Photo by a loves dc via flickr

Josef*, thank you for the work you are doing with Holla Back!…you are amazing. There have been many instances of sexual harassment that I have seen and been a victim of in D.C., but one stands out more than others. I have wanted to get this off my chest for a while.

I was walking down 14th st to the McPhearson Square Metro with another female friend of mine after a nice evening in U Street from an office social at around 10:30 PM on a Thursday night…we were on our way to babysit a sculpture in front of the Capitol Building (activist/protest art that the government couldn’t deem a bomb and destroy if there were people around it at all times). We had had some beers with our pizza, but were not drunk. That nightclub, The Park, was having it’s grand opening party and the street was filled with people, as well as a few police cruisers. Right before we reached the crowd, a huge black SUV rolled up next to us on the sleep and these guys started yellin g “hey baby” at us. At first we ignored them, but they kept yelling and I flicked them off. My friend told me to stop, that she had a bad feeling, and sure enough, the “hey baby” turned into “FUCK YOU BITCH”.

We started walking faster, passed the crowd of people and were right in front of the I+14th Metro entrance….all of a sudden the SUV pulled up and two men got out and started running toward me and my girl. I ran toward the Metro, looked behind me and couldn’t see my friend or the guy who came after me….I peeked around the corner of the elevator, terrified that they had grabbed her and pulled her into the car, when the guy who ran after me saw me and started walking toward me, yelling obscenities…I raised my hands, palm up and said…”I’m really sorry, I just need to find my friend.” He picked up a trashcan and threw it into my body. After I fell down, not feeling anything from the adrenaline racing through my body, I bounced right back up and said the same thing, p alms still upturned. He walked toward me, screamed “BITCH” and slapped me across the face.

I fell back down and hugged my face to my chest, arms crossed over my head, in case he started kicking me. He got back into the car and the peeled off. THIS HAPPENED IN FULL VIEW OF OVER 30 PEOPLE, men and women alike, AND NO ONE came over to ask me if I was ok as I sat on the ground, shaking and in shock for 5 minutes. Finally I got up, still freaked out that I couldn’t find my friend, and saw her walking toward me with a Metro employee. She told me that the man that ran after her was screaming “I’m going to kill you bitch” and she ran the opposite way into the crowd of people waiting on the street to get in to the club. When she found a female police officer and told her that she and her friend had been attacked at the Metro and needed assistance, the police women responded with “THATS A NEGATIVE… YOU NEED TO CALL THE POLICE” Are you fucking kidding me?

We ended up just getting in a cab and left to go to our work commitment. To this day, I consider myself to be extremely lucky that he didn’t break my face, stab, or shoot me, and that my friend wasn’t assaulted as well. It could have been so much worse. When I told my sister and father what happened, they were extremely angry at me and told me it was my fault for flicking them off, and I kinda believed it…this website has helped me realize that I need to keep the blame squarely on the perps. Thank you Holla Back DC! you rock!

*Josef is one our fab board members!

Submitted by Tizzy on 4/21/2010

Location: McPherson Square Metro

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