Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

SELF-DEFENSE

It is important that you be cautious around street people. Here are some easy offensive and defensive measures you can take to ensure your contact with them is safe.

Dress to run

- How you dress can affect how successfully you defend yourself.

- Women: Would you rather run from danger in a miniskirt and high-heels, or in a blazer, slacks and comfortable shoes?

- Men: Do your tight jeans, that long overcoat, those heavy boots restrict your movement?

Where to walk

- The old advice was to walk along the curb to avoid being grabbed by someone next to a building. The new advice, based on crime studies, suggest it’s a better idea to walk down the middle of the sidewalk.

That way you avoid anyone who hides between parked cars at the curb or who reaches out for you from along side a building.

- If you see a cluster of street people loitering at the curb, that is a time you should walk next to the building. You are at least safe on your wall side, just be cognizant of doorway insets and corners where assailants could be waiting for you to pass.

If you can see street people on the sidewalk a ways in front of you, cross the street, or consider walking around the block.

- Don’t get comfortable because you are nearing your business or downtown apartment. One third of all street muggings occur within four blocks of the victim’s home.

[Van Canna]

Eye contact
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Though it was once sage advice not to look an unsavory types in the eye, we now know that predators look for people who appear lost in their own world, oblivious to their surroundings.

It’s simply amazing how some soon-to-be-victims can’t see five, filthy, freaky-looking street people gathered on a corner. But it happens all the time.

- Don’t deliberately avoid eye contact with them because they just might think you don’t know they are there.
If you notice one or more looking at you, make brief eye contact with one or all off them.

Some street people tend to avoid someone who looks like they might make a scene or respond assertively.

They prefer someone who has the victim look: eyes downcast, slumped shoulders and a shuffling gate.

Don’t stare back and don’t assume a defiant attitude.

Just give them a quick look, one that communicates that you know they are there and you won’t be taken by surprise.

[Van Canna]

The Buddy system

Having a buddy with you works when swimming and it works when walking on the sidewalk. Take someone with you and reduce the chance of being a victim by, what statistics show, 80 percent. Street people prefer their victims to be alone because they want the odds to be on their side.

[Van Canna]

When the street person is armed

Not only are street people dangerous, it’s dangerous being a street person. They frequently arm themselves for protection because they live in a dog-eat-dog world where they also prey on each other.

The police find knives and makeshift weapons in every camp they enter and, at least half the street people they encounter are carrying some kind of a weapon on their person or in their backpack.

- If you have the misfortune of facing an armed street person, give him your money, your coat, your shoes, whatever he wants.

- Avoid talking to him and don’t give him any reason to get angry. Just give him what he wants while you memorize what he looks like so you can tell the police later.

- The weapons of choice among street people are assorted knives and clubs and the occasional gun.

Considering how many straight citizens own guns, have concealed gun permits, and then leave their weapons in their car, where, as discussed, street people love to “shop,” it’s amazing there aren’t more floating around.

- If it’s a gun you are facing and your gut tells you he is going to shoot, throw your money to one side and then run like the wind in the opposite direction. Odds are he will go for the money. If he does shoot, the odds are in your favor that he will miss a moving target.

Street people are not going away any time soon. They come to our cities bringing filth, disease and crime. They do nothing to contribute to society, but only ****** off it and hurt people in the process. It’s a national problem that must be addressed by citizens, politicians and law makers.

In the meantime, we must walk defensively among them.

[Van Canna]

The maggots of humanity

While New Zealand has more than 1,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is mostly proud of how people have complied with the nation’s lockdown order. But in a Sunday news conference, Ardern called out those who continue to flout the lockdown.

“While compliance has been generally strong, there are still some who I would charitably describe as idiots,” Ardern told reporters.

The prime minister specifically cited a Christchurch man who was arrested Saturday for filming himself deliberately coughing and sneezing on people at a grocery store.

There will be much personal violence in the coming weeks.

[Van Canna]

The world is upside down right now with the coronavirus pandemic and we are living in a dystopian nightmare come to life. Still, we are still living in an America where history dictates that even in the most absurd times, hatred and bigotry still reign king. We are still judged, convicted, and sentenced by race, by gender, sexual orientation, and class.

[Van Canna]

Why I don’t feel safe wearing a face mask

I’m a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive, but I also want to stay alive.
By Aaron Thomas

Early reports highlight what many have predicted; those who are impacted by COVID-19 are overwhelmingly people of color, poor people, the homeless, and those living with disabilities. This stems from a lack of equitable access to health care.

