Originally Posted by MrPlinkett

How about not going thru dark streets, asking a well known person to walk you home, and carry one of them pepper sprays.

Just a couple of ideas.

So anyone assaulted during the day is automatically off the hook?

And what about the many people who don't have the luxury of asking someone to walk them home?

Originally Posted by Bhaltair

Pepper sprays is actually illegal in Canada.

So are concealed weapons.. not gonna stop people from protecting themselves. It's unfortunate that they're confiscated by bouncers at some places. At least have one of these..

I don't think people who are bombed out of their mind, walk home alone, are basically naked, don't carry any protective devices, or don't pay attention to their surroundings are asking for it, but they're pretty fucking stupid. It's a scary world but a lot of these situations aren't inevitible.. you don't have to be armed to the teeth, but not being oblivious will do you a world of good, which is what it sounds like happened here, because the girl seemed to get away safely.
(not in response to any post in particular)

Originally Posted by MrPlinkett

How about not going thru dark streets, asking a well known person to walk you home, and carry one of them pepper sprays.

Just a couple of ideas.

I'd just like to point out that statistically, more rapes are perpetrated by people that the victim knows.

Originally Posted by starfish

The rest of your post has been addressed pretty thoroughly by other posters, so I'm going to leave it alone, but I do have one question for you - what do you consider "proper precautions" to avoid an assault (sexual or otherwise)? In other words, what does a person have to do in order for you to believe that they did everything they could to prevent being assaulted?

Preventative measures are already mentioned, walking in groups and avoid walking alone are simple solutions that can greatly help. Posting cases of assault are also ways to bring awareness. If you choose not to do these things, then it increases your risk of being attacked and it is your personal choice.

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Actually, whether or not you intended to, you did blame the victim.

'OK, you don't like chickens'. No I love chickens. I eat some every day. I do not appreciate when somebody says that a woman walking out at night should be plucked like a chicken as though that is an acceptable thing to do and as though women walking at a certain time of the day should be raped.

and I and another poster have already addressed your 'blingz' metaphor. Please note, women are not jewellery either. We cannot 'lock up' ourselves to prevent rape or assault. It just happens.

Your logic is perfect for a feminist essay, but in our current world, the 'blingz' metaphor is realistic. Sure you would saying that the Chicken metaphor sounds bad, but that is just what happens. I never said anything about locking up women to prevent rape, but we are talking about taking PRECAUTIOUS measures to avoid it.

The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network said in an article that 67% of rapes happen after 6pm (http://www.rainn.org/get-information...ault-offenders), what does this imply? It happens when women are ALONE. Sure, it is true that women can be attacked whenever, but the bottom line is that they are vulnerable when they are attacked.

Women should protect themselves and the government should place programs to help that out.

You're not getting it. Everyone here is in agreement that women should take measures to protect themselves. That's not the issue.

The issue here is the attitude behind that suggestion. You are suggesting that the woman being attacked should be blamed for not taking these measures. We are saying that this is an incorrect stance to take. It is never the victim's fault that they got raped or assaulted. It is always the perpetrator's fault.

Maybe the woman is taking summer school night course in Hamilton and none of their friends are, and they're living alone in a summer house. Who do they call? The walk-home team isn't running. Is it their fault for not waiting until the sun comes up to walk home?

You can say that walking out of a club drunk is stupid, and it is, but ultimately it is still the rapist's fault. Stumbling around drunk is a mistake. But it takes a sick, twisted person who makes the conscious decision (conscious decisions cannot be made by a drunk person by the way, and consent can't be given by a drunk person either) to rape her in order for the tragedy to happen.

So you tell me. Does the blame lie with the person who made a mistake while impaired, or the person who made an informed, knowing decision to perpetrate a crime?

Oh, let's not go into personal attacks, okay? Sorry if you've been offended by or disagree with something presented here, but ad hominem attacks about others are below your intellect level and 'not to worry about it' because we're too dumb isn't helping your case.

