“Chase it down, grab it, push it, shout as loud as you can (scream if you want to), hit 911 on your cell, spray it with pepper spray. Fight back.”

Location: 1981, upper east side, NYC; #9 train, @ 68th street
Time: Daytime (9:30am-3:30pm)

Ladies and girls, I’m reading your experiences and cringing. I’m 56 years old and live in the DC area, but when I was a relatively naive, single 25 year-old woman I lived in NYC. I was on a packed train and felt a hand in a place it shouldn’t have been, massaging its heart out. I was mortified but sadly did nothing. This was before cell phones and other such technology. Now, at my age, a little braver and a little smarter, I would have done the following: I would have reached down, grabbed the hand, dug my nails in, and raised it as far as I could raise it. At the top of my lungs I would have shouted “this person is assaulting me. Someone call the police.” Still trusting that some humanity existed, I would have hoped that other people on that packed train would help. Bottom line: DON’T TAKE IT. Chase it down, grab it, push it, shout as loud as you can (scream if you want to), hit 911 on your cell, spray it with pepper spray. Fight back.