Friday, March 15, 2013

On self defense

Another heinous crime has taken place.

The librarian from the elementary school where my children attended was taking her 10-year-old daughter to gymnastics last night.  The class was at the mall.  This is the local mall, the tame suburban mall, the mall I always tell my kids to go to because the city mall is not safe.

On their way out to the car after the class, a man hi-jacked them, drove them to a country road behind the mall, raped the little girl and stabbed the mother to death.  The little girl somehow escaped from the car and got up to the road, where a passing car assisted her.

The man was a 29-year-old with a degree in computer science.  He'd been arrested in January, this January, 2013, two months ago, on multiple, multiple charges of child pornography.  On his multiple computers, police found over 500 illegal videos and over 3000 illegal images of child pornography.

So the judge heard his case, issued some rules about parole, and let him go with an ankle bracelet which the perpetrator quickly learned how to disarm.

Thank you Mr. Judge.  An entire community trusts you to protect us from wicked people, and this is what you have done.  I hope you know that the blood of this mother and the fate of her daughter rest squarely on your head: yours and the rest of the perverse, liberal and ineffective justice system in this land.

There is no such thing as a one-time child sex offender.  They cannot be rehabilitated.  We need to come to terms with this and start taking the safety of our children seriously.  A justice system that enables these sorts of things to happen is a broken justice system that needs to be fixed.

Since we obviously cannot hope for protection from those who ought to be protecting us, we need to defend ourselves, and I will repeat here what I have told my daughters before and will tell them again and again...

1.  If anyone ever accosts you in a mall or in a parking lot, scream and thrash around and holler and push the panic button on your key fob.  Do as much as you possibly can to raise a ruckus.  If he is threatening to kill you, if he tells you, "Be quiet or I will shoot you in the head," be as loud as you can possibly be.  He probably won't really do anything to you there anyway, in a place where there are other people and he is sure to be apprehended immediately.  There is at least a 50% chance that you will call his bluff and he will run away.  However, if he gets you away to a secluded place, there is no longer any way to attract attention or help, and no telling what awful things he will do.  It's much better to be shot point blank than to fall into the hands of a wicked person in a secluded place.  Also, in real life (unlike movies), there are no soliloquies where the perpetrator talks and you have an opportunity to figure a way of escape.  So if someone ever tries to grab you in a public place, fight immediately.  Fight to the death if you have to.  It will be preferable.

2.  When you go to fight someone in a situation like this, go for his face, particularly his eyes.  He will be expecting you to struggle and push him away, so if you surprise him by coming in close and grabbing his head, you may be able to catch him off guard.  Grab the sides of his head as hard as you can.  Pray to God to help you, make the most of the surge of adrenaline you will have, and jam your thumbs into his eye sockets for all you're worth, twisting as you go.  Think, "My mama always said to scratch his eyes out.  As God is my witness, I can do this." He will instinctively let you go and try to protect his eyes.   Make sure you do as much damage as you possibly can to his eyes as quickly as you can.  Then, if you have a chance, jam the heel of your hand upwards into his nose, driving his nose bone back into his brain.  Fight like an animal, and use your fingernails, your teeth, your elbows and your knees.

3.  Even better: carry a concealed handgun.  I am not even kidding.

1 comment:

Hope T. said...

Terrible. Horrific. I can't even believe we live in a world where such unspeakable crimes take place.

To have this happen so close to you, in such familiar venues, must make it even more sickening. I'm so sorry for the pain that your community is undergoing. How heavy life seems....