Meanwhile, the bigotry escalates. There has been an increase of anti-Asian discrimination because COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. Racial tensions are increasingly escalating, and the situation for minorities is getting worse.

As this is a historical moment, it is important that we remember our history. Black men and women in this country have been killed for any and everything. A child with a toy gun, a young girl sleeping in her family home, a man buying an air gun at Walmart. Knowing all that, I just don’t feel safe. Even in a time of pandemic, the discrimination does not stop.

I will not be covering my face until I am able to obtain a face mask that is unmistakable for what it is. Let me be clear, this is not because I do not trust the advice of the CDC — I do. I believe in science, and I have followed all of its guidelines up to this point. I know masks work, and I trust the CDC’s recommendation.

What I do not trust is the innate biases and lack of critical thought about the implications of these decisions. I do not trust that I can walk into a grocery store with my face covered and not be disturbed.

I do not trust that I will not be followed. I do not trust that I will be allowed to exist in my Black skin and be able to buy groceries or other necessities without a confrontation and having to explain my intent and my presence. I do not trust that wearing a make-shift mask will allow me to make it back to my home.

So until I receive a mask, I will get to live out my childhood dream of being on supermarket sweep. And yes, I will attempt to get everything I need into my cart and to the checkout in three minutes or less.

Aaron Thomas lives in Columbus, Ohio.

[Van Canna]

This is really sad, and it will only get worse as time and death continue to march on.

You will likely be 'picked on' for a great number of reasons you cannot even foresee for the time being. It will come to you suddenly and out of nowhere...

Your karate proficiency will not be what you think will get you home safely.

[Van Canna]

The third route of infection

https://youtu.be/kVqDxLkbhJk

[Van Canna]

The human side of this experience has been very telling. Frightening, actually.

So many people (a) have no money, (b) are leveraged to the hilt with consumer debt, (c) are profoundly fearful of almost everything, and (d) are incredibly willing to become tattletales who want to over-enforce restrictions and then tell everybody about it while clearly seeking praise for doing so (a sort of virtue-signaling?).

The idea of people being self-sufficient, free, and independent is a myth and illusion for most folks.

[Van Canna]

An Asian American father and his children in Texas were slashed by an attacker blaming them and others who looked like them as the cause of the pandemic.

An Asian woman in Brooklyn, who was taking out her trash, was attacked by a man who doused her with a substance that left burns.

Across America, Asian Americans have been subjected to threats, physical attacks, and myriad discriminatory acts. Countless thousands of other maxi- and micro-aggressions have added more stress and anxiety to an already amply stressed and anxious community.

Guides on how Asian Americans should deal with threats and prejudice are being circulated as well as concerns raised about what is dubbed “breathing while Asian.” Indeed, early on, all things Asian became suspect.

Chinatowns, including Boston’s, became ghost towns long before mandatory closings and stay-at-home orders were imposed.

[Van Canna]

Many Asians who wear masks in public have been subjected to derision, suspicion, and shunning.

At the same time, health care providers at all levels in emergency rooms, ICUs, and nursing homes, at bedsides, and in medical labs also wear masks, and behind those masks are a disproportionate share of Asian faces.

Asian Americans are also among those who prepare and deliver meals, stock grocery shelves, work in plants to manufacture face masks and respirators, comfort the living, and care for the dead.

They are the heroic ones called upon to venture into danger rather than shelter from it.

[Van Canna]

Before college classes moved online, a student of Asian descent told how she feared going to class and perhaps coughing and incurring the wrath of her teacher and classmates.

She then asked me whether I thought that the treatment of Asian Americans and the manifestations of prejudice would weaken after the pandemic subsides and we can address more clearly the wages of intolerance and xenophobia.

I replied that the long experience with race in this country suggests that lessons are often not learned and, as often as not, trauma elicits scapegoating and prejudice again and again. But I also told her that I hoped that I was wrong.

[Van Canna]

Change can begin with small steps. Perhaps the next time we brush our teeth, wash our hands for the umpteenth time, or tackle the challenge of our unruly hair, we can glance at our image in the mirror.

And, when we do, choose to see ourselves among the faces joined together in their determination to fight the spread of two dangerous foes — COVID-19 and hate.

Paul Watanabe is director of the Institute for Asian American Studies and a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

[Van Canna]

https://theinterviewwithgod.com/video/