Here are two recent news stories about extreme street harassment in Vancouver, Canada, and West Redding, UK.
In Vancouver, “a woman was walking home from a pub in the area of 98th Ave & the King George Highway just before 2 a.m. when she noticed she was being followed along 104th Avenue. Police say the man grabbed her, pushed her against a wall, pointed a gun at her and began to sexually assault her. The woman called for help and the man ran away towards the Surrey Central Bus Loop area, but using the woman’s description of the attacker, police later arrested a man on a bus.”
In West Redding: At 8:30 p.m. a 41-year old father Mark Fricker sat next to a group of young teenage girls on the upper level of a public bus. He flirted with them and said he had a son their age, and then his conversation became sexual. He began rubbing the thigh of one of the girls and kissed her on the cheek. The girls alerted the bus driver who contacted the police. In court, he admitted to sexual assault. The judge gave him a 36 month supervision order and has required that he sign the sex offenders’ register.
Thankfully the young women are all okay and the men are being or have been prosecuted.
The judgment in the first case has not been determined.
How do you feel about the ruling in the second case? From what I gather, a supervision order means the man will have to go through trainings or meetings to help him do what is necessary to stop offending in order to better keep the public safe. That seems productive. What about the registry as a sex offender? Is it too harsh for his actions? Not harsh enough? Do you think it could deter other potential sexual harassment offenders?
