Very good article on the "Freeze"

[Rick Wilson]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sexual-assault-and-the-brain/201804/freezing-during-sexual-assault-and-harassment

[Josann]

Tony Blauer teaches a mindset that he calls “being in bodyguard mode.” He walks around constantly sizing up potential threats and plays scenarios in his head that, in theory, “could” happen. This may help be prepared in the case of a sudden assault of some kind, but would probably not help a woman who was sucked in to some thugs innocence or charm.

I work in mental health, and almost once a month have to de-escalate some angry guy. As I get older the guys have gone from angry guys, to angry much younger guys it seems. Kelly McCann, another combatives instructor teaches “the fence” a defensive posture that readies you for action without being obvious. I always keep my hands at waist height or higher and talk with my hands. I figure that if the move on me, I would go into the Dracula’s Cape defense that many use and move forward into the attacker to go from predator to prey. Despite training this, I worry that if I am not in the fence, I won’t be ready, so I try to make that type of posture a normal way that I move.

For a woman, it’s a different story. The other day I was talking to my wife on the phone as I was driving home from work. We live in a rural section of New Hampshire, and a guys pulled into the driveway hoping to buys some eggs from us. My wife puts the phone down, shoots the breeze with the guy, and then lets him into the house to see the place because he was a good friend of the previous owner. I’m on the phone and can hear the whole thing, and am going out of my mind. I can hear them walking around the 1000 foot main floor worried sick. He leaves and gets back on the phone and I blast her for being so careless. Her reply was “Don’t be so silly. He was a little guy, close to 80 years old.” I suggested the Ruger GP 100 be loaded and near the door at all times, but she is hard to convince.

Easy to convince someone who trains for this that being prepared at all times is needed. Not so easy to teach women and people we care about the same safety measures.

[Josann]

Tony Blauer teaches a mindset that he calls “being in bodyguard mode.” He walks around constantly sizing up potential threats and plays scenarios in his head that, in theory, “could” happen. This may help be prepared in the case of a sudden assault of some kind, but would probably not help a woman who was sucked in to some thugs innocence or charm.

I work in mental health, and almost once a month have to de-escalate some angry guy. As I get older the guys have gone from angry guys, to angry much younger guys it seems. Kelly McCann, another combatives instructor teaches “the fence” a defensive posture that readies you for action without being obvious. I always keep my hands at waist height or higher and talk with my hands. I figure that if they move on me, I would go into the Dracula’s Cape defense that many use and move forward into the attacker to go from predator to prey. Despite training this, I worry that if I am not in the fence, I won’t be ready, so I try to make that type of posture a normal way that I move.

For a woman, it’s a different story. The other day I was talking to my wife on the phone as I was driving home from work. We live in a rural section of New Hampshire, and a guy pulled into the driveway hoping to buys some eggs from us. My wife puts the phone down, shoots the breeze with the guy, and then lets him into the house to see the place because he was a good friend of the previous owner. I’m on the phone and can hear the whole thing, and am going out of my mind. I can hear them walking around the 1000 foot main floor worried sick. He leaves and she gets back on the phone and I blast her for being so careless. Her reply was “Don’t be so silly. He was a little guy, close to 80 years old.” I suggested the Ruger GP 100 be loaded and near the door at all times, but she is hard to convince.

Easy to convince someone who trains for this that being prepared at all times is needed. Not so easy to teach women and people we care about the same safety measures.

[Van Canna]

Great article, thank you, and very good observations by Josann.

Wives can be 'strange animals' when it comes to 'protective ideations' _

I have posted many times the home invasion killing of my 12 year old niece[Marina] where ... shot in the head _ splattered her brains all over the foyer ceiling.

Thugs were trying to force the front door from closing with my cousin/his wife/and Marina...pushing on the other side of it...

My cousin frantically looking around for some sort of weapon...

My niece, bravely, reached in the umbrella stand, and tried to poke at one of the intruders through the crack of the door where the goon had stuck his booted foot.

The shot rang out...

Cousin's wife wanted no weapons in the house, even though they lived in a somewhat isolated home and not 'so safe' neighborhood.

They will have to live the rest of their lives wondering if a real 'stand by' weapon might have saved their child's life.

But then, could they have used it, given the article about the freeze?

[Van Canna]

When we read such great articles, I think it is important to then attempt to work this information into our ways of training for the benefit of our students.

https://www.jimhopper.com/pdfs/Hopper_L ... mories.pdf

Inevitably, at some point during a traumatic experience, fear kicks in. When it does, it is
no longer the prefrontal cortex running the show, but the brain’s fear circuitry –
especially the amygdala. Once the fear circuitry takes over, it – not the prefrontal cortex
– controls where attention goes. It could be the sound of incoming mortars or the cold
facial expression of a predatory rapist or the grip of his hand on one’s neck. Or, the fear
circuitry can direct attention away from the horrible sensations of sexual assault by
focusing attention on otherwise meaningless details. Either way, what gets attention
tends to be fragmentary sensations, not the many different elements of the unfolding
assault. And what gets attention is what is most likely to get encoded into memory.

This would apply to any kind of assault, not only of the sexual type.

[Van Canna]

Again, some military personnel and police officers say the same things about having frozen in this way (although understandably they seldom admit such things).

[Van Canna]

I’ve named this remarkable, disturbing, and memorable state the shocked freeze response.

It usually comes right after the detection freeze response, as a continuation of that “network reset”—and a massive amplification of it. For several seconds a person may feel shocked, dumbfounded, their mind utterly blank, at a loss for words and actions.

Trying to describe it later, people say things like, “It made no sense,” “It just didn’t compute,” “I couldn’t even think,” or “I had no idea what to do.”

I've come across this very often in my investigations.

In this particular one:

Easter Sunday '81 ...two robbers, one a brutal killer sought by police...showed up at the lobby of the Howard Johnson's restaurant/Hotel on the Boston SE/Expressway.

Boston news outlets ran a story about Angel Toro who had been convicted of robbing and killing a desk clerk at the Boston-Southeast Howard Johnson's on Easter Sunday back in 1981.

The clerk, 47-year-old Kathleen Downey, was a Worcester State College English professor working part time at the HoJo's.

When we talk about 'self defense' with Uechi Karate or whatever have you...it is critical to realize in your mind that regardless of what we know/we think we know/we think we can do...

It is the actual circumstance, specific event, individual attacking perp, and mode of brutality of the attack that determines your actual abilities in the moment.

In this investigation I determined that these robbers/killers suddenly invaded the lobby of the HOJO pictured here



and entered the main floor glass walled office thru its door left propped open with a chair, to allow air circulation since the AC had broken down.

Hard to describe the terror of the workers at the desks as reported to me during the interviews.

Some completely froze, a few dropped and hid behind their desks.

The killer dragged Mrs. Downey out from under a desk and barked 'open up the safe'...

she did, barely able to stand...took out a satchel of money and gave it to the robbers.

As she turned around in terror, the killer placed his 12 gauge sawed off shotgun right against the back of her head and pulled the trigger.

Nobody in the hotel was able to make a move, including security on the floor.