# Should I take pepper spray with me to NYC? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305 "2004-08-11T02:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beltbuckle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@beltbuckle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beltbuckle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/21 "2004-08-11T20:09:54Z")
Leave the pepper spray and bring the common sense. When I was going to NY for our honeymoon, I also wondered what it would be like there. Turns out, it’s not too bad/ Just use common sense - stay where it looks safe, don’t go walk around bad neighborhoods late at night alone, etc. Don’t go walking around Central Park in the middle of the night with your wallet visible, etc. NY is pretty safe from what I found - especially the touristy areas because there are just tons of people everywhere, just like you. A fun place to visit, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![cmason32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@cmason32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmason32)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/22 "2004-08-11T20:34:24Z")
Do not listen to these people telling you NYC is safe. They are only saying that because they want to rob you when you get there. Everyone in NYC is a criminal, and members of this message board are no exception. ---
**Author:** ![beltbuckle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@beltbuckle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beltbuckle)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/23 "2004-08-12T07:51:57Z")
> [@cmason32](#): > > Do not listen to these people telling you NYC is safe. They are only saying that because they want to rob you when you get there. Everyone in NYC is a criminal, and members of this message board are no exception. Damn, we’ve been revealed! Initiate sequence x-ray! ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/24 "2004-08-12T13:38:47Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’ve lived in NY for 3 years and hardly anyone in my neighborhood has been murdered and left in a box, stabbed in my lobby, electrocuted by a manhole or held hostage in a bar by a maniac wielding a samurai sword. At least not this week. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/25 "2004-08-12T14:23:27Z")
To get off on a little tangent here, I find it funny that people have such a warped view of “big cities.” I get that a lot here in DC. I routinely talk to people who are afraid to come here or, if they have come for a visit, are paranoid about everything. “DC has so much crime,” they say. Well, somewhat true. Certain parts of DC have a lot of crime, but I doubt your tour group will be going into those areas. And a lot of that crime does not involve what can be labeled as “innocent victims.” A lot of crime victims are involved with drug deals and the like. The people shooting them aren’t targeting others. I’m not mocking people who think about cities this way, though. I grew up in a rural area where this view was very common. Most people had never been to big cities such as Chicago, NY, or DC, so their views of these areas was shaped by the news, movies, and TV shows. And what gets shown in this media? Crime. You have years of this conditioning, and of course you’ll have an almost instinctive fear of big cities. I even experienced this somewhat a few years back. I was up in NY and I wanted to get over to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I had no idea how to do it, so I called my girlfriend, who was born and raised in Brooklyn. She said just take the subway. I’ve taken the DC subway a lot and thought nothing of it. The NY subway, though? Never even considered it. My view of the NY subway system was that it was a place to avoid as nothing but bad happened there. Of course that was a ridiculous view, but it wasn’t one I even thought about or questioned. So while I think it’s silly that people have these perceptions about big cities, it’s something I completely understand. The media paints a bad picture of our areas, and people are understandably concerned about visiting. That perception, however, does not match reality. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/26 "2004-08-12T14:38:45Z")
My mother-in-law seems to think I’m always five seconds away from being raped and murdered if I so much as step out of my house. Seriously, she was angry at her adult daughter for driving to spend a weekend with us once, alone. “A woman has no reason to drive to a big city alone.” I was seeing red on after that remark. I would love to live in NYC or LA. There are only two things preventing it: the cost and the traffic. I never even consider crime as a possible reason to not move to a city. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/27 "2004-08-13T00:26:16Z")
> [@Dan Turk](#): > > so as long as I don’t plan to walk around DMX’s old neighborhood wearing gold chains at 3am alone reading a tourist guidebook, I should be a-ok…got it DMX’s old neighborhood was Mt. Vernon, N.Y. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/28 "2004-08-13T15:57:56Z")
> [@DeadlyAccurate](#): > > My mother-in-law seems to think I’m always five seconds away from being raped and murdered if I so much as step out of my house. Seriously, she was angry at her adult daughter for driving to spend a weekend with us once, alone. “A woman has no reason to drive to a big city alone.” I was seeing red on after that remark. I would love to live in NYC or LA. There are only two things preventing it: the cost and the traffic. I never even consider crime as a possible reason to not move to a city. My mom once asked my wife (then fiancee) if she drove in the city. It is so completely laughable. Still, there are people who live 20 minutes outside of Baltimore who only make it as far into the city as Camden Yards, which means: exit I-95, park, walk with others to the ballgame, walk back to the car in a crowd, get back on I-95. It must be a strange mindset to think of a “CITY” just looming in the distance like a black hole of violence from which no man emerges. ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/29 "2004-08-13T16:06:43Z")
I can’t believe what I’m reading. Haven’t you people seen **Escape From New York**? Snake Plissken is the last man to leave New York alive, and that was 20 years ago!! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/30 "2004-08-13T17:47:47Z")
Putting aside the legality of carrying pepper spray in NYC, are you trained in its use? Do you really think any potential attacker is going to give you time to get it out of your pocket/purse/backpack? Are you planning on carrying it in hand, at the ready, and all the time, _just in case_? ---
**Author:** ![Pride\_of\_the\_Peaches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Pride\_of\_the\_Peaches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pride_of_the_Peaches)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/31 "2004-08-14T07:22:01Z")
I am glad to see that all the city slickers are confounded by our perception of their homes as being swirling torrents of gunfire and misery. I am from a VERY rural area (of COURSE a town can consist of 200 people!) and I can barely walk around at night on my university campus in Oshkosh, WI, one of the safest cities in the state, without fearing for my life. I have been fearing the day where I have to move to a city (it seems inevitable), as I was certain that I would be mugged, raped and murdered by the drug dealers waiting for me in my new apartment. Now I feel a _little_ better. Still not looking forward to the traffic though . . . ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/32 "2004-08-14T11:41:52Z")
> [@NotWithoutRage](#): > > Ditto. Young, single female. Walk around Manhattan (and even on Central Park North!) at all hours, without fear. said “Not without rage” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305/33 "2004-08-14T11:44:23Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’ve lived in NY for 3 years and hardly anyone in my neighborhood has been murdered and left in a box, stabbed in my lobby, electrocuted by a manhole or held hostage in a bar by a maniac wielding a samurai sword. Well, jeez, msmith, get off your lazy butt and DO SOMETHING about this sad state of affairs! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-pepper-spray-with-me-to-nyc/259305.md?page=1)