Here’s some “reasonable expectations” for you.
Via Hot Air, check this out (oh and by the way, the victim in the case was 16 years old):
The state Court of Criminal Appeals voted 4-1 in favor of Riccardo Gino Ferrante, who was arrested in 2006 for situating a camera underneath the girl’s skirt at a Target store and taking photographs.
Ferrante, now 34, was charged under a “Peeping Tom” statute that requires the victim to be “in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy.” Testimony indicated he followed the girl, knelt down behind her and placed the camera under her skirt.
In January 2007, Tulsa County District Judge Tom Gillert ordered Ferrante’s felony charge dismissed. That was based upon a determination that “the person photographed was not in a place where she had a reasonable expectation of privacy,” according to the appellate ruling issued last week.
Few things call for a great big What The Fuck?! quite like this does.
But it’s fine, just fine. Because the way I see it is, a guy who tries to stick a camera up my skirt has no reasonable expectation of not getting his ass kicked. He would have no reasonable expectation for me not to unkindly introduce my foot to his testicle region, and no reasonable expectation that I would not then pull a pistol out of my purse and use the butt of it to smash his eye sockets in.
He’d also have no reasonable expectation that I wouldn’t then hold my gun to his head while taking his camera from him, popping the memory card out for evidence, and then smashing the shit out of the camera while I scream for someone to call the cops, who I would tell he tried to sexually assault me. I mean let’s be reasonable.
On the other hand, girls can I ask you something? How stupid do you have to be, to be so unaware of your surroundings that a person can even get in a position to hold a camera under your skirt? When I’m at Target, NO ONE gets that close to me, especially behind me, without me knowing about it. There’s something wrong in the way this girl’s parents raised her, I say. She should have been taught some very basic survival skills, not the least of which is don’t let strange men get in your space. Ever. Freak your SHIT if you have to, make a scene, but never let a stranger get up behind you like that. Forget taking pics of your butt, they’re more likely to steal your purse or assault you physically.
I owe my brother for my hyper-aware caution. We went on a long road trip when I was 18, from Texas to Fort Bragg, and spent a goodly portion of our time discussing how I could avoid ever being victimized by some asshole. Rick told me, keep your head UP. Pay attention to everything around you. If anyone gets close enough to you to touch you or your things, get away and/or make a scene. Look potential thugs in the eye - let them know you SEE them and you’re hip to their shit. You don’t have to be “nice”, ever. Who gives a damn if someone thinks you’re scared of them when you shouldn’t be? Screw that; it’s your ass on the line and no one’s going to protect it if you don’t.
I’m small, just between 5′3″ and 5′4″. So in reality, if attacked, I wouldn’t necessarily go for the nuts; I’ve heard that just pisses men off unless you get them so hard and good that it puts them down. Being so short and wee of form, the odds of me being able to get my foot anywhere near the average man’s junk with any kind of force are pretty low. I’m more likely to have my leg grabbed and be knocked off balance, which is an extremely poor outcome.
Rick told me to instead go for the eyes and the nose with every ounce of fury in my body. Bite if you have to. Pretend you’re a feral badger (is there any other kind?) and just GO CRAZY trying to hurt the bastard. First chance you get, run. like. hell.
I don’t know how I went from discussing a court case about privacy in public places to a play-by-play of what to do if you’re attacked. All I know is it’s fun to talk about violently disabling a bad guy. Good times.
That’s actually good advice, Rachl Lukis, for the small-of-stature and -muscle.
It only takes about 12 pounds per square inch of pressure to pop the eyeball out of the socket, so get in there with the thumbs and dig, baby! Whacking somebody good in the nose also isn’t fatal, but it’s very painful and guaranteed to blur the vision so you can scream and run away.
Other favorites: Hitting somebody in the side of the head with your cupped hand generates more than enough pressure to rupture your standard eardrum, which is excruciatingly painful. They’ll very rapidly forget whatever they were trying to do to you. Pop ‘em in the throat and I guarantee they’ll have trouble breathing for a minute or two (again, while you scream and run away).
Finally, don’t kick that junk - grab it hard and pull like you’re trying to yank it off (feral-badger-style). That’s also extraordinarily painful.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:24 amSounds like good advice from your brother. Glad he was looking out for you.
