Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Subway Harasser Nabbed, Thanks to Cell Pic

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Earlier this week, a man allegedly groped a woman on a New York subway on the W line in Queens and she was able to take a cell phone picture of him, which then was widely advertised online.

bay-50th-stationYesterday, the same man was at it again. The woman he was harassing believed she recognized him from the photo and called the police. The NYPD arrested him outside Bay 50th Street station in Brooklyn for disorderly conduct and marijuana possession, but he will likely be arraigned soon with sexual assault charges.

Apparently he has 30 prior arrests ranging from sexual assault to robbery. The fact that someone can accumulate so many arrests by the time he is 30 years old and still be loose in public is quite surprising to me. Could it be a typo in the article? THIRTY prior arrests?!

“I’m happy they caught him,” the 33-year-old ultra-sound technician [who was groped earlier in the week] told the Daily News. “I was proud I was so quick.”

“I think every woman should do the same thing, given the circumstances. It’s a very difficult position to be in. There’s no way to prepare yourself for it. But you have to be prepared.”

She said she just reacted to the situation.

“Everybody says I’m so heroic. I felt so nervous about the whole thing. I felt threatened and violated for a few seconds. It wasn’t very pleasant.”

She is proud of herself, though.”

Kudos to her, to the woman who recognized him, and to the NYPD for responding so quickly. With this harasser caught, a harasser in Delaware caught for following a jogger, and a Stop Street Harassment contributor reporting two harassers to their company in DC, it’s been a good week for catching & reporting street harassers – way to go everyone who was involved (minus the harassers)!

On a side note though, is the man in NY mentally stable? If he’s not, it’s a shame he’s not receiving help but instead is left to roam NYC, apparently assaulting and robbing a minimum of 32 people (including the latest two).

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Joggers in Delaware Report Harassers

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In Delaware, two different women joggers reported men who were following them in their vehicles. The latest man was caught:

“A Wilmington man was charged with harassment Tuesday after he followed a woman jogger in his truck in the Rockford Park area.

Teofilo Burrell, 29, of the 2700 block of N. Jefferson St., was released on $1,000 unsecured bail on one misdemeanor count of harassment, Wilmington police Master Sgt. Steven Barnes said.

According to court records, the 23-year-old victim flagged down an officer about 6:30 a.m. in the 2100 block of W. 17th St. She said she was jogging near North Union Street and Kentmere Parkway when an older silver Mitsubishi pickup, driven by a man with a scruffy beard and dark complexion, passed her and stopped in the middle of the street.

The woman said she was alarmed and ran the opposite way. The truck made a U-turn and began to follow her while driving the wrong way on the street. The woman sprinted to her boyfriend’s house. Officers located the truck near Delaware Avenue and North Union Street.”

wilmington2The article says police are urging joggers who have had a similar experience to call Detective Ron Mullin at 576-3634 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.

I have a special appreciation for this story as a dedicated runner of 13 years who has been harassed while running more times than I could ever try to count. But I’ve never reported a harasser before. The times I was followed it never occurred to me, I had never been told I could report it and I was in flight mode. If I’m ever followed again though, I will report it!!

To conclude: I’m very heartened by the police in Delaware on this issue and proud the jogger had the presence of mind to stay safe and report the guy following her.

(thanks to hollaback dc for the story tip)

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Contact CrimeStoppers if you see him…

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From the Gothamist:

2009_04_wperv“The police are asking for people’s help is identifying a man who apparently assaulted a woman during yesterday morning’s subway rush hour. According to the NYPD, yesterday at 7:35 a.m., a 33-year-old woman “entered the Subway system at the Broadway Station [in Queens] in the confines of the 114 Pct and entered the ‘W’ train (Manhattan Bound). As the train approached 39th Street, the victim was sexually abused by the suspect who was sitting next to her. The suspect is described as a M/B/30’s, 6’0″ tall. The victim took a cellphone photo of the suspect as she exited the train at Queensboro Plaza.”

If you know anything or spot the man, you can contact CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS, by texting TIP577 to CRIMES, or by going to NYPDCrimeStoppers.com.

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Catcalling Employees are Called Out

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This morning on my walk to the train station in NE DC to get to work, a large black utility van turns a corner, and its passengers yell “Howya doin’, Darlin’?” at me. I don’t respond, and the men cackle like the hyenas from “The Lion King.” Ugh!

I got the company’s name — Hill’s Chimney Service. The van drives so fast that I’m worried I’m not going to be able to snag its license plate number.

The van gets stuck at a light, and I’m praying in my head that I catch up to it before the light changes. The light changed and I was worried I’d lose them. Someone must’ve been looking out for me, because they don’t make it this cycle and get stuck again. I pull out my Post-It pad, fumble for a pen, and write down the license plate number: MD plates 51N 005.

I continue on, and these fools have the audacity to still try to catcall at me. The one in the passenger seat (always the one on the passenger side, damn scrub) has this shit-eating grin and is giggling, but when I said “You sexually harassed me, so I took down your license plate number and will report you,” that grin turned into a frown and he immediately rolled up his window. I could still hear some giggling, but I repeated, “You will be reported.”

When I arrived at work, one of the first things I did was call Hill’s Chimney Service to report their catcalling employees. A kindly receptionist answered the phone, and when I told her what the call was about, she replied with “Oh my goodness!” She left a message for Mike, the supervisor.

About 40-something minutes later, Mike calls back. I relay the story to him and he was upset.

“My company does not condone this!” he said. “I am a family man, I love my wife, I would never do that to a woman, and I truly apologize for this behavior. That behavior does not represent Hill’s Chimney Service as a whole.”

When I gave the license plate number, he gave me the names of the culprits: “Richard and Tyrone.”

He told me that he will reprimand them as soon as he sees them, and hopes that I never see them again.

“If you do see them again and they do that again, please call me,” Mike said.
“Will do,” I said.

So a small victory against street harassment is mine, but it doesn’t tackle the bigger war against it.

-anonymous

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NYC Subway Rape Victim Speaks Out

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NYC Subway Rape Case: Maria BesedinThe young woman whose lawsuit was recently dismissed against the MTA and the employees who did very little to help her duing a brutal sexual assault on a NYC subway platform has spoken out.

“Speaking for the first time since the ruling, Maria Besedin said Thursday she never expected the toll booth clerk and train conductor who witnessed the 2005 attack to be heroes and put their own lives in danger. But, she said, they didn’t even call 911, or yell, ‘Stop!’

Besedin hoped to have her day in court so a jury could decide if the MTA staffers were negligent for only alerting central command. She believed her case would make the system safer for all users.

‘I’m honestly still in shock,’ she said of Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan’s decision Tuesday to quash the suit.

‘It’s so hard for me to process this whole thing because I just really wanted everyone out there to be safe, to never have to experience anything like I did.’

The petite 25-year-old was still visibly shaken by her ordeal, which happened at the 21st St. station in Hunters Point on June 7, 2005, two days before her 22nd birthday.

She said suffers flashbacks, posttraumatic stress disorder, and continues to undergo therapy and take anti-anxiety medication. She has dropped out of college and lives with her parents in Rhode Island. …

‘I think it was beyond negligence, it was obvious that an extremely violent crime was going on.’

‘By the time somebody came, I mean, I had lost all my dignity, and it was over,’ she added.

Besedin’s lawyer, Chris Seeger of the firm Seeger Weiss, says he plans to appeal within days.

‘Yes, I do want justice,’ said Besedin, who still rides the subway.

As for the court system that rejected her case, she said, ‘It means that they don’t really understand exactly what negligence is and what the impact . . . this kind of atrocious thing can have,’ she said.”

Agreed. Let’s hope the appeal works. Her case could lead to important changes within the MTA.

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