Posted on 10/30/2006 11:27:49 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
FRIGHTENED women are learning self-defence, arming themselves with personal security alarms and exercising in groups following a spate of sex attacks across Brisbane.
In the latest attack on Friday night, a man tried to drag a 20-year-old woman into bushes at Daw Rd, Runcorn, on the southside, but she managed to fight him off.
Police are now investigating at least two rapes and about 25 sexual assaults on bikeways and jogging areas since January.
They are hunting a serial predator believed responsible for many of the attacks, and several copycat offenders.
State Labor MP for northside Ashgrove Kate Jones, 27, said the assaults had changed women's behaviour.
"They feel like they have to be far more vigilant and take safety precautions," she said.
" I haven't gone walking without taking a whistle and a mobile phone with me just in case anything happens, and I know other women my age in the area that do the same."
Accountant Nirvana McBeath, 33, said she was too scared to exercise alone after a man exposed himself to her on a bikeway.
"I was really scared, and I felt threatened because I felt isolated and I didn't know what to do," she said.
Ms McBeath has joined a gym so she can exercise indoors and goes jogging only once a week with a group of friends.
"I just wouldn't risk it by going out on my own. My friends have all joined the gym, too.
"We all feel scared. It's ruined the beauty of being able to go out for a jog and enjoy exercise. You don't feel like you can do that freely.
"My husband has taken it a step further and bought me a dog. He's not happy for me to jog on my own, either."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Dogs are very judgemental, are excellent detectors of people with bad character.
So do I but they're a *little* harder to get through the doors of a Wal*Mart after you've crossed the dark parking lot.....;D
[I'm surprised nobody's mentioned that good old country standby...an ax handle]
He was right, too.
Just about *anything* can be used as an effective weapon.
Where there's a will to live, there's a way.
[my dad was a prison guard for 30 years. I know of ways to make weapons out of some of the craziest things]....LOL!
Yes, that's true. Ingenuity helps. Actually, I have occasionaly thought back on that and, since I usually have a pen with me, I decided that I am always armed and dangerous! I think the important thing is having the will to fight back.
Heh..heh..
You're talking about 'ol hickory'.
I have one behind the seat of my pick-up. It's been 'customized' with a little 'grip tape', and a retention loop.
/jasper
My, how thoughtful! LOL!
Sometimes, the shock of an "unwilling" victim is enough to stop an attack.
No matter what happens or is threatened to happen, scream, yell, kick, bite , go for the gonads...*whatever*...raise hell and draw attention to what is happening to you.
Several women have been abducted near the local Wal*Mart and no one knew it was happening because the women went numb and silent from fear.
*Don't* do that.
Throw a HUGE fit.
LOL!
My dad had a 3 foot length of logging chain welded to a handle behind his truck seat.
You should've seen what one swing of that thing would do a galvanized 40 gallon steel trash can.
It was like a Scottish war hammer.
Sometimes it the simple "medieval" things that work best....:)
Gotta go get groceries now.
Be back later.
I agree. Somebody posted something about a program for school kids that taught them and their teachers to simply start screaming, biting, and throwing things if their classroom was invaded. Everybody here laughed, but personally, I think any aggressive defense (even by a small kid) is going to really unnerve the attacker. He may kill one or two people; but as we have seen, he probably planned to kill them all. I think fighting back (any way you can) is probably the key to survival. Or a quick death, which is sometimes the better option.
Kinda puts a kink in your run... Seriously I want a handgun, but I wouldn't carry one while running because, well, it's too heavy! I always have my phone on me and my eyes are constantly checking around me as I run.
"..."My husband has taken it a step further and bought me a dog..."
One has to wonder if they purchased a dog because they truly wanted a pet dog anyway, or it was just the result of rising crime. If the sole factor is threat of attack, it's really too bad that firearms aren't allowed in that country. A living animal is not something to bring into a home if one isn't prepared for a fifteen-year relationship or more. This whole scenario begs for a .357 Magnum solution.
~ Blue Jays ~
Well, yeah, in a perfect world...
:-)
If you are not trained carry pepper spray. If you are carry a pistol. Get licensed if at all possible. Glocks are still the best thing on the market. Extreme reliability, excellent accuracy, relatively low cost, and excellent for neophytes in a high stress situation. That is why they are the choice of so many police forces.
Bottom line - too many people watch too much television. Violence is too often unexpected, happens faster than you can think, is vicious, intense, and makes your body turn into an adrenaline filled noodle. So, take your good intentions one step further and carry a real weapon and get some real training - firearms training along with mixed martial arts training.
"However, in most states the penalty for unlawful carry of concealed knives with sufficient blade length to be reasonably effective is the same as for firearm carry"
My dad made that very same legal point to me.
My reply was "Well then, which would you rather attend? My funeral or my trial?"
Hasn't uttered a peep about the knives since.
In MD, it is virtually impossible to get a CCW permit.
That puts a big target on the back of every woman traveling alone.
There's utterly no reason any LEO searching me otherwise, so *if* the knife becomes an issue, it's because I cut up some rapist or other perv.
By then, it will have become a legal moot point and I will, hopefully, be alive to face the "consequences".
For some of us, it is a matter of preferring the possibility of death or jail to the "other choice".
I have my reasons for feeling that way.
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