Active shooter training instructor on what you can do to stay safe: ‘First step is situation awareness'

New York Post

2 days ago

Trainer's focus is survival
Meet Josh Sullivan.
Josh: 'My background's public safety. Age 16 I joined my Maryland town's fire department and am still on its command center. I started working in corrections at 18. Next, law enforcement agencies. Then diplomat security, protecting heads of state. Finally, my own company which led to the ALIVE Active Shooter Survival Training Program where I'm master instructor.'
Which means what?
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'First step is situation awareness. Paying more attention.'
The country is now so unsafe that it's impossible to stay safe.
'The Park Avenue shooter was tunnel focused. Passed people before entering that building. He walked by in open air holding that rifle. Once he passes by, maybe somebody could've grabbed that rifle away.
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'Look, there's also proactive action. Enter any restaurant, building, office, whatever. Check exits, look around, see the doors, devise a plan where if anything happens — fire, emergency, active threat — prepare in your mind what you'll do. In a restaurant sit facing the doors. Try to see what's happening before it happens.
'Stay calm. Don't let fear overtake you and then freeze. Fear is the bad part. Pre-check a quick place to hide. To cover you. In a movie theater check the exits. In a school, use your cell. Call 911. Tell the dispatcher what's happening. Just don't walk out with your phone in your hand or you could get done by overzealous police.
'My organization teaches in-person teams. Zoom teams. Barricade a room, turn lights off, lock doors. It's situational awareness. Warning signs. Note places that can cover you.
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'My company's called ALIVE. A — is for Assess. L — for Leave, if you can. I — Impede doors and windows if possible. If a school, with children inside, best is try to get them outside. V — for violence. And E — for expose.'
Garden parties gone by
Those good aulde days. Have 1957's rundown for a gala summer dinner: Gallon of milk — 82 cents, whole schmear — $20 a person. Appetizer: melon, tomato juice or apricot. Relish: pickles, celery, carrots or olives. Entree: Fish with horseradish. Soup: consomme. Entrée: Roast beef, turkey wings, stuffed cabbage, veal, capon, chicken, veggie platter of asparagus, coleslaw. Dessert: Ice cream, pineapple, sponge cake, strudel, tea and cookies. Pumpernickel and/or rye bread.
Creature feature
Continuing down that line, there's the Guillermo del Toro film 'Frankenstein' out in November. Who's the crazed mad sicko scientist with the madman brain who struck terror and horror and re-created human beings from living parts and starred charmer Boris Karloff and rumbled into our lives in 1931? Stars Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac.
'Time' has past
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Also making a return engagement — in some Broadway play form — singer Bobby Darin, who left us 1973 and donated his body to medical research. People once said — for no reason I can determine — that his ghost walks along Arthur Avenue in The Bronx.
I only know I reported that Sinatra gave him tips on how to handle women.
Reviews have said his story 'Just in Time' — Jonathan Groff plays Darin — is said to not have the endurance or be 'compelling enough.'
So what's left for us? Calvin Coolidge back as president?!