By Heather Kristin
On the day of the historic Women’s March in New York City, where blocks away, some 400,000 women chanted and held up signs for President Trump to respect women and their bodies, a man and woman screamed at each other on 14th Street. Their yelling grew more intense as I passed Whole Foods, so I turned around. The man signaled to someone on the crowded sidewalk to join him. No one did.
Instead, the woman, probably in her 50’s, about my height 5’5, dashed into the traffic trying to get away from the man, who was most likely in his 20’s, and at least 6’1. He ran after her into Union Square Park.
“Help! This man is threatening me. He won’t stop following me,” she yelled.
No one seemed to hear her. I thought to myself I can either go home or I can help.
As a child growing up in the 1980’s in New York City, I had been followed, cornered, leered at, called names, attacked, and mugged by men much larger than me. I couldn’t let this happen to another woman.
I thought about my two young daughters back at home. What if he pulled out a gun? I felt torn, but my gut said, I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m going to stand up to this scum. I followed them into the park.
My hands began to shake, either from nerves or the cold. I knew I wouldn’t be able to physically protect her if he attacked her. I pulled out my iPhone and began to film. I would have a record to show the police--even if the video was blurry and I was just recording the back of them from a distance.
After about ten minutes of him following her in circles around the park, they exited the park. She desperately tried to flag down a taxi, all the while telling strangers passing by that the man was stalking her. No one seemed to care.
Eventually, a taxi stopped, she jumped in, and slammed the door shut. The man stood in front of the yellow car, blocking it from driving away. The driver honked. The man walked to the driver’s side and took the cabbie’s picture, along with the woman’s picture with his phone. What was going on? Was the man going to stalk them on the internet? Was he trying to scare them? Intimidate them? I was completely baffled.
Then the man yelled, “You bumped into me first!”
The taxi drove off and the man walked toward me. My heart raced. I fumbled with my phone, still recording, and stuffed it into my coat jacket. He walked slowly, acting as if he had done nothing wrong. Like it was totally normal to chase after a woman and frighten her.
I was beyond angry. I followed him down another block, determined to get a photo of his face to show the world what a screw-head he was. Finally, he stopped and turned. I walked up to him and snapped a photo. He glared at me. I rushed across the street.
On the corner, I found a police car, knocked on the window, and said, “Sir! Can you help? That man on the corner, who is watching me, was following this woman. I have a video!”
Another woman ran across the street and said, “I need to show you a video!”
The cops stared blankly at us and said, “Unless we have a victim, standing right in front of us, to tell her side of the story, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Can’t you just stick around for a bit?” the other woman asked. “I mean, he is staring at us. He might try the same thing.”
“Why would we believe you?” one cop said.
“We have a video. Take a look.”
“No,” the officer said and drove off.
Me and the young woman looked at each other in shock. Was there no one who would protect us, keep us safe? We were trying to help that woman and now we were at-risk.
I thought about posting his photo to Facebook. Telling my friends to be careful if you run into this man at Union Square. But my thoughts returned to my baby girl and young daughter. What if he saw my post and then tried to track down my family? I rushed into the subway and texted his photo to my husband back at home, just in case something happened.
Later, over dinner, I told my young daughter about following and filming the not-so-nice man and how we must protect each other.
She said, “You were brave, mommy. Like Wonder Woman.”
I hope when my daughters grow up, men don’t act like they have the right to control us, no matter what, even if the woman bumped into the man first or said something nasty. I hope women are not silenced like Senator Elizabeth Warren was on the senate floor yesterday when she tried to read from Coretta Scott King.
The time to act is upon us. We, the Wonder Women of the world, will speak up and put an end to bullying, intimidating, harassing, silencing, and men dominating women.
You’ve been warned, Mr. President.