I’ll let you into a secret (like most secrets there are none, so there shouldn’t be any surprises I - n telling you this...): nothing in the world of professional security and safety is designed for you and your use, everything is designed, articulated and for the benefit of the security and safety professional, not the person who is actually caught up in the middle of it. You are expected to behave and act according to a script that someone else has written for you. Every safety system is based on the premise that people behave rationally and sensibly under stress – the problem is that when given time they do.
The behavior of people aboard the Titanic, as it went down, is legendary. The lines for the life boats were orderly and “Women and Children” went first. From a “disaster” perspective everybody behaved as they should: orderly and without panic, with social conventions and values being applied. Given space and time we behave as would be expected. We can cope with the stress and resolve ourselves to our reality of our situations. The Titanic is not the only disaster where the professionals got it wrong e.g. not enough lifeboats.
In the World Trade Center it was estimated that evacuating people would clear a floor in 30 seconds, in the real word they did it in 60. Their response time was based on how they should behave not on how they actually would. Often the emergency plans we’re supposed to follow are based on the practices of the emergency services (trained professionals) rather than the ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in such a situation. The greatest number of first responders in the Twin Towers on 9/11 were not professional medics etc but ordinary individuals who had little more to offer than common sense. You don’t need to be a “hero” in such situations to have an effect you simply need to be the person who believes they can make a difference.
One of the things that security (and “disaster”) professionals are beginning to realize is the importance that time plays in allowing people to bypass and deal with the stress of a situation. In a high stress situation where time is restricted, such as in an air crash, people fall into two camps, those that act and those that don’t. Those who wait for instruction don’t make it, those who don’t wait but simply act do. You survive a plane crash by making it to an exit ASAP, with your shoes on – don’t wear sandals or flip-flops next time you fly (or take your shoes off) they won’t offer much protection against burning aviation fuel. Don’t wait for others to tell you what to do just act.
Often violent confrontations lie somewhere between the obvious and immediate danger of a plane crash and the slow sinking of a passenger ship i.e. the Titanic. Just enough time to think, but not enough to think completely – and rationally. There is also the issue of violence being a social thing: what if you’ve got it wrong that if the aggression isn’t real; that you’ve misinterpreted the situation. People in plane crashes and on slow sinking ships still experience denial but they have different timeframes within which to get over it: the danger of a plane crash is obvious, whilst the situation of a slow sinking ship is one that is continually reinforced and reminded to the passengers. The majority of violent situations lack the obvious and immediate danger of a plane crash, due to the period of dialogue and verbal exchange that precedes the majority of them however they are much faster moving than ships that take 45 minutes plus to sink.
Having a period of time to think, allows for both denial and doubt; you may get over the denial phase and accept the reality of the situation but then enter into a stage where you start to question your ability to deal with it. This may be reinforced by your aggressor’s behavior, which is the very point of their posturing. As soon as you question your ability to handle a situation you have to act (preferably you should have done so beforehand), as once one doubt exists others will follow. You have no time to formulate an alternative solution – if you are questioning your ability to physically resolve an incident then you have already acknowledged the danger within it. You do not want to have to win an internal battle with yourself and then deal with an external threat to your safety.
In training, start to develop the habit of doing and not thinking; of acting on first instinct; creating time for yourself to overthink what you are doing is not something you want to be educating yourself to do.