Tag Archives: Community mobilizing

Street Harassent Logging

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From story submissions on Holla Back DC!, we know a lot of people experience and witness street harassment weekly and even daily in the DC-area. But we want to learn more. Help us out!

Join Holla Back DC! and Stop Street Harassment for a week of street harassment logging from September 26 – October 2, 2011 and record the street harassment you experience and witness in the DC-area. (What is street harassment?)

How do I participate?

1. Sign up online here.

2. Download/print this PDF booklet. You can also pick up a printed copy on Sept. 26 at the anti-street harassment book event at Busboys and Poets at 6:30 p.m.

3. Use the booklet from September 26 – October 2 to record each instance of street harassment you experience or witness. If you are out of town part of the week, still participate for the dates when you are in town and just write on the log what those dates are.

4. At the end of the week, complete the questions at the back of the booklet and return it to us. If you don’t happen to experience or witness any harassment during that particular week, still turn it in!

Video Instructions:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmbgcpY97AE]

How do I turn it in?

1. Input your information online here (preferred method – link will be live when the week of logging begins).

2. Turn it in at the Happy Hour wrap-up on October 3 at TBA location.

3. Scan and email it to dchollaback AT gmail.com

4. Mail it to the attention of Shannon Lynberg at 1801 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria VA, 22302

Why should I participate?

Holla Back DC! and Stop Street Harassment are working to better track and assess rates of street harassment in the Washington, DC metro-area. In spring 2011, we led a community safety audit in six of DC’s eight wards (read the Washington Post article about it). The idea for a week of logging came out of the wrap-up meeting with our volunteers.

We plan to do a week of logging every two months for the next year to build up our collection of data. We plan to use the data to create recommendations for policy makers, educators, activists, and regular citizens so we can make the city and suburbs safer. Your participation matters!

Last Chance to Apply to be on our Board!

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There are some exciting things happening here at HBDC! and we are expanding our board in order to build our capacity.  Are you passionate about ending gender-based violence in the DC metro area? Do you want to get more involved with us and become a part of a growing organization? Then this is the perfect opportunity for you!

Just fill out this simple online form.  The deadline is March 24th and we will let candidates know if they made into the first round of interviews the following week.

Petitions, Petitions, Online Revolutions

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Inspired by our brethren in Egypt, we took on a relatively new museum in the DC area, the National Crime and Punishment Museum and their exhibit during Valentine’s weekend called “Crimes of Passion.”

Many of us asked us why we decided to create a Change.org petition demanding the museum stop this exhibit, or at the very least, not bring it back next year, particularly since the exhibit is not related to public sexual harassment and assault. We did it because a) domestic violence is interrelated to the causes of public sexual harassment and assault and b) a museum shouldn’t be marketing off the misnamed and uneducated views on domestic violence.

Don’t get us wrong, we are all for people consensually getting handcuffed and enjoying each other.

Also, to many of those naysayers, we are FOR freedom of speech. By drafting a petition and doing media interviews, we have exercised our privileges, just like it is your privilege to attend an ill informed museum exhibit.

Now that we have that straight, let’s get to the unwrapping of a petition:

  • On February 7, individuals brought to our attention the “Crimes of Passion” exhibit with marketing materials of OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson.
  • On February 8, we reached out to the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence asking them if and how they plan to address the exhibit. Karma Cottman stated that after speaking with the COO, the museum agreed to hand out resources and put language on their website about “the prevalence of DV and underscoring the fact that DV is not a crime of passion.”
  • On February 9, the HBDC! Board voted develop a petition asking that the museum stop the exhibit, or at the very least, not bring it back in the coming years.
  • The petition went live on February 10.  Our goal was to collect 500 signatures.
  • Starting February 11, the media started knocking and writing: WAMU’s DCentric, WTOP, NBC4, WaPo, Change.org, and the Associated Press.
  • We emailed it our networks/listserves, tweeted, blogged and posted the petition on Facebook for several days.
  • The Museum continues to state that the exhibit is not about domestic violence. Yet, they continue to give resources and keep the language up about domestic violence. Further, in the exhibit, they highlight at least two cases of domestic violence.

We will not stop until the National Crime and Punishment Museum takes our requests seriously.  We had over 300 people sign the petition, and although the Museum continued with the exhibit this year, we will insist that if it brings back the “Crimes of Passion” exhibit next year that they market the event differently, and not highlight and mock those who died due to domestic violence.

Domestic violence is not a crime of passion; it’s a crime of hatred, jealously, and control. None of those adjectives describe our version of passion. If a museum labels domestic violence a crime of passion, we shiver to think how they would label sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, and street harassment.

Thanks for standing up against this horrible exhibit. Thanks for taking it seriously. And thanks for standing next to survivors, families, communities and those who died due to domestic violence.

Viva la revolution!

Tell the National Crime and Punishment Museum to Take Intimate Partner Violence Seriously

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Intimate Partner Violence results in three (3) homicides in the United States every day.  These lives are not simply snuffed out as acts of “passion,” but are the horrific results of sustained patterns of psychological, sexual, and physical abuse as a means of sustaining power and control in an intimate relationship. Over the past three decades, states, local communities, and the federal government have worked together to pass comprehensive legislation making intimate partner violence a crime, ensuring the safety of families and children.

The National Crime and Punishment Museum mocks the seriousness of intimate partner violence by romanticising such homicides as crimes of “passion.”  The Valentine’s weekend exhibit “Crimes of Passion” makes light of a crime that affects thousands of Americans of all races, socioeconomic classes, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities.

Holla Back DC! is an organization that works to end public sexual harassment and assault so we are astutely aware of the often gendered aspects — and links between — intimate partner violence, public sexual harassment, and sexual assault. The foundation of all of these offenses is the appropriation of personal autonomy by one individual over the other.  Whether it is intimate partner violence, public sexual harassment, or sexual assault, the underlying offense is the subjugation of one individual over another and a complete disregard for the victim’s personal agency and welfare.

We respectfully demand that the National Crime and Punishment Museum live up to their social responsibility to the community by ceasing to promote such an exhibit as an event, particularly for a holiday based on passion, romance, and love.  No matter how you spice up this exhibit, intimate partner violence has a devastating impact on individuals, families, and communities and should not be taken lightly.

Please sign the petition we created on Change.org demanding telling the National Crime and Punishment Museum that Intimate Partner Violence is NOT a crime of “Passion” and that it is time they take IPV seriously!

There is still time to take our survey!

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Please help us to better understand public sexual harassment and assault in the DC Metro area by taking our 10-15 minute survey! Your answers will help us identify community needs and directly affect the workshops, programs, and materials we offer. The data from this survey will also go into a report, along with information from the focus groups we’ve conducted as part of a grant from AAUW about the status of public sexual harassment in the DC metro area.

Please only complete this survey if you currently live in the DC metro area, used to live in the DC metro area, or have experienced/witnessed public sexual harassment in the DC metro area.

Feel free to send our survey out to your DC networks. Survey link:http://bit.ly/h6SziO

Thank you for your time. Please contact us at dchollaback@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.