Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for April 2012

“It shook me pretty badly.”

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My favorite story involves walking on a pretty central street in the downtown of my city. A guy just pulled right onto the crosswalk I was, well, crossing and proceeded to yell at me to get in his car, asking if I needed a ride, and yelled several times if I wanted to “SUCK SOME DICK.”

It was the middle of day in public. Good times. It shook me pretty badly.

– Eir

Location: St Petersburg, FL

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

 

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It read: “There is a man following you. White shoes, blue jeans, grey t-shirt.”

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When I was about 21-years-old, I was at the mall down the street from my college looking for a new pair of pants. I had spent probably a good half hour in the same store humming and hawing about what to buy when suddenly an older women runs up to me and sticks a piece of paper in my hand. She whispers, “Read this” before walking off.

Feeling like I was in a spy movie I opened the paper. It read:

“There is a man following you. White shoes, blue jeans, grey t-shirt.”

In shock I looked up immediately and frantically begin looking for the man. Sure enough, there was someone about 20 feet behind me…and when I made eye contact he hid behind a pillar.

I immediately grabbed my things and ran over to the area to confront the person but he was gone. Shaken up, I went to the security desk at the Mall, and told the two men working there what had happened.

They responded, “Yeah. It happens all the time/”

The complete apathy of the ‘security’ appalls me even to this day. And if it happens all the time…maybe something needs to be done about it?

Either way…I went home as quickly as I could, taking as many turns as possible to make sure I wasn’t being followed.

– JaguarGrin

Location: Oakville Place. Oakville Ontario, Canada

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

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New York City transit rider survey

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New Yorkers for Safe Transit has a packed schedule of activism coming up, starting with surveying transit riders to document cases of gender-based harassment and violence on the mass transit system. They hope the results will help mobilize communities to join with them and take action.

The survey is anonymous and available online.

Tomorrow will be the first of several days when they will conduct off-line surveys. At 1 p.m. tomorrow, they will meet at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to survey neighborhood residents. They need more volunteers to help conduct the surveys. Please contact them if you are interested in helping tomorrow or in future.

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Two new brochures and fliers you can use

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Activists hand out fliers in San Francisco, CA

Need a handy brochure or flier to pass out or post about street harassment? Here are two!

1 – Gaz Black, a paramedic and self defense instructor who runs The Best Defense Program in Winnipeg, Canada, created a brochure about street harassment. He says he and his son hand it out to men while his daughters hand it out to women. You can download and print it and hand it out too!

2 – During International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2012, activists in San Francisco, California, organized by Sarah Harper, founder of VoiceTool Productions, handed out fliers during evening rush hour. The fliers detail what street harassment is and how to resist it so that people can learn more about identifying harassment behaviors and how to stop harassment in the moment. The flier is in English and Spanish – download and print copies and then you can pass them out too!

Sarah just let me know that the University of Georgia’s Women’s Studies Student Organization is addressing street harassment in Athens, Georgia, by handing out copies of the flier and will do so during the campus Take Back the Night on April 12 in Athens.

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Police in India decide to post photos of street harassers

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Interesting approach to dealing with street harassers in India — what do you think?

Via Deccan Herald:

“Frustrated after the failure of its repeated attempts to tackle the growing menace of eve teasing in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut town, the police have come up with a special plan to rein in roadside majnus.

The police have decided to photograph ‘diehard majnus’ and paste their pictures at busy thoroughfares and public places across the town. Police said people can then identify their faces easily.

“Public display of their pictures will also create a guilty feeling among the majnus,” said a police officer.
The police also plan to ascertain the criminal history of eve teasers across Meerut through Operation Majnu.

“A history sheet of such persons will be opened at police stations and the Gangsters Act will also be slapped on them,” said the officer.

He said the town has been witnessing a growing menace of roadside eve teasers, who had made life miserable for girls.

“These majnus roam around girls’ schools and colleges and markets frequented by women. At times they even make indecent gestures towards women,” the official added.”

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