A strap-hanging MBTA heroine said she went into “She-Hulk” mode to single-handedly collar a man who exposed himself on a crowded B-Line trolley — dragging him off the train and holding him until cops arrived.
The 24-year-old Allston woman, who did not want to be named, said the man boarded one stop after she did on her ride home from her marketing job Thursday. She immediately noticed him staring.
“This guy was just being a real creeper,” she said. As she shuffled along the train, he followed her. She zoned out, listening to music, only to look up and see him standing over her.
“I looked up and felt awkward, so I looked down,” she said. She said the man was exposing and touching himself, but tried to cover himself with his shirt.
The woman — not someone to meekly let an alleged creep get away with it — shouted out what he was doing, but no one stepped in to help. She said one male passenger even shrugged. So, she said, she went into “She-Hulk” mode, lunging as the man tried to bolt at Packard’s Corner in Brighton.
She said she held the man with one hand and “berated” him while she waited for the cops to arrive. She said he looked frightened.
“He kept saying sorry, but he was just sorry for himself,” she said.
The man told transit cops that the “packed and jostling” trolley caused his shorts to fall, according to a police report. He told police that he was unaware he was exposed until the woman started screaming.
T cops charged Michael Galvin, 37, of Somerville with open and gross lewdness. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay off the T.
The woman said she acted because, “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street. I’m tired of it and I want it to end. It was the last straw.”
She also had some choice words for the people who stood by and did nothing on the train: “That’s appalling. That makes me so angry. I want everyone to know that they have to say something.”
Source.
Short but sweet. What would you have done in her position, ontd_p? (Especially when none of the passengers said anything, wtf.) What do you think are the best ways to deal with people like this guy?
The 24-year-old Allston woman, who did not want to be named, said the man boarded one stop after she did on her ride home from her marketing job Thursday. She immediately noticed him staring.
“This guy was just being a real creeper,” she said. As she shuffled along the train, he followed her. She zoned out, listening to music, only to look up and see him standing over her.
“I looked up and felt awkward, so I looked down,” she said. She said the man was exposing and touching himself, but tried to cover himself with his shirt.
The woman — not someone to meekly let an alleged creep get away with it — shouted out what he was doing, but no one stepped in to help. She said one male passenger even shrugged. So, she said, she went into “She-Hulk” mode, lunging as the man tried to bolt at Packard’s Corner in Brighton.
She said she held the man with one hand and “berated” him while she waited for the cops to arrive. She said he looked frightened.
“He kept saying sorry, but he was just sorry for himself,” she said.
The man told transit cops that the “packed and jostling” trolley caused his shorts to fall, according to a police report. He told police that he was unaware he was exposed until the woman started screaming.
T cops charged Michael Galvin, 37, of Somerville with open and gross lewdness. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay off the T.
The woman said she acted because, “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street. I’m tired of it and I want it to end. It was the last straw.”
She also had some choice words for the people who stood by and did nothing on the train: “That’s appalling. That makes me so angry. I want everyone to know that they have to say something.”
Source.
Short but sweet. What would you have done in her position, ontd_p? (Especially when none of the passengers said anything, wtf.) What do you think are the best ways to deal with people like this guy?
good on her!
And FUCK THOSE OTHER PEOPLE ON THE TRAIN. I get so frustrated with people who don't stand up for other people. It's rare enough that someone calls someone out on poor behavior in public. But then when nobody stands up in solidarity? RAGE.
eta: I love this line! “He kept saying sorry, but he was just sorry for himself,” she said.
FOR. REAL.
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:17 pm (UTC)
*edit for typo
Edited at 2012-04-27 07:21 pm (UTC)
. . . uh-huh.
I've had to do something really, really similar when a guy was sexually harassing me at work (a customer). Eventually I had to throw him out, because it got so bad, and he refused to go, so I stood there yelling at him with the work phone in my other hand threatening to call the police if he didn't get out.
He tried to appeal to another employee, but he told him if I was kicking him out, he basically needed to gtfo.
I think, especially in a highly public situation like that, I'd definitely confront the guy and try to hulk out/shame him, etc.
i had a guy sitting next to me at starbucks watching porn and masturbating (granted with a jacket over his lap) - but i didn't speak enough japanese at the time to tell him off or alert the staff >
Nice to hear that somebody did something.
ps - I have a good LJ friend who witnesses a guy pretending to masturbate at her, all through the bus ride. She was upset. Did nothing. I told her that that was sexual assault. She said, "I felt violated." Oh well! hhhhhhh
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:24 pm (UTC)
I'm not sure what I would have done tbh D:
Then I would have berated and shamed every last asshole on the train who stood idly by.
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:33 pm (UTC)
I rely exclusively on public transportation, so this isn't hypothetical for me. I did once get into a, ah, verbal exchange with another passenger who got his shorts in a twist because a person in a wheelchair was getting on the bus, which takes, like, 30 seconds longer than anyone else. So this dude was making all kinds of meant-to-be-overheard comments until I growled at him. Then he called me a faggot, which was fun. /csb
I've stood up to the bus driver for bullying a non-english speaker before, when no one else made a move (they all looked uncomfortable and clearly knew it was wrong, but no one DID anything) and in the wheelchair situation you describe the dude would have gotten an earful. But with the situation in the article, I'm not sure what I'd have done -- it would have made me so damn uncomfortable that a big impulse would have been to just ignore it/pretend it didn't happen. I'm definitely not proud of that, but I'm trying to honestly imagine it and I don't think I'd have dealt with it well.
Then again, I'm much much better about leaping to the defense of others, so if I was a passenger and the woman shouted on the train I'd totally have her back.
omg this is such awful creep-shaming. he's clearly just a NICE GUY who' being unfairly persecuted :((((((Seriously though, good for her and everyone else on that train can go fuck themselves.
:D
Personally, i would have punched him in the dick a few times for good measure, because "I felt threatened, officer". Would have kicked the fuckhead who SHRUGGED on my way by.
FUCK YOU, WRITER.
How dare these women be intimidated and humiliated by men trying to intimidate and humiliate them! They let them get away!~
The woman in this story is totally hardcore, don't get me wrong, but women who can't apprehend scum shouldn't be shamed. That is just fucked up.
Part of me wishes I had made a bigger deal and gotten him out of the theater, but there were kids IN the theater...just none of them were aware of what had happened. I think it was better that way in the end.
I remember trying to help a pregnant woman getting smacked around by her SO at the mall. Then I turned around and yelled at all the dudes who ran over and watched as if it were a free show. No cellphones dialed 911, no one said stop, no one physically intervened except 5'1 me. Not much risk in going around the corner to call 911 secretly.
Edited at 2012-04-27 09:11 pm (UTC)
What a cop once taught at a rape-prevention class I attended:
GRAB, PULL, AND TWIST.
This woman is amazing though. I wish I could be as brave as her and I'm getting better the older I get, but at 24, I would have been frightened and cowed out of my wits.
..... Excuse me, I'm not a guy, but anecdotally the ones I know are generally VERY aware when their naked nethers meet fresh air and the light of day. How numb do your nuts have to be?
Or maybe he realized clocking her would get him in *worse* trouble.
I *loathe* that kind of 'no one will tell on me' shite that men like this count on, because way too many women have been brow-beaten, intimidated or abused into silence. And all the men standing around not caring just reinforce the notion that 'telling' will either get you nothing, or might get you hurt.