Pepper spray

Pepper spray can be an excellent defense for someone who is in a position in which they are exposed to possible physical violence.

If I had had pepper spray with me a couple years ago I would have been able to prevent a violent assault against me in which I was nearly strangled to death, had my head bashed repeatedly against the trunk of a tree, and then was crushed against the ground causing a ligament in my shoulder to tear.

Also, about a year ago it would have helped when a person came up to my vehicle and ripped the door open and started to assault me while I was seated in it and still strapped in with the seatbelt.

In a situation in which a person needs to defend their self against impending physical attack pepper spray is probably the best option available. When used correctly it immediately incapacitates an attacker for an extended period of time. The “extended period of time” is important in critical situations in which a person’s safety is at risk from a violent attacker.

Another benefit of pepper spray is that it can be discharged against an attacker from a distance. If someone is coming towards you, you don’t have to wait until they are right on top of you as you might have to with, for example, a stun gun.

I know that people also learn physical self-defense techniques and I’m sure these are useful. But, frankly, I don’t ever want to be in a situation in which an attacker is already in physical contact with me.

There is one thing to be very clear about with regard to the use of pepper spray: It must be used as a defense only against the threat of physical attack. Verbal harassment, no matter how extensive, does not qualify as sufficient to warrant the use of pepper spray.

One caution about its use is that obviously if an attacker has a firearm it could lead to a severe escalation resulting in someone being shot. But I would not not use pepper spray for that reason in most situations. It would depend who the assailant is. If the assailant is likely to have a gun, obviously it would be best to not use it.

Unfortunately there are a lot of criminals on the streets of my city who do carry firearms. There are drug cartels which operate in the open and usually within pre-defined territories which they sometimes contend against other cartels for.

But most of the violence perpetrated by these types of criminals fortunately is against each other and not against random people.

I wish there were publicly offered defense classes in my city. I know that in some countries like Japan that educating the public is actually considered part of the job of police and that they routinely hold events to educate and help people.

Its often not easy to find good information about relevant legal topics that would help one understand how to respond in different situations, but I believe that such information can only help build a better and safer community.

One thing that concerns me is that it seems more and more that people do not consider breaking laws in minor ways as wrong. The problem with that is it breeds an attitude that the law doesn’t really matter. People not only think that its ok to break laws, often they think that they are actually entitled to break them.

I have personally witnessed this far too many times in my own city.

This often happens in situations when existing infrastructure, regulations, etc. gets strained beyond the capacity which it can comfortably handle. For example, the fact that there is ever more population means that there are more people in more spaces, and this puts a strain on some areas of law and infrastructure which were probably already flimsy to begin with.

But rather than react to that by strengthening the flimsy regulations or infrastructure to deal with strained situations, the typical response is to allow the system to breakdown to the point where there are flagrant violations.

I would like to state that I think this is exactly the wrong response. During times in which resources and regulations are strained it is even more important to reinforce them and strengthen them.

The process I now see occurring is one that only occurs under tyranny. Selective enforcement is a good example of this. Often governmental entities are aware of this and will go to great lengths to claim that they do not engage in selective enforcement.

Selective enforcement is also just one aspect of another type of abuse that occurs when governments expend public resources for special interests. I recently read a very illuminating article about how taxpayers were swindled out of $billions for the sake of reconstruction from the 9/11 attacks.

Sadly, I think most people are too indifferent to even get involved to a level where they would be able to influence their governments in a positive way. Others simply do not have the resources to do so as they are struggling with things day-to-day.

There are a lot of difficulties in the world and there is demonic energy at macro and micro levels. Its always important to be able to protect oneself.