Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“It terrifies me to think what could have happened”

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This just happened less than two hours ago. First of all, I am a student. At approximately 11:30 AM I decided to walk to campus (right next to where I live) to get some work done for a project. After one hour (at 12:20 AM), I was done and was walking to my apartment building. As I approached the main building door, I saw a guy walking past me (facing me) so he was walking the other direction.

Anyways I continued to approach the building door and opened it then walked up the stairs and stood in front of my apartment door looking for the keys in my pocket. Mind you that there was absolutely no one around except him and I in the street. While getting my keys I suddenly heard the building door open and heard heavy and fast footsteps climbing up the stairs. I don’t know why but I did not get a good feeling and I panicked, I managed to quickly unlock my door and go inside and immediately locked the door behind me.

I looked straight through the door eye hole and found the same guy who just passed me, he just missed me by a second. He walked through the hallway and then went downstairs again and left. I do not think this was a coincidence. He does not live in our building, and he was originally walking in the other direction. It terrifies me to think what could have happened if I had not closed the door on time before he could come upstairs. I seriously wish our apartment building had surveillance cameras or at least only allowed tenants to access the building.

– Anonymous

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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“Stop yelling at random girls.”

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I went to prom as a sophomore. It was at the Wax Museum on Hollywood Boulevard. I was leaving at the end of the night with my boyfriend and his parents and a man who was either drunk or on drugs started yelling to me about how beautiful I looked, he called me princess and “Belle.” (My dress was yellow) I was flattered for a second and then he kept yelling and it got uncomfortable. I was kinda confused about why he was yelling at me. My boyfriend’s mom went into “mama bear” mode and said, “Have a good night sir,” to finally make him stop.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Stop yelling at random girls.

– AMC

Location: Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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“Don’t be scared, get in.”

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Last night, I went to the movies with a friend of mine who’s also a female. It was pretty late and we had to go home on foot. It wasn’t the first we did that so we didn’t really see any problem at first.

Of course, every time we walked home, there would be car honks here and there, and sometimes three in a row. One time, there was a man on a bike who slowed down to talk to us saying he was looking for a wife. We were only 18 and we were just trying to walk home. We tried to answer as little as possible to his questions and he kept talking to us for 20 minutes before he finally left.

But last night, as we walked home, two men who were in their car slowed down and catcalled us. We didn’t understand a thing they were saying and we didn’t really care. We tried to ignore them the best we could and they finally drove away. But two minutes later, they came back on the other side of the road and catcalled us again. They turned around just to do that.

Once they were gone, we relaxed again. We were now just a few minutes away from our home when another car, a truck, stopped on the side of the road next to us. Then we started to freak out. The car was going our way and we couldn’t prevent them from coming out of their car. The driver got out and started to ask us if we wanted a ride home. We declined as politely as we could, but we insisted, and then the man from the passenger seat was opening his door too. We were so scared, we didn’t know what to do. The guy kept saying and asking us to drop us off but we declined. He noticed we were scared and instead of just understanding the message he said, “Don’t be scared, get in.”

After a while he finally gave up, I was ready to run away. We finally got home. This experienced just ruined our night. More than that.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Honestly, I don’t even know considering it could happen anywhere in the world. I do feel very unsafe and going out slowly becomes a mental torture for me. I can’t stop thinking about what happened and what could have happened. I use to love to go out with my friend, now it is something I try to avoid just for that reason.

Location: France

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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“Did he know I was Asian?”

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It was around 8:20am and I had just dropped off my child at his school. About a quarter of a mile down the school’s street, I waited to make a left turn onto a bigger, wider street that had two lanes per direction and a speed limit of 45 mph. It wasn’t a 4-way stop, so I was waiting until it was safe and clear to make that turn.

First, the lane closest to me cleared. I was thinking of turning left and then wait on the island before merging into the lane I needed to be in. But then cars, including a truck or bus or van started coming in from that lane so I continued to wait. Suddenly, I hear a long honk behind me, not short but a long, impatient one. I ignored it as it’s still not safe for me to make a left turn. Then the heard 4 or 5 more honks. This time I turn my head and look at the driver mouthing “what’s the problem” because he was really, really rude. He didn’t look at me. Finally it was clear to turn left and then I veered to the right turn lane (because I then had to turn right).

Then this white SUV got into my lane, driving very fast just inches from my car, honking. His dog, a golden brown hound was in the front, sticking his head out the window. I honked back as I rolled down my window ready to shout back in case he did too. He just drove on honking. I was shaken, felt violated and disrespected for doing the right thing– waiting to make a safe turn. I felt violated and disrespected when he honked not once but 4 or 5 times successively when I continued to wait until safe.

I felt discriminated. Did he know I was Asian and that’s why he didn’t care that he honked that way? He knew for sure when I turned my head and glared at him. He knew when he zoomed past me as if threatening to hit me. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at his plate number as I was just so shaken. I was having second thoughts about reporting. I didn’t think I’d find your site to report street harassment. initially I just wanted to talk to somebody–a friend, better if it’s an organization that deals with harassment. Then I found this site. I was saving second thoughts about reporting. I even forgave the other driver because he was probably mentally ill.

Is discrimination a form of mental illness? I’ve never experienced this in all 17 years I’ve been living in the U.S.– not this level of rudeness. I can’t help thinking what emboldened this driver to harass me the way he did. This is too much. I don’t feel safe. What if I had my children with me and they witnessed all this?

Location: Hatteras Street and Fall Brook Avenue, Woodland Hills, California

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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“Disgusting mouth and tongue gestures”

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I do home health care for work. I wear scrubs 99% of the time (today I was wearing scrubs). I walked out of a patient’s house after treating them and got to my car which was parked a very short distance away. I got into my car and rolled the windows down halfway to look up my next patient’s address. As I am doing this, a younger man wearing a baseball cap says hello and asks me something about directions to downtown. I politely say I am not familiar with the area and I am here for work and seeing my patients. He then asks me how old I am, I deflect with a “You should never ask a woman how old they are.”

He is not taking the hint that I have people to see and places to go. He then asks me why I’m in the neighborhood and if I wanted to f**k. Yes that’s correct he just straight up asked me that. My mind went blank for a moment as I was in utter shock at the statement. I said something along the lines of “No. And I need to get back to work.”

He then asked, “Why not? Why don’t you want to f**k?”

Again I said, “I need to go” and “you need to leave.”

He eventually took the hint but made a few disgusting mouth and tongue gestures before he drove off.

I felt immediately angry, pissed off, and frustrated. I also felt like I wanted to take a shower and go home instead of seeing my patients.

– Regina Spehalski

Location: Pasadena, Texas

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

Share