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"Safe Slope" Will Walk You Home This Weekend, Ladies and Gays
Safe Slope is up and running this weekend, offering accompaniment home for women, gay men and trans people. It'll probably be a lot more effective against violence in the neighborhood than police officers telling women not to wear shorts, skirts or dresses. (FOR REAL.) Or also maybe not silently following women at night? To get an escort home after 7 p.m., call 347-709-8852. (That's 347-SØY-TULB. Or 347-PØW-VULA. Hmm. Not so helpful. Maybe just program it into your phone now?)
YAY!
This is an excellent companion to my Unsafe Perv program. (cracks knuckles)
"Let's just follow the ladies to keep them safe."
"Should we say anything?"
"NO! THE RAPISTS MIGHT HEAR US. It's not like cops rape women or anything, they'll know we're there to protect them!"
Will there be skipping?
In the alternative, Safe Slope will walk you from Toby's to Beer Table.
Paul Browne needs to lose his NYPD job, fast.
I'm so confused. Gays feel unsafe walking around Park Slope at night?
@Mr. B Mm, parts of it/sometimes, sure! I was living in the Slope this summer and there were a few nights when I decided to move quickly!
@Choire Sicha Hmm, well, since I'm probably way scrawnier than you, could I just call and pretend to be gay? Do they quiz you or something?
@Mr. B OH WE'LL KNOW.
@Mr. B Maybe you can arrange a pickup from Excelsior.
@Mr. B If I remember correctly, back in the 80's, as gentrification metastatized through the Slop, there were a lot of incidents against "weirdos" and you didn't have to be gay to get bashed. I recall a case that hit the news where a straight couple – both with short hair, dressed in leather jackets, got jumped because they were walking down the street holding hands and kissing. When the teenagers who beat them up realized that one was a woman, the kids stopped and apologized "oh, hey, sorry, we didn't know, it's ok..".
I once got followed down 6th Avenue to the subway on a summer Saturday night by a group of about 5 or 6 boys about 13-14 years old, who were laughing and saying "Let's beat the shit out of this butch. One kid stuck his face in mine and said, "Nah, she's no butch, she's a femme, she's wearing makeup." "But we can still beat the shit out of her, right?" said another. Luckily I turned a corner and there was a newsstand open with a crowd buying the Sunday Times and the kids split. Now those were the good old days!
@Choire Sicha :(
@SarahHeartburn Now I know — thanks! Those 13-14-year-old boys are the worst. Also, nice use of "metastasized."
@SarahHeartburn: But old New York was so much more REAL, man.
@deepomega It was real. As in, I was really scared shitless lots of times. I remember going home from my boyfriend's place to my parents' house during the height of the Son of Sam hysteria, and I was trembling so much I literally tripped over my own feet and fell on my face. I don't know how I didn't crack my skull. The kicker is that I fell in front of the 17th Precinct on 51st Street and not one cop was watching the door or bothered to wonder why a woman was sitting dazed on the pavement for a minute. There is a short story in this, but someone else can write it. Kthxby.
@deepomega Yeah man! Fuck Giuliani!
I hope they screen the escorts.
@dado There was something similar on "Criminal Minds" years ago (http://www.tv.com/shows/criminal-minds/doubt-1131406/).
It's kind of hilarious how the pink shaded area happens to correspond with where on the map this type of service would be least necessary.
@El Knid Not really. But you can start your own volunteer effort in another neighborhood! I bet the folks at Safe Slope would help you out with their experience on how to make it happen easiest.
@Choire Sicha Exactly. I live right in the middle of that shaded area, and the last assault took place within two blocks of me on a street where I regularly walk my dogs at night.
Since the police is moving out of law enforcement responsibility into advice business, I expect them to also give advice to Wall Street bankers to not be ruining the economy during the daytime hours.
Yeah, so that space below the expressway is Greenwood Heights, NOT Park Slope. Don't swallow the real estate industry's lies!
/snort
How much is car fare from one corner of that shaded area to another, $10-12? People would really sooner impose upon strangers to walk them home for free rather pay a small sum to a hard-working cabbie?
I've been thinking about this a while and I'm genuinely nonplussed. I used to live in that neighborhood and I know there aren't any yellow cabs around, but it's just as easy to call a car service as it is to call SafeSlope, no?
@Captain Bringdown Sometimes people are – what's the word I'm looking for here? – broke.
@Captain Bringdown A cab in Park Slope. Ha, ha. Good one.
@Captain Bringdown Car service drivers in Park Slope seem to be of the babbling-angry-psychopath variety. I'd rather have my wife take her chances with a grab-a-boob-and-run type.
This is the sort of thing I'd volunteer for. Except that:
1) I'm frequently intoxicated after 6 PM.
2) And Iike greasing bullies. I'd love to kill a rapist.
This does not bode well for my interview.
Anyone else just a little curious what a crowd of Park Slope vigilantes would look like?
(I used to happily walk home from Rapey Place to Carroll Gardens at night, especially from the Bell House. No more. Be safe, peeple.)