Blending in is something I was taught to do very well.

First thing, consider the culture and the standard mode of dress. If you're walking around in a salmar khameez and waskat sporting that kicky new pakol in down town Toronto whilst sweating to the oldies with a great bloody GP rack and service rifle, you'll kinda stick out. That's the stuff you use when you're expecting to go on the sharp end with your mates. But if you wear discreet tactical clothing, a low profile rack and haul a little carbine, you'll get around pretty well in a really bad place complete with snipers who, unless they are trained, will only find themselves hemmed in, besieged and dead. I have used the above idea several times, but was wearing the salmar khameez, waskat and pakol with the low profile stuff and got around the NPE/SOA pretty much unremarked... Noticed, but that was just 'cause I was not native to the local area and stood out due to ethnic disparity.

The point is, dress for success, not battle and you'll generally get by just fine. Remember that when you're bugging in, out or across, you have to set up for the buggin'. Kit up for your mission, not a gunfight.

Next, you have to plan to blend into the crowds and be prepared to move readily with the ebb and flow of the crowds you're moving in. If you go against a crowd it's like drawing an arrow on a map showing your path to those observant and dangerous few who would choose to harm you specifically. So be prepared to move along thoroughfares, seldom across them, never alone if you can help it.

When an X-ray comes along and looks for somebody in the crowd, the ones who make direct, (even slightly) protracted eye contact are going to garner their attention, keep your head down, adopt a similar expression to everybody else and only look at them as long as those who are around you do.

Don't walk around like you've got a gun. Walk along as if you are simply tired and hungry, looking for work or handouts, that almost always gets the avoid and evade response from those who are untrained in finding people. Also in this vein, be sure to slouch a bit... again, like you're tired and hungry, otherwise people even in the crowd may decide you've got food and a safe place to rest your head, which leads to an interchange that has all roads leading to violence and very likely death, either singular or multiple. If you're a body builder or otherwise demonstrably in excellent shape you will garner attention from the dangerous ones who may decide you are a threat and will simply terminate you where you stand as a matter of procedure. So hide it. Don't use it to intimidate people to get your way unless you're alone/sure you won't be noticed, and never try that with me. I get a bit testy when people try that with me. 😉

-S.

I think I still have a pakol around here somewhere...

If you want to see person that is paranoid, put a sign on a Telephone pole that says, "Smile, for the camera" , and see who reacts the most. 😯

I accept that I am under a fairly steady stream of surveillance. It's not avoiding the cameras that is important. It's acting like you don't care. Even the latest FR software takes time to process all the faces it has in a data stream and by the time it picks you out of the crowd (by the way, WHY it picked you out of the crowd is the real question, innit?), you've moved on to another set of cameras that, even if they have FR, will have to start the whole process over again.

-S.

I heard that black is a dead giveaway. It's doesn't have the camouflaging properties that people think it does, in urban or rural environments.

For urban OR rural camouflage, I heard it was best to dress in dark blue, dark grey or dark brown. These are all borderline natural colours. If you're wearing a long sleeve shirt all you need to cover up is a mask, or hat. I would never advise wearing shorts, as any white flesh would be a dead giveaway. Anyways the point is the eyes will recognize black, as you can imagine, what kind of background would you be in if it was pitch black?? So choose dark grey, dark blue or dark brown. These will also blend in better with everything around you.

They also are not suspicious at all in public.

Great post.......that is why I am amazed when I see pics of people wearing fatigues, boots and camo jackets with their camo BOB's. The way I see it if you cannot wear/carry your BOB through your city downtown without getting picked up by the cops you are going to have a bigger issue after an 'event' happens when you will have more eyes looking at you thinking.........'I 'd like to know what he has in that bag of his'. Don't tell me that your armed and can defend yourself because who's to say the guy thinking that is not also armed.

I just think that discretion and concealment are two things that are way overlooked when thinking about bugging out or trying to get home to bug in!! You do NOT want to bring attention to yourself......out of sight out of mind!