Dear Editor,
As a Tulane alumnus living Uptown with quite a few friends who are still students, it’s been impossible not to notice the rash of rapes and other attacks that have been occurring in the university area lately.
While this has been a problem ever since I was a freshman, this is the highest frequency we’ve seen in some time, and it’s forming a worrying trend.
Although admittedly there are countless measures that Tulane and Loyola (and, on a larger scale, the New Orleans Police Department and the city of New Orleans as a whole) could take to help stop these attacks, as someone who has worked in the security and asset protection industry for the last two years, I can say from experience that there are also a variety of steps that individual students can take to keep themselves safe as well.
Physical self defense classes are available through the Reily Center — and they do teach extremely valuable defense techniques.
Pepper spray, though, which is readily available online and requires only a little knowledge to use properly, allows you to keep your distance and still stop an attacker in their tracks.
Best of all, it’s cheap — an average canister usually only costs around $20, including shipping.
There are only a few features that you really need to look for.
Principally speaking, though there are a lot of sprays available, they all work in pretty much the same way.
Pepper spray painfully burns the eyes, nose, lungs and mouth and incapacitates the attacker while doing no long-term harm.
That not only means that pretty much anything you can find on the market should be effective, it also means you don’t need to delve too deeply into the technical details of what you’re buying.
Still, it is important to get a canister that you’ll be happy with and won’t mind carrying around.
Typically it’s best to look for one small enough to fit on a keychain or inside a purse.
In addition to the size consideration, it’s also important to make sure you’re getting enough spray to work with in an emergency.
Just one shot of pepper spray is enough to incapacitate an adult for 10 to 20 minutes.
It’s still best, though, to get a product with at least five shots in it (in case you miss, or there are multiple attackers).
Also make sure to check how far the nozzle can spray.
Your best bet is to look for one with an eight or 10-foot range.
Some even come with glow-in-the-dark nozzles to make aiming easier at night.
Aside from the must-haves, there are also a lot of optional extras you can find as well.
For example, some products spray a fluorescent dye along with the pepper spray itself.
This does not make the spray any more effective, but rather stains the clothing and skin of an attacker to make identification easier after the fact.
It’s possible to find pepper spray canisters disguised as lipstick containers, pagers, phones or even pens.
It’s also fairly easy to find pepper spray integrated into small defensive batons, giving you the ability to physically defend yourself if needed.
Even if you don’t want something hidden, though, standard canisters generally come in a variety of colors and can be carried any number of ways.
It’s an investment in your personal security that will be there when you need it but that you won’t need to think about every second of every day.
In short, pepper spray is inexpensive, easy to find and pick out, easy to carry and extremely effective in keeping an attacker from harming you.
The peace-of-mind is valuable, and any student, male or female, would be thankful to have it in an emergency.
Sincerely,
Tom Connor
Tulane University, A’07
[email protected]
