We arrived in London Heathrow airport at 6 in the morning jet lagged, smelly and with no sleep in over 24 hours, but still teeming with excitement. the city was our oyster, and we were going to discover every inch of it before Elizabeth and I went our separate ways. It started out so promisingly.
We made it 9 hours before Elizabeth was arrested.
It happened at the London Eye. We cued up up to grab tickets, and then cued up again to ride it. The police stopped us to check our bags, where they found... Elizabeth's pepper spray.
The manager was called. He started out with "Now, I don't want you to freak out like some women do."
Great, I thought, he's going to confiscate it.
"this is illegal to bring in the UK, the same as carrying a handgun. I'm going to have to call the police."
OK, I thought, they're going to lecture her, smack her wrists up a bit.
"I'm going to be blunt: they're going to arrest you and bring you into the station."
...?
They're going to write you up, take a mug shot and DNA sample, and then let you go. They probably won't keep you longer then an hour.
...?!?!?!
I went to two several hour orientation meetings before even buying my plane tickets. Never once was pepper spray, or the different laws regarding it, mentioned. Coming from a campus where warning e-mails are routine and where muggings and attacks are not unheard of, taking self-defense along on a trip where we'd be traveling alone at night in a foreign country seemed like a no-brainer. At one orientation meeting, it was even encouraged.
All in all, Elizabeth got a free ride in a police wagon, and Megan and I got an escort to the station by a very nice bobby. We also learned several important lessons:
that the waiting rooms in police stations are bugged, after the sergeant behind the desk left the room laughing when I whispered to Megan that he looked like Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz.
And that every living being in Seattle hangs out with Bill Gates, after Elizabeth was let out with the instructions to tell Bill Gates that 'Microsoft is absolute rubbish', I guess the next time they get coffee or go bowling together or something.
It could have been worse. Someone my host-mother knows got five years for possesion. Apparently he also had guns as well, but what got him caught was the pepper spray.
In the U.S., I'm definitely conservative when it comes to gun control. Unless you hunt, you don't need to own one. There is no proof that citizens with guns stops crime, and easy access certainly aids it. but pepper spray? I've never heard of it being used offensively. The only people I know who own it are college girls who like being able to walk on campus after dark without an escort.
It was, I feel, a great start to what is sure to be a wonderful term. I hope the French treat Elizabeth they way she deserves.
Also, don't bring pepperspray into London.
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