Page 135 - Demo

C o m m u n i t y F o r u mGroups Are Organizing To Prevent Rape And Its Accompanying ViolenceRape Awareness Representatives demonstrate on City Hall steps how awoman can protect herself. (Audrey M erwin Photo)BY AUDREY MERWINPolice statistics show that the incidence of rape has increased dramatically within the past seven years, and that more rapes are reported to have occurred in the month of August than in any other month. Furthermore, experts estimate that reported rapes represent merely 10-20 percent of those actually committed.Recognizing that the issue of rape goes beyond the area of law enforcement, the Office of the Mayor has proclaimed August, 1979, Rape Awareness Month. The Mayor's Task Force On Rape, together with the National Organization for Women, and now the Women's Martial Arts Center, will sponsor lectures and demonstrations in each borough throughout the month. The series will emphasize that there are effective tactics which can be used in the event of an attack and that safety precautions can and should be practiced by all women. The lectures will also acquaint women with the full range of hot lines, shelters, health and social services which are available to assist rape victims.At the opening ceremony for the month%u2019s activities, which took place at City Hall last Wednesday (August 1), Carol Bellamy, President of the City Council, read a letter written by an adolescent who had been raped on several occasions, in her own home, by a group of local youths. The girl%u2019s shame at being a victim and fear to expose her attackers was so great that she remained silent and was attacked again. Bellamy maintained not only that the attack itself was vile, but that we need to get beyond fear and shem to expose the incidence of rape so that we can deal with it.Another speaker at the ceremony, Susan Murdock, Director of the Women%u2019s Martial Arts Center, stressed that if we are aware of the possibility of attack, we can prepare ourselves by practicing precautionary measures and learning fighting techAudrey Merwin is a Park Sloperesident and a member of the Women%u2019sMartial Arts Center.niques. Murdock demonstrated how keys placed in between the knuckles and held in a fist could be used effectively as a weapon when plunged directly at an assailant%u2019s face. At the same time, the keys are readily available to open the front door. She also demonstrate how an umbrella can be used like a bayonnet, thrust in a direct line towards an assailants face, when one is attacked from the front or from behind. Although she believes that women should be taught to defend themselves, Murdock emphasized that fighting techniques should be used only if you feel prepared and confident to carry them out.The Office of Crime Prevention and the WMAC suggest several other methods of dealing with an attack. Speaking to an assailant in an even, calm tone of voice, as one human being to another, can be effective. One woman was able to dissuadeher attacker by telling him what a rotten day she had had at work. Stalling can be used to give yourself time to recover from the initial shock of the situation. Effective methods arc feigning stomach cramps, vomiting, spitting or acting hysterical. Screaming FIRE or blowing a whistle can attract attention or scare off the assailant.Although we tend to feel safe and familiar in our own environments many rapes do occur in the home. The following suggestions arc common scnsical and arc important to follow. Use your initials in the phone book, and the mailbox. When you move to a new apartment, have the lock changed; you don%u2019t know who may have a key. If you return home and feel that the place has been burglarized, do not enter. Go to a neighbor and phone the police. Require deliverymen and repairmen to show I.D.; if you are not expecting arepairman, don't let him in.If you have been raped, it is important to get immediate emotional support and medical attention, if you can, call a close friend and ask to be escorted to a hospital or crisis center. Although you may not feel that you have been injured, it is important to have a medical exam as you may have been injured internally. If a friend is not crisis centers, shelters, and hospitals which provide emergency social and medical services, and a place to stay should you not want to go home.If you wish to prosecute, call the police as soon as possible. Don%u2019t change, wash or throw out any articles relevant to the crime until the police arrive. You can report a rape anonymously to (he police or to the District Attorney's Office. Prosecution can be a painful emotional experience for the rape victim and it is sometimes difficult to obtain a conviction. The Mayor%u2019s Task Force, along with active women%u2019s groups arc working towards changing state legislation to increase the likelihood of obtaining a conviction.Representatives for Rape Awareness Month will be on hand at information tables at Brooklyn Borough Hall every Thursday in August, from 12-2 pm.The following organizations provide information and support services for women in the Brooklyn area: Mayor%u2019s Task Force on Rape, 24 hour hotline: 566-1010, information; 566-0382, Kings