Personal Safety...

Recently there has been an increase in violent attacks here in my hometown, people who are trying to do things such as merely walk down a City street or be able to ride their bike through their neighborhoods are being attacked by a roving group of young men. This has made me really start thinking about personal security especially after a recent episode in front of my house.

My neighborhood is one of the better ones when it comes to crime prevention, my neighbors look out for each other and we pay attention to strange things happening. We also are not afraid to call the police if necessary. We don't just shut our doors and not pay attention to what is happening outside and to our neighborhood.

I did have an encounter not long ago that made me think about looking at tasers. A group of older teens were walking down the street in front of my home and one of them was dragging what appeared to be a small pit bull type puppy. The puppy was obviously a very young pup and not leash trained. Rather than pick the puppy up since it was pretty clear to me it was tired, the young man reached down and smacked the puppy and told it to "walk". Off I went flying out the door without even thinking about what I was doing.

I confronted the young man, told him to pick the puppy up and never ever smack a dog that young for being tired. I told him to take the puppy home and give it some water. He started calling me some names, but I stood my ground and told him it was wrong to treat such a young puppy that way and that I better never see him treat an animal like that again. Then one of his friends spoke up and told him that I was right, it wasn't cool to treat the dog like that. It made me think later though that it probably wasn't a wise idea to go out there like that without at least a cell phone or a taser or something like pepper spray before I decide to confront half a dozen people...