A horrible event in Houston. A woman is jogging, is followed into the bathroom by two scumbags, and they rob and sexually assault her.

And as usual when things like this happen, “advice” is offered up on how to stay safe:

They are urging people who use Terry Hershey Park to make sure they walk, jog or bike with a friend and always carry a cell phone programmed with emergency numbers.

I’m not sure who “they” are (the police, the neighborhood association, or the coffee shop employees… the article’s use of pronouns wasn’t the best), but regardless, what use is that advice?

Watch the first 30 seconds of this video:

(h/t Chuck Rives)

The key I want you to focus on is how fast an attack unfolds.

In fact, watch the rest of the video and see how one thing the attackee (defender) has is a gun, but he’s never able to deploy it. Attacks happen so fast.

Do you really think having a cell phone programmed with emergency numbers is going to help you? If the national average police response time is 11 minutes, how is that going to do you any good when you’re being sexually assaulted right now?

Please, someone explain this to me, me because apparently I fail to grasp this concept.

What if instead the woman had pepper spray? In fact, while jogging she should have the can of spray in her hand ready to go. This would actually be a better first step than even having a gun, because you can’t go jogging with a gun in your hand to gain that advantage; but pepper spray you certainly can and I dare anyone to deny a woman to carry pepper spray in a readily-deployable manner. I’m not saying it would have stopped the attack, but it’s likely to have given her a better chance.

Also, what was awareness like? Many people jog with headphones on. Was there awareness of being followed? Did she make herself more vulnerable by being unaware of her surroundings? I don’t know, and I’m not trying to scold nor minimize what this woman went through, but I am hoping we can use it as a learning experience so others do not have to undergo what she did.

Where’s advice on fighting back? Where’s advice on how to prevail? Where’s advice on how to avoid being a victim in the first place? Bullshit suggestions like “jog in pairs” and “carry a mobile phone” are certainly useful things, but when you consider the actual reality of what goes on, they really don’t do much to help you avoid problems in the first place, nor deal with the problems if they happen. If we really want to reduce violent victimization, let’s start giving — and then heeding — actual useful advice, eh?