Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Idaho upskirter is jailed

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In Idaho, video voyeurism is a felony and that’s why Mario Esquivel-Jimenez is in jail. Two different women caught him trying to take upskirt video footage of them at a Wal*Mart and they contacted the store manager. Then the Boise Police arrested him.

Via KTVB:

“It’s a felony,” said Lieutenant Steve Myers with Boise Police. “It’s a fairly new law on the books that was created to meet the needs of an ever-changing technology in society. So, we do use it quite a bit. It’s just one of those things that happen as times change. People take advantage of cell phones, to capture video that they should not be.”

Emphasis there was mine. It’s a good thing, if this is happening “quite a bit,” that it is illegal.

Mario Esquivel-Jimenez

Remember, if you are the target or see someone else being the target of public harassment (and this goes for any type, not just gender-based), you can report it. Yes, there’s a chance your report won’t be taken seriously, but at least you’ve tried. And then, in a case like this, what if it is taken seriously? Because of you, hopefully the perpetrator will be deterred from harming anyone else.

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“This bloke was undressing me in his mind”

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Today i was out doing some shopping for tonight’s supper with my boyfriend. I enjoyed a cuppa in Sainsbury’s cafe and rode the bus home. The bus journey went ok, no annoying little prats spoiling it, no drunks trying to hit on me and no fat, bald perverts leering at me – OH, hang on, that is until this ugly middle aged man (say in his 60s) got on the bus and sat on one of the side seats.

He then proceeded to stare at me even though i ignored him. I then got up to get off and as i did so, i felt his pervy eyes ogle at me as i walked off (i was wearing a dress) and even when the bus drove off, i saw him staring at me until the bus was no longer in sight.

What a creep.

It made me so mad and uncomfortable knowing that this bloke was undressing me in his mind and had got away with it. I felt degraded and it ruined my night. I’m sure he had ‘lovely’ thoughts about me when he went to bed, gross! Oh and by the way I’m 19!

– Clarice

Location: No 63 bus, north cornelly, south wales, uk

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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Leerer at the Doctor’s office

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While waiting in line today to check in at my doctor’s appointment on the first floor of a clinic, I stood to the left of my husband.

In front of me, while in public (with people around sitting in waiting chairs), in the daytime, waiting in line to check in was a 40 or 50 year old white tall skinny guy with nasty dark eyes and a big bald spot on the back of his head. He was looking around casually, but when he saw with the corner of his eye that I was behind him, the bastard turned his body so he was no longer giving me his full back. He then eyed me and wouldn’t stop staring at me. I saw that he demeaned me with his eyes as he looked too low below my chin.

Being an athletic girl, I brought my knuckles out and cracked them loudly. I looked at him in the eye, and then I elbowed my husband to pay attention. It’s so pathetic, I almost always have to tell my husband when something is up. I always notice before him. It doesn’t help the problem. I actually had to whisper in my husband’s ear to notify him of the problem occurring in front of him.

The asshole kept on staring at me in a disrespectful manner basically until he was called in to check in….and EVEN THEN he kept on staring, the bastard….WTF…I was wearing baggy gym pants and a sleeveless shirt with straps but that shouldn’t matter

– FI0008

Location: Champaign, IL

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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Tokyo subway gropers organize online

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I’m conducting research for a street harassment article and I’ve gotten totally sidetracked by a story that escaped my attention last September.

As I’ve noted before, men groping women on the Tokyo subway system is a huge problem. There are even women-only cars to try to combat it. Well, last September Tokyo stepped it up a notch to hold “Groping Prevention Week” because men were organizing online and plotting out the best places to grope women!

Via MSN:

“The growing problem of groping on public transit has been exacerbated by the internet, as Japanese authorities have reported there are over a hundred websites in Japan designed for gropers — to swap information on the best train lines and travel times to cop a feel, and exchange stories and images of sneaky squeezes.

Guilty gropers face a fine of $6,000 and up to six months in prison, but it is believed that thousands of women keep uninvited train touches quiet due to modesty.”

Via Newser:

“Some gropers, encouraged by the websites, have been organizing into gangs to surround a victim while accomplices block the view of fellow passengers. Police warn that convicted gropers face up to 6 months in prison and a $6,000 fine. The crackdown—described as “groping prevention week”—snared its first groper within minutes: a 30-year-old man charged with grabbing a 15-year-old girl.”

Via Japan Today. High school girls help raise awareness about groping on the subway.

Via Japan Today:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department launched an anti-groping campaign on Monday, with some 200 people including high school girls handing out fliers and tissues at Ikebukuro station and plain-clothed officers being posted aboard trains on lines which run through Tokyo.

Police said that plain-clothed male and female officers trained in anti-pickpocketing and other crime-prevention measures would patrol carriages [and] they would beef up their uniformed presence at major stations nine lines…Police said the number of incidents is increasing, and there have already been nearly 1,000 reported cases of groping or photos being taken up skirts in the first half of this year.”

So gropers have figured out how to use the Internet and are using it to get organized? Hmm. It is a high tech country and look at Japanese games like RapeLay…I guess it was inevitable. Let’s hope the crackdown by police lasted longer than a week (can’t tell from my google searches) so more of these idiots are arrested and others are deterred.

And let’s hope that would-be-gropers in other countries don’t get any ideas about organizing. Although, maybe that would be better. If we found their sites and figured out their plots, it would make it easier to fight back and rally together protesters, police, and the media to shame and arrest them! Because that’s one of the worst things about street harassment (including groping), not knowing when or where it will happen and then being too shocked and paralyzed to do anything when it does. So please, harassers, if you’re going to grope, stalk, and harass us, at least let us know so we can be prepared to fight back.

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Harassers at work & in the parking lot prompt move

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I work part time at a retail store. Most of my customers are male because of the type of store I work in. I’m still fairly new to this area and “Southern Hospitality” is the last of what I receive since relocating. I often have men making lewd comments that are just inappropriate and make me highly uncomfortable. Things really changed when I had a “customer” corner me and try to make me hug him. I was the only one on the sales floor but my boss was sitting in the back and he did nothing to help me out of the situation which he could clearly see from the surveillance cameras. When I approached him about that situation all he could say was “Tell them to leave”. I mean seriously, that it? There’s only ever one of us on the sales floor at any given time.

My husband and I talked about it and we both decided if my company did not want to do anything to help then we would have to figure something out ourselves. Because of the constant harassment I’ve changed my availability to morning hours only (when the creeps are least likely lurking). When the harassment continued out of my job and into the parking lot it became more uncomfortable, things have gotten to the point that I carry a taser with me in and out of work. My husband and I are in the process of selling our home to move closer to family where I feel safer and protected.

– “Frustrated and Disgusted”

Location: Pemberton Square Blvd. Vicksburg, Ms 39180

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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