Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for June 2009

Ban Jeans to Curb Eve Teasers?

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Okay, this is just stupid (via Fox News):

“More and more colleges in the Uttar Pradesh state are prohibiting jeans, miniskirts and tight blouses to combat ‘Eve-teasing,’ a term for sexual harassment in India. Violators face expulsion.

‘Girls who choose to wear jeans will be expelled from the college,’ Meeta Jamal, principal of the Dayanand girls’ college in Kanpur city told AFP. ‘This is the only way to stop crime against women.’

But women said that they are being wrongfully targeted by the new rules, which should really go after the men who are sexually harassing them.

‘Banning any clothing will certainly never solve the issue of sexual harassment,’ a Lucknow University grad student, who didn’t want to be identified, told AFP.

Other colleges in India have tried to prohibit jeans on women, according to the AFP, but rescinded the ban after protests from students.”

Hopefully this ban will also be rescinded. Kudos to the students who are standing up to this idiocy.

Geez, I can’t get over the guy who said the only way to stop harassers is to make women stop wearing certain clothes. They should talk to the women in Eygpt and Yemen who said that they got harassed by men on the streets even when they were veiled!

If harassment is a problem, the focus should be on getting the men who are engaged in the harassing to stop.

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Where’s the Safety Transparency?

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Emily May, one of the co-founders of HollaBack NYC and one of the recent co-founders of New Yorkers for Safe Transit has a great op-ed piece in the NY’s Metro paper about the lack of safety transparency in the crime statistics for NY’s public transportation system.

MTA says there’s been a drop in crime on the subways, however, Emily doesn’t believe they’re accurately tracking persistant harassment crimes that disproportionately impact people of color, LGBTQ folk, and women who fall both within and without the first two groups of people.

“While the experience of harassment and assault is widespread, our access to information on these crimes is severely limited. In 2007, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office released the only report to date on the issue. According to the report, 63 percent of riders are harassed on the subway, and 10 percent are assaulted. With 5 million people riding the subway every weekday, it is fair to say that these crimes are at epidemic proportions.

The MTA’s recent anti-harassment PSAs suggest victims contact an ‘MTA worker or police officer.’ This is an empty gesture; personnel cuts have made station attendants scarce. Riders lucky enough to find help are ‘ignored’ or told ‘there isn’t much they can do,’ according to posts on HollabackNYC.com.

The subways have come a long way since the ’70s, but cleaner trains are not necessarily safer. If we are going to herald our improvements in transit safety, ‘strikes, shoves and kicks,’  ‘following a person in a public place,’ harassment and other misdemeanors must be included in the MTA’s crime count. Until we have safety transparency in our subway, these crimes will continue to stand clear of the closing doors.”

I whole-heartedly agree. I’m very glad she and the other individuals working on New Yorkers for Safe Transit are engaged in activism around this problem.

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Where's the Safety Transparency?

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Emily May, one of the co-founders of HollaBack NYC and one of the recent co-founders of New Yorkers for Safe Transit has a great op-ed piece in the NY’s Metro paper about the lack of safety transparency in the crime statistics for NY’s public transportation system.

MTA says there’s been a drop in crime on the subways, however, Emily doesn’t believe they’re accurately tracking persistant harassment crimes that disproportionately impact people of color, LGBTQ folk, and women who fall both within and without the first two groups of people.

“While the experience of harassment and assault is widespread, our access to information on these crimes is severely limited. In 2007, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office released the only report to date on the issue. According to the report, 63 percent of riders are harassed on the subway, and 10 percent are assaulted. With 5 million people riding the subway every weekday, it is fair to say that these crimes are at epidemic proportions.

The MTA’s recent anti-harassment PSAs suggest victims contact an ‘MTA worker or police officer.’ This is an empty gesture; personnel cuts have made station attendants scarce. Riders lucky enough to find help are ‘ignored’ or told ‘there isn’t much they can do,’ according to posts on HollabackNYC.com.

The subways have come a long way since the ’70s, but cleaner trains are not necessarily safer. If we are going to herald our improvements in transit safety, ‘strikes, shoves and kicks,’  ‘following a person in a public place,’ harassment and other misdemeanors must be included in the MTA’s crime count. Until we have safety transparency in our subway, these crimes will continue to stand clear of the closing doors.”

I whole-heartedly agree. I’m very glad she and the other individuals working on New Yorkers for Safe Transit are engaged in activism around this problem.

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Cab Driver Allegedly Assaults Passenger in L.A.

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In Los Angeles, California, a cab driver has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a female passenger. Unlike the recent incident in Malaysia where it sounds like the cab driver was assaulting women in the cab, this cab driver followed the woman into her home and assaulted her there. After the woman called the police, the cab company fully cooperated with the police and the driver was arrested last week.

“The L.A. Department of Transportation is stressing that with 2,300 licensed cab drivers in the city of L.A., taking a cab is still a safe way to get around town.” – via ABC local news

I think this is better advice – free from fear-mongering – than the advice given to women in Australia after a cab driver became aggressive toward a female passenger: “The best thing to do is not to travel alone at night.” Some advice, huh? It’s not realistic for everyone to avoid being out alone at night and it places the responsibility for avoiding the problem with the women instead of the perpetrators.

The LAPD believes there could be other victims and urges anyone with information to call the LAPD at (877) 527-3247.

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A Message to Muni Passengers

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Picture from M.J. Scanlon via railpictures.net
Picture from M.J. Scanlon via railpictures.net

Via Silicon Valley’s Mercury News:

“Police in San Francisco on Friday asked for the public’s help locating Muni passengers that may have been victims of sexual harassment or assault while using the city’s transit system.

Police reported that on the morning of May 8, a man was witnessed rubbing his pelvis against a woman on the inbound N-Judah rail line. The same suspect was witnessed committing a similar assault on the outbound N-Judah line later that evening. The victim has not been located.

The witness who reported the incidents to police said the suspect exited the train at the Powell Street station.

Police believe the suspect has been committing similar sexual batteries that have not been reported, and are asking anyone who has been a victim of such a crime to contact the San Francisco Police Department as soon as possible at (415) 553-1651.”

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