Tom Williams
9Now Australia – An Australian woman was arrested for having a vial of pepper spray in her bag.
Kelly Wong is a classical pianist, medical scientist, and a Justice of the Peace. But before today, she was facing up to 14 years in jail for carrying a tiny can of pepper spray in her bag for self-defense. Her ordeal began in the early hours of a December morning last year at a Sydney karaoke bar. Police made an impromptu visit to the establishment and searched partygoers’ bags.
Ms. Wong is from Western Australia, where pepper spray is classed as a controlled substance that can be used if you have a lawful excuse. But in every other state and territory, it is outright illegal – and it’s classed as a prohibitive weapon in New South Wales, along with bombs and flamethrowers.
Her lawyer barely got two minutes into his opening argument before the magistrate accepted her plea and threw the entire case out. But while she said she felt justice had been served, she said the broader issue was not resolved and that without carrying pepper spray, she didn’t feel safe going out at night. Kelly Wong has good reason. Australia’s crime rate is worse than the countries of Russia, India, China, and Turkey, for example.
In any case, I thought in a Progressive world, we are supposed to “believe all women,” and protect them under the #metoo movement. Having some self-defense could be the deciding factor for many women to go where they might not otherwise go. But in Australia, apparently, they don’t want to enable women to have this ability. This could be good now for preditor men. They now can be assured that they have women that have no protections at all. Are Progressives really helping women?
This is in Australia, but this mentality is all over the Progressive world. If Progressives in America had their way, they would disarm women in every possible way. Like many of the Progressive far-left policies, they very often have the opposite effect that they claim to set out to solve.
Great article! I live in Australia and was not sure of the laws on pepper spray and this incident shows how vulnerable and pacified we are down here in Australia due to the imposition of a small group of progressives and leftists.
I was confronted and assaulted the other day in Sydney and now realise I cannot even use pepper spray here.
How much more vulnerable is it for women without any protection!
do you also support the law so that men can carry pepper spray too or just women?
I argree we should be allowed to use it for self defence however the law should not just be women only. I think its wrong to allow women but not men, the law should be equal if its changed to allowed pepper spray for protection
Good point.
OZ is a Nanny Police state.