When moving to some scary streets in my travel,I would shout to my companion in the local language, trying to signal to potential thugs to choose chasing someon

When moving to some scary streets in my travel,I would shout to my companion in the local language, trying to signal to potential thugs to choose chasing someone else. I did it once in Russia while in a dodgy neighborhood to buy vodka, and back in the 1990 when westerners were under some threats in the middl east.