Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Street Harassment Like It’s 1999

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Today you can google like it’s 2001: http://www.google.com/search2001.html and so I googled “street harassment.” The wonderful but apparently defunct Street Harassment Project was #1, but otherwise, compared with googling the term today, there were barely any other entries. Among the few I did find was this gem – a short article from an online publication then called Children’s Express entitled “1st Person Plural: Street Harassment” from 1999. Two excerpts:

“I’m just walking down the street and there are guys, old enough to be my granddad, eyeing me off,” says Erica, 17, from London. ” I don’t know when a mid-life crisis starts but they want to get their lives in order and stop chasing teenagers.

and

Some street harassment is truly bizarre according to Gabriella, 13. “I was going to the train and this man said, ‘Do you want to go out with me?’ and I said ‘No’. He had a frying pan and he tried to hit me with it! So I started running and he followed me, saying ‘Let me fry you an egg,’ It got funny, actually.”

Heeey, so what’s changed in almost 10 years? Nothing?! Greaaat.

Do you have any good street harassment recollections from the 1990s?

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Street Harassment Like It's 1999

By

Today you can google like it’s 2001: http://www.google.com/search2001.html and so I googled “street harassment.” The wonderful but apparently defunct Street Harassment Project was #1, but otherwise, compared with googling the term today, there were barely any other entries. Among the few I did find was this gem – a short article from an online publication then called Children’s Express entitled “1st Person Plural: Street Harassment” from 1999. Two excerpts:

“I’m just walking down the street and there are guys, old enough to be my granddad, eyeing me off,” says Erica, 17, from London. ” I don’t know when a mid-life crisis starts but they want to get their lives in order and stop chasing teenagers.

and

Some street harassment is truly bizarre according to Gabriella, 13. “I was going to the train and this man said, ‘Do you want to go out with me?’ and I said ‘No’. He had a frying pan and he tried to hit me with it! So I started running and he followed me, saying ‘Let me fry you an egg,’ It got funny, actually.”

Heeey, so what’s changed in almost 10 years? Nothing?! Greaaat.

Do you have any good street harassment recollections from the 1990s?

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NY Subway Harasser Arrested!

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From the Associated Press:

“NEW YORK (AP) — Police arrested a man accused of taking a cell phone picture under a subway rider’s skirt after the victim said she used her own phone to snap back. The 28-year-old woman said she was victimized last month while climbing stairs to an elevated station in upper Manhattan. A passer-by confirmed her suspicion that he had taken a photo up her skirt, she said.

She followed the suspect onto a train, took his picture, then e-mailed it to police and filed a report. “I told him `smile’ because I am going to the police,” the woman told The New York Times.

Aaron Olivieri was arrested Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of attempted unlawful surveillance, attempted sexual abuse and harassment. He was nabbed in a Manhattan subway station by an officer who said he matched the person in the photo the woman had taken, authorities said.

His lawyer, Rigodis Appling, did not immediately return a call for comment on Friday.”

What a great story! Everything came together for success – there was a witness, the person had the initial reaction to take the photo, the person had the energy/time to report the incident, & the police seemed to respond appropriately. Hopefully more people will be inspired to fight back too!

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Street Harassment Survey

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Please share your experiences & opinions about being in public in general and with street harassment specifically in this informal, anonymous, online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2zNzxBfuyVVLMKcoXoEtjQ_3d_3d

It’s for a book I am preparing to write on street harassment. The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete – longer if you decide to write a lot for the open-ended questions. Anyone can take it and I am seeking as many viewpoints and experiences represented as possible. So please share widely – female & male.

Thanks!
HK

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Need a free, safe ride home in NYC?

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Then call up RightRides!

“In our RightRides program, we offer women, transpeople and gender queer individuals a free, late-night ride home to ensure their safe commute to or through high-risk areas.”

RightRides serve 35 neighborhoods (to expand in October) on Saturday nights from 11:59 p.m – 3 a.m . RightRides is volunteer run, so the more volunteers they have, the more neighborhoods they can serve and the more hours they can be available. (So if you’re in NYC and want to volunteer somewhere…!) In the city that never sleeps, many people work night shifts or are out enjoying the nightlife, but then might feel unsafe coming home so late alone, so RightRides helps them carry on with their life in safety.

RightRides was founded in 2004 by two women upset over the assault of several women in their neighborhood within a short time frame. Instead of letting depression or fear take hold of them, they took action and started making a difference in their communtiy. Using their own car and cell phone, they put up fliers in their neighborhood offering women a safe, free ride home, and drove callers home themselves. Four years later, RightRides is a nonprofit with access to 5 Zip Cars for volunteers to use on  Saturday nights, with about 150 active volunteers. This past weekend, I got to meet with two volunteers and “ride-along” and it was great to see first-hand how the program works and to meet amazing individuals who care enough about people’s safety that they give up their Saturday night once or twice a month and battle crazy New York City traffic until 3 or 4 a.m.!!

Here’s a short video by a volunteer with RightRides:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyTmsvMdxLE]

I’ve had a link to  RideRides in the resource section of this blog and my website, but I wanted to highlight it here too so people in NYC know about it and can use the service and/or volunteer and so maybe people in other cities will be inspired to start a similar program!

The website has a ton of info, so visit it if you want to learn more.

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