Awareness is key. If I have parked my car in a parking space that another driver has perceived as their parking spot and they are cussing me out all I have to do is move my car so that the other person can park there. It is inconvenient but not worth the trouble that would be created by allowing the situation to escalate to a physical confrontation. By the way, to fight with someone about this type of a situation would not be an attack as much as an agreed upon fight. When someone is a victim of ?Road Rage? by another driver there are many responses that a person can choose. One of the responses is to pull over and physically fight with them. As soon as you pull over and jump out of your car ready to fist fight this becomes an agreed upon fight and not a physical attack.



The drunk person who grabs your wrist to ask you for money may not be attacking to kill you but they are definitely physically assaulting and attacking you. This does not mean that you need to seriously maim or kill them but it does give you the right to dump them on their tail and disengage yourself from them. If it is obvious that they mean no harm then I generally do not consider this as an attack. If their intentions are unclear in a potentially threatening way or seem threatening then I do consider it an attack and will treat it as such.

Utilize Awareness to the extent that you see the drunk person before they are close enough to put a hand on you and you simply do not allow them to touch you and when you are parking your car see where other traffic is so that you know if someone else thought the spot was theirs before you are in the parking spot properly lining up your car between the lines. Also and very importantly, if someone is approaching so they can physically attack you then awareness can make all the difference. You see the person approaching and remove yourself completely by driving or jogging away. If the attacker is attacking you at random then this generally ends the situation. Getting away is our first line of defense and the easiest to use with the least consequences after the fact. Good awareness skills are vital and properly utilizing them will stop most situations from becoming a physical attack.

I have been attacked about 15 times in the street. Two of the attacks were at gunpoint and fortunately for me were primarily verbal attacks and only one became physical when I grabbed the guy. The other one gun assault ended with no physical altercation as I simply talked to the guy and literally calmed him down. About six of the attacks were from multiple attackers and most of them involved a situation where the physical aspect of the attack was fairly immediate without warning or provocation.

To Be Continued In ?Attacks Vs Fist Fights & Posturing Part 3?