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This morning, the local news stations reported that a woman was raped on a subway platform at the 21st Street G station in Hunters Point Queens. The woman had gotten off the train at around 3AM in the morning, when a man approached her. The G train skipped the Long Island City stop while the police investigated; the suspect is still at large.
Right Rides, the volunteer organization that offers free rides to women between midnight and 4:30AM on Saturday in Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and the Lower East Side. There is only Saturday night service because they need volunteers; here's information on volunteering. Gothamist really likes the spirit of Right Rides, but we wish that it were available in more areas (of course); there must be a grant out there for something like this.
And a Manhattan woman was stabbed when trying to look for a LIRR station in Long Island. A man offered to show her the way at 11PM on Saturday, but ended up leading her to a wooded area. She fought him off when he tried to rape her, but he ended up stabbing her multiple times in the neck.
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were these the stations that had the unmanned booths?
How's about taking a cab?
"3AM in the morning" is redundant.
ben, from the linked article:
"The station does have a full-time token clerk, and cameras up and down the platform, but they're for conductors to secure train doors, they do not record. Transit statistics show the stop is one of the quietest in the entire subway system, nearly desolate most times of the day."
while the station has a token clerk, i think they're at least one level above the platform. and the station really is desolate. i don't think i've ever seen more than 5 people on it at any one time.
I live near this station and I can second tien's assertion that the station is really desolate, even for a G train station. Most of the platform is nowhere near the token booth, and there are lots of places for people to hide.
I'm glad it was least reported...someone told me about this this morning and I figured it wouldn't make the news, given that a lot of Very Bad Things seem to happen in my neighborhood and never make it onto the news.
This really freaking sucks.
i'm sorry – i just have to say it: WTF ARE YOU DOING ALONE AT THAT STATION AT 3:00 AM????
and before people start freaking out, i'm not implying that she deserved to be rape, asked for it, or any other such nonsense. i'm just advocating a little personal responsibility.
if i tape hundred dollar bills to my coat and stroll down lenox avenue at 3:00 AM, do i deserve to be robbed? no, but should i be terribly shocked if i am?
The picture of pie-wrestling hotties you put next to the rape post is unsettling, to say the least.
That station is creepy even during the day.
so apu, you equate merely having a vagina on the subway at night with "taping $100 bills on your jacket" and then walking through a predominantly black neighborhood? Kudos to you for being racist AND misogynist. We don't know what this woman was doing, but we DO know that she was getting off the train--not strolling the platform aimlessly.
Amen to LIC resident above! Blaming the victim and calling for increased "personal responsibility" only obfuscates the real issue here: public safety for all.
I agree with JC... public safety is the real problem. As a woman who goes out my fair share, I have been reluctant to move too far away from where I socialize, for the exact reason that, late night and alone, I'd either wind up compromising my safety on empty subways or paying $25 cab fares just to make it home.
Cheers LIC resident. You said it well!
Seriously, your choice of advertising placement is tasteless. I'm never watching TBS again.
Yeah - that picture of the girl covered in pie with her butt hanging out coupled with the rape story is a lovely juxtaposition.
I agree no one should be raped for any reason, but why not spend a few dollars extra and take a cab in exchange for being a little more safe? It's the same with this girl missing in Aruba -- her friends let her go off by herself with some random guys. No one deserves to be raped or murdered or missing for whatever reason, but why put yourself in a compromised situation in the first place?
I don't think apu was being misogyinistic at all. A woman should be able to go where she wants to go, when she wants to go there, wearing what she wants to wear, but she should also know that life is not lived in ideals. The reality of our world is that it is not always safe, no matter what our idealized view of what it should be is.
I believe that rape is a violent act, and would never blame the victim. Nevertheless, I would warn my daughter against riding the subway at 3 AM by herself because, blame or not, I don't want her to be a victim. Of course, it is empowering to say "don't blame the victim," but isn't it better to not be a victim at all?
It's not blaming the victim at all to say that this is one crazy, screwed up and violent world. When a friend tells you she wants to take a cab home at 3 AM, do you start lecturing her about taking back the night or do you let her go her way, knowing that even if she should be allowed to live free from fear, she doesn't and simply feels safer taking a cab to her door?
That being said, the really issue here is of course public safety. If I can't feel safe on the subway, in merely getting from point A to point B in my own neighborhood, then we have a long way to go in protecting everyone from fear and crime. If anything, this is a real argument for increased security on the MTA.
Blaming the victim is cruel and unwarranted and trying to blame maryann and ginger is pathetic. I'm going to be sure to tune in on june 8 for that pie fight action!
in response to the comments that maybe a cab home would be safer, recently there was a report of a female being raped by her cab driver. it's a no-win situation.
Right Rides should be offering their services to women in neighborhoods with higher crime rates, e.g., east new york, bed stuy, and east flatbush. Or could it be that black and latin lives are cheaper than white ones.
Sure, Peter, you're probably right. Since you have such a strong opinion on the value of lives, I fully expect to see your smiling face in these areas this weekend, volunteering your time. And what does your snotty little comment have to do with the story? Last I heard, the 21st st station was in LIC.
I just love how people are so quick to criticize all the hard work the RightRides girls put into the organization. If I volunteer for some sort of good deed in my neighborhood (Greenpoint), are you going to get on my case for excluding everyone else? Why hasn't anyone in Bed Stuy taken the initiative to do something similar?
Unless you plan to volunteer your own services to an organization that's having a hard time keeping afloat as it is, then don't badmouth the good deeds of others.
I'd also like to remind everyone that many of us still live paycheck to paycheck, and cabs can be incredibly expensive when traveling alone. I know that's *shocking,* considering I'm caucasian and all.
Oh, and how could I forget the obigatory, "fuck the MTA and it's crappy 4-car G line?"
right rides is a wonderful idea. but it calls to mind another car service i used a long time ago in london that might offer a more quickly sustainable alternative for women who need to get home at night. it was called lady cabs, and it was your basic car (or "minicab") service, except it was run by women and all the drivers were women. They probably also had a women-only passenger rule, but I'm not sure. In any case, why hasn't anyone started something like that here?
I'm all for the right-rides model, in that by being free it takes on the "safety surcharge" that women pay in cab fares, etc if they want to be out at night. I hope that their grants come through quickly and that they can expand rapidly. But I'm just surprised that in a city like NY no one has thought of this as a way to make money.
For what it's worth, RightRides has been working hard to expand to other areas like Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Red Hook, Prospect Heights, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace plus LIC and lower Manhattan. We haven't had enough volunteers owning cars to make this possible - we had to keep our service area small because who wants to be told it'll be 45 minutes for their car? We are soliciting for a fleet of cars so non-car owning volunteers (with licenses) can operate and expand the service in the Spring 2006. We're doing what we can, with what we have and we'd love YOUR help to make it possible to see more women home safely.