What I would have done, were I the prosecutor in this case, is bring child pr0n charges against the guy. They probably still can; if not the local DA, then the US Attorney for that district. But you’re right, the best punishment might have been a kick so hard his eggs get permanently scrambled.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:25 amWhile this sounds like a ridiculous result, the problem here is that the prosecutors totally screwed up, and charged him with an inappropriate crime. They “creatively” charged him with a law that was intended to target people looking in other people’s windows, instead of charging him with any number of things that he actually apparently did.
Why did they do it? Probably because, in the statute in question using a camera bumped it from a misdemeanor to a felony, and they were just trying to get him to plea bargain it away. Most of the other things they could have charged him with are likely just misdemeanors.
But if you look at the actual law:
“Every person who hides, waits or otherwise loiters in the vicinity of any private dwelling house, apartment building, any other place of residence, or in the vicinity of any locker room, dressing room, restroom or any other place where a person has a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy, with the unlawful and willful intent to watch, gaze, or look upon any person in a clandestine manner”
It’s pretty clear here that what he did does not qualify under this specific law. While they ruled (correctly IMO) on the ‘place where a person has a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy’, there’s also a pretty good case to be made that walking up behind someone and shoving a camera under her skirt isn’t particularly being clandestine.
Having said all that, if it happened to someone I knew while I was there, I’d have kicked their ass.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:42 amThis kind of crap doesn’t go down at K-Mart. People are too busy trying to navigate the inventory strewn about the aisle floors by Oblivions to have time to snap perverted pictures.
You could turn an ankle or something.
As for the 4-1 vote. I say give the “1″ a medal and take “uprobe” pictures of the “4″ as soon as they enter a “public” area where there would be no “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Decency be damned.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:57 amYour brother gave you good advice. The most important thing is to attack with no other thought except to inflict as much damage as you can in the time that you have. Do not let up, do not hold back. Just attack. Side of the head, eyes, throat, all of the soft, easily damaged body parts.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:04 amI would consider the inside of my skirt a place where I could have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:07 amAlthough, speaking of underage girls at Target, I was actually at one of their locations yesterday. Shocking, I know. There was a 15 year old girl wearing a t-shirt and boy shorts. I don’t mean shorts in a masculine style. I mean the ladies panties in this style. That’s all. Well, she was also wearing shoes. Apparently, she had no reasonable expectation of privacy (or modesty, or decorum…) I’m no prude, but there should be something left to the imagination. Most healthy men that I know feel dirty when they catch their little head visualizing the svelte teenage girl in her underwear. Actually seeing one triggers meltdown. Hell, I had to stare.
I about passed out just reading that.
I’d stick with knees though. Knee + testicle = pain.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:08 amEcho on the child pr0n prosecution suggestion. And your brother gave you good advice. Situational awareness combined with attack/disable/retreat. The problem with nut shots is that us guys, even those with no fighting experience, reflexively shield our packages. Makes it tough to land a solid shot when conflict has already commenced–it’s gotta be by surprise. You can actually get better mileage telegraphing a nut shot as a fake, using it to get them off-balance and on one foot for a different attack.
Key rings (with keys) and ballpoint pens also make dandy instant weapons. Gouge and stab….
March 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amSince we’re discussing how easy it is to damange the human body, here’s a good one: It takes the same amount of pressure to break a knee by pushing/kicking it sideways as it does to push open a typical glass store front door.
So here’s the three step process:
March 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am1. Hit them in the nose causing his eyes to tear so he can’t see.
2. Step to his side, chamber your leg/foot, stomp him right in the side of his knee as hard as you can, trying to hit the adjacent knee with your foot by going through his knee.
3. walk away because he won’t be able to.
Shorter version–whack their knee hard enough and they can’t chase you.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:15 amBeating this guy to a pulp would have been too good for him.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:32 amUm, underneath her skirt wasn’t considered a place to consider private? If the guy had been her boyfriend or husband, sure. But sweet jesus - and this was an appellate court ruling? Idiots.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:39 amAw, shucks. Thanks Rachel, and everyone else who said I gave good advice. I would have been derelict in my duty if I’d let my baby sister move across the country to live alone without trying to teach her some street smarts. Even though I was a 22 year old highly trained Airborne Infantry killbot at the time I was still a punk-ass kid myself. I had taken a few lumps in a few bar altercations before the situational awareness lesson soaked in, and I thought it important for her to benefit from it too.
