I was driving into an outdoor shopping center a little after lunchtime when two men who were walking in my direction looked at me and yelled, “Hey” in a loud and not-so-friendly way.
When I didn’t look in their direction, they hit my car with metal pipes and yelled, “Hey, Bitch watch where you are going.”
I drove my car to a different area of the parking lot. When I walked out, they followed me in their car and yelled,”Hey, Bitch you really need to listen to us. You’re not that important.”
When I reported this incident to the police, they advised me to stay in the same parking lot while they sent a patrol car, which never arrived. They joked about it and asked me what I had done to encourage their behavior. When I finally decided to drive to the police station in Canoga Park on my own, the police officers asked me if I like it hard in the middle of their interview with me of the incident. They continued trying to create picture of me as the victim who deserved this act of violence. They behaved in the same way with another woman who was filing a report against a man who had assaulted her.
However, they were far too patient with a man who was talking about real estate laws because it allowed the police officer to gloat about the house he owned. It showed the dichotomy between the way the police officers treated the women and men in their precinct. There was not one single female police officer in the precinct and as I and the other woman told our story, the police officers in the front and back chuckled and laughed, because that is how much they valued our words.
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
Educate police personnel not to take this issue lightly. The police officers I spoke to on the phone joked about it and insinuated that it was somehow something I had done that caused the incident. Make sure there are enough female officers or well trained officers to deal with these types of incidents.
– Anonymous
Location: Shopping center on the corner of Topanga Ave in Woodland Hills
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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more ideas.
