Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

I met the woman who caught the Boston Up-Skirter and changed history

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Remember early this spring when up-skirt photos were ruled to be legal by the Massachusetts Supreme Court and a few days later, the legislature changed the law?

Well, yesterday it was my great honor to randomly meet the Boston transit authority detective who made that all happen. She attended my workshop on addressing harassment on public transportation at the National Sexual Assault Conference and introduced herself afterward.

She said she and another female detective periodically go undercover as “grope bait.” As they’d gotten a few reports about a man taking upskirt photos on the subway line that lots of college students ride, she and her partner went undercover to look for him. This was in 2010. They found him and he had the nerve to take video footage up their skirts. They couldn’t believe it was happening. They arrested him.

He was a lawyer named Michael Robertson and his wife is a lawyer and he chose to use the law to challenge the charges against him. And after his case took a few years to go through the various levels of appeals, he almost got away with it at the Supreme Court level. Except that when the general public found out, we were outraged and instead of him getting away with it, his lawsuit led to the Massachusetts legislature changing the law.

The detective I talked to was very modest. She downplayed her role, even though when I and another woman in our conversation asked her, “He wouldn’t have been caught without you, right?” she said right. But she still downplayed it.

I think she is a hero! Who wants to go out and be grope bait for entitled creeps?  It’s a tough, rough job. She and her partner are making a big difference, as is the whole Boston transit authority. They have led the way in our country for transit agencies to take this issue seriously. Several cities – including DC – now have campaigns, but they had it first, in 2008.

And Boston isn’t the only transit system employing undercover cops to curb harassment and assault. In Bogota, 20 days ago the transit authority launched an undercover “pervert police” that has already arrested 16 men.

I wonder, will any other cities follow suit?

 (I asked if I could have my photo taken with her as I was so excited to meet her, but she declined as she “doesn’t like photos of herself.”)

 

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National Sexual Assault Conference 2014

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I’m at the National Sexual Assault Conference in Pittsburgh today to present the workshop “Getting Public Transit Systems to Address Sexual Harassment/Assault” with one of my mentors and long-time, amazing activists, Marty Langelan.

We’re looking forward to a lot of important conversations and hope we can see anti-harassment campaigns on transit systems spread nation-wide!

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Street Harassment is NOT a compliment

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I am really floored that after the NY Post published an article about street harassment being flattering (and women should just deal with it), major outlets like USA Today, Time and Salon.com all ran pieces this afternoon disagreeing, as did sites like Bustle, the Frisky,

This would never have happened a few years ago, hell maybe not even last year. This is an incredible shift in how street harassment is viewed!! WOW. Let’s keep speaking out!

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New Opportunities to Join Us!

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Do you want to do something about street harassment? Here are several ways you can join up with us in the mission to document and end gender-based street harassment.

1. Apply for our September – November 2014 Blog Correspondents Cohort. Apps due August 29, 2014. It’s an unpaid, volunteer position. 

2. Apply to join our Board of Directors for the 2014-16 term. Apps due September 8, 2014. It’s an unpaid, volunteer position.

3 & 4. — We’re looking for new dedicated volunteers! To apply, please send your resume/CV and a cover letter to Holly Kearl, HKearl@StopStreetHarassment.org.

3. SSH Social Media Manager:

SSH needs help managing the Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts. The position will entail a little bit of work on the Facebook page, too. Applicants must have experience with each platform and be able to devote around three hours per week to managing these accounts.

The person must be able to manage these accounts through at least the end of 2014, ideally through the end of Spring 2015.

This is an unpaid volunteer position.

Apply by September 13, 2014

4. International Anti-Street Harassment Week Manager:

International Anti-Street Harassment Week will be held April 12-18, 2015. It will be the fifth year of activism.

Leading up to the week (Dec – early April): We need someone who can help manage the #EndSHWeek social media-specific accounts, reach out to groups and people to invite them to participate, follow-up with past participants, update the website, develop new flyers for 2015, work with translation volunteers to translate materials, find media contacts and outlets to pitch, and other duties as relevant. You will have weekly check-ins with SSH Founder Holly Kearl.

During the week: We need someone who can help dedicate time every day to searching online for photos and articles about activism happening by participants (they are often slow to send links or never do – so SSH has to do a lot of searching) and then sharing them on the SSH blog, photo album, and social media accounts, help manage the daily tweet chats, and also, ideally the person will hold or participate in an offline event.

After the week (late April): Following up with participants to hear about their events. Continuing to look online for actions that took place. Compiling links.

This position will require about 5-10 hours/week leading up to April. During April it could be up to 15-20 hours per week.

The position would begin in December 2014 and run until the end of April 2015 (5 months). This position will pay a small stipend of $500/month ($2,500 total).

Apply by October 1, 2014.

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Street Respect: “What kind of dog is that?!”

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I was driving with my little dog in the back seat with the top down in my car. Man pulls up in an SUV and told down his window. I’m tensing up and preparing for the comments to start and he says, “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! What kind of dog is that?!”

– Abby

Location: Chicago, IL

This is part of the series “Street Respect. “Street respect” is the term for respectful, polite, and consensual interactions that happen between strangers in public spaces. It’s the opposite of “street harassment.” Share your street respect story and show the kind of interactions you’d like to have in public in place of street harassment.

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