Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for December 2013

“I go home feeling that I am a nothing to them”

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I am 16 and I have a part-time job after school. I get out in the early evening, but it’s dark by 4:30 p.m. in the winter, and I’ve had a few uncomfortable situations, but never scary. This particular day I left work I had barely walked two yards from the door when a man coming towards me stopped abruptly to block my path. “You’re gonna catch a cold missy!” he said. I thought he meant it like a caring adult to any kid, but then he added, “You’re ta-tas are hanging out.”

I became very aware that this man was standing purposefully in my way, commenting on my body and coming closer. I quickly walked around him and mumbled ‘okay’ and he said, “You sure you’re okay? miss?” I replied, “Yes, I’m fine thank you.”

I tried to walk away without looking back as he replied, “Yes you are fine…” and I stopped listening because I felt nauseous and I couldn’t tell if he was still following me. As I speed walked away I called two friends to possibly deter him from following me, neither answered. The third friend did and when I was sure I had lost the man I explained what happened and how afraid I was. She dryly replied, “You’ll get over it.” and changed the subject.

But I can’t. I can’t get over the looks and the car horns and unintelligible things called out of moving cars, or the groups of boys singing to me about my body, or the men leaning over to get a better look. I can’t get over it because I go home feeling that I am a nothing to them, and they’ll forget what they said but I won’t be able to shake the fear of seeing them again tomorrow.

– WM

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“I am afraid always”

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One night after a dance class, I went to Walmart. As I left, I noticed a man walk into the store. He had ragged, torn jeans and muddy boots and was wearing a white tank top. It was pretty chilly outside. I was walking to my car, but I heard someone following me. I thought it was just someone else leaving, but I turned around to see that same man following me. I started walking faster. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking nervously. I was afraid that he was going to grab me or attack me. He said “Gettin’ cold sweetheart?”

That was enough to make me burst into tears. I was scared to death. I replied “No, I’m fine.”

Then I practically ran to my car. It took me several tries to get the key into the door to unlock it since I was shaking. Once I got in, I drove home; probably 20 miles over the speed limit. I was hyperventilating. Scared to death. Since that night, I don’t go anywhere alone at night. I’m afraid to go pump gas into my car at night, I don’t go to Walmart late at night, and even during the daytime, I watch my surroundings constantly. That experience changed my life. I am afraid always, even if I am surrounded by friends or my boyfriend.

– Rachel B.

Location: Georgia

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“I’m tired of having to be combat-ready all the time”

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A while ago I thought I’d help motivate myself to get out of the house and get active by making myself tea and going for a walk around my block. After all, I love walking, and I’m too broke to join a gym. I was all excited about it, had my tea, made it to the other side of the block and was really enjoying being out in the sun, with all the happy little houses around….and then was heftily sexually harassed as I passed a house full of people who were hanging out in their front yard. They talked about my body parts for at least the entire time I was in earshot, loudly talking about me in the third person and shouting instructions and opinions at me. It was mostly one guy, but there were both guys and girls laughing along with him.

I’ve realized this is pretty common any time I walk places. Street harassment is alive and well in Los Angeles.

This is why I don’t leave my house as much as I’d like to, and why I no longer skate anywhere – because I just can’t muster the energy to deal with scary douches. I’m tired of having to be combat-ready all the time. So now I mostly just stay home or only drive places (even if I could walk there).

– MAG

Location: North Hollywood, CA

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Study: Workplace Sexual Harassment is Pervasive

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A new study about workplace sexual harassment reveals some alarming findings:

“Six in ten working women have had a male colleague behave ‘inappropriately’ towards them, new research has revealed.

The study showed that women were still subjected to sexist attitudes at work with the old clichés of men slipping a hand up their skirt or patting them on the bum still a regular occurrence for some women.

While nearly a quarter of women have experienced a senior colleague making a pass at them at some point in their career.

When it came to inappropriate comments and touching more than half of the offenders were more senior members of staff and two thirds of women said the inappropriate behaviour came from a married man.

But despite saying that the behaviour of their colleagues was often degrading and embarrassing only 27 per cent reported the behaviour to someone senior.

