A Matter of Safety

A Matter of Safety

Braille MonitorMarch 1986
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A Matter of Safety

Recently we have been hearing a great
deal about how the blind must be custodialized
for their own safety and that
of others--no exit row seating in airplanes,
no rides at amusement parks, no
right to rent safety deposit boxes at
banks. Just a matter of safety. Yet,
sometimes there is tangible evidence to
the contrary. Not long ago the Brockton (Massachusetts) Enterprise reported as follows:
It was on a hot summer night in the
mid-1970s that Peter Passalaqua and his
girlfriend, Sandy Levine, walked along
nearly-deserted Main Street--and stepped
into trouble.

They had intended to cross at the
Centre Street intersection and proceed
to 25 Legion Parkway where the Brockton
Judo Club, now defunct, was located.
For months Passalaqua had been learning
in a basement gym how to hurl opponents
to the mat--and this was judo-lesson
night.

The couple never got there. Three
street toughs stopped them before they
could cross the street.
"Hey man!" one said as he grabbed
Passalaqua by the shirt.

"Lay off me!" yelled Passalaqua. The
shirt-grabber only tightened his hold-- to his instant regret.

Passalaqua used leverage and threw him
over his shoulder. The man went through
the window of the Shawmut First County
Bank. "Ten feet of glass came flying
down," Sandy Levine recalls.

The victim came out of the situation
cut and bleeding, with a lot to answer
for when the police arrived. His
buddies took to their heels.

Passalaqua didn't know he was near the
bank when he threw the hoodlum. And he
never saw his opponent. Some would say
the fact he had become skilled in judo
was remarkable.
Passalaqua, you see, was blind.
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