On June 2, 2010 in Albany, State Assembly Member James Brennan, introduced legislation to force the New York Police Department to publicly report misdemeanors to include harassment and assaults on New York City subways. Brennan’s bill has garnered support from advocates with New Yorkers for Safe Transit (NYFST), the only New York City coalition dedicated to eliminating gender and discrimination-based harassment and assaults on NYC’s public transit system.
At the head of this movement is Emily May. May is the co-founder of HollabackNYC.com, a website dedicated to ending street harassment through social media. Now, HollbackNYC receives over 1000 hits per day and over 15 Hollabacks have been established worldwide. In 2008, May co-founded New Yorkers for Safe Transit, a coalition dedicated to making public transportation safe for all New Yorkers. The Coalition was successful in getting anti-harassment ads up in the subway in fall of 2008. May also serves on the board of Girls for Gender Equity, an organization that teaches leadership and community organizing skills to low-income girls.
She has been featured as an expert on women’s safety in public on Fox, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and ABC. May is a recipient of the Stonewall Women’s Award and has an undergraduate degree from New York University and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics.
May indicates that when it comes to finding out what is really going on in the subways the story is murky at best. According to the New York City Police Department, subway crimes are significantly down . They are currently averaging 5.6 crimes per day, compared to 11 crimes per day in 2001. However, Hollaback has seen a dramatic increase in reports of groping, stalking, and assault on the subways. James Hall, chief of the Police Department’s Transit Bureau, said that sexual harassment was the “number one quality of life offense on the subway,” in a November 2009 hearing.
"It all comes down to the MTA’s definition of crime," says, May. According to their crime statistics, groping, stalking and public masturbation are not a crime. According to the MTA, these crimes are misdemeanors and are not counted when the MTA releases crime data.
May indicates, "Silencing these crimes silences the experiences the 60% of New Yorkers who have been harassed on the subway and the 10% who have been assaulted. We live in a city where data matters, and bad data leads to bad decisions. The recent decision to lay off over 500 MTA workers is a prime example of this and if we don’t start telling the full story there are surely more bad decisions to come."
May added that the press conference held on June 2, 2010 that also turned into an advocacy day in Albany was successful and that her group was able to meet with over 15 legislators who were all supportive of the bill. "In their minds, this bill is a no-brainer. It is about transparency and if we want to make our subways safer, we need to know what is going on underground," said May.
To continue to follow May and the Hollaback movement, you can connect with them on Twitter.
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