In response to the recent assault and attempted rape this week, there will be an organized march for solidarity this afternoon starting at 4pm at 16th St. BART. It is being organized by Rupa Marya, doctor and bandleader of Rupa and the April Fishes.
Judging from the facebook invite with over 500 participants, it’s gonna be big. Here are the details:
Last Saturday January 5th, a young woman was assaulted in an attempted rape on 23rd and San Jose streets in the Mission–the first reported attack of this nature in our neighborhood in 2013. She narrowly escaped by fighting off her attacker.
We are joining together in an act of SOLIDARITY, women and men in the Mission district of SF, to alert the neighborhood of what has happened and to promote increased VIGILANCE by ALL for ALL so that these crimes do not continue on our streets.
Last year, several women were brutally raped on the streets of the Mission, some with broken necks. We must ensure that our sisters, our mothers, our daughters are safe on these streets.
Please bring any signs stating a clear message of NO MORE SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON OUR STREETS and MISSION SOLIDARITY TO KEEP STREETS SAFE. Please bring a drum or a pot and a wooden spoon to drum. Please bring puppets if you have them.
We will have bilingual flyers to distribute in the neighborhood, to post in every store front, to hand out to every household stating that WE ARE WATCHING–ESTAMOS ATENTOS so that no more people are assaulted and raped in our streets.
Meet up Friday January 11th–PROPOSED SCHEDULE
4pm Meet up Mission and 16th BART Station
430pm walk down 16th to Valencia, down Valencia across to 24th and Mission Bart
515pm Meet up MIssion and 24th BART Station
530pm walk up Mission back to 16th and Valencia
Read on for a copy of the bi-lingual flyer and manifesto that will be distributed.
l’m not near the neighbourhood today else l’d come out.
This is great. And I’m all for it. Everyone needs to help keep everyone safe. And men need to stop raping people. Cause that shit is whack.
But the way it reads, only the crimes that involved white women seem to matter.
I’ll leave aside the obvious snarky remarks about unemployed hipsters, but I wish these otherwise well-intentioned event organizers (this particular event isn’t the only one) would remember that plenty of us who support their cause WORK FOR A LIVING. There’s really no reason this should be held on a weekday during business hours. Would it change their message at *all* if they held the same exact event starting at 6 or 7pm?
Yep, 4pm is stupid dumb.
You are correct. Plus, I think it would send a stronger message after sundown. Not saying bad shut doesn’t happen during the day, but we all know way more happens at night.
I agree…..why don’t they march in solidarity at 2:30am when and where the incident took place. Or perhaps most protesters already are aware of the fact that walking in the mission at that time is DANGEROUS and STUPID!
People work and 4pm is absurd……
@GG The organizer of this rally is a medical doctor, not an unemployed hipster. Many of the other organizers hold positions such as teachers, counselors, nurses, business owners, producers, and other people that work for a living. A medical doctor found time to organize an event in three days and attend the rally at 4pm … most people are not as busy as a doctor / activist. The rally was held until 6pm so that people that work during the day could attend; and many people joined after they got off of work. There are also people that work in the evening that were able to attend before going to work.
The point of this rally was to create community solidarity and awareness. Employed, unemployed, homeless, rich, poor, hipster, native, undocumented, hippie, yuppie, brown, black, white, young, old, any walk of life – we are all neighbors and all form one community. We may not understand fully one another’s struggles or positions or viewpoints but we all want the same things: safety, accountability, an end to violence, and the right to walk on our streets any time of day or night without harassment or assault. (@duh even at 2:30am) This is San Francisco, the city of acceptance and innovation; if it can be done anywhere, it can be done here.
The rally was good to bring attention to this cause even though not everyone could attend. The important thing is that you support the community since it’s the continued vigilance and actions of our neighbors that will create change.
Holy crap, you are one stupid fool. Are you aware of the fact that there are people — working class people — who would be fired from their jobs if they cut work before official quitting time? These people are not doctors, or “teachers, counselors, nurses, business owners, producers ((…wha?))”; they are regular working-class stiffs. These are precisely the people who are most endangered by sexual predators in The Mission. The people in the professions you mention don’t walk the streets after dark — they can afford cars. If you want to get the community involved, you hold the event when the community can attend; anything else is a liberal jerk-off.
The working class were in attendance and helped plan the rally, as well as people from a variety of professions and backgrounds. All of these people are a part of the community. We are all neighbors.
No one is expected to skip work in order to support a cause; the point, as said, is to create solidarity. Creating division is the seed of hatred which turns into violence. Not everyone works the typical day shift either. Plenty of folks were able to go who walk the streets after dark, including those people who typically work night shifts and are “endangered by predators in the Mission”.
The people in the professions mentioned cannot necessarily afford cars, they were mentioned because the first comments assumed they must be unemployed people. Your comment now assumes they must be elite class. The people involved in this rally and its supporters are people that walk the streets at night, that come from many different situations and classes; they are people that made the time in between their work schedules and family life to do something rather than just complain or live in fear.
The real question @Bob is will you help those who are endanger? A woman screaming for help in the street or a teenage boy who is shot and bleeding on the corner? People who are harassed on the street everyday because of their position, migrant status, color, gender, orientation, etc. In the very least, will you look out for your next door neighbors? The issue is bigger than who can attend a rally. It’s about the community, one person at a time.
That’s crazy. If you want people to be able to come, it needs to be done outside of normal working hours. That’s just common sense.
I tried, I really tried, to work up a response to this line of bullshit… but when the avalanche of bullshit is so huge, it just wears you down… jeez…
The one thing I will say here, in response to your last paragraph, is that I have never heard anyone call for help, in The Mission, unless it was a call for help in regard to someone’s drug stash. That’s what I get at night. Seriously.
@solidarity, duh.