I’ve written about situational awareness and Cooper’s Color Codes for years, and I try to go through life in Condition Yellow—a state of calm observation and awareness. And a few months ago, I experienced a situation that was a clear-as-day example of the Condition White state of the general population. And let me tell you, it’s a little uncomfortable to be in Condition Orange when everyone around you is happily absorbed in their little Condition White bubble.
My husband had gotten a call that his elderly father was having some kind of episode and was headed to the emergency room in our small, rural town. When we got there, he was already back with the doctors, and my husband’s cousin and his wife were sitting in the waiting room. We settled in to talk with them, and eventually my husband was summoned back inside the ER with his dad. It was a Sunday evening and we were the only people in the waiting room at the time. Things were quiet.
Until they weren’t. There was a sudden increase in activity among the staff, and an announcement came over the PA system that the emergency room was being temporarily locked down. Anyone who approached the attendant was told, “I’m sorry, we can’t let you past the waiting room right now, and your loved one can’t come out until lockdown is over.”
I don’t recall how, but we soon figured out that a gunshot victim had been brought in and was in the back with the doctors and the police. More police gathered outside to watch the entrance to the waiting room. Flashing lights and officers standing around everywhere outside.
“I wonder why they have to lock it down if he’s already here?” I mused, naively, to which the cousin’s wife very casually replied, “Oh, they do that because sometimes the shooter comes to the hospital to try to finish the victim off or to kill witnesses.” And then she went back to scrolling social media on her phone.
My Condition Yellow starting inching its way toward Condition Orange as I took stock of what was happening. Police outside. My husband locked inside the ER. No one’s allowed to go in or out of there. There was an exit to the outside on my left (where the cops were), an exit to the rest of the hospital on my right, and a small vending machine vestibule immediately to my left. If anyone were to come either of the doors with the intent to cause trouble, that puny vestibule was my only cover, and it wasn’t great.
The waiting room started to fill up, and I paid particular attention to a middle-aged man and his two 20-something-year-old sons, who identified themselves to the staff as the victim’s family. They settled in the far corner of the waiting room, facing me, and the sons kept their hands in their hoodie pockets while shifting their eyes around the room. No phones, no talking, just watching with their hands in their pockets.
That was enough for me—while my husband’s cousin and his wife sat mindlessly scrolling, I had evaluated the situation and decided it would be safer to leave. My husband had the car keys, so I couldn’t leave the premises. Retreating deeper into the hospital seemed like the only practical option, so I told the cousin and his wife I was getting out of there, and they were amused. “You scared?” they joked in a lighthearted manner—but it wasn’t lighthearted to me. I ducked past the family in their hoodies and wandered into the hospital until I found a spot that seemed out of the way enough that wouldn’t be bothered in an active-shooter scenario. I ended up spending about 45 minutes in the hospital chapel until the building came off lockdown.
It all ended fine—no one shot up the place, the victim of the shooting survived, and my father-in-law was released with a diagnosis of dehydration. It turns out my Condition Orange was “for nothing,” but that doesn’t mean it was a mistake. I did what made me comfortable at the time, and it was an eye-opening experience for me to see how different people respond to the same situation. The cousin and his wife remained in Condition White through the whole thing, even when they knew the security concerns. The family of the victim was obviously somewhere in Condition Yellow or even Orange, as they were on the lookout themselves for potential trouble. And I, a big fan of the “flight” part of fight-flight-freeze, took the opportunity to nope right on out of there before trouble found me.
I’m not here to toot my own horn or tell you that I handled this properly and everyone else handled it poorly, but I amtelling you that the color codes exist for a reason, and you shouldn’t let embarrassment, social awkwardness or normalcy bias talk you out of acting out of self-preservation when your instincts and observations are telling you to do something.