And again, no one is arguing that preventative measures are unimportant. They are the most important, aside from one thing - whether or not the guy tries to rape her.

Sure, blame, like most things, is a spectrum. But the worst thing the girl is guilty of is being careless, and the thing the guy is always guilty of is taking advantage of that carelessness to commit a crime. Let me present it this way:
- A girl can take every precaution in the world, and she can still get raped if a guy decides to rape her.
- A girl can be the most careless person in the world, but she won't get raped if the guy doesn't decide to rape her.

The final, ultimate deciding factor is whether or not a guy does the act. The girl can mitigate it, but if someone is set on raping her, preventative measures won't stop it. That is why the rapist is held the way they are and that the victim is not.

The discussion at hand was regarding victim blaming. But honestly, it doesn't matter if there is some quality of victimhood in the rapist. That's a separate issue. If an abused child grows up to be an abusive person, do we let them off the hook? No. It explains the behaviour, but it doesn't excuse it. Nor do we blame the child for not coming for help earlier. If there is an element of mental illness, then the rapist will be sent to an mental health facility, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they committed the crime. They are still guilty.

What taught behaviours were they facing? The behaviours that are perpetrated by rape culture and personified by posts claiming that women who are outside at night should be raped like a chicken should be plucked. And no matter what pressures or stresses are on you, you do not commit a crime to relieve it.

I'm not quite sure what type of "university-level" discussion you're looking for, and I'm not sure if what I'm saying will qualify as "worthy" to intellectuals like yourself, but I hope I'm expressing myself as clearly. You're probably right in that this isn't the place to have this argument and I doubt any minds will be changed, though. Especially not when the stance is being strawman'd into "being overbearing and suspicious of all boyfriends".

Second incident in almost the exact same area. My house is located right between both of the attack locations.... O_O

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/stor...n-assault.html

someone needs to bait this guy and catch him

You can use pepper spray to protect yourself. Although you'd get charge for using it to protect yourself from a human. You can only use them on bears really. Since there are none in Hamilton your very likely to get charged if you use it.

Originally Posted by BobSmith99

someone needs to bait this guy and catch him

I'm sure we will have plenty of volunteers.

How about a drag queen? That will teach to grope strangers.

3 of the years I've lived offcampus were in that neighbourhood, scary stuff so close to campus. I'd walk over to the gas station for snacks near midnight all the time too..

Wish the witnesses/victims were able to give some clearer descriptions of the suspect but it's understandable during such a traumatic event to not pick up on many clear details of the attacker. The 2nd report doesn't seem to give any new descriptions at all though other than a 2nd nearby location

Originally Posted by MrPlinkett

I'm sure we will have plenty of volunteers.

How about a drag queen? That will teach to grope strangers.

A drag queen? Why? Your post feels very problematic and transphobic. Using someone as a tool to hurt the attacker simply because they dress as a female to perform and have male genitalia seems to be pretty dehumanizing imo.

A drag queen? Why? Your post feels very problematic and transphobic. Using someone as a tool to hurt the attacker simply because they dress as a female to perform and have male genitalia seems to be pretty dehumanizing imo.

I'm not saying force a drag queen to be a bait. We are talking about volunteers acting as bait here.

Why a drag queen? Well, because having 2 warm grapes in his palm will knock any groping thoughts out of that guy's head.

Don't try to read this seriously. This post is mostly for joke purposes. Although baiting a pervert out is a way the police usually deals with situations like that.

I didn't read all the previous posts, but I would just like to say that I hope Hamilton police are on that street/surrounding street every f*cking night for the next while since this criminal is obviously stupid enough to do this in the same location. Also, I'm a big advocate for personal protection, whether that means learning some good PRACTICAL martial arts (i.e. not judo or karate), carrying pepper/bear spray!! or even carrying concealed firearms like in the U.S.-obviously illegal here, but in the right hands, a gun can be a powerful deterrent of crime. Cops will often say the only reason people respect/don't f*ck with them, is because they carry a gun. And remember, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun