Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

As an outcome of the previous discussion on women's safety, I have set up this post as a place to report any incidents you experience; this means that we will have a concrete record of where incidents occur, who it is and what kinds of harassment are happening.

Please use this thread only for posting reports so that we have a manageable record that can be presented to the local police, which many of us agreed would be helpful (for them and for us).

Also, if you can remember any recent incidents that you think are relevant, please post these too, even though they have already occurred.

When posting, it will be useful to record, where possible:
  • Where the incident occurred (which street, outside a particular shop or bar?)
  • What the culprit looked like (age, race, clothes, accent, distinguishing features? Were they alone or was it a group?)
  • What exactly they did or said (words used etc.)
I hope this thread goes some way to feeling that we are taking the first steps towards making our experiences more widely known; if the police can see exactly what is happening, they can begin to look at this problem more closely. As someone pointed out in the women's safety post, there is also no reason to hesitate in reporting an unpleasant experience to the SNT or your local PCSO, who will also make a record of your complaint.

Tags for Forum Posts: personal safety, sexual harassment, women

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Replies to This Discussion

It's not completely inappropriate in a bar so its less offensive there.

When you're out buying veggies, you dont expect to get propositioned/ harrassed or have to put up with comments about your looks/figure etc (i am keeping my words clean here!).
Interesting, thanks John. - I assume this is not a notifiable offence and so doesn't show up in the police data/crime maps?

According to wikipeda, it is punishable by a fine of up to £1000. However section 4A which is intentional harassment, alarm or distress has a prison sentence of up to six months.

Maybe next time I get harassed, I shall remind the perv of the existence of the 1986 Public Order Act and see if that encourages him to leave me alone.
It's definitely a notifiable offence (see the link in my earlier post) - Home Office code 125/12.

There is also the prospect of ASBOs for persistent neanderthals (the qualifying criteria being very similar to that offence). While I'm not a great fan of ASBOs as a concept, this is precisely the type of thing they were designed to deal with, so if the Police aren't willing to use them here, there's very little point to having them at all I guess.
This is where PCSOs can really help. If they are on patrol you can tell them what has just happened and they can locate the perpetrator and then call for a PC. ASBOs are the only real ultimate criminal sanction - the real benefit is they "tie" the subject into conforming behaviours - but even then you will never get an ASBO without EVIDENCE and to get evidence the police need victims to TELL THEM when an offence has been committed.

"there is also no reason to hesitate in reporting an unpleasant experience to the SNT "

I would suggest it is the FIRST thing you should do. Reporting it here is no substitute. Every report that is made on a person can help to prevent another person being victimised by the offender. And I agree ASBOS are the best answer in terms of what the police and courts can do.
About a month ago I was walking back from a night at the Salisbury with two friends (we're all female), when we were accosted by a person we now know as the 'Green Lanes Charmer'. He was at the bus stop just up from the Tescos Express - white man, wearing a beanie, bit of straggly facial hair, and a bit off his head. He asked if any of us had a light and we told him we didn't and tried to walk on. He immediately followed us - or rather hovered in front of us and around us, spewing sexual obscenities at us. We got to the other side of the road, just down from Effingham Road, stopped and asked him to go away, but he wouldn't. We told him to go away, but he wouldn't. I then got my mobile phone and told him if he didn't leave us alone I was calling the police. Still he wouldn't go. We simply didn't know what to do, as there are no shops/kebab places on that bit of the road where we could seek refuge. A couple - male and female - were walking towards us, and we asked them to help us. The Charmer started talking to the man, and the woman told us to scarper - so we did. The thing that shocked us most was that three women together could not get rid of this one sex pest.
Some sort of update from the police is something that is really needed. From other threads, it seems that others share my view that the police have not given any useful information regarding the incidents. Moreover, they haven't explained why this is. Had it not been for this forum, neither I or my partner would know anything about these attacks.
Sad to say but this is an important thread.

I've stopped boasting to friends how great this area is for women at night, because it's not.

My partner has been hassled twice coming home late from work on the 29 over the past three months, but fortunately gets off at Matthison Rd. and so goes straight into the 24 hour shop where we know the guys there. Suddenly these weasels vanish.

Since the 'incidents' (what a wonderful Newspeak word for 'rapes') I collect her off the bus most nights when I'm not working myself -even though we live in Pemberton -and have had occasion to go running to a girl's aid just two weeks ago as she shouted at some guy to leave her alone.

My flatmate has -thank god -changed jobs and comes home earlier now than she used to. Prior to this she was accosted by some guy in a car who followed her up Pemberton Rd. Sadly she failed to report this and we only found out a week later by which time she couldn't even remember the colour of the car. two weeks later she was in a shop and some unkempt man whispered an obsenity in her ear.

I still love this area to bits and after twenty-odd years here could never imagine living in any other part of London -but something has gone seriously wrong in a very small space of time and -the mugging on Umfreville aside -it appears that the poison is almost exclusively sexual harrassment of females. My partner has been working lates for 4 years and until January never had a single problem (smarmy drunk lotharios excepted, who she has dealt with in her caustic European fashion!).

I'm just hoping that others here will not add more weight to this view -and that it's just been unfortunate coincidence for us that has seen the past two months filled with abhorrent and most unwelcome approaches from lowlifes around Green Lanes. If this is not the case however, then I really think it high time we get answers from the police (who I am sorry -have failed miserably in raising awareness to the rapes recently -WHY?) as to what steps they are taking.

One other question that may need answering: have the council recently sanctioned, approved or opened any halfway houses in this area for ex-offenders of any description? Every incident seems to have a different description of the offender; or are we to assume that -just by magic -an assortment of creeps have all moved into the locale at the same time?
I try lots of little philosophical games with myself to try to figure out whys? (ask yourself why not?) and this one just has me stumped so I wonder if you're onto something with this: have the council recently sanctioned, approved or opened any halfway houses in this area for ex-offenders of any description?, and a yes or no from Nilgun Canver would close down that avenue of thinking.

And so I am left with, would this happen in Crouch End/Highgate and what would happen about it if it was? We're being severely short changed by both the council and the police with regard to their service to the community. In Muswell Hill I am sure they would be marching in the streets if things got this far.

Where's that bloke from the Sun when you need him?
JohnMc. I'm reminded of another NIMBY (not in my back yard) story about Royal Naval Air Station base, Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus). When it closed a proposal was put forward for it to house male asylum seekers but this was turned down after local protest. One local when asked about converting from air force base to asylum camp said ''We don't want a camp full of single young men with all the trouble that brings''.
I don't see where I objected to one being here in my post but if there is one here, it's not being managed very well. I try hard not to be a nimby, thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow.
Well I for one have no objections whatsoever to asylum seekers being given refuge in this area. I'd be crazy if I did considering my partner came here from Eastern Europe when she was eight. if they're being given refuge here then they are very fortunate as we all know what a fantastic place this area is.

What I do NOT want is a halfway house -of any description -that is failing in its duty to respect the local community; is failing in its controls of the use of drugs and/or alcohol; has no proper management system that is fully accountable to outside scrutiny.

In any event, I'll await Mr.Canver's reply as this is possibly all just idle speculation.
It was meant to be an amusing anecdote.
One local when asked about converting from air force base to asylum camp said ''We don't want a camp full of single young men with all the trouble that brings''...... It was already full of single young men it's called 'an air force base'.
(note to self: go back to the toilet jokes)

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