From "looking good" to "ugly bitch" to "I'm going to fuck that bitch in the face": Street Harassment Escalates

I've been reading Hollaback and I've been holla-ing back daily at harassers for over a year now, but this is the first time I've written to tell my own experience. Every morning on my way to work, I cut through the J. Hood Wright park on 173rd and Haven Ave to walk up to the GW Bridge to catch the bus. This morning, I was walking to work minding my own business through a mostly empty park, when two jerks sitting on a bench started yelling at me, "Hey baby, lookin good this morning" (or something to that effect). Without stopping, I shouted, "Don't call me baby, asshole," and continued walking through the park. The guys then started screaming things back at me such as, "You ugly bitch, fuck you! You need to go get fucked you stupid fucking bitch!" I never turned around, but gave it right back to them as I kept walking, telling them to F off. I was coming home from work at 5PM, and I saw a large group of guys sitting on the same bench. Since I had never turned around this morning to look at the jerks, I couldn't tell if they were the same guys. I was really, really hoping that they hadn't actually sat on the bench all day, waiting for me to come back. But when I walked by, I heard one say, "I'm gonna fuck that bitch in the face," but again I was just hoping they weren't referring to me. Then after I left the park and was walking down 173rd street, I hear, "Hey bitch!" behind me. I turned around and this guy had followed me out of the park and was yelling, "Fuck you, bitch! If you ever disrespect me and my friend again, I'm gonna fuck you up!" I walked right up to him and took the photo below with my camera (sorry such bad quality - I have a really old phone so I had to take a picture of my phone with my boyfriend's iPhone to get it on my computer). He then proceeded to say "Oh yeah? Why don't you take a picture of this, bitch?" at which point he pulled his pants down, bent over, and mooned me. At this point, I was beyond furious. I was so disgusted, I actually thought I might vomit. I had luckily seen a police van across the street, so I walked as fast as I could to get them. There were 3 cops (2 women and 1 man), who told me to get in the van, and drove me back to the park. We walked past the bench and around the area a little, but of course, the asshole was nowhere to be found. The cops were so amazingly understanding - they even drove me around the neighborhood for about 15 minutes looking for him. They told me if I saw him again, I could call 911 and he would be arrested. They drove me back to my apartment a few blocks away, and even walked me inside my building. I'm so thankful that they took me seriously and made sure I got home safely. This experience today has left me very shaken up. Even though I know I can get him arrested if I see him, what if I don't have that chance? What if he attacks me first? Street harassment is absolutely about exerting power over people. When I denied his advances this morning, this guy felt the need to wait for me all day long so that he could make sure I knew that he still had control over me. I can only hope that if his friends tell him that I came back to the park with the police, he will be scared enough not to mess with me again, instead of pissed off enough to mess with me even more. Thank you so much, Hollaback, for providing this forum for us to tell our stories. Submitted by Marianne