To spray or not to spray

AMBER LONG was always careful on Philly's streets. She dodged dark corners and bad blocks, wore easy-to-run-in flats, kept her eyes and ears trained on her surroundings and avoided walking alone whenever possible, her mother said.

None of that stopped two armed robbers from shooting the 26-year-old artist to death last January in a struggle over her purse.

Afterward, Stephanie Long wondered if her daughter maybe hadn't done enough to protect herself. If she'd had pepper spray, she lamented to a few homicide detectives, Amber Long could have disabled her attackers, fled - and survived.

"But they said it was illegal," Stephanie Long said recently.

Furious that the law would deprive women of a proven self-defense tool, Long and other activists mobilized to persuade city leaders to change the law.

"You can carry a gun in Philadelphia [with a license] but you can't carry pepper spray?" said Michelle Martin, one of the activists behind a Change.org petition to City Council President Darrell Clarke to "lift the pepper spray ban in Philadelphia!"

But it's not illegal.

Ask a dozen cops, and you'll get a dozen different opinions on its legality.

A police spokeswoman initially repeatedly told the Daily News it was illegal in all circumstances until pressed to cite the law banning it. After consulting the department's legal adviser, the spokeswoman clarified that it's legal when used for self-defense - but illegal when sprayed offensively.

Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, later clarified further, saying pepper spray is OK, but Mace, OC spray and tear gas are forbidden entirely.

"I think there is confusion because of many people using the terms interchangeably," Stanford said.

But pepper and OC, or oleoresin capsicum, spray are the same thing. It is made from chili pepper extract and causes temporary blindness, skin irritation and coughing. Mace is a brand name; its defense sprays can contain oleoresin capsicum (pepper) spray, tear gas or both.

And Stanford couldn't cite a law spelling out the spray specifics.

Turns out, that's because there isn't one.

Neither Pennsylvania nor Philadelphia specifically restricts sprays, said Capt. Francis Healy, a lawyer and special legal adviser to Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

That means anyone can use any spray - so long as they don't use it offensively, Healy said.

Spray someone in the face in order to steal their car or win a mutual fight? Illegal.

Carry spray to fend off the bullies and bad guys on a late-night walk home? Legal.

Sprays also are prohibited in certain public spaces, such as airports, courthouses and schools, Healy added. And different rules might apply in other states. In Delaware, for example, possession by minors is prohibited, while New Jersey limits the size of the spray to no more than three-quarters of an ounce.

This isn't the first time Philly's rank-and-file have been confused about what the law allows. Citizens have filed complaints and lawsuits about officers wrongly forbidding them from filming police activity and seizing guns from people who have carry permits.

Of sprays, Healy said, "If there is confusion on this issue, the department would happily be at the forefront to clarify this for the officers."

Relieved for the clarification, the women behind the "lift the pepper spray ban" petition said they'll suspend their efforts to change the law, since the law is on their side.

Still, they said, most citizens don't have a lawyer to consult to clarify laws that confuse cops.

"Women need to know, and the cops need to know that they're not supposed to arrest people for having it for self-defense," said Stephanie Long, whose daughter's slaying remains unsolved. "Women won't carry it if they think they're going to get cited or go to jail."

Martin agreed: "Many women aren't comfortable carrying a gun for self-defense. So every other option for self-defense should be available to them; they should not be deterred from carrying pepper spray because cops are not on the same page."

After Amber Long's slaying, Martin and her friend Tyema Sanchez co-founded Handbags 4 Peace, a group intended to raise awareness about street safety and train women to defend themselves.

They offer free monthly self-defense classes at various locations (next one: Saturday at the Daniel E. Rumph II Recreation Center in Germantown) and plan to offer classes teaching women how to properly use pepper spray.

They'll also host a 5K "Women's Violence Awareness Walk/Run" on Oct. 18, which will start and end at the spot in Northern Liberties where Amber Long was gunned down.

And they aim to launch a program this fall in which they'll offer rewards for tips in unsolved crimes against women.

"It's like femicide right now," Martin said. "Women are a target because we are seen as weak and vulnerable. We have to protect ourselves."

Although men make up the majority of murder and shooting victims in Philadelphia, police data show that women are targeted, too. More than 100 women were murdered, and an additional 323 were shot, between 2011 and 2013, records show.

Others agree that pepper spray can be a valuable part of a woman's self-defense strategy.

"It's bad out here. It's really bad," said Lauren Grey, 36, an Upper Darby mother of four girls, whose mother bought her and her daughters pepper spray for self-protection.

Virginia Smith's teenage daughter was arrested and jailed in June 2012 after school police found a lipstick-size container of pepper spray in her backpack at Germantown High.

Smith bought the spray - part of a AAA kit for travelers whose cars break down - for her daughter, a petite honors student, to ensure a safer walk to and from school in the crime-plagued neighborhood.

Instead, city police officers arrested and briefly jailed her for bringing a weapon to school, Smith said.

"She had that spray for self-defense, and she never used it, never even got it out of her backpack," Smith said.

She added: "And they treated her like a terrorist."

Now at college, her daughter doesn't talk about her arrest and worries it might hurt her future job search.

She doesn't carry pepper spray anymore.

What does she do for protection now?

"She prays," Smith said.

Blog: phillyconfidential.com