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.

We interupt this program...

A long time ago I mentioned how a lot of self defense products...some that people put great store in...don't work in the real world all the time.

Here's a great link to a news story discussing Court TV (for my non US readers it's a tv channel here that focuses on true crime and criminal justice system shows). Watch the first clip of the "poor misunderstood" prisoner attacking the prison guard the second they leave the court room.

Pay great attention to the guard who obviously never bothered learning how to fight despite working amongst the most vicious members of society on a day to day basis who uses his mace to try and subdue the prisoner. Notice the mace covering him as much as the bad guy - one huge problem with it - and two, notice how absolutely ineffective it is on someone amped up, intent on doing you harm. Also, notice how long it takes him to access the gas canister (a huge problem with weapons as your only solution) and imagine if the bad guy had a knife instead of a clenched fist.

There's a slew of lessons in this one clip...if a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a video clip like this worth?


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22773900#22773900