On Friday, I gave a training session to one of our corporate clients on transport security e.g. how to safely navigate subways, bus terminals, parking lots, and similar. One of the subject areas I covered was pickpockets, and as part of my presentation included CCTV footage of some at “work”, as they committed their crimes. Whenever I show this type of footage, people are amazed at the speed and audacity of these criminals, and often ask for me to rewind and show the footage again; because even though they knew, who and what they were looking at, the actual moment of execution was so fast, it was almost missed. This is often the case, when dealing with predatory individuals, who are skilled and operating to a plan – a plan that often takes into account their target’s reduced state of awareness. If you’ve ever witnessed a pre-meditated knife attack, where the assailant approaches their victim, already possessed with the intent to stab/shank them, the actual moment of the attack is as fast as lightning (something that rarely gets accurately replicated in the training environment). However, if you watch a knife attacker, or a pickpocket, synchronize their movement with a target, and close the distance between them, the process is glacial by comparison – only the lifting of the purse/wallet or the knife attack itself has a sense of urgency and immediacy about it – the preparation takes time.

One of the phrases that stays with me from a Tactical Driving Course I attended many, many years ago was, “Slow in, fast out” i.e. you approach a hazard/danger with caution, and once past/through it, you get away from it as fast as you can. This is how many predatory individuals plan their actions. A pickpocket will spend a long time observing, approaching, and positioning themselves, but their execution and disengagement happen at speed – a pre-planned knife attack is the same; there’s no rush in getting to the victim, but once in range the attack occurs at full speed, usually with a similarly speedy disengagement based on the situation and circumstances. To be successful in dealing with either of these criminal activities, it isn’t techniques that will save you, it’s an understanding and awareness of what’s happening before the criminal makes contact with you – in most cases, even with training, at the moment of attack, you will not be aware of, or quick enough, to deal with the criminal; the crime/attack will have been committed before you have time to even register it. 99.9% of the time, action will beat reaction – and when the assailant has a plan of action, we might as well say it’s 100%.

Pickpockets usually only take the effort to disguise the moment they “dip” into somebody’s bag or pocket. Up until that moment, they are often fairly blatant about what they are doing e.g. walking extremely close to the person they’ve marked, covering a target’s bag with a newspaper they are holding, or a coat that is over their arm, etc. They may even deliberately bump into somebody (using the motion of a bus or train as an excuse), in order to initially feel where a wallet/purse is being held. The CCTV footage I have collected over the years, shows both the lack of subtlety in the “approach” phase of their crimes, and the lack of awareness of the individuals they are targeting e.g. I have several clips of pickpockets pushing the wallet up out of the back trouser pockets, of people in front of them on escalators, so that it is easier for them to grab/extricate; they’ll often wait for the person to make a reassuring tap on their back pocket to check that the wallet is still there, before they make the lift/dip. Pickpockets are not alone amongst predators, in giving us plenty of warning signs, that indicate and demonstrate their harmful intent towards us. Unfortunately, we often discount these warning signs away, rather than taking them seriously.

Several years ago, a man had his buttocks slashed whilst he watched the Notting Hill Carnival, in London. One of the attackers filmed it, and the footage made its way to the major TV Networks. As a Self-Defense/Krav Maga instructor teaching in London at the time, I, like many other instructors became pretty much obsessed with finding solutions to such attacks i.e. when you are attacked with a knife from behind. However, the dirty little secret about real-life knife attacks, is that most people are as unaware about being slashed and stabbed, when the attack comes from the front, as they are when it comes from the rear; in both cases it is largely unseen, with orientation meaning little in the initial moments of the attack. As instructors we can get caught up in arguing which system’s techniques are better at dealing with knife attacks, whilst forgetting that most people, whether trained or untrained, will be stabbed/slashed multiple times before they even get to the point where they can respond; and yes, I include techniques and systems based on natural reflexes and responses, such as the one I teach (such things will only get you so far, and have a limit on their effectiveness).

Watching and studying pickpockets allows us to see how obvious their approach and positioning is; a quick search on YouTube, will demonstrate how clearly identifiable their process, approach, and positioning is – you will be amazed at how obvious their tactics are. However, the difference between you, watching it unfold from the outside, and the target, is that you have the opportunity to see what is going on; the person looking at their phone, walking looking straight ahead, or reading a newspaper etc., doesn’t. However, that is a choice they have made.  The signs, the signals, are all there, clear as day. Physical attacks, whether armed or unarmed, are no different. There are always Pre-Violence Indicators (PVI’s), and often these are as obvious as the ones that Pickpockets display. Without picking up/identifying these, your techniques have limited value, and the likelihood that you will sustain multiple stab wounds, or take multiple strikes and punches is extremely high. I say it all the time, Self-Defense/Krav Maga/Martial Arts, on their own rarely work, because they need awareness and preparation to allow them to have the edge/advantage. If you don’t believe that crime – including violence – that targets the individual isn’t predictable, take a look at pickpockets in action, and then compare their actions leading up to the execution of the crime, to physically violent predators.