I will warn you, this is a long post.
A lot of posters have defined "the street" as anywhere outside of the dojo or tournament. While I understand what is generally meant by that and when street vs. dojo comparisons come up, I personally consider this a gross over simplification. It implies a sustained and uniform threat level anywhere outside of the dojo.
Personally, I think that the term is way overused and overhyped.
I almost think that some guys imagine a deep, radio announcers voice run through several stages of echo and reverb uttering the words, the street.
So rather than simply come right out and say, this is the street and you need to be ready for it because it can come and find you and bite you at any time, anywhere, and for any reason, how about actually enumerating the different environs that one finds themselves in and discuss how they intersect with the street instead?
The Home: Most often the safest, most controlled environment. Violence or abuse issues in the home not withstanding, the home is a sanctuary from the outside world. The biggest risks are home invasions and burglaries which can penetrate that safety. No, this is not an example of the street coming to you (unless you are in a gang or some illegal profession that involves the street). This is an example of criminals coming to you.
The workplace: Nearly as controlled as the home environment, sometimes more so, the workplace is focused on keeping the workers working. Fisticuffs, harassment, threats, and overt malevolence can get people fired. People go to work to earn money. Bad behavior inhibits that. The biggest risk is similar to that of the home: robbery of the business, nutballs wanting to take hostages or the disgruntled employee who decides to shoot up the office. Uncommon, but it happens. Likewise, this is not the street coming to get you, but criminals.
The dojo: Like home and the workplace, the dojo is a controlled environment. The likelihood of being attacked outside of a training context is fairly low and there are mechanisms in place to keep things from getting out of hand. Your biggest risk is really training injuries. The dojo's only point of intersection with the street is the parking lot (see shopping malls below).
The friendly social event: Often an extension of home or the workplace. Generally, all involved are friends and the purpose of the gathering is friendly. Cook outs, religious services, picnics, kids little league games, coffee house performances, Tupperware parties, and martial arts demonstrations and tournaments all fall into this category. Generally the biggest threat is either a sports injury, a guest getting out of hand due to alcohol or a parent getting out of hand because he or she did not like the refs call and thinks that their kid was safe/scored the point/whatever. Such events generally are tame and not the place where partygoers get hammered. If the event is outdoors, it is at a park location designated for such things and there are a lot of people around who are friendly and disinclined to violence.
The shopping mall/grocery store/stand alone retail establishment: Probably the most dangerous place for the average person. The shopping mall or stand alone retail establishment has a parking lot that requires you to walk a good distance from your car to the establishment and they are open at night. Parking lots are rarely patrolled to any degree that makes them impervious to crime. Thus car jackings, kidnappings, purse snatchings, vehicular altercations, muggings and rapes all occur in parking lots. Often the victim is not aware due to being on the cell phone or focused on what they came in to buy. The victim feels safe, as it is after all, his or her favorite mall or trusted grocery store.
It is this environ where the street most often intersects with the lives of the average citizen.
The public venue: Large concerts, amusement parks, conventions, and stadiums all fall into this category. You have everything about the aforementioned parking lot, and it is amplified by the lot being of vast size and the venue often away from any sort of residential or built up area and people often leaving after dark.
In addition, you have the serving of alcohol, the presence of people from any and all walks of life, including gangs (hey, they like concerts and theme parks too, you know), ex cons, street toughs and thugs. Not to mention fans of rival teams that often wind up resembling gangs and are often drunk. There are way too many people for the security to effectively police.
This is a more dangerous proposition than the previous environs, mainly due to size and scale.
The Airport, train station buss terminal: Transients from all over the country or the world, massive parking lots with comparatively minimal security and people tense due to the stress of travel. All of the pitfalls of the large venues parking lot plus people who specifically target such places for kidnappings.
