Gut Check


Lists of what to do in a negotiation are great. Books, like this one, that get you thinking about your own methods and the steps you should or shouldn’t take are fantastic. You can learn to be a negotiator, and a big part of learning should come from books and lectures and classes.

But sometimes it just comes down to doing it. Even for the pros, negotiation is just a gut check.

When the man who hijacked the Lufthansa jet agreed to surrender, there was one little snag involved. It wasn’t a snag, exactly; you might call it a condition, except it wasn’t precisely that either. Part of the deal was, the hijacker wanted to surrender to me.

Which, you know, was cool, because I was a cop. I did arrest people. It may even have been in my job description.

But I’ll tell you, it was a long, long walk out on that concrete. I wore a bulletproof vest, but that doesn’t cover every part of your body. One of the downsides to being trained as a sniper is that you’re very aware of the parts of your body that aren’t covered.

And another thing: Airbus 310s are very large aircraft. Lots of places for people to hide. Guy with a gun near the tail, in the cockpit . . .

The door opened.

We waited.

Man came out.

Came down the steps.

There was a second there, a split split second, when I thought maybe it might all go wrong. I was beyond negotiation at that point—I was beyond trust and any of that stuff. I was just a cold guy on an airport runway, taking a chance on my gut that this was going to work.

And I was scared for that split split second, as scared as I’ll ever be.

Then that instant passed and it was over. Ninjas around, good arrest, happy hostages freed, newspapers, TV.

It all looks easy now.




Negotiate and Win. Proven Strategies from the NYPD's Top Hostage Negotiator
Negotiate and Win: Proven Strategies from the NYPDs Top Hostage Negotiator
ISBN: 0071737774
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 180

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