The research polled 1,036 women and was commissioned by employment law specialists Slater & Gordon.”

Combine this with high rates of street harassment, and it’s no wonder many women feel they cannot escape sexual harassment: they may face it on their way to/from work, at work, and after hours when they’re out with friends or family.

Our country has a major sexual harassment problem!!! And people like Rush Limbaugh are one reason why — he claims sexual harassment is just human nature.

It’s time for our country to take this issue seriously. It’s no laughing matter or joke, it has real consequences on peoples’ lives.

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Know Your Rights: Street Harassment and the Law

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Stop Street Harassment is pleased to announce the release of our newest publication and online resource Know Your Rights: Street Harassment and the Law.

We’ve spent the summer and fall surveying the laws in all 50 U.S. states and D.C. and we have good news: many common street harassment behaviors (such as groping, indecent exposure, and up-skirt photos) are illegal across the U.S. That means you can report street harassment to the police and hold a street harasser legally accountable for his or her actions (when you feel that’s appropriate).

Street harassment is not specifically criminalized the way sexual harassment in the workplace and schools is. However, state laws like Disorderly Conduct, Invasion of Privacy, and Sexual Misconduct prohibit many common street harassment behaviors. Each state has their own set of rules about public behavior and sexual harassment, so we’ve laid out what the relevant crimes are called in each state’s code and let you know exactly what’s legal and what isn’t.

As of today – Human Rights Day – you can find all of this information online or you can download a PDF of the complete toolkit.

We think the Know Your Rights toolkit is a ground-breaking project in the fight against street harassment because, for the first time, all of the state-level criminal law that could be used to stop street harassment has been compiled, analyzed, and made accessible to anyone who needs them. In a society that says street harassment is a compliment, we want you to be able to say, “No, it’s disorderly conduct.”

We hope you will use this information to exercise your right to protection from the police when you experience illegal street harassment and to encourage your local lawmakers to further protect women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community in public spaces.

Of course, we know that reporting harassment to the police or criminalizing harassment are not the only ways to end street harassment. In some cases, these may not even be the best ways. Criminalizing behavior can be problematic when laws are disproportionately applied to low-income communities and communities of color. With that in mind, Stop Street Harassment encourages you to engage with your local law enforcement to ensure the law is always applied fairly and that your community handles street harassment in the most constructive way possible. We endeavor to provide you with information so that you can advocate for your rights to safe public spaces and to the other freedoms you are entitled to under the law, such as due process.

As we’ve said before, there is no best way to deal with street harassment – every person and situation differs. Ending street harassment for good will require a multi-pronged approach, including education, awareness campaigns, and engaging the legal system. If a street harasser does commit a crime against you, we want to equip you to make an informed decision. Armed with that knowledge, you can then decide whether or not to report harassers to law enforcement, especially for crimes like up-skirt photos, public masturbation, stalking, and groping.

Take a look at your state’s section of the toolkit to get an idea of the kinds of street harassment that are illegal – or to report a crime that has already happened. You’ll also find useful information in the Introduction, including what to expect when you report street harassment and how to deal with harassment from police officers themselves.

Finally, we’d like to add one important takeaway from our work on the project: in speaking with several police officers around the country, we learned that you can engage a police officer or call 911 any time you feel threatened, even before a crime has been committed. This seems obvious in retrospect, but 75% of women report they have been followed and yet few report it to the police. If you think someone is following you, or you feel otherwise scared, intimidated, or threatened, you have the right to help from the police.

They say knowledge is power, friends, so here’s a nation’s worth.

Have you reported street harassment to the police? What happened? What did you learn about your local laws from our toolkit? How do you plan to use this knowledge? Share your story in the comments

Talia Hagerty has been an intern with Stop Street Harassment since June 2013. She is also a peace economics consultant working on a variety of projects that ensure the equitable economic participation of all. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Eckerd College and an M.S. in Global Affairs with a concentration in Peacebuilding from New York University. Talia blogs about peacebuilding, human rights, economic development, and witty responses to street harassment. Follow her on Twitter: @taliahagerty.

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