Street Harassment Met With Justice
Two men intervened when a stranger began assaulting women on a downtown Seattle street corner.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The true story of the mysterious assault on Third Street Sunday night, in which D. M. Robinson was knocked senseless, is known to the police. James Harrison and Richard Young were walking up Second Street when they noticed a drunken man, Robinson, acting in an uncalled-for manner toward women walking near University Street. The man then followed several women toward the Plymouth Congregational Church, occasionally running into other pedestrians. In front of the church, the man threw his arms around a woman's neck. She jumped back, indignantly demanding he get away. When he tried again, Richard Young reached the spot and struck the man a right-hand blow on the jaw. Robinson fell like a log. When the two men learned in the morning that Robinson had remained unconscious for a long time, they went to the police station to make a plain statement, and the police cleared them of any wrongdoing.
“Without a word of warning he threw his arms around her neck and she jumped back, indignantly exclaiming: 'What do you mean, sir; get away from me.'”
Bystander intervention remains a critical, albeit complicated, component of public safety in dense urban environments. This 1893 account reflects an early version of a 'good Samaritan' defense in a city still defining its public decorum.
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