It's Not Okay - To Be Blind Drunk and Expect Police To Be There

My little fan club of hysterical man-hating "feminists" have called me out before I have even written on this matter. So as predictable as I am to not want to let them down - I will write on the matter.

Police cannot be everywhere. They cannot protect women from every situation they find themselves in. It is therefore up to the gender to wear a bit of common sense from time to time.

Drinking is such a time. And I would hazard a guess I've been out drinking a bit more than the man-haters have and in more dangerous countries than New Zealand and am still incident free. Most of that is due to my aversion to taking risks such as gettting blindingly pissed around people I don't trust and my snobbery of paying a bit extra not to drink in bars that look like brothels or backpacker haunts.

Britton Brouan here attempts a semi-investigative piece about women in Wellington getting too blindingly drunk to remember what happened and then falling victim of sexual assault. It's a good warning piece. Short of hiring a police escort or a bodyguard, a woman can never have her safety guaranteed in any part of the world. Getting blindingly pissed amongst strangers does NOT help your statistical odds of getting home safely.

It is what it is. It is not a nice thought to have, but some men are scum. They rape women. Deal with it. They can't rape all women, they haven't got time. So they pick the most vulnerable. A drunk woman I am afraid is ALWAYS the most vulnerable. I estimate I have saved at least a dozen women in my time from being assaulted by piling them into the nearest taxi or removing them from a group of predatorial men and looking after them. I have also instructed numerous male friends to leave a woman alone if I can see she's too plastered to give informed consent, therefore saving them from messy allegations or a situation where they could be accused of raping a woman.

Police say the number of attacks on drunk young women is growing. "They are binge-drinking, make poor choices and can't keep themselves safe," Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Borrell said. "That's a worry and that's the preventable part of it."

Borrell is right to give this advisory. He's not throwing the blame all on the woman.

A rape victim Sarah even backs his advice and is now valuably teaching other women not to make the same mistakes she did.

"Sticking with your mates is a really big thing, but at the same time you should be responsible for yourself.

"I don't totally blame myself, but if I hadn't been drinking that night it wouldn't have happened.

"I didn't really have a care in the world, I just never thought it would happen to me. You have a few drinks and think you're 10-foot-tall and bulletproof, but you're not."

But of course the man-hating "feminists" blame the Cop for making his sensible statement. He is admitting that the Police cannot be everywhere and that there is scum everywhere so they are outnumbered. The man-hating "feminists" then go on to say:

Is Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Borrell seriously intending to say that women are responsible when someone sexually assaults them? And that addressing rapists’ behaviour is not the way to prevent rape?

That's not what he is saying at all.

While no woman "deserves" to be raped. There are many ways to prevent being raped or decrease your statistical odds of being raped. Walking in a straight line and having your senses about you is one of those ways. Least of all that you can pick up more danger signals and then have the option to remove yourself from the situation when you feel unsafe.

Police have a public duty and it is part of their job to warn of the risks of behaviour. Leaving your car unlocked leads to increases in the likelihood of your car being broken into - safety campaign. Leaving your house unlocked or going away for long periods again, leads to an increase in the likelihood of your house being broken into - safety campaign. Your children could be abducted while walking to school - safety campaign.

Do Police have time to address the behaviour of all criminals? Nope. Can they? Nope. There will ALWAYS be an element of scum in the world and you have to protect yourself the best way you know how. Police and the Courts can only deal with the scum after they have offended. That's the way it works. They cannot put men in jail before crimes are committed. The sentences for rape should be increased dramatically for those scum found guilty, I agree. But again that's not the role of Police, but politicians.

Do the man-hating "feminists" lock their cars? Course they do. Do they lock their homes? Do they protect their children in a public setting? Course they do. Do they go out at night expecting everyone to be happy, good and honest? Come on. Helen Sullivan, Wellington Sexual Abuse Help Foundation general manager then again mis-understands as well what the Police's role is and that he didn't blame the victim:

“Why should the whole responsibility for a situation be put on women? The bottom line is we should be able to walk down the street or do anything without the threat of sexual violence.”

I don't blame the victims of rape for being raped, I blame women such as the man-hating "feminists" and well-meaning volunteer types such as Sullivan for blurting out nonsense that there should be nothing that a woman needs to do to prevent herself being raped and therefore it is all on the man to be a gentleman. Such complacency and faux-responsibility leads to women like Sarah believing at one stage they are "bulletproof".

If men were all gentlemen and women were all ladies we could leave our car doors open, our homes unlocked, our wallets on the table and children could be out all night without fear of any harm.

Utopia? Dream on.