Spray to disable to protect

A good article in the Times by Robbie Millen (via Citizen Stuart) on pepper spray, a self defence product designed to be non-lethal which is legal in many civilised countries but not in this one. Millen makes exactly the right point about the current state advice to, effectively, run away from criminal thugs and then to report the whole running away incident to the police:

Others object that if people fight back, more incidents might escalate into violence. Instead, we should follow the Met’s advice of flight, not fight. But the result of this advice is not virtuous; it means that neighbourhoods are ceded to hoodlums, making the streets ever more vicious.