Terrorists on the move: Vigilance is our defence

In recent weeks we have seen terror related incidents in Manchester, London, two in Melbourne and another in Paris this morning. The frequency is not unexpected given the war in Syria for ISIL is failing badly or has failed, depends who you listen too! This has now pushed these trained operatives into the civilian world where they can operate or influence the commencement of terrorist attacks directly or indirectly.

Regardless of your opinions on what is happening here, the fact is we are under attack and have been for some time. Many individuals, particularly Australians like to think this will just go away or the police/government will sort this out. Unfortunately, this is not the case and we have to face up to, we as civilians are in this whether you like it or not. This is our society now and we have to make decisions about what we are going to do.

If we want to continue our live our lives. As individuals, we need to start arming ourselves with knowledge on how to deal with the situation. Vigilance is key. We have heard a lot about what to do when you are confronted with a terrorist incident. I have some advice here, it’s too late, they have achieved their aim. We need to understand what these people do to plan and organise these attacks. Then we can recognise such activity and report, stopping them at the planning stage.

These individuals move among us and must plan, this takes time and organisation. Attacks are not just thought up on the day as a whim. Their activities have recognisable traits but they rely on the ‘not get involved attitude of the community’ to conduct planning. This allows these events to occur.

My organisation and I have been talking about this since we opened in 2014, yet we have found few people listening. We have been on radio, in the papers, approached federal and state politicians for support but the thought is, we are fear mongering or it won’t happen here. Hence, we are one of the only organisations who train this to security guards at initial training as a specific subject area. But that is the extent of it.

We need to get interested, the information is available. Find it, understand it and apply it. Wherever you get it from ensure it is worthwhile and applies to your situation. Become vigilant so you can help protect yourself, your family and community.  A few hours of training is a small price to pay.

BE AWARE, BE ALERT, REPORT!!