Stalked & Street Harassed in DC: “No One Did A Thing To Help.”
Stalked & Street Harassed in DC: “No One Did A Thing To Help.”
Location: Between Columbia Heights and Woodley Park, DC
Time: Daytime (9:30am-3:30pm)
It was one of the first nice days out in a long time, so I decided to walk home from the Target in Columbia Heights rather than take the bus. I noticed a man leaning out the passenger side window of a car leering at me and licking his lips. I asked him, “What the fuck are you staring at?” He replied, “Damn, nice legs baby. And you’ve got a mouth on you, I like that.” Then [he] said to the driver of the car (loudly, clearly intending for me to hear) “I would tear that shit UP.”
I flipped him off, then did my best to ignore him as the car drove slowly beside me for the next several blocks, staring at me the entire time. When I sped up, they sped up; when I stopped, they stopped. I was worried that they would follow me all the way home, so I looked for a store to stop in and wait for them to pass, but I was in the middle of a stretch of residential blocks. I shouted at them a few times to leave me alone, but each time the man laughed and seemed to be enjoying my obvious anger/discomfort.
There were plenty of other people on the street, but everyone just looked away and continued to go about their business. No one did a thing to stop it, and someone even gave me a dirty look when I shouted a curse word at the man. Like I was the one doing something wrong. After the fact I wished I had thought to make a note of the car’s license plate, called the police to report it, done SOMETHING besides just let it happen, but in the moment I was too angry and afraid to do anything besides get home.
Submitted 4/2/14 by “Nicole M.”
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