Off topic aside: Rachel, you remember that yellow tomcat who made that trip with us? Poor feller flipped his shit and as soon as we got to N.C. and let him out of the cage he bolted for the treeline, never to be seen again.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:52 amYou are awesome.
Feral badger. Great imagery.
Awareness is critical. And I agree. Are these chicks totally oblivious, or what? Could some of them possibly welcome the attention? It sure isn’t like these upskirt picture taking pansies are all ring bearing Hobbits. Oblivious or not, danger is out there. Ya never know.
How many steps away from visual rape are these fuckers away from the real thing?
It would be easy to bait these guys. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination. It might break the cycle for someone and save a lot of human anguish.
Upskirt_Panty_Guy69@iwannameetchrishanson.loservillemail.com shows up at Target to get some ‘hot upskirt panty shots’ but ends up getting his RIGHTEOUS badger beating splattered all over the internet. It becomes the most famous and biggest money maker on Meta Cafe of all time. While in prison, he sues Rachel Lucas for a share of the proceeds only to find out that he “was not in a place where he had a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Tit for Tat?
March 13th, 2008 at 11:54 amAmerica still has a WAY to go when it comes to respecting white women’s rights not to be harassed by black/brown men.
But oops, white woman Channon Christian gets raped, mutilated, murdered by black thugs and not a PEEP out of NAACP. Screw em.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pmYou think that’s bad? Try walking down the aisle of a Target, knowing some guy is walking kind of closely behind you, and feeling something… uh… running down the back of your leg. This happened at my local Target.
Man Commits Lewd Act at Clackamas, OR Target
March 13th, 2008 at 12:28 pmEvery girl should get good brotherly advice from a highly trained infantry killbot. I didn’t have a big brother, but fortunately I’m from a long line of giant Irish cops and atheletes, so no one has ever tried to mess with me. At 5′9 I’m the runt of a very large litter.
My daughter on the other hand is 5′3″ and skinny and worries me to death with her walking around Oakland like she’s predator-proof. She does seem to have finally absorbed my cautions about not having her bosom half exposed. Why are young girls so dense about these things?
March 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pmohmigod Michelle, that is awful! I didn’t know I could still be shocked. yuck yuck yuck!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:33 pmIt’s worth noting too that nowadays, something as simple as a picture can be devastating to the subject long term. Who here things said picture wouldn’t have made it to the internet at some point? Granted, the web is a big, big place and no one might have ever recognized it, but dude, if someone was taking “candid” shots of me I would probably kill the bastard. It sounds paranoid, but you just cannot hold your privacy too dear these days.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pmBased on the statute they used, I have to concur with the appellate court. This girl did not, unfortunately, have a reasonable expectation of privacy. I don’t know if this is because the law is badly written or if the prosecutor based his case on the wrong statute as Skip suggested, but from the information presented, the court made the right ruling under the law.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:36 pmJust making a fast threatening move at a man’s junk with foot or fist is almost always guaranteed to bring his torso lower to the ground - and his head in range for mayhem. Try it on someone who trusts you. It’s almost instinctive.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pmAnd herein lies the problem. Young girls are taught to be “nice.” Not a bad thing necessarily, but somehow “nice” has become “passive.” I routinely see teenage girls putting up with unwelcome invasions of their personal space that no young woman of even fifteen years ago would tolerate.
As for the self-defense advice, I’d stick closely to what your brother told you, especially the situational awareness part. The reality is that, while a lot of self-defense tips for women that involve assaulting an attacker sound really good in theory, they are difficult to remember, much less execute, when the adrenaline is pumping. For example, the nose is very vulnerable, but much harder to hit square in a real-life situation than people think. Gouging and clawing are your friends. So is Smith & Wesson.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:40 pmYes, as bad as it sounds, the ruling appears to have followed the law as it was quoted here. I would lean towards the prosecutor choosing the wrong law, because surely, as someone else suggested, they could have made a good child porn case against this guy if the victim was 16.
