Why Obey Colored Lights Cautiously

Women beware when traveling alone at night on a ‘lightly-traveled" roadway. It is customarily advised to pull over when signaled by what appears to be a police car.

Police Dispatcher: If you see red and blue lights in your rear view mirror, use your cell phone and call 911. Ask the police dispatcher if there are any patrolling cars on the roadside you are traveling, tonight. Make it clear that you are not trying to elude a police stop.

Tell the police dispatcher that you are going to proceed slowly to a publicly lighted area, before pulling over. Turn on your flashers and keep driving until you get to a well-lit area where there are other people about. After coming to a safe stop, crack your window open about 1 1/2," so you can communicate with the officer through the window. Keep your car doors locked and your hands on the steering wheel and in plain sight.

Then, if you are apprehensive about the authenticity of the police officer(s) identity, request diplomatically to see his/her official photo ID. Ask the officer(s) where they are stationed and what their badge numbers are. Stay on the phone with the police dispatcher during this whole conversation, so that an official recording of the conversation can be recalled later, if need be.

Do not reach towards your "glove box" or console. Wait until the officer(s) asks you for your proof of car insurance and registration. Then politely say that you need to reach into the "glove box or console" for your papers. Be polite and respectful at all times. Please note, that you might get ticketed for failing to heed police commands immediately, but that is better than being possibly harmed.

If a court case becomes necessary, the official police dispatch recording will speak for you as to what your actions were; before, during and after the stop.

Some states have their own emergency roadside telephone numbers, such as *77. In twenty eight states, 911 is the number assigned as the police emergency assistance number. This "designated" number is used to report highway emergency situations, as some of the situations could be classified as "urgent" situations.

If in doubt as to what number to call, go with the 911 emergency number, when an emergency is at hand. It would be prudent and wise to familiarize yourself in advance of traveling through different states as to what that states Highway Notification Numbers are.

Two readily available online websites are:
* www.911dispatch.com/911/mobilenumbers.html

* www.shopoakpark.com/info-cellnumbers.html

Why Self Defense Weapons-Pepper Sprays, Stun Guns-TASERS

Listed below are some reasons why to acquire self defense weapons.
Women are most often the victim of violent crime. Eighty five to ninety percent of the time, these victims knew their attackers. Human Resource Departments handle sexual harassment complaints 78% time within the workplace. The age group and gender most likely to be targeted is middle age women.

When it comes to disparity among the genders, it is obvious who draws the “short straw.” Let’s take Domestic Violence:

* Women who are convicted of murdering their domestic partner are sentenced to 15 year prison terms.

* Men, on the other hand, receive sentences of only 2-6 year sentences.

* Many of us love our pets very much, including us, but did you know that in1990, there were 3,800 animal shelters in the United States in comparison to only 1,550 Battered Women Shelters in the United States.

All too often Domestic Violence is not adequately tracked or documented by many victimization survey groups. Therefore, the statistics do not provide a comprehensive analysis of the people involved. Two other questions that are not sufficiently addressed are why and how people came to be selected as targets by their assailants.

There are three factors that need to be in place if an accurate and totally encompassing accounting is to express the depth of the maligned criminal’s behavior is to be documented.

1. Every detail of the crime itself needs to be called to remembrance.
The victim needs to be completely aware that the action committed against them was indeed a criminal offense.

2. There must be a “lack of shame” on the part of the victim. There must not be any evidence or hint of “Stockholm Syndrome” involved.

3. Traumatic events have a way of distorting the recollection process, because self preservation and survival instinct becomes the main focus for staying alive.

Unfortunately, a later factor starts to germinate and grow with the victim who has suffered a traumatic episode. One or even repeat occurrences of violence can bring on a mental disorder called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), is an anxiety disorder that is likely to develop and grow due to exposure to a terrifying event involving momentous physical harm, experience/implied and lived events.

I know what it is to exist, in an environment so void of compassion, mutual respect, or ordinary acts of human decency. Human kindness was considered weakness, a character flaw. Therefore, it was non-existent. Night time hours were spent in absolute terror.

I spent many a nights in a “state of paralysis” from the chin down, unable to move any limb, I could not even twitch. I could not break the hold of “feeling paralyzed” and wishing only to become invisible.

Being subjected to extreme, day to day physical, emotional, and psychological abuse resulted in the suicide of my brother and the destruction of one sister’s over-all health and the necessity for a second sibling to have to take prescribed anti-depressants for the rest of her life, just to keep the night-mares away and the feelings of unworthiness.

Battered Woman Syndrome:

Battered Woman Syndrome culminates in repeat “cyclical” episodes of severe abuse that is perpetrated against the victim by the out-of-control assailant. Battered Woman Syndrome is not declared until recurring attacks upon the victim are documented. That in itself is a travesty. One severe beating isn’t enough to even be labeled a syndrome.

