new yorkers for safe transit Archives | Stop Street Harassment

New York City transit rider survey

April 6, 2012 By HKearl

New Yorkers for Safe Transit has a packed schedule of activism coming up, starting with surveying transit riders to document cases of gender-based harassment and violence on the mass transit system. They hope the results will help mobilize communities to join with them and take action.

The survey is anonymous and available online.

Tomorrow will be the first of several days when they will conduct off-line surveys. At 1 p.m. tomorrow, they will meet at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to survey neighborhood residents. They need more volunteers to help conduct the surveys. Please contact them if you are interested in helping tomorrow or in future.

Join focus group on NYC subway safety!

December 9, 2009 By HKearl

Cross-posted from New Yorkers for Safe Transit:

Do you feel safe riding NYC’s public transit system? Give yourself and others a voice, by sharing your mass transit experiences.

In mid-January, NYFST will be hosting two focus groups for survivors of gender and discrimination-based violence and harassment on New York City’s public transportation system.

We’re seeking focus group participants for two 2 hour sessions (6-8 p.m.). We are interested in hearing first-hand accounts from women, people of color, LGBTQGNC individuals, youth, and low-income individuals.

With your help, we will be able to raise public awareness on this issue and continue progress towards eliminating harassment and violence on mass transit.

Please spread the word and contact us at info@nyfst.org to sign up and more information on dates and location.

Light refreshments will be served and $4.50 MetroCards will be provided.

Also, be sure to share & submit your NYC mass transit stories.

NYC steps up efforts to make subways safer

December 2, 2009 By HKearl

As any woman living in or visiting NYC, or as anyone reading the website HollaBackNYC will know, street harassment is a major problem there.

Public transportation is one of the hot spots for such offenses. The NYC Transit says there have been 587 reports of sexual offenses in the subway system so far this year, mainly on the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 lines. Harassment and assault are very under-reported, so the real numbers are far worse.

For more than a year, New Yorkers for Safe Transit have been working specifically to make the subway and bus systems harassment-free. For example, for over a year there have been anti-sexual harassment print ads and, for almost a year, audio ads on several subway lines, thanks to their efforts. Recently they testified at a hearing on sexual harassment on public transportation.

Their continued pressure and activism is leading to more efforts on the part of NYC’s transit system.

MTA reports they will increase the number of automated messages in the subway stations warning against assaults and they will begin distributing anti-groping posters and brochures.
They are working with the NYPD to have more officers at stations, especially during rush hour, so targets of sexual harassment can more easily report offenders. Victims of subway sexual harassment can also call NYPD’s Sex Crimes Report Line at 212.267.RAPE.
Building off the method HollaBackNYC uses for “hollaback”ing at harassers with camera phone photos, NYPD is working on a pilot program that would enable victims to send photos of harassers to police officers, who can investigate the case even after the harasser has slipped away into a crowd. This is essential because so often harassers only harass when they know they can escape or when they know there will be no witnesses.

Lastly, here are recent tips released by the NYPD for dealing with sexual harassment on the subway:

Do not be ashamed or afraid to report the offense to the police or an MTA employee immediately.
During off hours, wait at the marked waiting areas on the station platforms and sit in the conductor’s car when the train arrives.
Know your way around your subway stations: the locations of exits and where stairwells lead.
If the sex offense happens on a crowded subway car, if you can do so safely, step away from the perpetrator and loudly let others know what the offender is doing.
If you are in an empty car, leave the car and find one with more passengers.
If you can do so safely, use your cell phone to take a photo of the perpetrator, or make a note of any distinctive features or items of clothing.
If the perpetrator follows you off the train, call the police and stay in a crowded area.
Remain alert and awake.

Kudos to the New Yorkers for Safe Transit for keeping on the pressure and to the MTA and NYPD for stepping up their efforts to make subways safer and freer of sexual harassment.

Hearing on NYC Subway Harassment

November 20, 2009 By HKearl

Earlier this week I called out the New York Times for trying to compare street harassment to loud cell phone talkers and said I hoped one day they would address the problem of street harassment in a serious way. Lo and behold, yesterday they covered harassment on public transportation.

The New York Times reported on a joint hearing of three City Council committees — Transportation, Women’s Issues and Public Safety — and officials from the Police Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to discuss sexual harassment on subways and buses.

At the hearing everyone acknowledged that this is a big problem in New York City, especially during late morning rush hour (8 to 10 a.m.) and early afternoon rush hour (4 to 6 p.m.). The crowded Nos. 4, 5 and 6 lines between Grand Central Terminal and Union Square, they said, is a particular source of complaints.

James P. Hall, chief of the Police Department’s Transit Bureau, said that sexual harassment was the “No. 1 quality of life offense on the subway.” As of Nov. 15, there had been 587 reports of sex offenses in the subway system this year. He said, “However, we strongly suspect this is a highly underreported crime.” I agree!

Some of my street harassment activists friends who formed New Yorkers for Safe Transit testified too.

They are working on getting better reporting methods and numbers for sexual harassment and assault on the subways. This week Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin introduced a bill that New Yorkers for Safe Transit support, one that would require the police to collect data on sexual harassment in the subways.

“This is important because historically, harassment is overlooked by law enforcement authorities,” said Oraia Reid, a founding member of New Yorkers for Safe Transit who testified at the hearing.

Ms. Reid, who is also the executive director of RightRides for Women’s Safety, said another challenge was to get law enforcement to take the harassment more seriously.

She added, “It’s actually been very disempowering to report sexual harassment and assault.”

Yeah, like remember when a woman got a photo of a man masturbating on the subway and reported it to a police officer who then told her, incorrectly, that it wasn’t a police matter and to call 311?

Another example – one woman who took my informal anonymous survey last year and lives in NYC said one time when she reported a man that was following her in the subway station to the police, the officer said he didn’t blame the guy (implying she was pretty and so it was natural for a man to follow her…). So clearly there are police officers who need more education and training on the issues and how to help people who report harassers.

But I’m glad the NY Times covered this story and this issue. We need them to keep on doing so!

I also want to say a big GREAT JOB! to New Yorkers for Safe Transit!! They’ve only been around about a year and already they are making a huge difference in the NYC community. Check out their website and submit your NYC mass transit sexual harassment story.

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.