The really bad thing is that if someone had gone up and given this jerk the ass-beating he surely deserved, they would probably be the ones in big trouble.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pmMy little girl got in trouble for fighting in the schoolyard. (Yes, that’s my DNA at work right there, you bet.) The teacher and I consulted with her and we discussed how you have to find an adult when someone is trying to bully you.
“So remember, don’t ever, ever hit someone,” the teacher told my daughter, right in front of me. I looked directly at my daughter and I said:
“If you can’t get away from a bully, you hit that kid with everything you’ve got. Don’t stop punching him until he isn’t moving any more.”
This did not endear me to the teacher. Gosh, I don’t know why.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:56 pmWhen i was at Art College in the 60s & again in the 70s i used to teach the girls all the dirty fighting tricks i had been taught by some Marines (UK Royal Marines) and none of the girls ever had much trouble,was’nt to bad for brownie points either.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:04 pmAs for what women should do if and when they are attacked, I offer this anecdote from the late, great Bruce Lee:
March 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pmAfter 7 years of karate, I’ve learned a few things.
One, if someone’s close enough to touch you (and being close enough to take a picture up someone’s skirt is close enough), they’re close enough to be touched back.
Two, there are many ways of touching someone in a way that will make them want to let go of you.
Three, if you grab a sensitive area (kicking doesn’t always work, depending on where you’re standing, where he’s standing, etc.), don’t just grab. Dig your fingers in and twist.
Four, whatever joint you have access to (elbow, knee), just make it go in a direction God didn’t intend. You can break someone’s arm by holding onto their wrist and executing a palm strike above the elbow, takes a fraction of a second and very little effort. Thugs are cowards; at the first sign of pain they fold up and wail like babies.
I’ve never had to use it for real, hope not to, but if I do I intend to make it count. You don’t want to risk pissing them off, and if they’re unconscious they aren’t pissed off.
Oh, and whacking someone in the nose with your forehead is very effective, too.
Edit to add: Biting works also.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:10 pmThere are NO rules in a fight!! Hitting, kicking, gouging, biting, and picking up objects to smash someone with — all good. (And even an object such as a tightly-rolled magazine becomes a weapon when smashed end-on into someone’s head. It WILL crush the side of the skull. Trust me on that.) The only bad thing in a fight is to allow a thug to win. [oh, and head-butting is good, too. Smashes noses nicely]
March 13th, 2008 at 2:08 pmWINNING A FIGHT IS YOUR ONLY ACCEPTABLE OBJECTIVE !!! Being nice is for church and formal dinners.
Most of the time, if you are attacked, no matter what you do to the assailant or how badly you hurt him; it’s better to be tried by twelve than to be carried by six.
LOVE the side-ad. “Have you ever been convicted? California expungements. It’s time for a new future…”"
March 13th, 2008 at 2:19 pmIt makes me furious these judges are so isolated from society and will never have to face the same happening to them. We can infer, can we not, the judges wife or daughter shouldn’t have a problem with this happening to them at Target?
As for Clackamas Oregon, I can completely believe something like that happened there. The NW in general is a cesspool, and Portland especially. Sorry if you live there and love it, it’s just the truth. Oregon and Washington state routinely trade places among the top three states ranked highest in crimes against children. It’s Molestation Central up there, and known amongst pedophiles as a ‘ped-friendly’ area because it’s courts and judges are so g*d DAMN liberal. Ok, sorry, but just thinking of Oregon pisses me off.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm“If it’s worth fighting for, it’s worth fighting dirty for.”
I don’t know where I first saw/heard that little aphorism but I have it printed, framed, and hanging on my wall.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:58 pmThis is one of those posts were I say “Hell Yeah!” And then hope you never end up on the wrong end of a self defense trial where a POS prosecutor enters your blog as evidence.
Sad, sad world.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:01 pmIt was either a Marine, or Hillary.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pmGrowing up with a cop and a victim/witness advocate, you can bet yer booty I learned about situational awareness. More than a few friends have called me paranoid, but after hearing the cop and court stories from both ‘rents, I would’ve been lame not to heed their lessons.
