Women are (sadly) trained to be hyper-alert, not go out alone or after the dark and told a whole list of precautions they should take to avoid sexual harassment and/or assault. However, it turns out even well-lit, public spaces aren't safe.
Ariana Lenarsky was traveling on a flight on Monday when a fellow passenger allegedly "grabbed and stroked" her calf.
Some guy grabbed & stroked my calf (??) as I walked by on the plane, so I took his picture. Not gonna post it, but I hope he's freaked out.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
When she complained to the flight attendants, she found out that another woman had already complained about the same man.
I just told the flight attendants, and they both nodded. They already knew who it was, because other women already complained. Lol.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
Anyway. We don't land for an hour and a half. Anything else I need to do here? Tag the airline? Tweet the photo?
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
It's like a real-time Choose Your Own Adventure for how to deal with harassment.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
I am now going to ask the flight attendants what they plan to do when we land.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
They told the captain and are filing a report with the airline. Local authorities will meet the plane when we land.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
I feel depressed.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
Ariana then took a picture of the man but decided against posting it on Twitter at the time. As the flight took off, it was too late to evict the him. Ariana was told that a report was being filed with the airline and that local authorities would meet them when they landed.
Read what happened after they landed:
Police took him off the plane. I'm still here & they're taking my & another woman's report. The legal term for how he grabbed me is battery.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
He tried to kiss the other woman. She doesn't want to press charges bc since it happened in the sky, the FBI would have to get involved.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
If I want to press charges, I'd have to fly back to Austin on my dime, since it's Austin PD's jurisdiction. I don't want to do that.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
Police said they would "give him a talking to"& "it's not the crime of the century." True! I'm going to tweet his picture now since it's nbd
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016
She then tweeted his picture with the following message:
"You can't grab women on a plane, guy. You can't do it. Hope you get the help you need."
And as if being told that it wasn't the "crime of the century" wasn't bad enough, Ariana clarified in another tweet that it wasn't the local authorities who told her this, but the FBI itself.
However, after her tweets went viral, having been retweeted thousands of times, Ariana said that the Austin Police Department had come forward to take a report of the incident.
Small update:
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 25, 2016
The Austin PD has reached out to take a report—asked for the case #/contact # of the officer who took my report, which I gave.
She said later that by live-tweeting about the incident, she had "inadvertently illuminated that the process of reporting assault is broken."
By sharing this story, I believe I have inadvertently illuminated that the process of reporting assault is broken.
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 25, 2016