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How does it just “pop out”?

August 14, 2009 By HKearl

Remember the story I reported on yesterday, where a woman snapped a cell phone picture of a man masturbating on the subway and reported it to the police where an officer (a woman, even) said to call 311 about it? Well, yesterday afternoon two cops recognized the alleged subway masturbator from his picture and arrested him (without incident). Via NBC news:

“[Kevin] Bishop reportedly gave cops a wacky explination for why he was exposing himself.

“It just popped out!” Bishop told police after his arrest, according to the New York Post .

“Yes, that’s me in the pictures,” he confessed. “My private parts fell out. I looked down and it was out. It just popped out! I was trying to put it back.”

Bishop said that he “deeply apologize[d] for what happened….

Bishop was charged with public lewdness, cops said. He’s got quite a long rap sheet, including 64 arrests and 24 convictions on charges ranging from loitering to prostitution and drug possession.”

Riiiight. It just ‘popped out.’ The woman’s story differs. She says he was masturbating and looking right at her while doing so. She had sunglasses on and he didn’t observe her taking his photo with her cell phone.

Oh and how many times is a person able to get arrested because Bishop seems well on his way toward achieving that number. 64 prior arrests?! No wonder he went without incident when he got arrested. It’s a regular routine for him!

Also, the police officer who told the woman just to call 311 is now saying she meant to tell her to call 911… Right..wasn’t she at a police station already? Why would she need to call 911?

I’m glad they caught the masturbator and I hope it helps deter other guys from being completely inappropriate on public transportation. If you see someone being inappropriate, snap their picture and report it too!

NYPD Officer Fail Re: Subway Masturbator

August 13, 2009 By HKearl

Thanks to the efforts of organizations like Holla Back NYC and RightRides, several subway cars in New York City have anti-harassment ads that include text encouraging people to report harassers.

NBC New York is reporting that a woman who took a photo of a man who started masturbating in front of her on a northbound number 3 train (it was around 4 in the afternoon, no less) and reported it to a local precinct was told by the police officer that it wasn’t a police matter and to call 311. All one has to do is peruse a few stories on Holla Back NYC‘s website to realize that men masturbating on subways and at subway stations is a huge problem so this officer’s response to this woman’s efforts to report one of them one is disconcerting.

“The NYPD said internal affairs is looking into the matter.

‘Public lewdness’ is a misdemeanor that results in hundreds of arrests each year — a fact the cop apparently didn’t know.

‘It was a police matter and IAB is investigating why anyone would have been told otherwise,’ said police spokesman Paul Browne.

The incident comes as the police department has tried increase public awareness — and conviction — of sexual harassment on the subway.”

NBC posted the photo the woman took (see photo above, right) and said anyone with tips can call Crimestoppers at 800-577-TIPS.

If one police officer is unaware of the correct protocal for handling harassers like masturbators, there are likely others. Police officers MUST get educated about the pervasiveness and types of public harassment and assault and the impact they have on women’s every day lives. It takes a lot of time and energy and bravery to undertake reporting a harasser and when someone like this women makes that effort, she should be given proper help and support.

(And kudos to Holla Back NYC’s Emily May for a great quote in the Metro‘s article about this incident: “It’s an ongoing problem of the police showing insensitivity to harassment, lewdness and violence against women on subways…It discourages women from reporting.”)

Weekly Round Up – August 9

August 9, 2009 By HKearl

Stories:

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

On this blog, two contributors submitted stories about harassment in the Washington DC area (including an anti-Black woman harasser), a woman in Europe shared what constant male harassment caused her to feel when an elderly woman unexpectedly grabs her to steady herself on the subway, two women in Chicago each share harassment stories from taking the subway home, and a woman shares one of her recent harassment experiences in East Boston, MA.
Holla Back NYC has numerous stories, including a woman getting groped on the 4 train, a man masturbating onto the track of a nearly empty subway platform while staring at the contributor, a woman who reported her harasser who works for Hollywood Dairy, a woman who got harassed after saying hello back to a man at a subway station, another woman who got attacked by a man while she waited for a subway at the Carroll Street station, and a woman who kept getting harassed by a man passing by in a van.
On Holla Back DC! a woman shares her most “memorable” harassment experiences, another has a rubbernecker stare at her on the subway escalator, a woman shares her experience walking the 14th Street guntlet, and another woman tries to explain to a harasser why she doesn’t like what he’s saying; he then calls her a stuck up bitch.

