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New method for reporting street harassers

October 8, 2009 By HKearl

In Egypt, individuals are developing a HarassMap to allow women to report harassers via SMS messaging. It will map the location of the occurrence and help track where harassment is occurring and its frequency.

My good friends at HollaBackNYC and RightRides (who also are the lead coordinators for New Yorkers for Safe Transit) are taking this idea new places. This is their plan:

“We want to create an online map where women can ‘Hollaback!’ directly from their cell phones. Quick, 140 character stories can be submitted through three easy portals: a) text it, b) tweet it, and c) submit it through a ‘Hollaback’ mobile phone app. Once submitted, harassment and assault data will be mapped and later analyzed in an annual ‘State of Our Streets’ report which will be sent to the police, public officials, and the media. Automatic email alerts noting real-time harassment will also be available. Local citizens and policy makers can sign up for alerts on incidences in their own communities, or review our HARASSmap to see harassment hot-spots. Once we launch in New York City, we want to take it worldwide.”

As you may imagine, implementing this project takes money. They’ve applied for funding and they now need YOUR HELP to vote for their project!

For almost a year now I’ve been advocating (mostly silently though – lol) for a system that allows women to easily report the harassment and its location so I am thrilled to see them working to make it a reality. There are a lot of deterrents to reporting harassers now (including the fact that in most places you can only report people who are threatening or touching you) and it’s making the pervasiveness of the problem of gender-based street harassment largely invisible to mainstream society and to policy and lawmakers. This tool could change everything and make it easier to report harassers and it also could  show us where there are the most harassers so we can target those areas to end it.

Please go vote for the mapping/reporting tool – it’s really cool and has the potential to be a gamechanger in the fight against street harassment!!

Please also spread the word to your networks. Cut and paste this to your facebook, twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn pages:
Vote for Hollaback 2.0 http://bit.ly/14Egc2 then repost to end street harassment!

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Filed Under: hollaback, street harassment Tagged With: Egypt, HarassMap, holla back, new york, reporting harassers, rightrides, street harassment mapping, texting

Celebrating FIVE YEARS of building safer communities

September 4, 2009 By HKearl

I’m happy to pass along news about an exciting milestone and celebratory event for my NYC friends RightRides. RightRides offers LGBTQ folks and women safe, free rides home Friday & Saturday nights. Co-founder and executive director Oraia Reid says,

“We’ve reached incredible milestones this year – 2,000 safe rides home and five years of service!…RightRides is made possible thanks to over 150 driving team and dispatching volunteers, our vehicle sponsor Zipcar and the generosity of supporters like you! Please celebrate with us at the Friends of RightRides Social!”

Friends of RightRides Social

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Anthony Lawrence–Belfair Showroom
53 West 23rd Street, 9th Floor
New York, New York
6 – 9 p.m.

Roaring ’20’s and 30’s swing music provided by Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra. Hors d’oeuvres will be served plus complimentary wine and spirits from St-Germain, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, Admiral Imports. There will be a silent auction, awards ceremony, VIP special reception and more! Semi-formal or business attire requested.

With the Distinguished Defender Awards honoring:

Joanne Smith, Executive Director & Founder,
Girls for Gender Equity

Sonia Ossorio, President,
New York City Chapter, National Organization for Women

2 RightRides Volunteers (to be announced)

Tickets

  • $125 VIP ticket rate, includes private event reception, drink specials, incredible gift bags and more!
  • $50 general admission ticket offered until Tuesday, September 15th $75 thereafter and at door
  • Are you a RightRides volunteer? You receive complimentary admission and can bring a guest for a discounted ticket rate. Are you a student or do you work in the non profit sector? We can offer you a discounted ticket rate too. Please contact us for more info!

All funds raised directly support RightRides, offering women and LGBTQ individuals a free, late night ride home to address gender-based assault. $15 of every ticket is non-deductible. For every general admission ticket sold, RightRides can provide 5 safe rides home. Thank you for your support. Thank you to our Supreme Supporter Sponsor Citi Community Relations and our Progressive Protector Sponsor Zipcar.

