Today was the first time in a long time that I was in a situation where I might need to defend myself from somebody. I was walking to my car before work and crossing the large parking lot my apartment complex has. It is impossible to not walk in the parking lot at certain points.
A car came flying at about 30 mph at me and slammed on the brakes as I was crossing the lot. I moved to a spot that wasn’t blocking the car and heard “get the FUCK out the way” come from the car. I turned back and the driver proceeded to cuss me out and threaten me with non-specific actions (kick my ass, teach me a lesson, etc.). I did my best to de-escalate by not cursing and only rebutting when necessary. I thought maybe I should keep quiet, but I’m an adult and don’t deserve to be berated like a child outside of my own house. I also would have liked to have walked away, but decided against it. The person was acting aggressively and I wanted to have eyes on them throughout the whole interaction in case they left the car and I needed to be ready to defend myself with physical force or a weapon. I didn’t want to be tackled or sucker punched from behind, and I figured engaging the person at risk of slight escalation was better than risking that.
The person, who is a neighbor, eventually left. I don’t think he knows which apartment I came from or which car I went to, but I’m taking steps to make sure I’ll be safe living next to such a volatile person. What could I have done better? Is there anything I can work on to prepare for another encounter with this neighbor? I already have training and legal weapons, but I want to know what I can do to make sure I don’t have to use them.
Submitted July 15, 2019 at 08:32AM by fmj93 https://ift.tt/2JOfLqW
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