Please note. . .

Don't Be Silent DC has been inactive since March 2008 and has not been accepting entries since. If you are in the DC area and have a harassment story to share, please go to HollaBack DC. If you are outside the DC area and want to submit your story, go to Stop Street Harassment. Thank you.


As of 3/1/08, I will no longer be working on this blog. Please read this post for more details.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Double Troubles

Amy from Baltimore, MD had two incidents to tell about:

I was at a Walgreens a few years ago picking up some things I needed, and these two creepy men that looked like they came out of a rundown shack in the backwoods of WV were lurking around the store, checking out the women without shame.. I kept my distance from them as best I could, but then they came down the shampoo aisle where I was and the one guy came up by me and called to his friend, "Hey look at this one, she has big tits!!" His friend came up and started to check me out like I was on display at the fricken zoo! They were not even three feet away from me. I felt so disgusted that I just left the store and didn't even bother finish my shopping there. What's worse is that they were like 50+ years old and I was just a teenager at the time!! Assholes. I wish I could go back in time and get them in trouble. Thanks for letting me vent.


Ugh. I could never understand why old men feel the need to "pursue" young women...or in this case, harass and creep them out. Nasty!

Here's her second story:

I just made one submission, but I got to thinking about another incident that upset me and want to get it out.

My friends and I used to hang out at the dead end of my street. There's only one house down there set back a ways, and the owners didn't mind us teenagers hanging out down there if we didn't carry on too badly. I was suppose to meet one of my friends down there to hang out but she was running late, so I just sat down on the pavement and waited for her. There was this neighborhood boy that used to make advances on me, but I always refused him and kept away He'd say things like, "If you were my girl, I'd fuck your brains out." and would stalk around my house when I was sitting on the porch, calling my name or singing rap songs to me with sexually explicit lyrics. He was a real charmer, let me tell you. Well, I had to pass by his house to get to the end of the street, and he saw me go by when I did, so he came out and followed me after a few minutes. I was uneasy when I saw him coming, but I kept my cool and brought up my guard just in case he tried anything. I was comforted by the fact my friend would be there any minute. He kept his distance at first and just made some small talk, but then he came forward suddenly and grabbed my shoulders and tried to force me to lay back on the ground. It all happened so fast, but I freaked out and started to attack him by punching, kicking, screaming. He let go and stumbled back yelling, "Yo, yo! That hurt!! You hurt me!!" I screamed, "It was suppose to, you fucking moron. Don't ever touch me! Get the hell away from me! Don't touch me! Get away!!" He ran up the street. My friend came running down not even a minute later and asked me what happened because she saw the guy run past her crying, talking about how I hit him. He seriously had some mental problems or something, we even called him Crazy Mike.

My guy friends found out about what happened and paid a visit to him to warn him to never bother me or any of the other girls in the neighborhood. After that incident he never caused me any problems again.


Though the first story didn't have a positive ending, I'm glad there was a better outcome for the second one. Mental problems or not, if someone is persistently bothering you, then that person is a harasser!

Speaking of rap, I wish someone would make a rap or song about street harassment. Sure, TLC had "No Scrubs," but that song is more about the men who do this than about actual street harassment. I wish there were a song about street harassment so any time some fool tried to pull this mess, we could either sing it really loudly or blast it out of our radios! Hey, it's a thought!

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