All of my grandparents are now deceased but if someone were to have assaulted either of my grandmothers in my presence I can safely say that I would not have hesitated to defend them, with deadly force if need be. I wouldn't have worried about the criminal's gender. I want to stop them from hurting me and mine.
Although the majority of violent criminals are and likely always will be men, anecdotally it does seem as if women are becoming more aggressive in their violence. Thugs come in both genders now. Recently in Philadelphia three young women attacked a 78 year old cancer patient.
The women doused the victim with pepper spray, punched her in the face, and threw her to the ground, before stealing her vehicle. The victim temporarily lost sight in one eye and had a heart attack.
Two of the alleged perpetrators have been identified and arrested. Just another day in the big city I suppose. If the old woman's daughter had shot the assailants to defend herself and her mother I am pretty sure that some people would be crying and saying that she didn't need to do that.
Bellissima said she had just parked her car on the 2700 block of South Smedley Street near Oregon Avenue around 4:20 p.m. on January 27. She and her daughter Angela Palumbo began unloading groceries from her now-stolen car when she found herself targeted.
"I just feel them come back, like hit me from the back and I feel this pepper spray in my face," Bellissima said. "They threw me to the ground, punched me in the face. They grabbed the keys out of my hand and I heard them saying, 'Open the doors, open the doors.'""When I saw my mom in a ball crying with her face full of pepper spray, I just lost it," said Palumbo. ""I just want them to be brought to justice. This is my mother and if it was anyone else's mother, they would do the same."
Bellissima suffered a stress heart attack and just regained sight in her left eye, but the emotional scars of the attack remain deep.
Two teenage girls have been charged in a violent carjacking of a 78-year-old woman in South Philadelphia last month. Briana Cruz-Gordon, 18, and Taniyah Watson, 17, were arrested Friday afternoon “without incident” on the 100 block of Diamond Street in North Philadelphia, police said.
A magistrate set bail at $200,000. Watson is being charged as a juvenile and faces similar charges, authorities said. A third female being sought in the carjacking has not yet been arrested, Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a police spokesperson, said Saturday. LINK1 LINK2
I do believe that systemic racism, lack of positive role models, and overlong exposure to poverty play a role in crime. 100%. But I also believe that every individual still makes a decision to do right or to do wrong. And we all regardless of our race, gender, wealth, health, age or any other characteristic, have the right to defend our lives.
That is why I can not go along with well meaning people who say that none of us need guns or other means of self-defense. There are predators among us who simply will not be deterred by "I feel your pain" speeches or sociological studies explaining why they are doing what they are doing. The only way to stop them is by immediate and superior application of violence. I don't like it but that's the way the world is. The reasons why someone is attempting to deprive a person of his or her property or life are not as important at that moment as the ability to make the person STOP their actions.
