I liked that article you linked. When beset by a mob, make an attempt to distract and personalize-in a friendly way. The example they give is asking for the time. I might ask for a cigarette even if I don’t smoke. A distracting tactic might be to suddenly look off into one direction and say: “Woah, is that a [fire, cop car, ambulance, hot chick].”
This takes energy away from the mob, defocuses it, humanizes you to them.
However, you don’t want to get into any sort of interaction with them, a conversation can turn against you. Your goal is to walk away calmly.
BTW, I meant to type “Watch the Dog Whisperer”.
Nearly all the advice Cesar about dogs gives is applicable to human mobs and gangs. Except that one thing: the pack leader. Mobs don’t have a strong pack leader.
My best lessons in that regard, the dynamics of young teen groups attacking passers by, I learned in watching jays and crows take on hawks and owls. They have no leader, but they do coordinate to harass. I observed the same “dance” in watching the videos of the DC Metro attacks, and also ones I’ve seen in person.
Fascinating — and thank you. Your advice could save my or my loved one’s life one day.
long, long ago I heard that “want a cigarette” was a
standard police inquiry, e.g. to someone sitting down
in some odd location, bc it was non-escalatory [That’s
not the right word, it was something else] I assume NYPD
can’t ask that any more.
That’s generally good for mobs, but this is a different situation. They have a small pack with a leader, they have targeted you, stalked you. They have decided in advance that you will be beaten. They walk up, make some claim that provides the facade of them being the victim (you eyein’ me girl?) and commence the beating. The deer can’t negotiate with the wolves intent on eating it. But if the deer turns into a bear and kills the alpha male, it is likely the wolves will scatter. That is the applicable pack dynamics.
I was surrounded by a Mexican gang once and got away without a bad word spoken much in the way you spoke about. But they were just scoping me out, they hadn’t decided what to do with the gringo initially. It’s not the same situation, not the same group dynamics.