I hope they catch one of these bastards...they should have to spend a few days tied to a chair while somebody wets their corneas, Clockwork Orange-style, with a pepper spray eyedropper.

let me try to evoke fnarf.

"FUCK YOU PEPPER SPRAY OWNERS, AND YOUR TINY PENIS VIOLENCE ASSHOLES"

That first guy was asking for it. He was probably dressed provocatively. I bet he speaks to different women every day.

@3 - my wager is that he said something along the lines of 'hello, sugartits...' or something. That isn't asking for pepper spray, but it is asking for some sort of response, for sure. Just a hunch, seems pretty unlikely that someone would spray just over a 'hello.'

@4

Yay! The "Blame the Victim" chorus has arrived!!!

And as un-self-reflective as always.

I'd still prefer to be attacked with pepper spray than threatened with a gun. Less dead people in the end.

@4 While reading, I though kind of the same thing. There is no real motive given for the attack, which lead to wondering is the man tells the truth. But just wondering.
Either he lied, or he didn't. The woman was also a victim, or she's kind a psycho. But we can't know, so what's the point of accusing?

@5 Blaming him might not be in order, but we do only have his side of the story.

These videos always play out the same—they can never figure out how to open the register. It says so much.

@8

Just to extrapolate on your logic a little... If you're mugged, the cops aren't to believe you because they "only have your side of the story." Let's see you try to live out that philosophy.

Any woodcarving involved?

Support for gun control is statistically related to how often gun violence is shown on TV. The more people perceive violent gun use on their streets the more they support banning guns.

You don't see pepper spray assaults on evening dramas so nobody wants to ban them

@12: i'd like to see those statistics related to TV.

i've wondered if you added up all the violent crimes shown on american cable in a single day, is that more than the actual number of assaults on that day, gun or otherwise?

@10, In what way did I say anything like that? If it was a mugging I would hope the police would do an investigation and not just take the word of one person. I am not saying the guy is not to be believed, but people do lie sometimes and skepticism is a good policy.

@5 etc - I am way late in a response here. I suppose you could call that blaming the victim, yes - though I did add that he did not deserve pepper spray. I was commenting on the likelihood that someone would have such a vicious response to a hello - that would require some mental illness, I think. Entirely possible, of course, but unlikely. I don't think it is fair to compare such an unlikely scenario to cases of rape & harassment (things which I wish were unlikely and rare) in which the victim is not believed due to our long history of patriarchy and misogyny. In those cases, the victim is not believed because she is a woman, in this case I don't believe the victim because the story is so odd. There is a difference.