It makes sense that Philly is known as the City of Brotherly Love, because lately women’s safety hasn’t been a priority . If we’re not playing the “Knockout Game”, we’re shooting women for their purses. It makes no sense to me that women in my city are second guessing whether to wear their Kate Spade clutches after a slew of recent purse snatchings have left their victims injured or dead. For so long we have been told not to fight and to just give the purse up, but even when 29 year-old Melissa Thomas did so, men still opened fire on her killing her and injuring her friend as they left West Philadelphia’s Tropical Heat nightclub last Sunday.
In a Daily News article, Tyema Sanchez asks “Where are our men? Why are they not protecting us?” as it seems that the old school rules of protecting women and children are clearly being disregarded. Sanchez is organizing a demonstration called Handbags 4 Peace as a response to the violence.
I think it’s important we don’t blame the victim or assume that these women could have done anything to prevent being attacked, but I do think we need to realize we live in a world where we can’t just sit around and wait to be saved. We can’t take for granted that because we’re mothers and daughters that the public is obligated to keep us safe or else we place ourselves in the same helpless position we’ve been trying to escape for the past century. We have to watch our backs as much as our husbands and brothers, but we make decisions on daily basis that place us right in harm’s way. Here are 11 ways we can try to avoid becoming tomorrow’s headline and save ourselves:
