For Cato, PepperSpray would mainly be a way to recover her freedom, but there are more defenses

For Daniëlle, the murder of Lisa (17) was the immediate reason. Shortly after the news she decided to buy a small pocket knife, for herself and for her mother. “I had been orientating for self -defense products for years,” she says. “If I walked home from Utrechtstraat or Rembrandtplein at night, I followed several times. Sometimes I had to go home. I was also mistreated by a taxi driver. That lawsuit is still ongoing.” A friend offered her to take pepper spray from France. “But I didn’t want to break the law. Then I went to see which resources are allowed.”

After Lisa was attacked and killed in Duivendrecht on the night of 19 to 20 August, a run was created in the Netherlands on self -defense products such as ‘Smurfspray’ that leaves a blue dye on the attacker and so -called stench bracelets. They look like a normal bracelet, but contain a capsule that can be activated in emergency and spread an unbearable scent.

I noticed that I no longer just dared out the door without having anything with me

The outgoing cabinet announced on Tuesday afternoon whether Pepperspray can also be made legally “in a simple, fast way”.

In the Netherlands, PepperSpray is still prohibited under the Weapons and Ammunition Act. In Germany it is permitted under certain conditions, not in Belgium. The active ingredient in pepper spray, capsaicin from Spanish peppers, caused in high concentrations of severe pain, tears and temporary blindness. Police forces use it because a blinded attacker is easier to arrest. The vision usually returns after fifteen minutes, the pain lasts longer and cannot be flushed with water.

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More Products

If you look for legal alternatives, you will come across a colorful palette of products online. On Veiligvriendin.com, for example, the Girlfriend loré key ring Offered, available for 34.99 euros in themes such as Cinderella, Autumn and Peachy. There are four gadgets on the key ring that must give women guidance in unsafe situations.

The webshop is the initiative of Thalissa Leakat (28), which founded the company 3.5 years ago after being touched undesirably in Amsterdam itself. “I noticed that I no longer just dared out the door without having anything with me,” she says.

There are different tools for key chains she sells. There is a Kubotan stick, a short sturdy rod the size of a pen with a blunt point, with which you can administer someone a pain stimulus. The Keybos also contains a personal alarm of 120 decibels and sprays that mark an attacker red for days. “This way the police can detect someone faster,” explains Leakat. The police do not have figures that show that perpetrators have been arrested thanks to colored sprays. Thalissa Leakat, founder of safe girlfriend, also says that there is no concrete cases in which the spray actually led to an arrest.

The idea sounds sympathetic, but it seems very unwise to me

Some key chains are equipped with a window breaker, belt cutter and a loop to attach the forest to wrist or bicycle handlebar. “In an emergency situation you don’t have time to grab in your bag,” says Leakat. “You must have the pendant right at hand.” A fluffy pompon on the pendant is meant “for women who suffer from fear and want to calm themselves down in public transport,” says Leakat. “I didn’t want a bunch of keys to consist of intense items.”

Her first customers where women from her immediate environment, but her business, grew faster than she expected. “The sale ran so fast that I made my full -time work. In the meantime, parents also buy for their daughters, or brothers for their sisters.” After the murder of Lisa, the question shot explosively: the entire stock was sold out within a week and a half. “Now almost nothing can be ordered anymore. Hopefully there will be new stock next week,” says Leakat.

She regularly receives messages from customers who say that the products actually made a difference. “For example, I received an email from a mother of a girl who was bicycle attacked by a group of boys. She was alarming, bystanders shot to the rescue and the police came to the scene,” says Leakat.

Risks

Yet not everyone feels safe with key chains or alarm systems. “Then you still have the problem that a man is stronger and you can’t really defend yourself,” says Cato van Tongeren (22). She has been living in Amsterdam for three years now and almost always feels unsafe on the street at night. She is invariably called or harassed on the ramparts. When she walked home from a cafe in her street, a man chased her.

He held his hand in his pocket and pretended to hold a gun. “He shouted: I’m Gonna Shoot You Little Girl. Every time I moved, he pretended to pull it out. I was almost at home. Eventually I ran inside, he chased me but was just too late. After that he stood for another hour in my door. ” Since that night she never dares to go home alone.

For Cato, PepperSpray would be a way to win back her freedom. “It would make me so much more confident. You know that you have something with you if something happens. That feeling alone gives freedom, especially in your head. I would stay longer more often, don’t have to go home immediately if the girlfriend with whom I am wants to leave earlier.”

Leakat sees disadvantages to legalizing pepper spray. “I can understand it personally, but what if such a means falls into the wrong hands? I think women benefit more from means that cannot cause permanent injury,”

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Abuse

Criminal lawyer Diederick van Rinsum also sees great risks in legalizing pepper spray. “The idea sounds sympathetic, but it seems very unwise to me. With pepper spray you can also attack someone or use it for a store robbery, for example. In the event of incorrect use, it can even lead to permanent injury, such as blindness.”

A tight instruction of violence applies to the police. “Pepperspray only comes after other steps, such as the baton, in the picture, and even before heavier agents such as the taser, the police dog or the firearm,” says Van Rinsem. “So it is not even the most radical plea, but one that is carefully considered. Burgers do not have that instruction. Free sale would lead to abuse and escalation.”

He says that the thought that “only good people” will buy pepper spray is “a dangerous mistake.” “If everyone can have it later, there will be busy to wear it too. Then you get a weapon race like you now see with boys who carry knives with him in Rotterdam-Zuid: if one has it, the other feels obliged to take it with you.”

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Daniëlle is for legalization, for safety reasons she does not want to see her last name in the newspaper. “It would be the most effective if the municipality would offer free self -defense courses,” she thinks. She also emphasizes that pepper spray is not a panacea. “It only works if you already have it in your hand, with your finger on the button. That is not always realistic. If it is in your bag and someone is already in front of you, you are too late. Especially if you have drunk.” But wearing the idea of ​​the spray with you, according to her, already gives confidence. “That changes your posture.”

And there are more limitations. “In the hospitality industry and in a football stadium, PepperSpray is not allowed to come in. And at a party it can just be taken by searching. Criminal lawyer Diederick van Rinsem acknowledges that a small pocket knife is legally” but I would not advise anyone, “he says.

What he finds wiser, his legal alternatives such as odor bracelets Those an intruder can be intoxicated with an unbearable smell. They cost between 69 and 129 euros and are available, among other things, gold, pink and silver. There are self-defense teachers who give ‘lessons’ in the use of the bracelet. “Those kinds of resources are intended to disorient or mark, not to eliminate someone. Less suitable for the attack, and therefore less dangerous.”

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