Verbal Commands

Posted by Mostly Genius – April 22, 2009

Verbal commands are frequently an under utilized self-defense tool. Verbal commands can be applied early, without liability, and throughout the encounter in conjunction with other levels of force. You can issue verbal commands while simultaneously applying strikes, pepper spray, or gun fire.

Remove Ambiguity. Issuing verbal commands can help you determine if someone is really a threat. A stranger approaching you in a dark parking lot might be perfectly innocent, but the potential for danger is too high to make this assumption. The circumstances are not in your favor. If you yell “Stop! Don’t come any closer!” most normal people would probably stop, especially if they actually didn’t intend to do you harm. To continue approaching someone who is telling you to stop is threatening, To approach faster is very threatening.

Create Hesitation. Getting a command to stop will force many people to hesitate, especially if they haven’t committed to a course of action yet. That hesitation buys you a little bit more time to escape, prepare to fight, or further evaluate the situation.

Provide Direction. Tell the assailant what you want him to do. Let Go! or Go Away! in conjunction with another level of force tells the assailant how to avoid getting hurt (or getting hurt any more). If they are now facing your drawn handgun they might not know what to do – the problem has moved off of their mental map sheet. We don’t want the assailant to ‘freeze’ like on a bad TV show, we want him to run as far and as fast as his little criminal feet will carry him.

Alert the Witnesses. Many crimes need to happen in isolation. If you can draw a crowd you might be able to prevent the attack. Maybe there is someone that will come and help us, but at a minimum we are establishing who is the defender and who is the aggressor. This sets the context for all our other actions in the mind of the witnesses. If we have already shouted Stop! Stay Back!and the assailant has closed the distance then we have a justification for using another level of force, and we have clarified our role as defender for any potential witnesses.

  • It is also important to know when verbal commands are not appropriate. The Tacoma Mall shooting is a good example.
  • These are great ideas that you need to keep in your tool box with the rest of your knowledge, pepper sprays, stun guns, and hand guns. It takes the right tool for the right job, and sometimes it takes multiple tools to protect yourself from punks.

    Right on!
  • bob r
    One thing to add: PRACTICE!! You can practice this anywhere and as "they" say: when push comes to shove, you do what you trained for. Easy to setup different scenarios: getting in your car, getting _out_ of your car, walking down a street, etc.
  • Mikee
    Plan your standard lines out before you need them.

    Practice them, either alone or better yet with your significant other and kids, so they will know when you use them you have not gone berserk despite how you sound.

    A simple, "NO, THANK YOU," said at louder than normal voice, while looking directly at the approaching panhandler, has in my experience stopped all normal requests for change.

    The few who have continued to approach or address me after that did not work. got a near yell command voice, "DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER TO ME," with a hand held out towards them as I scanned for any accomplices.

    The very few who ignored that got profane outbursts at the top of my voice, with threats of grave bodily harm, while I moved to keep distance between me and them.

    I have never had to fight a mugger. I have had to threaten to pour gas on a beggar at a gas station to stop his approach. I have had to holler like a crazy man in a parking lot to draw attention to the potential mugger that popped up like a jack-in -the-box, cornering me and my infant son in my car door. Both efforts worked without violence to or from me.

    I have crossed, then recrossed, and recrossed a street as a street person one block ahead crossed to keep me on the same side of the street as them, on a deserted Saturday morning in New Orleans. I went two blocks out of my way for my Cafe du Mond coffee and beignets that day, and the bum never got within a block of me.
  • Robb:

    Thanks for the encouragement.
  • Absolutely brilliant...er...

    I've never really thought about what I'd yell during an encounter. I've often considered what courses of action to take even when I'm unarmed, how to use cover to my advantage, etc. but never really considered the verbal aspects of things.

    This is a fantastic post!
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