Posted on 08/09/2002 1:27:20 PM PDT by pabianice
Police seeking to stem a rash of sexual attacks in the North End and Brighton are making it easier for women to protect themselves by helping them get Mace.
After being deluged with calls from women asking how to get the chemical spray, police set up night and weekend registration hours for them to apply for the required permit to carry Mace.
A steady stream of women went to the North End station last night.
At least seven women have been raped or assaulted by a serial attacker in the neighborhood over the past three months.
``I live in Brookline and I do walk around a lot at night. I didn't know you had to get a license to carry it in the first place. At least it's something,'' said Jennifer Robinson.
But some women were turned away because they didn't have the proper paperwork to get a Restricted Firearms Identification Card. Proof of U.S. citizenship and city residency is required. The cost is $25. Photo identification is needed and a criminal background check is done.
A woman who lives in the Fenway and said she was raped in her home recently by an acquaintance was turned away from the station last night because she's not a U.S. citizen.
``I should be able to protect myself. If worse comes to worst, I'll carry a gun illegally because I won't let this happen to me again,'' the woman said in tears. North End resident Maura McGarty also left frustrated because she was not aware of all the information she needed to show police. ``It's too bad. It takes a lot of guts for someone to come down here and get this,'' she said.
Last Friday, a woman was attacked in the North End but it is unclear whether her assailant is the same man who has preyed on more than a half-dozen women there since May 18.
In Brighton, a predator has assaulted about a dozen women since November, including some at gunpoint. ``We consider it extremely serious,'' Brighton Lt. Sean Feeney said of the attacks.
District 1 and District 14 will hold a registration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. District 14 will also have one from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Seems like a "steady stream of bullets" would be a more rational answer to this problem than Mace.
IIRC, there are some folks--including those who are mentally unstable--that become ENRAGED rather than cowed when they are hit with Mace, and there've been cases of women being even more seriously injured than they would have been had the rapist had his way with them.
So those who qualify get their stupid mace, those who don't are OK to rape, I guess.
Well, they voted for the morons who enacted these stupid laws.
Take a tip from recent events in Baton Rouge, Bostonian women.
Mace is a firearm? WTF?
"I should be able to protect myself. If worse comes to worst, I'll carry a gun illegally because I won't let this happen to me again," the woman said in tears.
Good for her. Unfortunately, she would be drawn and quartered in Boston if she did use lethal force on an attacker.
This can't be true!
There are laws against carrying a gun in that city!
Next thing they'll be saying is that there are laws against rape.
Yep, yep, and yep. At least "mace" FIDs are "shall issue" and no woman who wants one will experience the joy of being denied an LTC by a police chief "cuz only cops should have guns."
On the OTHER hand, a well placed round from nearly any caliber but preferably the biggest you can hit with consistently, will simply turn off the nerves and the mind and the heart and thus the problem.
The white house just announced that they are extending the area around the Whitehouse to limit private vehicles for security purposes, Our President and our congress and senators have multiple rings of security around them, all the federal buildings are now fortresses, local mayors and governors all have professional security.
Yet these same people sit around all day passing more laws that will decrease our personal security through more strict gun laws..
Serial Killer has already claimed at least three victims who apparently let him into their homes without a fuss. But evidence indicates that in at least two of them, a fierce struggle took place. Even the anti-gunners from the MMM's are lining up at the local gunshops and signing up for gun classes and to get a CCW. Going on such a spree in a state that declared open season with no bag limit on car jackers is more than a little bit of a death wish...IMHO.
Watch for this animal to move his operations to a safer neighborhood...say North Boston. My sister lives there and she is very anti-gun. I worry about her a lot.
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