Blog | Page 102 of 906 | Stop Street Harassment

“I started yelling for help and crying as my little sister looked on”

October 22, 2016 By Contributor

I was 25 at the state fair one early evening with my 15 yo little sister. A group of guys approached us. We were near the main gate. As we walked towards them and my sister and I talked one of the guys grabbed my breasts very hard and twisted them in opposite directions like they were faucets. I have large breasts and have been a target so many times because of my physical appearance I couldn’t even recount them all. I screamed and yelled profanities at him at which point he and two friends poured their large drinks of beer over my head. I started yelling for help and crying all as my little sister looked on.

A cop arrived and asked what happened. I had a conservative empire-waisted cotton blouse on with a high neck and long sleeves. It was now completely transparent and totally soaked with beer as was my face and long hair. Cop pulled my sister and I aside and told me to calm down and go wash my face. He further said I shouldn’t be out un-escorted at night and not to wear such suggestive clothes. I was stunned shocked and speechless by the policeman’s caviler behavior tone and what he said to me. As I continued to cry and make a beeline for the exit, I looked back and saw the cop and group of guys looking at me and laughing.

I have never ever forgotten the humiliation and abandonment by the cop. It was like it was a private joke to all the men and the cop involved. My sister was terrified. I still think of it frequently and have dreams about how powerless I felt. I recently told my husband who was not really much interested and that stunned me, too. No idea about the pain from that night 25 years ago and why it would still bother me. I have thought about many times a day since this happened with Trump.

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

I can’t answer this as I don’t know. I am still followed get disturbing things said to me in my own neighborhood on walks. I am always aware of my environment and what I can use for a weapon.

– WN

Location: California state fair in Sacramento

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

“Abuse of anyone by another is wrong & cannot be tolerated”

October 21, 2016 By HKearl

As a young man about to enter the Marine Corps at the height of the Vietnam War living in Hawaii, I met a guy who was already in the Corps. He invited me to his home to talk about life in the Marine Corps. During our talk he physically assaulted me by saying that a certain physical exam was required, then he began by injecting a device up my ass with some device. I’ve NEVER told anyone of this before and I’ve been married, divorced and had numerous relationships with other women. I’m a straight 66 year old male who has felt shame, embarrassment & many other emotions as a result of this. Thank you for providing a platform where one can express what occurs to so many others.

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

By continuing to share that abuse of anyone by another is wrong & cannot be tolerated.

– Dan

Location: Kailua, Hawaii

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.

“I was not flattered at all and find it very offensive”

October 20, 2016 By Contributor

I was walking down the street to wait for a bus. Then a truck passes by and a guy opened his window and stuck his head out and yelled, “Hey baby, why don’t you come over here and let me take you for a ride?”

I was not flattered at all and find it very offensive. I just gave him an annoyed look but I should have talked back.

Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

Expressing your feelings of anger towards those insults in a most elegant way possible.

– Anonymous

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

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.

HABITAT 3: A Day of Connections

October 19, 2016 By HKearl

Hello from my final day at HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador.

The two big highlights were:

1) Co-presenting this morning on a panel about crowdsourcing and community engagement with Elsa D’Silva of Safecity from India and Rosy Mondardini of Open Seventeen in Switzerland. Even with an 8 a.m. start time, about 40 people joined us — and unlike most other panels, we respected the time and spent 1/3rd of our session on Q&A with the audience. People were interested to hear more about how we collect data (through crowdsource mapping, story collection at workshops, stories submitted online, and surveys) and how we have been able to create concrete changes in our communities with those data.

2) The other highlight was meeting up with two activists I have emailed with for years — Alma in Italy and Alice in Brazil. We all realized last night we were all in town and arranged to meet today. Elsa joined me and so then we had anti-street harassment activists from four countries, four continents all together. It was very exciting!! Each of their groups participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week each year, which is cool.

Alice invited us to make a video with her organization’s “super hero” to talk about creative ways to deal with street harassers (video to come).

I also got to meet Marcelo from ActionAid when he came to my panel and I went to his; he helped galvanize many of their ActionAid Safe Cities groups to join International Anti-Street Harassment Week this year.

Doing this work can sometimes feel really isolating when so much of it is done online, from my home, from buses and airports and hotel rooms, and so to actually meet people who are doing similar work and to put a face to an email address I have seen pop up over the years was so exciting!

Argentinean Women March to Protest Violence Against Women

October 19, 2016 By HKearl

Earlier this month, Lucía Pérez, a schoolgirl, was drugged, raped and tortured in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

Via the Guardian: “The cruelty of her attack was such that Pérez suffered a cardiac arrest, according to prosecutor María Isabel Sánchez, who described it as “an act of inhuman sexual aggression”. Following their assault, the assailants washed the 16-year-old in an attempt to erase forensic evidence and took her to a nearby hospital, where she died shortly after arrival from internal injuries sustained during her rape.”

Today, women across Argentina marched to protest violence against women, including this horrific incident. No woman should ever have to experience this cruelty or lose her life just because she is female.

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