With two new hashtags, #TellItToTheJudge and #ArmAllWomen, social media manager and writer Amaria Benn highlights another essential tool victims of abuse can use - the law. Chatting with Loop, Benn says more must be done, after seeing the slew of stories submitted by those suffering from harassment and abuse, following the sharing of her own #LifeinLeggings story.
Benn shared the Section of the Minor Offences Act titled "Disorderly behavior" and urged that the law in itself protects women from harassment, which includes intimidating behavior, used to disturb and irritate you women. Along with the Act, she posted on Facebook: "If more women knew the law more women would find themselves better equipped to know what to tell officers when they felt threatened.
She told Loop Barbados that ignorance of the law is no excuse. When asked the reason she thinks so, from the context of harassment, Benn responded emphatically saying, "I think it's a ridiculous sentiment in some incidences but I understand how ignorance of the law applies in Court, because if it takes lawyers and magistrates years to learn laws and still... not every officer in the police force is familiar with every law either."
Benn also mentioned that she had three friends who report harassment to varying police stations, and the police officers appeared extremely encouraging to these women, according to YFA. Despite the good report, she had another two friends telling her that they don't trust the police to help them because often officers seem not interested in doing much to help victims of harassment.
With the regional #LifeinLeggings walk scheduled in numerous cities for Mar. 11, Benn said that she was hoping that people suffering harassment would know they're not completely helpless. Meanwhile, her Facebook post received 16 shares in less than an hour and over 55 shares in 24 hours, along with over 50 likes on Facebook.