County Hospital. Crisis Ccntcr:630-4651; NYCPD Sex Crime Analysis Unit, Rape Hotline: 233-3000 %u2014 if you%u2019d like to speak with a woman police officer; Women's Survival Space, Hotline for Battered Women, 24 hour hotline: 439-7281; Brooklyn YWCA, Hotline for Rape Victims, M-S 7 pm-9:30 pm, F-S-S-, counselors on call 7:30 pm - 9 pm: 875-1190; Park Slope Safe Homes Project. M-F 9 ant - 5 pm: 780-3361; Brooklyn District Attorney%u2019s Office: 834-5176; Women's Martial arts Center, 16 West 30th St., NYC; 685-4553; Brooklyn Women's Martial Arts, 421 5th Avenue in Brooklyn, 788-1775, 233-5949; National Organization for Women (NOW), New York 84 5th Avc., NYC: 989-7230.Railing Against The Sweaty Hordes As Ubiquitous Joggers Imperil BrooklynBY SAUL W. NATHANSONFor several years now 1 have lived across the street from an area in Brooklyn Heights notorious as a hangout for joggers. 1 am prepared to testify as to the damage they inflict.I am also prepared to unite with others, similarly bent, in what may appear to be a decidedly unpopular crusade-thc total and eternal banning of joggers from the city of New York.This could be accomplished expeditiously by expanding the definition of dog droppings to include runners as well. Henceforth, anyone proceeding at a rate of speed greater than a brisk constitutional shall be cited, and their running shoes impounded as contraband. A second offender could be incarcerated. A third time loser could be executed.A logical next step would make the unexplained possession of Niki%u2019s, Puma%u2019s etc. a misdemeanor.Why the outrage ^t what ostensibly appears to be healthy pastime? For the same reason that any state may in the exercise of its police power to protect the commonwealth proscribe conduct because it is a nuisance and offends the peace and dignity of the citizenry.Concededly at present we arc a small minority, but the anti-joggers (AJ's) arc coming out of the closet into the sunshine, and we shall not be denied.MORE JOGGERS THAN COCKROACHESEven the runningest amongst us would have to concede that on a given sunny Saturday morning there are more joggers than cockroaches in Brooklyn Heights. Please don%u2019t misunderstand me. It is not that l m tor cockroaches. Fai fium-it, I arn as much opposed to those six leggedSaul W. Nathanson is a BrooklynHeights resident.sprinters as the next person, if not more so. But its fallacious to assert that merely because we tolerate the one, that we must therefore brook the other.Jogging is an evil and should be discouraged if not punished.Why? Because this subtle but multifaceted disease is becoming epidemic. Ifully expect the next Irwin Allen disaster movie to be entitled \Sweat\The first danger is of course economic. Have you noticed that most ot tne oetter\running shoes are of foreign manufacture? Isn't it bad enough that we send billions of dollars to some desert or jungle without having to totally wreck our balance of tradeby enriching non-American shoemakers?Secondly, parks in densely populated urban settings (like in a city) arc designed to be sylvan oasis to serve as a relief and contrast to the relentless hustle and bustle of a metropolis. Who, I ask, is more relentless than a runner determined to do one more lap.people?And remember non-joggers actually use the park, they don%u2019t view it merely as one lap.INSIDIOUS EFFECTHowever, the third reason is by far the most insidious with the most traumatic effect. Arc joggers concerned with the psychological damage they are constantly inflicting on others?Do they care? Arc they sensitive enough to be aware of what they%u2019re doing. Surely, one cannot blame the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop, but runners arc not proverbial.Obviously, what I am talking about is the guilt feelings they induce in the non-jogger. Is science capable of measuring the inadequacy one feels when one sees an older member of a weaker sex breezing along at a nice clip in the rain - backwards?One can only press one%u2019s nose against one%u2019s window and sigh as a group of runners pass bv below apparently oblivious to the near-record blizzard conditions that in the past have decimated armies.For some, the absence of regular exercise is damaging enough without having to endure the stigma of non-physical fitness. Isn%u2019t being a physical wreck enough in and of itself without the gnawing self-flagellation of seeing someone do what you \The time has come for the less timid amongst us to let our voices be heard and say \The only answer is to exercise our constitutional right of public assembly and assemble in public. I call on every right-thinking Brooklynite to take to the parks next weekend in business suits, ties,jogger you sec.After all Methuselah never jogged and he lived to be 900 years old.How can we enjoy the peace and serenity of a small patch of green when one is imposed upon not only one but literally a multitude grunting, huffing and putting inU i S U I l l O U uign nccib unu ptnii) ivzais-TS tr;pp;rArc the joggers concerned that perhaps others have an equal right to use the park free of the atmosphere of a high school track meet? Are non-joggers less thanAug. 23,1979, The PH O EN IX, Page 7