Ignorance is Bliss

Approximately a week ago a young woman was assaulted uptown by a sexual predator. Of course, if the information in the media is to be believed, she was on her own walking back to her car when the attack happened and she was under the influence of alcohol.

Obviously that's fairly tragic but what bugged me almost as much was the - dare I say it - stupid responses by other young girls they interviewed about the attack.

The first one claimed she and her girlfriend are going to buy and carry mace. Now we've talked about this before...mace is pretty much useless. I don't want to rely on something that I have to lick my finger and determine the wind direction before I can use it, something that I might spray myself with under stress (hey, plenty of rookie cops do just that the first time) and, that even if I use correctly, may not work.

The second one said she's buying a taser. Yep, that's definitely a step up from the mace product but there's still a HUGE problem and that is that all weapons, no matter what form they may take, have to be in your hand when you're attacked to be viable.

Criminals aren't as stupid as some seem to think they are. They know people carry weapons and so they launch their attacks accordingly i.e. they talk their way in and ambush you, or they hide and then ambush you. Either way, unless your weapon is in your hand, primed for use (and that's assuming you're sober right!!) it's about as much use as a snooze button on a smoke alarm.

Sorry, but I just can't see the women I've seen stumbling out of clubs at 2am having the presence of mind to access their weapon for the walk to the car or having the wherewithal to use it given their state of inebriation.

You're pinning your hope of survival on a tool instead of pinning it on yourself...and that's a recipe for disaster.

The third lass in the story was the worst yet. She claimed she was going to get security to escort her to her car and actually had the gall to say "I know they're needed elsewhere but I'm going to have them walk me there anyway."

She's assuming that the rent-a-cops are capable, that they're going to be allowed to leave their posts to provide our prima donna with her own personal escort and that there's enough of them to go around to escort every woman who wants their own body guard back to their car. Not gonna happen.

Here's a better solution...learn to defend yourself, travel in packs, and stay lucid enough to be aware of your surroundings.