I had dinner with a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in a few months. Turned out that she had been mugged in the lobby of her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, so she’s spent the last few months moving to a safer neighborhood and dealing with all the pain that goes along with that. How sobering. Thanks to self-defense classes that she took in college, she was able to ultimately fight off her attacker by pushing him away just long enough for her to scream for help.

You can’t scream when he’s pressed up against you.

The bastard actually impersonated a police officer in order to get access to her building. Her one piece of advice for me (or anyone) - “Learn some self defense,” and blowing away any myths I might have believed, “Men are targets as often as women because they tend to have more money on hand.”