Late last Saturday night (3am-ish), My husband and I drove a friend over to Chinatown to get his car. En route, we saw a large man bear hugging and lifting what looked lika a nearly-naked, struggling woman from behind. I slowed down, and as we get closer, we saw him try to shove her into a car. I said, “aw hell NO” and pulled over.

We popped out of our car, and my husband asked the woman if she was okay. The man accused us of being racist for thinking he was hurting her, and told us that we should mind our own business. (I will not identify the race of any person in the story, because to our minds, that was 100% irrelevant.) Thankfully my husband did not engage the man, but instead calmly waited for the woman to answer – at that time, we noticed the woman’s friends (who were sitting in the same car the woman was being put into) who spoke up and said that the woman was very drunk (which was clear) and that this man was helping get the woman into their car. He did, then got into his own car, at which time they drove off separately and we felt comfortable leaving.

I had a very dear friend in college who was forced into a car, driven to a remote parking lot, then raped repeatedly for the better part of an evening. So, as I said, we didn’t care who the man was, we simply, collectively, refused to turn a blind eye to a situation that looked as sketchy as that one. I believe in the social contract – even if I’m wrong, I’d rather break up a potentially bad situation, rather than pretend I didn’t see it.

Location: NY Ave & 6th Street, NW

Time of harassment: Late Night (12A-5A)

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