Two Women Assaulted at FAU

This past Thursday FAU posted a campus-wide alert (using their email alert system) that a “Hispanic Male in his mid 20’s” was wanted for questioning regarding the assault of two women on campus. You can see the full police flyer direct from FAU and the full email is at the end of this posting.

Rather than allow students, faculty, and staff the ability to legally defend themselves as they can anywhere outside of campus, the University (and most other universities in the country) would rather offer counseling for victims and classes of defense tactics. They also offer some other safety advice:

If you suspect that someone is following you, drive to the nearest open public place, to the University Police or the local police department.

Walk to your vehicle in pairs or in a group.

Be aware of your surroundings. Watch for suspicious people or activities.

Vary your routine; use a different route, different times.

There are a few more, but this sample is enough to see what the FAU police want students, faculty, and staff to do. Rather than have any effective means of stopping an assailant, they would rather each person to look around and wait until they are attacked. Personally, I don’t want to wait to be attacked. I don’t want to be attacked at all, but I certainly don’t want my only defense to be shouting for help from a police force that, as we can see in the example of these two assaulted women, only arrive after the damage is already done.

Florida Law isn’t very clear on how you are permitted to defend yourself on a Florida campus. Firearms are totally prohibited; it is a felony to have one on campus. But what about other items such as pepper spray or any other chemical device that falls within the legal limits to carry on or about your person everywhere that isn’t a college campus?

I’ve spoken with a Lieutenant of the FAU Police, who told me that you are permitted to carry pepper spray, or other chemical spray, on your person so long as it is not used in an offensive manner and of course, that it is legal within Florida. You’re also permitted to carry a knife, as long as it fits Florida law for being a pocket knife. That is, a knife that has a blade within 4” long and folds. If you are doubtful about something you wish to carry, I strongly suggest you run it by the campus police before using it and getting yourself in a whole heap of trouble.

Why does the administration of the school not inform their students, faculty, and staff that they are permitted to carry these items when sending out these alert emails? While I think that much needs to be done regarding the carrying of firearms on campus, these devices are at least better than nothing. Criminals can essentially do whatever they want on our campuses with little or no resistance; as soon as more of them start figuring that out, we’re going to be in some serious trouble unless we (the students, faculty, and staff) already have the means to defend ourselves.

Laws can only be created for the law abiding citizens. Criminals aren’t going to suddenly stop doing what they are doing simply because a law gets written. They criminals who by their very definition, are “guilty of breaking the law”. These laws only stop us, the law abiding citizens, from protecting ourselves.

This is the type of situation in which we can’t be reactive - we must be proactive. We must remove the legislation which prevents us from protecting ourselves and our loved ones on college campuses. Settling for any less is spitting in the face of our founding fathers who specifically stated in the Bill of Rights that:

A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

That means, in plain english, that everyone has a right to defend themselves and no government can take that away from you.

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