Another atrocity of this type of “sick-maladjusted” behavior is that a pattern of abuse is now passed from one generation to another. Spousal abuse is followed down the “generational trail” to child abuse to elderly abuse.

In conclusion:
Women need to be pro-active in securing self defense weapons for protection. There are many brands of pepper sprays, stun guns, personal safety alarms, and TASER from which to choose from. Ladies, you are no-body’s punching bag. Take control of your own destiny by leveling the “playing-field” legally.

How to Use Pepper Spray Correctly

How to Prevent Being Targeted By an Attacker

Knowing how to prevent being targeted by an attacker can save your life. This article will cover the many aspects of surviving a violent attack, including how to choose a self defense weapon, how to recognize a potentially dangerous situation, and how to prepare for the unexpected.

Defensive Devices: Women need to have on their person some kind of self defense weapon in order to be able to defend themselves. When a woman is empowered with self defense equipment, she can protect herself, her children, and perhaps the man in her life, who is not the abuser.

Encounters: Due to our mobility, the risk of attack is substantially increased. With increased independence, comes the chance of encountering an attacker. I worked at nighttime positions for many years and was fortunate enough to have been threatened twice. On one occasion, because I had commercial cleaning chemicals at my disposal, I was only coerced into giving the perpetrators my money to secure my release. The extortionists demanded bus fare in exchange for my release. The cleaning chemicals in my hands and the honest promise that my male crew would be joining me soon, convinced the three teenage extortionists to accept the $5.00 and to depart.

On another occasion, I was physically assaulted and would have suffered severe injuries, if not possible death at the hands of the assailant had not someone intervened. I was being choked by a man much larger than I. My father knocked the man's hands away from my throat. A sack of empty pop cans almost cost me my life. It would have taken a self defense weapon to save me if it hadn't been for my father.

Confidence Projected: Women in particular need to project an outward sense of confidence in their body language, which should state that they are not easy targets. Making eye contact (not staring), head up, and eyes surveying the territory are but a few ways. Smile when I first meet a stranger. It is a disarming technique. It tells them that you acknowledge their presence.

Prepare for the Unexpected: All too often women become targets because they are distracted with duties such as loading their car with groceries or securing their children into their car seats. Vehicle break-downs are very common times when a woman can become a victim of assault. It is essential for every woman to have an emergency roadside service provider, such as AAA, On Star, Four Star Towing Service, Paragon Motor Club, Roadside Assistance and Allstate Motor Club are but a few examples. I have had AAA Plus Roadside for the last 18 years. This is one subscription I renew religiously, every September.

Personal Awareness: Personal awareness is essential to avoiding criminal encounters. The honest reality is that, the socioeconomic downturn is advancing the rise in person to person altercations. Personal security requires accepting the fact that physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual warfare is a common occurrence. A little paranoia can be a good thing, because good common sense is trying to tell you that you are to be aware and pay attention to the happenings around you. This world is an increasingly hostile place.

Mind Preparation Scenarios: Role playing scenarios within your conscious mind help to prepare the mind to defend itself. Visualize how you would react to an attack within your scenarios. Just as we must prepare ourselves to participate in an athletic event or chess tournament, prepare yourself to action while still in a safe environment.

Trust your (gut instincts/premonitions.) Listen to that "little voice" in your head, that tell you something (or someone) "just doesn't look right." A little stress sharpens our instincts and puts us on full alert.

Criminal Dislikes: Three ingredients criminals hate the most are: lights, people and noise. Criminals do not want to attract attention to their ill-conceived behaviors and actions. Criminals despise attention during the commission of their crimes.

Pro-active Movements: Arrange whenever possible to travel in groups and in lighted open spaces. Night travel requires planning and "light/noise essentials" such as a personal alarm with flashlight or an electronic pocket whistle. Always remember that your first priority is to not place yourself in a dangerous situation in the first place, but with that said, valuables can be replaced but not your life.

Defensive Devices: The main purpose for owning and using stun guns and pepper sprays, is to incapacitate an assailant long for you to escape from the area.

A Child's Innocent Review: When a woman's children are subjected to see their mother repeatedly beaten and/or verbally abused by the man in the house, only then does it motivate her to leave the premises and set up a new life for herself and her children. What really clinches the knowledge that she must get away from the abuse is when her children make the following statements, "I'm sorry mommy, and I don't mean to be so bad".


Conclusion: Practiced emergency drills involving the use of your self defense weapons and, truthful self evaluation of the results is paramount to developing correct habitual action. Victim profiling is all too real. Take heed of how not to "look like a target." I have discussed some techniques above in this article on how not to look so vulnerable.

Exiting a Submerging Vehicle

Exiting a Submerging Vehicle

Your life and the lives of your household could well depend on your advanced planning. Is that not why we put our family emergency plans on paper and conduct bimonthly mock drills? You know the old saying, "practice makes perfect." No one expects you to practice such emergency drills as escaping from a burning house, drowning, vehicle submerging, home invasion attack, or many other such emergency situations, literally. But mock drills can be staged, to a certain extent, along with discussions, videos, and classes offered by the American Red Cross and other civil service organizations.

Separating Yourself from the Vehicle

Prior planning for exiting a submerging vehicle needs to be in the family "Emergency Action Plan Booklet." Plans are far more likely to come to life when they are written out on paper.

If it becomes apparent that your car is going to be submerged, get out of the car immediately. Try the doors first. If they won't open, try to exit through the windows. Factors that will influence your decision making will depend on the “make” of the car and the circumstances leading up to the watery threat.

Advanced preparation is wise and prudent and can determine whether you survive the incident. If the window or windshield must be broken, the "Auto Emergency Tool" is a better option than your elbow or foot that could be injured while breaking out the glass.

Timing is critical and the decisiveness of your actions requires good foundational planning.

If the water level is below your windows, get out of your vehicle and walk or swim to safety. You should have some degree of buoyancy for a short period of time.

Water pressure against the door might prevent you from opening your door until pressure inside the vehicle has equalized to the pressure outside of the vehicle. Get the windows down immediately and exit the vehicle.

Turn your lights ON so potential helpers can find you.

To prevent being accidentally electrocuted, turn off your car including your stereo, radio, etc.

In deep water a front engine vehicle is likely to tip nose-down, and flip end over end, settling upside down with the wheels pointing towards the surface.

Two Theories about When to Remove your Seat Belt:

1) Before attempting to open windows or doors, unbuckle your seat belt. To prevent being tangled in the seat belt, pay attention to how you disengage the belt buckle and where the strap goes.

2) When the water rushes in through the open window, the force of the water may deploy your airbag. This force could possibly cause momentary disorientation, so wait until the water has filled the interior compartment of the vehicle before unbuckling your seat belt. As the force of the current is rushing into the compartment of the vehicle, you will not be able to successfully fight against the force of the current. You will need to hold your breath as the water covers your head.

Unlock all doors and open the windows. If you must kick out a window use the heels of your feet or something heavy inside the interior of the vehicle, preferably stored under the driver's seat.

If there are passengers in the vehicle, get the front seat passengers out first. *(Remember the nose of the vehicle will usually submerge first. The rear end of the vehicle will be higher in the water than the front end of the vehicle.) Kick off from the side of the car when starting to make your way towards shore, as this will free you from the suction pocket created between the vehicle and the water. The best swimmer should stay behind to rescue children and other passengers.

Air can be trapped inside your jacket or shirt to give you added buoyancy, making it easier for you to assist passengers who cannot float or hold their breath as with infants.

Upon being freed from the vehicle, float or swim with the flow of the water to shore. Do not fight the current. Move with the current as you proceed toward the shore. (Down-stream and horizontally to shore) Upon reaching shore, go for help, but keep oriented to your location.

Remain Calm - (by controlling how fast you're breathing, you will be able to focus better.) An air pocket near the roof of the vehicle will hold air for a time. Keep your head up and your face in the air pocket and breathe normally.

Summary:

A few tools need to be kept inside the interior compartment of your vehicle at all times, preferably under the driver's seat.

If your vehicle enters shallow water - (water below window level) then walk or swim away from the vehicle.

If your vehicle submerges - prepare by freeing yourself from the seat belt. If the windows are down, and you are free of the seat belt, wait for a moment until the water stops gushing in. Keep your face close to the roof of the car in the air pocket. When the water has filled the interior compartment, take a breath and swim out the window and to the surface. Then swim with the current diagonally to shore.

Follow the steps described above for evacuating all passengers from a submerged vehicle.

Be Prepared in Advance and Stay Calm.

Slingshot Development (Toy to History)

Slingshot History

As far as history is concerned it appears that the birth of the slingshot occurred in Russia. "Rogatka" means slingshot in Russian. The root word being "rog", means "horn". The "Rogatka," was a smaller simpler version of the slingshot. In "Ancient Rus" a larger heavier implement of war was referred to as a "rogatina, according to [Jack H. Koehler, Slingshot Shooting, Sling Publishing. Isbn=0.9765311-00].

The availability of vulcanized rubber was used in the construction of the classic form of slingshots. Tire inner tube provided the most common source of rubber tubing. If this theory is accurate, then slingshots were probably not constructed before 1888. Many people considered a slingshot to be a child's toy, up until the end of WWII. The first slingshots were constructed from the fork of a tree branch. As it turns out the wood from a Dogwood tree made an ideal wood source for the construction of slingshots. The red rubber inner tubes were superior to the later model black inner tubes because the red rubber was more elastic. Now, rubber compositions involve synthetics.

The Wham-O, company in 1949 produced the first sophisticated modern slingshots, which featured the first wrist-braced slash slingshot.

During the winter of 1953 a family named Ellengurg invented the wrist-braced slingshot/catapult. This simple but functional version of the slingshot incorporated the use of the bumper from a 1946 Willes, Jeep, as a work bench. Next, a dog collar was fashioned into a brace for the wrist. The pioneering genius of the slingshot can be documented with the major role that Howard Ellenburg and sons provided.

Saunders "Wrist-Rockets" were introduced in 1954. This high velocity, high accuracy slingshots have also changed to include such features as the self-centering ammo pouch, matched power bands, wear-reducing prongs and guidance collars."

Inexpensive beginner slingshots are still made for the fork in a tree branch, an inner tube with a piece leather for an ammo pouch. Commercial model slingshots have become quite sophisticated and powerful.

Today, slingshot design and materials are stored away from sunlight, and underwater to keep the rubber from stiffening and cracking. If the rubber is not preserved in this fashion, then a loss of elasticity properties is compromised. Metal rod frames with wrist- braces are to reduce or prevent hand and wrist injuries and enhance the sighting mechanism's capability. This way accuracy is greatly increased.

The Trumark recoil stabilizer can be attached and removed as required. Trumark's first version included a metal brace wrapped around the bottom of hand and was "locked" into place over the top of the wrist. Recoil action had to be diminished, so a plan was derived to add a recoil pad to prevent the wrist from snapping. This is how the Howard's "Wrist-Lockers" came into existence. Much of the work that went into creating and building the Howard's Wrist-Lockers" was performed in an old abandoned beer hall, which became their workplace of operation. The town where the construction of the "Wrist-Lockers" was conducted in the small town of Duncan, Nebraska. The first distributor of these ingenious devices was a company called Dura-Pak, located in Sioux City, Iowa. Catapults are still manufactured and sold around the world today, fifty -six years after their inception. The basic ideas and principles first generated by Trumark during the early fifties are still used today. The Trumark Wrist-Braced slingshot was the first in America. Trumark slingshots are the only slingshots made in America to this day.

The most widely used ammo used is 1/2" steel shot. The qualifying features include: The fixed padded arm braces, a solid lightweight aluminum frame, and split leather pouch, makes up the body of the slingshot. Latex Rubber Tubing surgical tubing is used because of it high velocity properties.

Laws governing the shipment of the slingshot need to be adhered to. Slingshots cannot be shipped to Massachusetts, New Jersey or New York.

Safety glasses are highly recommended when using slingshots.

Written by: Penny D. Montague

Bike Light Education Program

As part of their ongoing Eye to Eye campaign, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and the Traffic Division of the Portland Police Bureau have partnered up on an effort to increase awareness of using and being more visible while riding. Their efforts build on a history of bike light advocacy here in Portland that started over three years ago.

According to a press release issued this morning, the BTA will kick off the project tomorrow with an event at the “Seven Corners” intersection (SE Division, SE Ladd, and SE 20th). They’ll be serving “mocktails” (non-alcoholic beverages) and giving cyclists information about lights and visibility.

That event will be followed by a series of “targeted education and enforcement actions” by the Police Bureau. The actions are slated to begin next week and the plan is for police officers to educate non-lit cyclists about light laws, pass out safety information, and install free lights (thanks to an ODOT grant) when necessary. Get a light!

After the freebies and warnings, the police will start ticketing riders for violating Oregon’s bike light law.

In case you’re wondering how to avoid a $90 ticket. Here’s what ORS 815.280 says about bike lights:

“a bicycle or its rider must be equipped with lighting equipment during limited visibility conditions… (that) must show a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet to the front of the bicycle… (and) a red reflector or lighting device… visible from all distances up to 600 feet to the rear…”

Giving away free bike lights to visibility-challenged cyclists has a long and proud tradition in Portland.

In the summer of 2005, with support from Shift and grants from the Community Cycling Center and ODOT, local citizen activist Jeff Bernards launched Get Lit!” Bernards would set up at random locations and pass out free sets of lights to anyone in need. Bernards’ dedication garnered him an Alice B. Toeclips award and he eventually passed the torch to the Community Cycling Center (who still runs the program to this day).

Bernards’ Get Lit! concept has inspired similar programs in other cities including Missoula, Montana and Sacramento, California.

It’s been over three years since the first time the Portland Police Bureau handed out free bike lights. That program was hailed as a success and even resulted in then Traffic Division Commander Bill Sinnott getting national airtime on CBS News.