I applaud this paper’s managing editor for her first page, above-the-fold editorial about her harassment experience at the city council meeting. In her article, Madi Telschow asked the questions, “Would I have been touched this way if I was a man? Would I have been touched so invasively, aggressively if I were older? Or was it precisely the feeling of power an older man felt he had over me that perpetuated the problem?” These are excellent questions.
She accurately cited the research findings: the bigger the audience, the less chance someone will intervene. Additional research adds that the chances of someone intervening decrease when they do not know either the abuser or the abused. Fear for self or fear of escalating the harassment often keeps people at bay. I term this lack of response “crowd-apathy.” Crowd apathy leaves the abused feeling gaslighted, defenseless, questioning themselves or what their appropriate response might have been.
My questions are, “Did his behavior of ‘trapping’ her, touching her and using expletives seem over-the-top to others standing nearby? How many people witnessed this abuse? Why on Earth in a government controlled setting was this action not explicitly reprimanded?”
As brave as Ms. Telschow is to write about her experience, the cowardice of our elected officials is probably the most abhorrent result of the confrontation to me.
— Hilda V. Carpenter, PhD
