22-year old college student Shyane DeJesus attacked, berated, and snapped a cell phone picture of a man who groped her on a subway platform in New York City.
From the New York Post:
“DeJesus, who lives in Queens, was headed to work at a shoe store at 9:50 a.m. Oct. 23 when the drama unfolded as she stood on the platform and leaned over the tracks to see if a train was coming.
That’s when she noticed a man sneaking up alongside her.
Before DeJesus could step away, the deviant began rubbing against her thigh.
“It was disgusting,” she said. “I felt so violated.”
When the downtown No. 6 train arrived, the man “grabbed my right shoulder and pushed my head down and lifted my skirt up and groped me,” DeJesus said.
She began fighting back, and the cowardly creep ran onto the train.
“He went on the train and sat down as if nothing happened. I was hysterical. I yelled that he just groped me. I literally started punching him in the head,” she said.
No one came to her aid.
DeJesus got in a few more knocks on her attacker, and, as the train pulled in to the next station, took her phone out of her bag.
“I held the door and positioned the phone in his face. I was shaking, I’m surprised I got it,” she said.
“He smirked when I looked at him. He never said a word, not a word. All I got was that smirk.”
DeJesus then got off the train and ran to her job, where she called police.
Cops are still searching for the man.”
While I don’t condone violence, I sympathize with her actions. When man after man gets away with sexually harassing, stalking, groping, and assaulting women on the streets, subway platforms, buses, and stores of our country, and when bystanders stand by and let it happen, there comes a breaking point. Maybe after getting kicked and yelled at by a person he thought he could easily grope, this perpetrator won’t be so quick to grope someone else. Especially if the police catch him. Good for DeJesus.
DeJesus is not the only New York City woman to have this type of reaction to groping. In the past year, we’ve heard from Nicola Briggs who was videotaped yelling down the man who rubbed against her and flashed her on the subway (he was later arrested and deported), Kate Spencer who hit the man who groped her on a subway platform, and Robyn Shepherd who chased down a man who smacked her butt as she walked down the street.
Street harassers, beware: more and more women are fighting back and not just figuratively and not just online, but actually, physically fighting back. So stop harassing us. We don’t like it, no one does. If you continue to harass us, you may just find out how much we don’t like it when you get a slap to the face or a kick to the groin. I don’t like violence, I don’t like harassment. Stop the harassment, there will be no violence.
And bystanders: do something if you see another person facing harassment! Ask them if they’re okay if you’re not sure if they’re being harassed or not. Just do something! Standing idly by is not acceptable.
