How Can a Girl Defend Herself?

Pub-crawling his way around Manhattan one evening last May, a burly Bronx meter reader named Steve Callinan dropped into a bistro and spotted Raven Novie, 21, a statuesque blonde receptionist who was dining with her equally fetching cousin. "Wannadrink, girls?" Callinan pressed. When they rebuffed him, Raven said, he spewed assorted four-letter words; the manager ordered him away, and he retreated to the bar. As the girls were leaving, Raven claimed, Callinan threatened her with fists as well as words.

Apparently frightened, Raven took out a pen-shaped tear-gas gun, squirted Callinan in the left eye and ran--hotly pursued by two off-duty Brooklyn policemen who were also drinking at the bar. Not only was she unaware that her pursuers were cops, she said, but they beat her up on the street--a story coldly denied by the police on the stand, warmly supported by her cousin in the press. Whatever the facts in the matter, Raven was charged with third-degree assault, violation of New York's stiff Sullivan weapons law, and unlawful possession of the tear-gas pen. Possible sentence: up to six years.

No Water Pistols. Like other big cities, New York has long debated what legal weapons can keep a girl safe from robbers, mashers and muggers. New York forbids all unlicensed concealed weapons, with the possible exception of hatpins. Thus, in 1964, citizens were appalled at the fate of Arlene Del Fava, a secretary who faced seven years' imprisonment because she used a switchblade knife to fight off a suspected rapist on the street at night. She escaped prosecution only because a sympathetic grand jury refused to indict her. Though tear-gas pens are legal in most states, the notable exceptions include New York, Illinois and California, which contain the nation's largest, unsafest cities. New York City even bans water pistols loaded with an eye-stinging chemical like ammonia. Ironically, there is nothing to prevent the purchase of rifles by mail or even at the nearest sporting-goods store.

Many lawyers would argue that Raven herself had a good assault case against Callinan, whether or not he touched her. But by a vote of 2 to 1, a three-judge city criminal court without a jury convicted her on all charges. Last week she received a suspended sentence, on grounds of her "generally favorable" probation report and the assumption that she "acted in panic." But the prosecution had unquestionably made its point. "A lot of people didn't know tear-gas guns are illegal," explained Prosecutor Jeffrey Atlas. "Well, they know now." Unfortunately for Raven Novie, the lesson also includes a permanent criminal record.

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