New rape alarm flops, big time

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For those of you who think it's downright sickening that Sarah Palin made Alaskan victims pay huge sums for their own rape kits (maybe she thought they were "asking for it"?), here's another example of backward stupidity when it comes to protection: The Guardian columnist Emine Saner decided to road test the lla Dusk, a new rape alarm that makes a noise that, wait for it, sounds like a woman screaming. Okay, so maybe if the rapist is covering your mouth this might come in handy, but as Saner showed in this video, not only does it sound more like a toy monkey screeching, no one reacted to the noise because it's simply not that, well, alarming. She writes:

"I am standing in a quiet London street, just off a busy market, and nobody is coming to help me. The personal attack alarm I have set off screeches away into a void of nothingness. Eventually, a man walks past on his mobile phone, glances in my direction and looks annoyed. A pigeon looks slightly alarmed. I could be dead by now, I think. Or maimed. Damn you fellow citizens. 'Why didn't you come and see if I was OK?' I ask a stallholder on the market. "We get a lot of kids round here," Roman Sarlowaray says. 'I thought it was one of them messing around.'

The makers of the new Ila Dusk personal alarm, which goes on sale in Marks & Spencer next month, say that the noise it makes has been 'shown to elicit the strongest reaction from passersby.' Instead of the usual car-alarm noise, which people find easy to ignore, it is supposed to sound like a woman screaming. Except it doesn't. It sounds a bit like a baby crying, or a wounded animal."--The Guardian

Jesus. Looks like it's back to the drawing board guys. What should you do if you're being attacked (besides fight back)? According to Jo Walker, spokeswoman for the personal safety campaign group Suzy Lamplugh Trust, screaming (or using a machine that mimics the sound), isn't necessarily the wisest option in the first place. "We advise people to try not to scream, because bystanders have no idea how to react. You should shout instructions, such as, 'Call the police!' - it has been proven this has more of an effect."