Do not tell a Dominican, “I will hit you”

By Christine Nice

In the below attached video, one man threatens another, which in his part for personal protection arms himself with two bottles in his defense. It has escalated to the point where ‘the threatened man’ would prefer be the one who would be inflicting the first blow. Many times in the past after a violent incident occur in our community, bystanders or neighbors talk about what kind of machete, knife, gun or even stone they would use as a weapon and how it would be utilized.

The Threat
The originality of the threat is substantially a psychological form of bullying. It is applied to the potential victim to manifest his level of malleability. Somewhat of a test to see if he is a coward, or if he has the resilient potency of fighting back. According to his response or lack of it, would be sufficient in the progress of the actual threat. Whether it could be executed right away , or whether it should be implemented progressively, stemming from insults to be worked up to a heated argument then the infliction.

The Potential Victim
Many scenarios can arise from a threatened individual. It usually relies on the personality of the individual, for example, a peaceful person, would complain about his perpetrator, while an individual who deals with fears and other problems would react in the quickest way society has taught him how, which is with violence to immediately eliminate the threat.

Dealing with Threats
The key to dealing with threats is to do an investigation and psychological assessment to determine the credibility of the threat and to implement a strategy to mitigate it.

Does the person making the threat have a psychiatric or personality disorder? Such as Bipolar disorder or is he under the effect of alcohol or any type of substance abuse?

Did he have a traumatic or abnormal past life experience or a relationship conflict? Did his girlfriend leave him? Did he just lose his business, job or property?

There could also be a behavioral pattern that would drive him to carry out his threat. In our society, backing down to a threat, looking at the floor or looking away, essentially equates the threatened as a submissive victim.