In 10th-grade P.E. class, the teachers taught us some self-defense moves. Just the mention of the groin twist and the groin pull make my male friends cringe
Kudos to your big brother.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:14 pmone fashion item that’s sorely missed is one we used to teach gals to use in self denece … even better than the ballpoint pen … the good ole rattail comb.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:20 pmThe self defence classes were all basically “cause as much damage as quickly as possible and run like hell, screaming the whole time”
“Who here things said picture wouldn’t have made it to the internet at some point?”
With astronomical certainty. Most guys like this are providers for websites.
The real stupidity in this case comes not from the judge, but from the prosecutor who tried to get the guy on…Peeping Tom laws? Are you shitting me? First of all, she’s 16, a phone call to the FBI would probably have got the guy laced up for a kiddie-porn conviction.
Second, whatever the “personal space” rules are in her state, I’m sure “situating a camera under her skirt” is close enough. I’m no lawyer; you decide which charge is the most appropriate.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:25 pmIn my karate class a few years back, we had a couple of teenage girls starting out. When we started talking about defending against attack, our instructor asked the women in class if they would strike out with all the force that the situation called for (the instructor taught some nasty stuff for self defense…forget looking pretty and elegant in a fight, he wanted you to damage). We were all stunned when almost every female in class chose to do the softer attacks because they all worried about lawsuits. I sh*t you not! Our instructor turned to the younger girls and said, “Forget the lawsuit! Damage as much as possible, as quick as possible and run.” He said they had a choice between a lawsuit (highly unlikely) and a horrible, possibly fatal, experience. That still blows me away.
I tell my niece that if anybody ever tries to harm her, she is to throw legal caution to the winds and hurt somebody. Bad. Then get the hell out of there fast.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:32 pmI’m not an attorney (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once), but common sense tells me that not expecting someone to take a picture under your skirt in a public place is reasonable. OOPS! I just caught myself. Common sense/legal system. Now I get it.
Also, a lit cigarette on bare skin got me out of a tight spot once. jest sayin’.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pmAaaaack. Badgers!
March 13th, 2008 at 4:34 pmhttp://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/
I’m about your height, too, Rachel, and hypervigilant about my surroundings (although I’m not sure what, other than my imaginatively paranoid mother) made me that way. When my husband went to Afghanistan for a year, I took up Shaolin Kempo at a studio owned by a guy who was a preacher, but very militant about self defense (he’d had a wild childhood). He is a firm believer that your best defense is a good offense – if you’re going to knock someone down, do it in such a way that they will not be getting back up again. Their choice to violate you has revoked all their rights to be free of personal physical harm.
I’ve learned LOTS of cool physiological stuff. For example, if you kick or knee someone in the midriff or groin and cause them to double over and meet an incoming strike to the head or throat (it opens up their throat when they double over), it multiplies the power of that incoming strike by four.
In other words, don’t threaten me in my space if you don’t want to come away with a crushed trachea.
OH, another favorite technique I learned was to get your fingers on either side of their esophagus and try to make them touch behind it. Guaranteed you’ll have their full attention by then.
I really loved this post. I hate it when people expect me to be dependent on someone else’s protection and not do things on my own (within reason, of course – I’m not stupid in my independence) just because I’m a girl. It’s annoying.
Drawback of empowerment, though: My husband won’t kill spiders for me anymore. :\
March 13th, 2008 at 5:24 pmI’m 6′4″ tall. If you’ve got any kind of fingernails, grab the bottom lip, sink your nails in and let your weight do the work - it’ll bring the head down to where you can service eyes and nose properly.
I positively hate bullies. This statement is in aid of suppressing bullying, and unpleasant behavior.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:04 pmi HATE it when people are two inches behind me. so what i do is that i will walk forward, but stick my leg back so that there’s a good foot and a half between me and them. they get annoyed, but i don’t care because i want my little bubble of personal space and i’m working to keep that. i find it creepy and annoying to have someone nearly breathing down my back and it’s hard to be civil about it because you can’t just turn around and say “back away about a foot, please.” but seriously, stuff like what you said happens like that and you need to do what you can to prevent that from happening. of course, the fact that girls are wearing skirts not too much longer than where their hips begin, i can see why the guy tried to make a guy for it. gross.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:17 pmIf I hadn’t read Skip’s great post I would be ever wondering what the actual meaning of “reasonable expectation of privacy” was for days and days. Probably still will. Wow. Just Wow.
