I know what happened to my best friend and I was an act of harassment. I know that the real cause for it was sexual. I also know that most people would just brush it off.

Two weeks ago my best friend and I were shopping in Adams Morgan. She had seen a dress she liked in one store and we had decided to go back and get it. We were walking back up 18st when I saw two  boys, in there early twenties step, out of an ally and start walking towards us. Something about them made me nervous. They were both staring right at my friend and, as silly as it sounds, there was something threatening about the way they walked. As they drew level, I started to think they would just walk by. Suddenly one of the boy lunged at my friend. He got so close to her face I though he was going to hit her. Instead he just screamed at the top of his lungs right in to her face.

That was it.

I know it seems like a stretch, but it was so obvious to me that his core motive was sexual. He was big muscular guy dominating a pretty girl.

What was really scary was they didn’t even laugh. They just kept walking. It hadn’t been a joke. It was just angry. Even though he never touched her, it was violent. Even though he only screamed, he was clearly saying “I am stronger then you, I could do anything I wanted to you.”

One thing that’s going to stick with me for a very long time is the memory of how close he got to my friend, how easily he could have grabbed her or hit her. Both what he did physically and his mental decision to do it was so calculated and so aggressive it was just one small step away from assault.

Submitted by gg on 1/26/2010

Location: right outside of 2206 18th Street in Adams Morgan

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