Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for April 2009

Catcalling Employees are Called Out

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This morning on my walk to the train station in NE DC to get to work, a large black utility van turns a corner, and its passengers yell “Howya doin’, Darlin’?” at me. I don’t respond, and the men cackle like the hyenas from “The Lion King.” Ugh!

I got the company’s name — Hill’s Chimney Service. The van drives so fast that I’m worried I’m not going to be able to snag its license plate number.

The van gets stuck at a light, and I’m praying in my head that I catch up to it before the light changes. The light changed and I was worried I’d lose them. Someone must’ve been looking out for me, because they don’t make it this cycle and get stuck again. I pull out my Post-It pad, fumble for a pen, and write down the license plate number: MD plates 51N 005.

I continue on, and these fools have the audacity to still try to catcall at me. The one in the passenger seat (always the one on the passenger side, damn scrub) has this shit-eating grin and is giggling, but when I said “You sexually harassed me, so I took down your license plate number and will report you,” that grin turned into a frown and he immediately rolled up his window. I could still hear some giggling, but I repeated, “You will be reported.”

When I arrived at work, one of the first things I did was call Hill’s Chimney Service to report their catcalling employees. A kindly receptionist answered the phone, and when I told her what the call was about, she replied with “Oh my goodness!” She left a message for Mike, the supervisor.

About 40-something minutes later, Mike calls back. I relay the story to him and he was upset.

“My company does not condone this!” he said. “I am a family man, I love my wife, I would never do that to a woman, and I truly apologize for this behavior. That behavior does not represent Hill’s Chimney Service as a whole.”

When I gave the license plate number, he gave me the names of the culprits: “Richard and Tyrone.”

He told me that he will reprimand them as soon as he sees them, and hopes that I never see them again.

“If you do see them again and they do that again, please call me,” Mike said.
“Will do,” I said.

So a small victory against street harassment is mine, but it doesn’t tackle the bigger war against it.

-anonymous

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NYC Subway Rape Victim Speaks Out

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NYC Subway Rape Case: Maria BesedinThe young woman whose lawsuit was recently dismissed against the MTA and the employees who did very little to help her duing a brutal sexual assault on a NYC subway platform has spoken out.

“Speaking for the first time since the ruling, Maria Besedin said Thursday she never expected the toll booth clerk and train conductor who witnessed the 2005 attack to be heroes and put their own lives in danger. But, she said, they didn’t even call 911, or yell, ‘Stop!’

Besedin hoped to have her day in court so a jury could decide if the MTA staffers were negligent for only alerting central command. She believed her case would make the system safer for all users.

‘I’m honestly still in shock,’ she said of Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan’s decision Tuesday to quash the suit.

‘It’s so hard for me to process this whole thing because I just really wanted everyone out there to be safe, to never have to experience anything like I did.’

The petite 25-year-old was still visibly shaken by her ordeal, which happened at the 21st St. station in Hunters Point on June 7, 2005, two days before her 22nd birthday.

She said suffers flashbacks, posttraumatic stress disorder, and continues to undergo therapy and take anti-anxiety medication. She has dropped out of college and lives with her parents in Rhode Island. …

‘I think it was beyond negligence, it was obvious that an extremely violent crime was going on.’

‘By the time somebody came, I mean, I had lost all my dignity, and it was over,’ she added.

Besedin’s lawyer, Chris Seeger of the firm Seeger Weiss, says he plans to appeal within days.

‘Yes, I do want justice,’ said Besedin, who still rides the subway.

As for the court system that rejected her case, she said, ‘It means that they don’t really understand exactly what negligence is and what the impact . . . this kind of atrocious thing can have,’ she said.”

Agreed. Let’s hope the appeal works. Her case could lead to important changes within the MTA.

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Street Harassment Event in Asheville, NC

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heybabyartexhibitashevillencAre you in North Carolina? If so, on April 10, you can check out this free street harassment event in Asheville called “Hey Baby!: Resisting Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces, One Bloque at a Time.”

“A bunch of people I know were talking about sexual harassment in our neighborhood, especially downtown and in West Asheville,” Erin Johnson, one of the organizers  said. “We were frustrated by how we felt unsafe, even in groups of people. So we thought, ‘What are some ways that we can take the frustration and anger and make something productive?’”

But the art included in the event that will take place at Asheville BookWorks on April 10 isn’t meant to be hung on a gallery wall; it’s designed to be taken to the streets and be used as tools to prevent, resist or educate.

She views this exhibit as “the first step, raising awareness, and doing it through art,” she said.

For the event, Johnson is making magnetic bumper stickers that respond to particular instances of sexual harassment that she’s experienced riding her bike around downtown Asheville, she said. The magnets display such phrases as “You sexually harassed me,” which can be placed on a vehicle but can be removed by the offending occupant.

That way, “they have to interact with (the magnet) and have to think about it,” she said.

The organizers will be accepting submissions until Wednesday.

Other pieces already accepted include posters with radical cheerleading chants, bike flags and business cards with instructions for appropriate interaction, Johnson said.

The event will also include a viewing of a documentary as well as workshops about what to do if you are sexually harassed and ways to start a conversation about the issue, she said.”

I wish I could attend, it sounds like it will be a great event.

Where: Asheville BookWorks, 428 1/2 Haywood Road. When: 7-10 p.m. April 10. For more: To submit works, contact Erin Johnson at ejohnson00@gmail.com or drop work off at BookWorks 1-4 p.m. by April 8. For more information, call 255-8444 or visit www.AshevilleBookWorks.com.

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Unpleasant Morning Surprise

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I was just out of law school and happy to be the first woman attorney in a downtown law firm. I enjoyed being downtown and usually commuted by bus. Occasionally, I needed a car at work and to get affordable parking I walked from an area of town that was less desirable.

stairwellOne early morning as I walked from my car something caught my attention and I saw a man a few feet away masturbating (and exposing himself) in a stairwell next to the sidewalk, staring at me. I was very shaken, but also scared. I’ve actually never discussed this experience with anyone.

I had other harassing experiences within the work environment of this job, which I left after a few years. The hostility I felt at work contributed to my insecurity and the sense that there was no one to talk with about issues like this.

Submitted by C.H.

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Judge Throws Out Subway Rape Case

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Remember the young woman in NYC who was raped by a man on a subway platform and sued the MTA and the two employees who essentially sat by (after calling the command center) while she was raped? Well, I just read that the judge has thrown out the suit.

scalejustice“In a nine-page ruling, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan concluded a token clerk and a subway conductor had no responsibility to intervene and were following work rules by not confronting the rapist.”

Meanwhile the attacker has never been caught. Surveillance video failed to capture the attack.

The woman who was raped is understandably devastated and she has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision.

It is difficult to say if any of us would have acted any differently had we been the MTA workers, especially if they were following company protocol. But at the same time, I have a hard time not feeling appalled and outraged that they knew this was occurring but they only did the bare minimum to stop it.  I really wish the outcome could have been different.

It’s Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month right now, and while people are much more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone they know, these types of random attacks happen too. At the very least, MTA may want to rethink their procedure and/or protocol for when assaults do occur so that they can respond better to literal cries for help… And maybe if she appeals and gets to have a lawsuit, they will HAVE to rethink it.

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