Woman mugged at tire-ironpoint near Harvard Square

In these two particular cases, I could easily see pepper spray and/or mace escalating the situation, to the detriment of the victim. Spray won't stop someone from lashing out with a tire iron or firing blindly with a semiautomatic handgun.

That said, I think carrying "triple-pepper" spray in Boston, as a complement to a mobile phone, is not a bad idea, particularly by women. I've bought several of these over the years for girlfriends and female roommates, in various urban locales.

If there is some law against that, perhaps an unenforced one, more people need to be aware of it, so that we can consider whether it should be changed.

(In case there is some law, I should add, truthfully: I don't currently own any spray, have never carried one in MA, and am not aware of anyone owning or carrying one in MA.)

(Amusing memory... While at grad school in Providence, one of our roommates was a woman from Belarus, for whom I'd gotten a spray after she was either concerned about street safety or not concerned enough, I forget which. Sometimes, when going out after dark, she would announce in dramatic deadpan, in her thick, husky-chipmunk accent, "I am tay-king zuh veh-pun.")