There is something so Canadian about the reactions of women runners to the murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry in Pacific Spirit Park at UBC. Over and over again, women have been telling the media that they will get a whistle. One woman said she will be giving out whistles. American women would be holding taser parties or applying to get real guns. But Canadians seem to be long past thinking along those lines.
Except for Sharon Gregson.
Gregson, a Vancouver School Board trustee, caused a furor when she posed on the cover of a gun magazine and stated that she believes that women should be allowed to carry guns for personal protection.
Actually, if there is anyone who should be feared it's Sharon Gregson. Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry have a paper trail of evidence establishing that Gregson is one of the trustees who has been covering up the use of criminal tactics and political psychiatry by the School Board to deter bullying complaints. These tactics are behind the current international boycott of Vancouver School Board diplomas. Gregson is not roaming the woods ready to pounce and murder but the tactics she has tolerated at the VSB, particularly smear tactics involving the manufacture of psyhiatric and police records to destroy the reputation of a complainant, could conceivably result in the death of a targeted citizen. But when it comes to Gregson's gun stance, I'd like to hear more from her.
Over the past month, the American radio show Coast to Coast radio has twice had a guest -- I'm trying to remember his name -- who did his Ph.d research on gun violence. He claims that gun men on shooting sprees in the U.S. consistently choose places where guns are prohibited; unarmed people make easier victims. In Vancouver yesterday, the would be jewelry store robbers on Robson St. ran out of the store immediately after the owner fired one shot. I was surprised the owner even had a gun.
Dr. Laura has a gun. She's a karate expert but she's not relying solely on that to protect her if she is a victim of crime. She has a problem with California's gun law though, that requires that you keep your bullets separate from your gun. Dr. Laura makes fun of the fact that when being attacked you have to stop and load the bullets into your gun. That's about as effective as jogging in Pacific Spirit Park with a whistle. A whistle is better than nothing, but I think women jogging should at least carry a knife; afterall, they have to have something on them to carve up the apple they take with them for a snack.
2 comments:
I can tell you that it is harder than you might think to start stabbing people when confronted with someone who is demanding something. What went through my mind is that I didn't want to be the first one to start the blood flowing. I thought that unless I killed him with the first stab, it was very likely that he would then grab the knife from me and start stabbing me, probably to much greater effect. I survived the attack on me, and looking back, I think I made the right decision. I think I would have died if I'd been the one to start the bloody violence.
In the Province newspaper, there was a letter to the editor about carrying pepper spray when jogging in Pacific Spirit Park since the murder. It was pointed out that if a cop asks about it, you can say you carry it to use in case attacked by a dog. It's illegal to carry it for use against humans.
The late Tom Green was sitting in front of the Radio Cafe on the Downtown Eastside and a cop spotted a can of bear spray protruding from his pocket. The cop said, "A lot of bears around here?" Tom said he was the caretaker at Strathcona Park, which was true, and he carried it because of the dogs. The cop didn't take it from him.
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