In the News:

AMNY ran an article about harassment on New York City’s public transportation system.
Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein’s trial began this week; she was arrested with other women for the crime of wearing trousers in a public place.
The Huffington Post ran an article about street harassment, highlighting Holla Back website efforts, called “When Hollered At, HollaBack!“
Herizon magazine’s summer issue includes an article about Hollaback Toronto.

Announcements:

Right Rides is hiring a Community Organizer to lead the New Yorkers for Safe Transit Coalition efforts.
I’ve been offered a book contract for my proposed book on street harassment! Submit your stories for inclusion.
Enter a photography contest for photographers who capture or depict street harassment, particularly in the DC area. Selected winners will have the chance to show/sell their work at a reception the evening before the Holla Back DC: Make DC Harassment Free Summit.
RightRides in NYC recently has expanded their services of a free ride home from Saturday nights to include Friday nights too! They offer this service from 11:59 p.m. – 3 a.m. in 45 neighborhoods across four boroughs. To call for a ride, the dispatch number is (718) 964-7781 OR (888)215-SAFE (7233).

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Tweet your harassment story and add @catcalled or #hbnyc to your post and it will be added to Catcalled or HollaBackNYC’s thread of harassment stories.

Huffington Post Covers Street Harassment

August 5, 2009 By HKearl

Big name media sources don’t often cover the problem of gender-based sexual harassment, or street harassment, so it is a big deal that the Huffington Post ran the story “When Hollered At, HollaBack!” today.

Here’s an excerpt and I encourage you to check it out in its entirety:

“Whatever the time of day or activity, many women have become accustomed to unwarranted gender-based street harassment. Unwanted cat-calls and even groping — or worse — are almost customary as we go about our daily lives in public environments.

While at times sounding harmless or even deceptively flattering — “Bless you for that body,” “I’m gonna take you home, beautiful” — any single experience of unsolicited commentary or behavior can be rife with racial, ethnic, gender and other implications that are the opposite of positive. Understanding these kinds of experiences as harassment is key at both individual and larger levels.

Without that vocabulary, behavior that is, in fact, unacceptable can become a normalized, daily occurrence, and alter the way we think about our self-esteem and personal safety. Ultimately, street harassment can transform the way we as women walk, dress, commute and live — such that our worldviews assume objectification and disrespect as status quo.

For many, gender-based street harassment has become unexceptional, yet the majority of people have not yet figured out an appropriate response to it.”

Exactly right! She then highlights the great work of my colleagues at Holla Back DC! and Holla Back NYC and their efforts to combat the problem. Congrats, ladies!

Don’t forget, if you don’t live somewhere with an active Holla Back, share your story on this blog via an anonymous online form.

Trying to Change the Law

August 4, 2009 By HKearl

From AP — Women protesting at the trial. Image from AP

Today was the trial for Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein, one of the women I reported on earlier who were arrested for wearing trousers in public. Most of the women received a flogging, but Hussein and two others elected to have a public trial in the hopes of raising awareness about the oppressiveness of the laws and to try to change them.

According to the AP:

“In an attempt to rally support, Hussein printed invitations to diplomats, international media, and activists to attend her trial which opened last week. She also resigned from her job in the U.N.’s public information office in Khartoum, declining the immunity that went along with the job to challenge the law.

Around 100 supporters, including many women in trousers as well as others in traditional dress, protested outside the court Tuesday.

Witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of Hussein’s lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. No injuries were immediately reported.

‘We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them,’ said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraas Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.

While the police broke up the demonstration outside the Khartoum Criminal Court, the judge adjourned Hussein’s trial for a month to clarify whether her resignation has been accepted by the United Nations.”

How every brave of her and the other women. I hope their efforts won’t be in vain.

Also, as I said in my previous post: while this isn’t directly “street harassment” per say, a lot of discussion about street harassment ends up touching upon “what was she wearing” so I think this story is relevant from that aspect. Also, street harassment can be viewed as a kind of social control that keeps a lot of women off the streets at night and/or when they are alone and this incident in Sudan shows blatant and extreme forms of attempted social control over women.

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