The term ‘street fighting’ still drives me crazy. In the first place, fighting does not belong in a description of urban survival action, self-defense, or violent crime. And, even if one complies with the characterization of urban violence as ‘fighting’ who the hell does it in the street?

Really bro, you’re going to ‘whoop dat ass’ in a river of steel, rubber, glass and fiberglass, rushing down on you like a toy truck plowing over little plastic army men?

I once did a study of 1,000 incidents of violence, 95% of which took place in Baltimore Maryland and surrounding counties. By checking the ‘where’ entry and adding them up, and dividing them by the big number, I discovered—not very much to my surprise—that a mere 17% of violence takes place on streets, and other road surfaces, such as highway off ramps, lanes, roads, boulevards, terraces, rural routes, interstate shoulders, private drive ways to long to fit in a Harm City block, oh yes, and avenues.

Of the 59% of action that senselessly occurred outside where witnesses, and even police, might view it, the ‘kill box’ if you will, was usually the ‘access area’ to a structure. Access ways such as stairs, sidewalks, and parking lots, generally offer the attacker concealment, mostly in the form of vehicles, and access to weapons, mostly stored within parked vehicles, as well as quick egress, in the form of that self-same chariot of suburban access. If I could give my Harm City readers one piece of survival advice, it would be to go to red alert when on parking lots. Parking lots are ideal for abductions. Vehicles stopping and starting in traffic to grab someone are much more noticeable than vehicles doing the same on a parking lot.

Below are three brief anecdotes concerning recent Harm City parking lot encounters or threats.

Miss Sandy was running the register at Fort Hood-rat when an elderly lady attempted to pay for groceries with an expired WIC voucher. The lady—in her 70s—then said, “Oh you white ghetto bitch. I ought ta go ta ma car en ged my gun en shoot yo ass! Watch you back bitch!”

George, a ‘return clerk’ on the Cheap Guys R Us night crew, was racking up carts outside after the midnight close, when a homeless man approached him, demanding access to the store. George’s pleas that he did not have the keys, and that the store was closed only brought threats from the homeless man. George managed to evade the man and bang on the windows enough to summon the night crew. After his rescue by the night captain, George is now brought in at 11:30 so that he does not have to field the constant threats from people who want access to a closed store. This is incredibly common. On two different occasions I had cops threaten me for not opening a closed food market for their shopping needs. I dealt with well over a thousand threats from drunks and weirdos who, as a store manager, I had denied access to a closed store.

Last year a friend who is a combat arts instructor was attacked by two men on a parking lot, over a parking space. He KO’d them both. I cannot give any details as this is still in litigation. When the case is closed I will get a full interview. I can tell you this. As the men had parked their car so as to block him in his space while they attacked, he moved it so that he could leave, making sure not to run over any bodies or damage any vehicles. Shortly thereafter he was arrested for grand theft auto for moving the car used by his attackers to trap him!

The surface on which you defend yourself will mostly likely be paved with asphalt or concrete, but it probably won’t be a street.