, gregcrane, school, school shooting, schoolshooting, school massacre, schoolmassacre, fight back, fightback, children fighting, childrenfighting, self defense, selfdefense, self-defense, personal protection, personalprotection, self defense resource, selfdefenseresource, safety, security

Halloween is just a week away. Several communities across the United States are implementing different programs to protect trick-or-treaters from sex offenders.

Some states have a curfew for sex offenders, requiring them indoors during prime trick-or-treating hours. In addition, there are rules that they must keep their outside lights off, and can’t answer the door or give out candy. Parole officers will drive by homes and perform spot checks to make sure no one is breaking the curfew.

Gaston County, North Carolina police announced a program that forces all sex offenders on probation to go to the Gaston County courthouse on Halloween night between 6 and 9 p.m. Sex offenders who don’t show up will be arrested. Police officers will even go to the sex offenders’ house and pick them up if needed.

In this article on About.com, such efforts really don’t make much difference, as the vast majority of sex offenders remain at large, undiscovered and unmonitored. Budget cuts have dramatically reduced education and enforcement efforts.

What can you do? Check your state or local sex offender registry to see who is in your neighborhood, and ensure your children don’t visit their homes on Halloween.

Make sure your children know the importance of not entering strangers’ homes or cars unattended by their adult escorts. More tips on keeping children safe are in the 39 Easy Halloween Safety Tips for Children and Adults article.

Technorati Tags: halloween, halloween safety, halloweensafety, children, child, kids, abduction, child abuse, childabuse, sexual abuse, sexualabuse, parenting, parents, family, amber alert, amberalert, child molester, childmolester, child molestation, childmolestation, molestation, sex offender, sexoffender

I wrote earlier of what I believe can be done to Escape from School Shootings and Massacres.

Now a Fort Worth, Texas school district is teaching children to rush attackers in the classroom, and use whatever they have on hand to attack intruders. As soon as a gunmen enters a room, throw everything and anything at him, and rush him to bring him down and immobilize him. Lock onto his limbs use your body weight.

The training is provided by Response Options. The company’s founders have experience as law enforcement officers in dealing with real school shootings.

Rather than comply, fight back. This change in mindset could be traced to a couple incidents - such as United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 and the Columbine shootings. The usual advice in a hijacking is to comply so that nobody gets hurt. At Columbine, having students drop to the floor and hide under tables actually gave the gunmen stationary targets to shoot at. In these cases though, complying actually meant certain death.

This approach of teaching children to fight back is stirring controversy. Children may get killed using these tactics. Does a child comply, and have a chance to survive? Or does he go down trying to save himself from certain death?

Read the full article for details and add your comments to this post.

Technorati Tags: school, school shooting, schoolshooting, school massacre, schoolmassacre, fight back, fightback, children fighting, childrenfighting, columbine, united flight 93, unitedflight93, 911, 9-11, self defense, selfdefense, self-defense, personal protection, personalprotection, self defense resource, selfdefenseresource, safety, security

A teenager intentionally crashed a car to escape his gun-wielding kidnapper. The kidnapper forced 19-year old Adrian Vallez back into his new sedan and told him, “If you do what I say, then you will live.”

They drove to 2 ATMs, neither satisfactory to the kidnapper because it required Vallez to leave the vehicle. When the kidnapper asked if he had anything in the trunk, Vallez realized he was probably going to die. Because his captor wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, he decided the best course to escape was to crash his car into another. He chose an area where there were other witnesses, and accelerated to about 40 to 45 miles per hour, and turned into a SUV.

The kidnapper was knocked out and Vallez was able to escape, albeit with injuries. The elderly driver of the SUV was not badly injured.

What I would have done differently is to choose to collide into a stationary object, such as a parked car, telephone pole, or tree. Crashing into another car intentionally is dangerous, because you don’t know if passengers of the other car are buckled, if there are small children inside, or if it would cause further collisions. Not only that, if passengers of the other car(s) were seriously injured, maimed, or killed, he certainly would have been arrested and a lawsuit may be filed against him.

Of course, talking about this situation when I wasn’t in it is different than having a gun to your head and making a split decision on how to react.

Still, smart move on using what was in his environment to defend himself, using everyday objects as weapons. He was willing to give up his property, a new car no less, for his life. And Vallez didn’t believe him when he said he would live if he did what he said.

Read full details of the story and watch the CNN interview.

Technorati Tags: car, car crash, carcrash, escape, kidnapper, cnn, suv, self defense, selfdefense, self-defense, personal protection, personalprotection, martial arts, martialarts, self defense resource, selfdefenseresource, safety, security

The Amish school shooting on Monday, October 2 at the West Mines School in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, points to how senseless and more common these school massacres are.

Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year old milk-tanker driver, was the gunman. He killed five young girls, 7 to 13 years in age, “execution style,” and committed suicide at the scene.

There was no early warning signs that Roberts was going to commit the mass murder. In the U.S., to date there have been 24 school shootings. These shootings can be committed by students or other adults.

What can children, teachers, schools, and parents do to prevent and survive school shootings?

Tactics fall into two categories: prevention and escape.

Prevention

Children should pay attention to the behavior and talk of other students. If anyone discusses murder or killing, or appears despondent, depressed, or suicidal, they should be encouraged to get help from an adult, such as a counselor or teacher. The concerns should also be reported directly to teachers and principal.

Similarly, adults should pay attention to the behavior and talk of other adults in their lives. Encourage them to talk and get counseling.

Schools should have an escape plan, with school shooting escape drills practiced. Having a practiced escape route increases the likelihood that people will react properly in the face of fear. What’s tricky is that if a shooter is a student, he will also know what routes and safe assembly areas the the students will take. Teachers should introduce unpredictability in the drills to prevent an ambush.

If the school does not have an escape plan, teach your children how to create one for themselves. Talk to your child’s teacher. Go to the classroom after class and discuss and identify escape routes with your child. Plan for different rooms such as the classroom, cafeteria, auditorium, library, and gym.

Classroom doors and windows should be closed and locked during class to prevent shooters from entering.

Schools should have a secondary PA system in case the primary one is taken out during a murder spree. Use the PA system to warn students as early as possible.

Escape

If a gunman enters a room, run to exit doors and windows immediately, according to the school shooting escape drills.

If shooting is heard, children should go through the nearest exit and run to safety or hiding place. Easier said than done, because when in a panic, many pass by clearly marked exits. Keep running.

Go to a room with a window, with the objective of escaping through the window. A windowless room is a trap with no possible means of escape. If the window is locked, throw an object, such as a chair or computer, to break it.

The likelihood of getting shot is about 10% according to self-defense expert Jim Wagner. So people have a good chance of escaping without harm, especially if they run in a diagonal or perpendicular path to the line of fire.

Do whatever it takes to escape from the school massacre. Do not cower behind desks, tables, or other objects, because you will be a easy stationary target. Get out of the room. Move, especially when there are pauses for gun reloading or clearing a malfunction.

Focus on the primary objective: escape.

Read more in my recent blog post on Escape Routes and a related article Family Escape Plan.

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