Like most UF students with a cellphone, I received alerts about the "strong-arm robbery" of a fellow student last week.
I read the next day how some were offended by the photograph of the suspect being arrested on the front page of the Alligator, and I couldn't help but chuckle in amazed amusement. Or is it amused amazement? Hard to tell.
The fact is, people, if you stopped allowing yourselves to be victims, you wouldn't be one. If you simply refuse to be a victim, it is impossible to become one. For all of the young women who walk dark streets with their keys between their knuckles in fear of the attacker in the shadows, and for all the young men who talk tough at the pub but end up getting rolled in the street for their things, I have only one thing to say: Time to evolve.
Put yourself in the predator's shoes. Learn to understand the predator's mentality. In nature, there's a very fine line between predator and prey. Why would the average street vermin be any different? They're not.
I was incredibly blessed during my formative years to participate in a cage-diving expedition with large pelagic sharks off the west coast with the Hydrosphere Group. In nature, there are few creatures as awe-inspiring as a white shark. These brutes are often 6-feet thick. The girth of these monsters is sobering like nothing I've ever experienced.
And yet, they are cautious, opportunistic ambush predators with barely any edge over their prey. If the shark had any idea that it could easily come in and cut a diver in half, there would be no "Shark Week." The same goes for African lions, jihadi fighters and the average street-thug punk. If I had to weigh every experience I've had with the more opportunistically violent side of life, the only group I've ever had to deal with that defied this balance was one of suicide-vest wearing jihadis, who were on a mission to "paradise." They were easy to zero in on and dispatch outside of the killzone with a little basic Marine Corps marksmanship. Semper Fi.
But since this isn't often an option out on University Avenue, let me propose a different mode of thinking. Not a different mode of behavior, because it's not for you to change your behavior - it's for the predators.
Step 1: Fight back! Make yourself as big, loud and angry as possible if attacked. This means scream, kick, punch, bite and chase. From the moment your safety is in danger, write it off as lost and attempt to inflict the same loss on your attacker. Predators are nervous, cagey and only barely in control. Challenge this balance and the panic you will induce will amaze you. Trust me.
Step 2: Wise up. Know your surroundings. Don't invite a challenge, but don't cower from one, either. Signal to all around that you're not prey. It's a mentality that's easy to read, and will likely get you to safety when the wolf catches your scent.
Step 3: Use what you have. Remember your physics lessons, kids. Look at the palm of your hand. Now trace your pinky finger down to your inner wrist. Flex your hand back and feel that bone right there. That's your tomahawk, boys and girls. Deliver that bone in a downward chop to an attacker, especially to the top of the skull. After you watch them go down like a ton of bricks, you will have plenty of time to call in the cavalry.
Gainesville is not a nice place. UF life may lead you to believe that things are all fair, collegial and awarding of merit, earnestness and excellence. Get real. You are a target, but you don't have to be a victim. Gird your loins, take every advantage and relieve yourself of any illusions of fairness out here on the streets. As they say of starstruck newcomers in Las Vegas, New York City, the entire state of California and basically anywhere else where a good deal of money is made from outsiders, just like here, "In the world of wolves, we welcome all sheep."
No bleating. No retreating. You can do this.
Joshua Fonzi is a microbiology and cell science and entomology and nematology senior at UF.