Lots of sound advice from Plain ol’ Bob, armyofdog and Bonnie. Others too. Ultimately, if I recall the statistics correctly, most assaults are surprise attacks and the victim doesn’t get much opportunity to defend. Then there are the pack attacks: also not good odds. Given the opportunity to strike most of the advice is good stuff, but women are upper body strength deficient, as it were. Not so great a disadvantage with the legs which is why the lower body strikes are recommended. Or use of rolls of coins, pointy things etc. by hand.
Ferocious awareness, physical confidence and clear preparedness would be the surest deterrents. And deterrence has better outcome probability compared to combat. In combat overwhelming force is the sane option.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:26 pmI used to work with a good ol’ boy from Alabama. He always said that when he got in a fight he tried to do as much damage as quickly as possible as he had asthma and wouldn’t last long in a prolonged aerobic bout. Good advice. Now that I am 30 years older, I keep my pistol handy - do as much damage as quickly as possible. DRT is the best possible outcome in a town where the perps like killing and raping white people. It’s been in the news a lot lately. I really need to move…
March 13th, 2008 at 9:06 pmI was a hand to hand instructor in the Army at Recondo school in the 80’s. I can tell you there is some great advice coming in on this thread. The only thing I will add is to NEVER punch an opponent in the face with the knuckle side of your closed fist. Face shot don’t hurt half as much as they look in the movies, and your (possibly) broken hand will hurt ten times as much as it looks like in the movies.
The heel of your palm and elbows can inflict quite a bit of damage without injuring YOU in the process.
But the best defense is to be aware of your surroundings, don’t let yourself be in a corner when MR Creepy is around.
If you do get cornered, don’t try to talk your way out of it, the fear in your voice will just amplify the attacker’s lust for violence. Instead, make crazy gutteral noises like a gorilla or lion. Get your hands up in front of your face “karate” style, and start looking for an escape route. The noises will buy you the 15 seconds you need to make a plan. The “karate” posture will buy you another 15 seconds. In 30 seconds, the would- be attacker has a lot of thoughts going through his mind, and all of them will be about him getting his ass kicked. It’s your first best chance for him to change his mind. If he goes away, stick with your escape plan, see it through.
IF he does “charge” you, don’t try to run, if he get’s control of your back, he’ll get control of your throat, and he’ll win. Meet him with a raised knee, aimed at his groin/ middle. While you do this, concentrate very much on darting your fingers into his eyes.
Have you ever poked yourself in the eye accidentally? Just the lightest tap will cause both your eyes to instinctively shut, for about 30 seconds.
So will his : Follow your escape plan.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:28 pmRachel,
I have known Judge Gillert personally since he was an assistant district attorney here in Tulsa County. I can tell you that he HATED having to hand down this ruling. He hasn’t been on the bench so long that he has lost touch or his common sense.
Now one would think that the average female out browsing at Target would kind of have an expectation NOT to have some weirdo shoving a camera under her dress and snapping photos. The problem is (and I have looked at the specific statute), that the prosecutors charged Ferrante under a “peeping tom” type statute, and the way that law is written here in OK, it spells out those types of places and situations where one might have an expectation not to have shit like this happen. By naming SPECIFIC locations, the legislature implied that in public one has no such expectation, even though it is LOGICAL that one would, although in their defense, the statute was not meant to address this type of situation.
Hopefully, this will be corrected forthwith. Had this been my daughter, and I caught him in the act, I would hope the law would be so lenient with me due to the “heat of the moment” reaction I would no doubt have displayed.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:49 pmRachel,
You have arrived.
Remember when Bush choked on a pretzel? My first thought at the time was, “OMG, I can’t wait to see what SNL does with this.” And of course, they nailed it.
I saw this story yesterday. And my first thought was, “OMG, I can’t wait to see what Rachel does with this.” And of course, you nailed it.
