Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
My worst harrasment in the street was when this young guy was trying to talk to me i ignored him and he ran over and touched my ass!!!! omg!! i put down my books! i was gonna kill this kid! his punk ass ran!!! stop street harrasment this is insane!! there isnt one day i can go out without getting any
– JessMarii
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.
My worst harrasment in the street was when this young guy was trying to talk to me i ignored him and he ran over and touched my ass!!!! omg!! i put down my books! i was gonna kill this kid! his punk ass ran!!! stop street harrasment this is insane!! there isnt one day i can go out without getting any
– JessMarii
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.
Two weeks ago The Korean Times reported that sexual harassment on the subway in Seoul is up 26 percent since last year.
“The incidents include male offenders trying to grope women or take pictures up their skirts.
A total of 345 cases were reported in the first half of this year. In April, when unusually high temperatures hit the nation, such offenses reached a high of 78 and since then, more than 50 cases have been reported each month, police said.
Most of the offenders said they did it out of curiosity.
The actual number of cases might be higher than the published data because many women are afraid of reporting the incidents, a police spokeswoman said.”
I wonder if there were unusually low reports of sexual harassment last year to make the 26 percent jump this year or were reports indeed higher this year than in years past?
At the end of 2007, The Korea Times reported that women-only subway cars were to be reintroduced in Seoul in 2008 as part of an effort to curb sexual harassment of female passengers. Two cars of each subway train on all lines were designated just for women. The current article doesn’t address the women-only cars and whether or not that has had an impact.
Speaking of countries with women-only subway cars, The Japan Times just published an article about subway groping in Tokyo. Last year in Tokyo alone there were 2,000 reported cases of men groping women! From the article:
“According to an MPD study last year, most attacks occurred on trains, primarily during morning rush hours.
Almost half of the victims were in their 20s and more than 30 percent were teenagers.
Last year saw police process 2,169 ordinance violations — the lowest number in the past four years. Police attributed the fall to the 2005 introduction of female-only train cars.”
The article goes on to cover information like “how can someone avoid being a victim?” and “can innocent people be convicted?” without any information about the men who engage in this behavior and how to make them STOP! Because guess what, women wouldn’t have to avoid being a victim and innocent men wouldn’t be falsely accused if there was no groping!!
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Bravo to the Chicago CTA Tattler blog for highlighting the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team’s spoken word event this Saturday and for generally addressing sexual harassment on the Chicago’s public transportation system.
For example, here’s a story from December about a serial genital “grinder.” A woman named Trish had a man grind up behind her on a crowded bus. When she yelled at him, another woman leaned over to say he had done it to her too. Trish called the police to file a report & tells readers:
“Ladies, if he bothers you, call him out, humiliate him before the rest of the bus/train car, and call the police! Note the time, date, run # and bus # and call the CTA too. Reporting is the only way to stop him. This is predatory sexual behavior, and it is NOT your fault, and the only way to protect yourself and your fellow passengers is to get the word out, to us and to the authorities.”
So often these types of articles end up having commenters say things about how women overreact, make things up, and dress provocatively to incite such behavior, so all of the positive, supportive comments were refreshing. Three or four women even said they thought this was the same man that had grinded on them too and so now they were going to report it too. Two of my favorite comments:
“This person is a serial molester. He forced himself on me on the 147 and I know others who have had the same experience. What you need to do is report the problem to the CTA. The person I spoke with is James Higgins and he can be reached at JHiggins@transitchicago.com. He was fully aware of this individual and even sent me a photo for me to ID him. He said you can do 2 things if this happens: ask the bus drive to sound the silent alarm and a police car will meet the bus at the next stop, or call 911 and request it yourself. Apparently they don’t yet have enough evidence to convict him, so the more people who report the problem hopefully the sooner he’ll be arrested and convicted.” – Beth
“Of the women here who said it happened to them and they suspect it might be the same guy: Can you get a time consensus on when it happened to each of you? That might help in catching the guy. If he’s on there at a particular time when he does it, it might be easier to catch him. Hell, form a posse if you know when he makes his move, stake out a spot and catch him. You all will be famous heroes!” – Dude
Crazy how one man can harass so many women and still be on the loose. It illustrates really well how women fear overreacting to or being wrong about what’s happening and so they ignore it, but we need to try to get past that and face the small chance we could be wrong and report them!
Also, do buses in other places have silent alarms? Does anyone know?