Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Metro Anti-Harassment Skit

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Sadly, sexual harassment on the subway is not that unusual, yet few people (outside feminist circles) talk about it. For that reason, Collective Action for Safe Spaces & Voices of Men rode the Washington, DC, Metro and collaborated to perform a skit about harassment to bring attention to the issue. I played the role of the harassee.

The metro riders were pretty surprised because theater/performance is very rare on the DC system, but there were a lot of supportive comments each time we finished the skit. We did the skit about 10 times on several different subway cars.

Taking collective action like this is an important way to show that street harassment is not okay in your community. It’s also a great way to include new people in the work. One of the bystanders in our skit, John, was brand new to feminist activism and was an enthusiastic participant in speaking out against street harassment.

This skit can easily be replicated on other subways, metros, and buses. Reach out to either group for information:

Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
www.collectiveactiondc.org

Voices of Men
www.voicesofmen.org

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DC Groper Admits to 8 Attacks, Will Likely Face Almost No Punishment

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In early July, Washington, DC resident Liz Gorman was sexually assaulted in DC’s Dupont Circle. The next day Liz, who immediately reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police Department, wrote about her experience on the Collective Action for Safe Spaces blog. By Friday, the post had set off a viral reaction, both locally and nationally. Fast forward to late August and we have some good and bad news.

The Good News: After Liz and then four other women reported the alleged assailant, the DC Police looked for him and found him.

Via The Washington Post:

“The police did interviews, took statements, watched hours of security video until they froze the frame there — right there! — and found the jerk on the bike, his victim screaming next to him.

Then they caught the guy they believe is responsible for the attacks. Oscar Mauricio Cornejo-Pena even told them: Yup, he did it. He was a most helpful suspect, even offering up some crimes the cops didn’t know about.

“He admitted that he committed numerous similar offenses, possibly eight or more,” according to the charging documents drawn up by Officer Alexander MacBean.”

Thank you, DCPD! This story illustrates just how often harassers are repeat offenders. Most people don’t harass others, but some people harass a lot of other people.

The Bad News: He wasn’t charged for assaulting Liz, only the other four women. Plus, his conviction is pretty weak.

Also via The Washington Post:

“He was charged with “misdemeanor sexual abuse (with aggravating circumstances),” which, according to D.C. Official Code, is punishable by jail time of “not more than 180 days, and, in addition, may be fined in an amount not to exceed $1,000.”

That means that terrorizing women who are walking down the street, roughing them up and grabbing their privates gets you the same punishment as attending a cockfight, impersonating a police officer, trespassing on someone’s lawn or selling a fake Gucci purse.

In the District, sentencing guidelines say that a person who breaks into a vending machine or a parking meter should get more jail time (up to three years) and pay a bigger fine (up to $3,000) than a sociopath who violates women on the street….

The truth is, he’s probably not going to get any real jail time, said Chai Shenoy, a lawyer who specializes in sexual assault and who runs a group in the District, Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

Of the cases she has taken on, the ones where women are groped on Metro, violated on the street or attacked in their neighborhoods, she has never had a criminal conviction for that type of street harassment.

“We applaud the police for taking the crimes seriously, using their resources and working hard to make an arrest,” she said. “But it’s a double-edged sword. We want police to take these crimes seriously, we want prosecutors to take these crimes seriously and then, at the end of the day, we have sentencing guidelines that won’t provide justice.”

And that’s what we’re up against. Even if/when we report harassers and even if/when the police take it seriously and find them, the penalties are pretty weak. So, it can make you wonder if it’s even worth the time or energy. As hard as prevention is, it’s going to be the best way to stop street harassment for the next generation.

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DC: Testify about harassment on public transportation!

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This is cross-posted from Collective Action for Safe Spaces blog…I serve on their board and I’m excited to be working on this initiative!

Sexual comments, leering, groping and public masturbation: sexual harassment happens a lot on public transportation in Washington, DC. Collective Action for Safe Spaces/Holla Back DC! has been tracking and speaking out on this issue for three years. Now we’re doing something more – testifying. And we need your help.

We need people to testify with us about the issue of sexual harassment on public transportation during the late afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 22, for a public performance oversight hearing of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) held by the Council of the District of Columbia.

We are looking for people:

1) Willing to share a story or stories about sexual harassment on metro trains and buses,
2) Who can talk about sexual harassment they’ve witnessed,
3) Who can be part of the audience to help fill the room.

