Print This Post Print This Post

May

30

Boston knows what Dann re: sexual harassment didn’t: It’s unpleasant AND it is NEVER okay


Major kudos to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. From NPR:

Transit officials in Boston recently launched an aggressive campaign aimed at cracking down on people who take advantage of the tight squeeze on crowded trains. Over the past month, officials say the program has led to a record number of arrests for subway sex assaults.

Riders on Boston’s subway, known as the “T,” are accustomed to the fact that sometimes there will be full-body contact on jam-packed trains, where people are falling and bumping into one another. However, that sardine-canlike environment creates the perfect camouflage for those who grope.

Here’s how it works:

Transit officials say women usually don’t report groping incidents because they’re embarrassed and don’t believe it will have any effect. So officials have plastered subway cars with nearly a thousand signs urging victims to speak out — and warning potential predators that they are being watched by cameras and by “the grope patrol” of undercover police officers.

On a recent subway trip, Sgt. Mike Adamson was one of several plainclothes officers keeping an eye on a police decoy rider — a pretty young blond woman wearing a T-shirt hanging off one shoulder, a bright skirt and flip-flops.

The decoy got on the train and ended up wedged between the door and a bald guy in a button-down shirt who kept trying to talk to her. She winked at the officers as the man’s arm dropped out of sight behind her, but after several subway stops, nothing had happened. Later, the decoy laughed at the guy’s lame pickup lines about her tattoo and her toes.

Think they’re crazy? Rolling your eyes?

Read about how Japan’s efforts continue to be in place (they were started in at least 2005; read more here) and read about what Mexico is doing:

Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city’s packed public transportation system.

Millions of people cram into subway trains and buses in the Mexican capital, one of the world’s largest cities, and women have long complained of abuse from men taking advantage of overcrowding to sneak in an inappropriate grab.

…

Mexico City already had reserved the first three cars in subway trains for women and children but this is the first time the model has been tried in buses.

How many is enough to make push come to shove, when it comes to hearing the complaints? I’m not sure but obviously in Marc Dann’s case, the threat of impeachment.

Hostile workplace environment, sexual harassment – it’s unpleasant but it does not have to happen. At any level.

Hattip to Feministing.

Bookmark and Share

By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:08 pm May 30th, 2008 in Crime, Culture, Law, Social Issues, Women, leadership 

Comments

Leave a Reply




"));