Sexual harassment by staff at the Pine Street Inn

August 6, 2014

This is a description of what one of the overnight workers at the Pine Street Inn is wearing:

-a grey shirt with a huge, pink V in the front

-the shirt also has a picture of a polo player (horse and rider) on the front

-the shirt also has a large #3 on the sleeve

-the worker is wearing a baseball hat that says "LV"

This woman went far out of her way to find, buy and wear things that she knew I would think were offensive, that promote the violations of my rights and the rights of every woman who is a guest of this shelter, and children also, that she knew would encourage other guests to harass me because the message her clothing sends is that she, a staff person, not only supports the harassment but does it herself,  and she probably also wanted to provoke me into confronting her so that she could pretend that she had no idea what I was talking about, that I was crazy, that I was causing problems, and to bar me from the shelter.

Denial continues to be the way that almost all of the harassment is dealt with by staff.  When guests cough at me or do other harassment like it, I have to ignore it most of the time.  For me to try to confront the offender about it usually results in the offender pretending that she has no idea what I'm talking about, and she will escalate the situation, calling me crazy and telling me "I'm not doing anything to you; leave me alone!"  She will say that even if she just walked up behind me and coughed at me, when I wasn't doing anything that had anything to do with her. It happens all the time.  Unless the person is obviously following me around and coughing at me, so that the staff can't help seeing it, or is so belligerent to other people that the staff can identify her as a problem guest apart from her antagonism of me, I have no chance of stopping it.

If I get angry after hours of ignoring abuse, knowing that staff won't
put a stop to it and that I would risk more abuse from
staff for talking about it, I will get in trouble for getting angry.

"She's not doing anything to you.  People can't help coughing."

What that means is "She's not doing anything to you that the conglomerate hasn't
told the world that you deserve.  People can't help coughing when bullying is not only so much fun but also endorsed by the government, media, corporations, and everyone
else who's telling us that this is how to behave."

Copyright L. Kochman, August 6, 2014 @ 6:52 a.m.