A day after it was revealed that the NYPD is warning Brooklyn women to keep themselves covered up amidst a series of sex attacks in the borough, hundreds of scantily clad ladies took to the streets to change the perception that rape victims bring upon the violence by the way they dress.
Nearly 1,000 women flaunted their bodies and chanted in protest at today’s SlutWalk in Union Square, a grassroots movement to fight the notion that showing skin is an invitation to assault.
“No means no – however we dress, whereever we go!” the demonstrators shouted out as they marched.
“The cops in Park Slope have really stepped up their presence and they’re trying to be helpful,” organizer Sammy Lifson, 21, said. “But to focus on women isn’t going to help catch the perpetrator.”
The cover-it-up edict from cops, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, coincided with the SlutWalk NYC event, which marched through Lower Manhattan.
The route took demonstrators past the NYPD’s 9th Precinct, where disgraced officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata worked before they were cleared of rape charges earlier this year.
Demonstrator Amanda Holbert, 24, of Staten Island, wore a black bra and had the word “Mine” scrawled across her chest.
“These boobs, which are clearly visible, are mine and not anybody else’s,” Holbert said. “If I want to walk down the street like this, that’s not an invitation to an attack.”
Organizer Babe Parker, 25, of Harlem, said: “It’s insulting to be told the way that we dress causes us to be raped. It lets the perpetrators off the hook. People are often raped no matter what they’re wearing.”
As the SlutWalk made its way down East 8th Street, a group of construction workers stopped to watch and took pictures with their phones.
“I’m fully in support of them,” said construction worker Godfrey Shepherd, 49, of New Jersey. “Leave the women alone, don’t hurt them.”
There have been 10 attempted sex attacks and one rape since March in Park Slope, where residents began organizing a buddy system for women walking alone after dark.