The one who attacks has an advantage over the one who reacts. Many human predators multiply this advantage by positioning themselves to “seize the high ground.”
There are many tactics that human predators use to overwhelm their prey. Many of them revolve around attackers positioning themselves in ways that ensure that their target puts up little to no resistance. They don’t just attack their target first - they aim to end the assault quickly and in their favor.
The human predator’s attempts to seize the high ground make for a distinct category of pre-attack indicators.
The most common of them are:
- Syncing. Once the human predator, or a group of them, zooms in on someone they’re about to prey on, their behavior starts to synchronize with that of the target. The attacker, or attackers, start to mirror the target’s pace of walking and adjust their route based on where the target is headed. In the case of multiple attackers, certain non-verbal communication that corresponds with the target’s behavior might be shared among the attackers.
- Reversal. While walking in front of or past the target, the human predator suddenly and rapidly reverses the direction and starts heading right toward the target. The attacker can do the same while just standing in the vicinity of the target as well.
- Sneaking up. Attacking the unsuspecting target from behind is among the oldest predatory tricks in the book. Because we cannot see what’s happening within about 140 degrees of range behind us, failing to “watch our six” gives the human predator the chance to position themselves effectively for launching a devastating assault.
- Crowding. The human predator breaches the 6-foot range around the target and does so in a way that the target struggles to regain control over their immediate protective range. The attacker makes sure that the target cannot easily regain distance or evade the attacker’s close presence.
- Enveloping. When several attackers are involved, after zooming in on the target, they split into different directions. This allows them to confuse the target as to which side the assault is coming from and overwhelm the target from multiple directions.
- Herding. Some human predators hunt cooperatively. When they do, a common tactic involves one attacker pressuring or tricking the target to change their direction and walk or run straight into an ambush set up well beforehand by the rest of the pack.
- Closing in. When there are multiple human predators at play and they feel certain that their prey isn’t going to evade the assault or won’t put up a lot of resistance, they start closing in on their target much like packs of predators do in the wild.
- Hiding in plain sight. Some attackers take the opportunistic route and wait for their prey to walk by. They stand or do some other idle activity in a place where their desired target is likely to eventually appear - such as a fringe area, a high-reward area, or an entrance to a house.
The moment any of these behaviors are spotted, they should be recognized as pre-attack indicators and used to support the overall assessment of the situation as an assault in the making.
Doing so gives us the opportunity to turn the tables on the attacker and seize the high ground all for ourselves.