Facing the enemy

>> Paul Henry Danylewich's Fearless helps keep the creeps away

by JULIET WATERS

This happened about five years ago: I'm walking home in a snowstorm. Suddenly, I hear running behind me. Someone grabs my purse. I struggle. My assailant starts screaming in a high pitched voice, "You fucking bastard." I let go, stunned that he's stealing not only my purse but my line. I notice a friend of his standing across the street. They run off together.

Being attacked from behind is one of the creepiest feelings, so I'm going to get some closure by having street defense expert Paul Henry Danylewich teach me what I could have done differently.

But first we have lunch at Else's to discuss his book Fearless: Complete Personal Safety For Women. Interestingly, Danylewich devotes the first third of the book to the topic of protecting yourself in your home and workplace. "In a sexual assault context about 80 per cent of the time it's somebody the person knows," he points out. "And although we don't have stats on domestic abuse in Canada I know a lot of women who have been victims." Street violence should actually be the least of our worries. Still, knowledge is power.

Danylewich is dressed in the official track suit of the White Tiger Street Street Defense league, which he directs. I want to know where the school is so I can take a course, but there isn't actually one. White Tiger visits schools to teach teen and pre-teen girls how to defend themselves against harassment and sexual assault.

That is, they visit those schools that will actually admit that young women need that kind of instruction, which are sadly few and far between. "Too many schools take the attitude that teaching self-defence is like admitting they have a problem," Danylewich recounts. "'We don't need it,' they say. 'Our kids are good kids this year,' as though that has anything to do with this problem."

Outside of Else's I get some great tips. "It's a lot harder to attack someone if you're facing them, from the aggressor's point of view. If you're just walking up the street you're a lot more vulnerable and a lot more of an object than if you've turned around. Chances are, if when you heard footsteps, you would have turned around--even from the side--you're a lot less likely to be attacked."

If all an aggressor wants is your valuables, let him have them. But the best rule is to avoid letting a strange man get within three feet of you. Back up if you have to, and assume a fighting position if he tries to move in. Tell him, "Back off!" and strike first if he crosses the line--vulnerable parts are testicles, eyes and throat. Then look for an escape that doesn't leave your back vulnerable. Danylewich suggests throwing a rock through someone's window if you can. A lot of people don't want to get involved, until their own safety or property is at risk.

We do a bit of role playing and Danylewich does a sickeningly good job of imitating a street creep. "Hey how come you're acting like such a bitch, all I want to do is get to know you, c'mon. What's you're name?" My first mistake is trying to walk away, therefore exposing my back. My second is trying to deck him before he crosses the three-foot personal-space barrier. But overall Danylewich says I did fine.

Later that same day, around 7 p.m. as I'm walking home along a northern, sparsely populated stretch of St-Laurent, I hear running behind me. My first instinct is to freeze and pray and hope the person runs past me. But this time I look over my shoulder. I lock eyes with a hyperactive teenager who freezes in his tracks. He seems to suddenly realize that running up behind women is not the most sensitive thing to do. Sheepishly he walks past me.

Fearless by Paul Henry Danylewich, University of Toronto Press, pb, 120pp, $21.95