The social scenes: Night clubs, bars, raves, frat parties, large parties where partygoers party hard are all social scenes. I ranked these higher because they are more often frequented and often have the same security issues, but most importantly, they all involve alcohol after dark and are almost always in commercially zoned urban areas and are frequented by less desirable elements. The street is intermingled with these places, the only difference being the close at hand presence of some form of security (bouncers, guards) and a large public presence.
Biggest threats: armed partygoers, out of hand drunks, drugged up aggressive people, fights over who is dating whom, rival gangs, pick pockets, criminals and ex cons.
The street: Great Scot! It does exist! But what is it? Anywhere that is out of doors with no security or guaranteed public presence. Quite literally, the street is the streets of the city. This is, in fact, where the term came from. If you are a teen roaming or a person walking the dog or taking a moonlight stroll on the streets of suburbia at night, guess what, this is the street as well.
Muggers, armed robbers, gang members, board teens with too much time and not enough parental supervision, fleeing robbers or escaped cons who may or may not be getting chased by the police, criminals meeting at a neutral area to make the drop, gangs in cars out on a drive by shooting mission, cops patrolling their beat, citizens walking their dog, stray dogs, lovers on a stroll, lovers who like to love in the outdoors, drunks who have left the party or bar, homeless people, and more are all the sorts of people you may encounter on the street particularly at night.
Biggest threat: robbery, assault, rape, murder. Mix it up with the wrong people and you could wind up injured or killed. Each and every bad encounter is the sort that would require police intervention. And when seconds count, the police are generally minutes away. Simple common sense can help you avoid a lot of problems on the street without any physical altercation. But not always.
And it is this unpredictability that makes the streets dangerous.
The wilderness: Walking on an interstate after your car ran out of gas, hunting, hiking in the woods, rock climbing, bouldering, safari are all the wilderness. Unpredictable, like the street, but there is absolutely zero chance of anyone witnessing what happens to you.
Biggest threats: exposure, animals, other bad guys in the wilderness, hunters stray bullets, injuries or medical conditions that may manifest. You just disappearing. The isolation is the biggest factor, which is the opposite of the street, where you do have at least a chance of getting help.
The badguys HQ: If you are not a bad guy, LEO, customer, aspiring bad guy, or mutant with super powers that make you a match for a bunch of guys with guns, you have no business being here. Walk into the badguys HQ and you can pretty much expect to exit in a body bag.
Bad guys HQ includes a literal bad guys HQ, such as a gangs favored place of meeting, crack house, meth factory, secret back room where crime bosses meet, secure locations for black market deals, etc.
There is no security. Unless you are the cops, there is no police presence. There is no public to witness the bad guys being bad. Yes, the bad guys HQ is a step beyond the street. In fact, you are better off on the street.
The prison: I listed this last as it is the most dangerous place to be. Even though there is a police presence and the bad guys are caged, the bad guys outnumber the guards. Unless you are one of the guards, guess what? You are stuck there with the bad guys. This is kind of like the bad guys HQ, except that you cannot leave. The bad guys cannot leave. Since the bad guys are already in prison, they have less to lose; they no longer have to worry about maintaining the appearance of behaving in order to stay out. A guy who is in prison for life for murder has no reason to be gentle or to not kill you. Then there is the issue of prison rape.
My point is that every environ outside of the dojo is most definitely not the street. Some are less dangerous than the dojo and some are more dangerous than the street. The strategies needed for survival are going to differ. Much of the strategum one needs in most of these environs has very little to do with combat training. In fact, in many (definitely not all) cases, if you get to the point of having to use physical force to settle the the issue or effect escape, you have probably misstepped somewhere along the line before the encounter.
As Black Lion pointed out, different people face varying threat levels in all of their enviroments depending upon geography and demographic and need to adjust accordingly.
It goes without saying that awareness, preparedness, and common sense is key in all of these environs.
Lastly, my post is based on my experience and on observation. I have no news sources or statistics to support any percentages or statements like, most of the time or most often.
Daniel