Learn more or purchase tickets

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Filed Under: Events Tagged With: celebration, New York City, oraia reid, rightrides, safe rides home, sexual assault

NYPD Officer Fail Re: Subway Masturbator

August 13, 2009 By HKearl

Thanks to the efforts of organizations like Holla Back NYC and RightRides,  several subway cars in New York City have anti-harassment ads that include text encouraging people to report harassers.

Image from NBC NY
Image from NBC NY

NBC New York is reporting that a woman who took a photo of a man who started masturbating in front of her on a northbound number 3 train (it was around 4 in the afternoon, no less) and reported it to a local precinct was told by the police officer that it wasn’t a police matter and to call 311. All one has to do is peruse a few stories on Holla Back NYC‘s website to realize that men masturbating on subways and at subway stations is a huge problem so this officer’s response to this woman’s efforts to report one of them one is disconcerting.

“The NYPD said internal affairs is looking into the matter.

‘Public lewdness’ is a misdemeanor that results in hundreds of arrests each year — a fact the cop apparently didn’t know.

‘It was a police matter and IAB is investigating why anyone would have been told otherwise,’ said police spokesman Paul Browne.

The incident comes as the police department has tried increase public awareness — and conviction — of sexual harassment on the subway.”

NBC posted the photo the woman took (see photo above, right) and said anyone with tips can call Crimestoppers at 800-577-TIPS.

If one police officer is unaware of the correct protocal for handling harassers like masturbators, there are likely others. Police officers MUST get educated about the pervasiveness and types of public harassment and assault and the impact they have on women’s every day lives. It takes a lot of time and energy and bravery to undertake reporting a harasser and when someone like this women makes that effort, she should be given proper help and support.

(And kudos to Holla Back NYC’s Emily May for a great quote in the Metro‘s article about this incident: “It’s an ongoing problem of the police showing insensitivity to harassment, lewdness and violence against women on subways…It discourages women from reporting.”)

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: anti-harassment, holla back, masturbator, NBC news, New York City, rightrides, sexual harassment, subway ads, subway masturbator

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.

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Filed Under: hollaback, News stories, Stories, street harassment Tagged With: catcalling, groping, masturbating, new yorkers for safe transit, rightrides, sexual harassment, street harassment

Weekly Round Up – July 26

July 26, 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, contributors submitted stories about getting harassed at a swimming pool in Dubai, being harassed by a man in an SUV in Ohio, and weekly harassment experiences in Portland, OR.
  • Holla Back Toronto has a new story about a woman getting sexually assaulted on her walk from a bus stop and a contributor discusses getting harassed by male customers at her job.
  • On Holla Back NYC a woman tells about getting harassed by a several men in one day. Her post includes a photo of some of them.
  • On Holla Back DC! a woman was groped by a man passing by on his bike, another was harassed by a “serial harasser,” and a third witnessed a man masturbating at a DC metro station.

In the News:

  • There is a new, thriving women-run taxi business in Beirut, Lebanon, which helps women get around safely and free from male harassment.
  • A “wolf whistling” contest was held in Ireland this week to see which man can whistle at women the best…disgusting!
  • In Philadelphia, PA, a man threatened and groped a woman at knife point on the subway. She was holding her baby at the time.
Upcoming Events:
  • The Young Women’s Action Team is holding a free “Anti-Street Harassment Summer Camp” on August 1, in Chicago, IL. It looks like it will be a great event, so check it out if you’re in the Chicago area.

Announcements:

  • 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:

A video by a Penn State student showing the volume of harassment women experience on campus.

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: anti-street harassment summer camp, beruit, campus video, catcalling video, chicago, DC, dubai, grope, harassment video, hollaback, ireland, lebanon, new york, news, ohio, penn state, philadelphia, portland, rightrides, safe ride home, Stories, street harassment, toronto, weekly round up, wolf whistles, women run taxi service, young women's action team

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