To make a long story short, I had a run-in with a couple of creeps in my younger days, I'm female and I was driving home from work at 12 midnight when a car with three young punks (white, by the way) came zipping past me, cut in front of me, and slammed on their brakes, forcing me to stop. Then two of the punks came running back to my car and began pounding on my windows, which were closed. I went into a kind of state of shock where I just sat there and was aware of it all happening, but I couldn't react or do anything. Then my mind began to clear and I was aware that my driver's side window was getting loose from the pounding and might cave in.
So I very deliberately reached under my car seat for my umbrella with a very long point. I thought that if the window went in, I would slam that point straight into the perp's eye. I kept my eye on him as I reached under my seat, and something in my gaze must have told him I meant business.
I'm sure they thought I was reaching for a gun, because the two of them gave a final kick on my door and raced back to their car. They didn't stick around to see what I pulled out from under my seat. They tried to back into my front fender, stopped an inch short, then drove off at a high rate of speed.
I wrote down their license number and when I got home a few minutes later to my family's home (this was a nice suburban neighborhood, by the way), I woke my parents up and told them and they called the police. We found out the next day that the police never sent out a search bulletin to look for the creeps' car or to warn other officers to be on the lookout for them.
The next afternoon, two officers came to our home and explained that they couldn't go to the home of the family to which the car was registered because the family had four boys and since it was dark, I could not positively identify each one involved. They said nowadays you just about have to have a video camera to make an arrest.
My Dad asked, couldn't you go to the house and talk to the parents? Oh no, that would be violating their rights. But the cops told my Dad that he was free to ask around the neighborhood (they told us who the family was, a family in my neighborhood) and try to find out the names of which kids were involved. My Dad made some inquiries and found out that the boys had bragged about killing their neighbor's cat, but the police refused to do anything because there was no body of a dead cat. And then a car began to stop outside my family's home late at night and rev its engine, and my mother took that as a warning and begged my Dad to stop making inquiries in the neighborhood because she was afraid. So we let it drop.
About my feeling a sense of shock when the attack started, I've read that it's not unusual. It's like you go into a deep freeze for a minute before your mind can start working again. If I had to do it over, I would have simply put the car in reverse and blasted backwards.
When I saw his cuts and bruises, I saw red. I grabbed my son and my tennis racket and we drove around until I found the bully and threatened him with a few lessons unless he marched himself back to the principals office and confessed, which he did.
My son, now 19 and 6'2 has never forgotten that day. It really says something to a kid when you (the powerful adult) are willing to stand up and defend them. What does it say to the kids of Springfield that our city has put a halfway house for pedophiles there...
And the drippy woman who runs the program apparently doesn't have a clue about the rate of recidivism for her clients.
I hope that these days, you would be reaching for a gun. Pennsylvania is a shall issue concealed handgun license state. That means unless you have a disqualification defined in the law, they must issue you a permit/license.
But you are also correct in that using your vehicle as a weapon, or for a quick get away is a smart thing to do.
Ma'am, IMHO, your Father let you down listening to your Momma. Your family has "unfinished business" in town. More immediately to your own personal safety, it sounds like you need to make sure you can fend adequately for yourself, and next time you reach under your front seat, there'd best NOT be an umbrella under there.
YO-YO -- You're On Your Own