Testimonies are only 3 minutes long (about a page and a half). If you want to learn more about writing and presenting compelling testimony or want feedback on a draft, we will hold an optional training on Saturday, Feb. 18, 1-3 p.m. at the Southeast Library (across the from Eastern Market metro station). Susie Cambria will lead the training.

If you’re interested in providing testimony or helping to fill the room, please contact info@collectiveactiondc.org by February 17.

If we have enough people testifying, possible outcomes could be:
*Council Member Muriel Bowser (who is overseeing the hearing and is from Ward 4) will be aware of the issue and could even propose legislation to help prevent sexual harassment on Metro.
* Council Member Bowser could question the Director of Metro to find out why our concerns have not been addressed.
* The Director of Metro could be more likely to address our concerns and take actions we recommend such as providing training for employees.
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“I’m a grown man & you can’t tell me what to do!

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Photo taken by contributor

I’m out on my lunch break from work, and I wait to cross a light. As I continue on my way, I pass a guy who is heading in the opposite direction. At first I thought he was going to ignore me but instead he mutters a “Girl!” and he starts staring at me as if I’m a piece of meat. Gross.

“Don’t talk to me like that,” I say.

“I don’t mean anything by it,” he says, but his actions belie his words. He was staring at my chest while he was talking! I was wearing a light scarf around my neck which was covering my chest area…what did he think he was going to see?! There was going to be no boob peep show for him!

“Stop looking me up and down and look me in the eyes,” I say.

I have too much experience dealing with harassers and knew how this was going to go. (Regardless, I can’t and won’t change how I deal with harassers.) He then cops an attitude and gets offensive.

“Forget you! Go on and keep walking to where you were going! I’m a grown man and you can’t tell me what to do!” he yells.

“Well this is MY BODY and I have every right to react when someone looks at me inappropriately,” I snap back.

He continues on his way yelling junk, and I yell “That’s why I can’t stand harassers. You go around harassing women but have the nerve to get defensive when called out on your mess. Ignorant!”

I didn’t react fast enough and only caught the back of him (he’s in the navy blue shirt in this photo), but I was fuming.

People wonder why I walk around “looking mean” and having an attitude. When incidents like this happen day in and day out, you’d have an attitude too.

I’m sick of men, specifically Black men – men the same race as I am, constantly degrading me like this. What makes me invisible to harassers of other races but a constant target of men of my own race? I’m not asking to be harassed by men of other races (lord no!), but I’m tired of frequently being targeted by “my own” while they’ll call me “sista.” Don’t call me your sista unless you can respect me like one. I am not an object only good for men’s viewing pleasure. There’s more to me than that.

– Anonymous

Location: M St & Potomac St, DC

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.

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Metro Stalker

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Although I am verbally and sometimes physically harassed literally every time I walk to and from the DC metro to my work place, the most recent incident was the most disturbing.

Waiting in the metro station for my train, i heard a male voice saying “Hey sweetie” over and over again while I read a book, and then was approached by a very tall male who proceeded to “praise” me with what he must have considered “compliments” about my appearance. He asked a series of questions, very aggressively, so I felt pressured to comply and answer, though I lied about my name and where i was headed, where I lived, etc., and di not feel comfortable telling him, I’m a lesbian, I have a long-term partner, because those sounds like excuses with the potential to infuriate. He grabbed my hand and wrote his number on it, pressing so hard it cut my skin, and proceeded to ask about me calling him, demanding details about this future call.

When the train arrived, he got on the same car as me, despite telling me he lived in the opposite direction of my train. I tried to sit away from him, but he continued trying to speak with me across rows of seats and passangers. At a high-traffic stop, I snuck off behind another passanger. When he spotted me through the large window on the platform, he was obviously very angry, and stood up. He was moving quickly for the door, but they had shut and the train was moving. I let a few trains pass and took a longer, more complicated transfer pattern from train to train to ensure I didn’t see him again.

While the entire thing was obvious annoying, it goes beyond that – that kind of control exhibited over you in a public sphere is disempowering and disoriented, and shakes a person’s sense of confidence and safety. The anger on his face and his attempt to get off at the arbitrary station I chose sincerely lead me to believe he had plans for following me to the false end-point I’d told him, which is TERRIFYING unto itself, but especially in conjunction with the series of media stories detailing the indifference and non-action of public transportation attendants/others in the general public.

– Jess

Location: Washington, D.C.

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.

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