And, unlike SNL, you rarely disappoint.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:55 amA year ago a young girl who I used to play on my youth volleyball team was standing with some friends at school when a kid walked up behind her and grabbed her butt. Without thinking she whirled around and slapped the kid. Unfortunately for him she moved like a volleyball player. She drove the turn of her body from the ground up, starting with her feet and driving up through her knees, hips, torso and through her shoulders. Her arm released just like a spike, except that she swung sideways instead of overhand. According to her friends her follow through was perfect. The result of this motion was a slap that knocked the kid completely off his feet.
Both kids were suspended from school for three days for physically assaulting each other. During her suspension I ran into the girl, her parents and a couple friends. Her friends immediately started telling me about “the slap.” When they finished describing how the kid hit the ground I turned to the girl held out a hand for a high five and exclaimed “Sweet!”
I thought her mother was going to have a heart attack. She was frothing at the mouth and ranting at me about appropriate behavior when her husband dragged her away. Later her husband called to thank me for what I had taught his daughter. I explained that I never taught her to hit people. But I do try and teach these girls that it is okay to be sweet little girls but it is never okay to be weak, slow, or a victim. They can be sweet little girls, but they also have to be strong, quick and aggressive when it is called for. The fact that she used her skills to defend herself from a that little creep really made my day.
My player told me later that she didn’t even think about what she did, she just reacted. But after it was over the first thing she thought of was “Wow, Coach was right, boys really are stupid.” Since I spend a lot of time around these girls at an age where they start getting interested in boys, I tell them regularly that “Boys are stupid, it starts in middle school, gets worse in high school and peaks out in college, if you are lucky about half of them will out grow it by the time they turn 30. But at whatever age you run into their stupidity, you never have to put up with it. Let them be stupid by themselves. Don’t let them involve you in their stupidity. You can start liking boys, you can even have a boyfriend, but when he starts acting stupid, just walk away. Because sooner or later he will do something stupid.”
She told me that she was OK with the suspension. Like she said, I only missed three days of school, that little pervert has to spend the next three years with everyone in the school knowing that someone my size knocked him on his butt (she is only 5′2″).
March 14th, 2008 at 1:01 amI carry a weighty Leatherman in my pocket which fits my hand perfectly. If I have to, I am prepared to palm it and slam it neatly into someone’s temple. I was mugged once, and I vowed to make a permanent impression on anyone foolish enough to attack me again. If I don’t have time to get to the Leatherman, then I’m taking at least one eyeball with me. And there will be teeth. Oh yes.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:34 amDavid that’s an awesome story! Every girl should have a male mentor like you. My dad tried his best but all he could say to me was “don’t act like the screaming women in the movies, help the man defeat the bad guy!”
According to her friends her follow through was perfect.
LOL! Perfect observation her friends have.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:13 amI can’t see how this assclown expected to get away with that sort of thing. Maybe in Japan—a lot of Japanese men have serious panty fetishes for some insane reason—but not here in the US. I agree that child pr0n charges would have fixed his little red wagon. Or running into my best-beloved on the rare occasions when she wears a skirt. She’s the proud owner of a Renaissance-style stiletto (think “fancy icepick”) and knows just how to use it. Or another female friend of mine—small, blonde, elfin, grew up in a tough part of a very tough town, and the fastest, deadliest hand with a pair of balisong knives I’ve ever seen. Instant sushi!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:15 pmIf you practice the kick to the nuts can be deadly, my daughter who is 4-6 and 95 lbs (12 yrs old) can get a kick above my belt line (I’m over 6′) and hits hard enough to break ribs, of course she has a black belt and has been training for 5 years …. Beating up bad little boys is her hobby; unfortunately they seem to start following her around like lost puppies after a beat down.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pmI don’t get it. My wife calls what she keeps under her skirt her privates. If they’re her privates, shouldn’t they be, duh, private?
March 14th, 2008 at 8:24 pmStole my thunder. Look ‘em in the eyes, then kick straight for the knee. Even a soft blow will put them on the ground, a good one, and they will never walk right again. Hyper extended knee injuries are no joke…
March 15th, 2008 at 2:09 amOn the other hand,where’s the balance in a felony conviction for looking up a
skirt?
luv you long time rachael
March 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pmthis is something we are trying to impress upon my 11 year old step-daughter.
This child is absolutely gorgeous, and well endowed for a 5th grader. We worry so much about her, especially since her mother is such a poor parent.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:20 pm