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Here's a bit more about the bystander training I went to a few weeks ago, posted about at the time, since a few people asked. (I added significantly to this after pasting in the I-thought-complete version I'd drafted in a text editor over the last few days; it's rough around the edges, but I want to get it posted.
Near the beginning of the workshop, the presenter gave us a two-page handout. One page is some do’s and don’ts, based on this sheet.
The other is an illustrated guide to "What to do if you are witnessing Islamophobic harassment." The techniques are generalizable to other forms of harassment, because they don't involve talking about or responding to what a harasser is saying. (This page has been bouncing around Twitter and tumblr, the author is @itsmaeril.)
On the subject of when to call, and when not to call, the police:
The very short answer the facilitator gave is, if someone else is being targeted/has been attacked, you let them decide, but while that’s a good default starting point, it assumes that there’s something else that’s better, or less bad, than involving the police. The facilitator mentioned that on the specific block she lives on, there’s a strong “don’t call the cops” culture, because the last time someone called the police, they shot her neighbor dead. However, she thinks she might yell "I’m calling the police" if she thought hearing that might cause an attacker to leave someone alone.
(If you’re at the point of calling an ambulance/EMTs for someone who is badly enough injured to be unconscious/nonresponsive, or intoxicated or otherwise at the point of not understanding the question "do you want an ambulance," that’s a different set of problems. We didn’t address that at all, but I’d say yes, at that point call 911 and accept the risk that the EMTs will bring, or notify, the police even if they aren’t legally required to do so. This isn't something the workshop addressed at all, but I feel like I should something, since "call 911" is ambiguous.)
We spent some time on the question of how to figure out when to intervene, as a bystander. The approach is to ask "Is this a problem?" "Is it urgent?" "Is it my responsibility?" and "Can I do something to help, and if so, what?" If the answer to all of those is "yes," then intervene. What's less clear is whether to act if you could do something but it's not your responsibility. The techniques we discussed are for urgent situations; not all problems are urgent, of course, but the non-urgent ones call for other techniques.
We discussed some scenarios, including what we might have done in those scenarios, and what made something feel like our responsibility. I said that something would feel like my responsibility if I believed I would later regret not having done anything. Someone else described a time that she stepped in, and got good results, but in retrospect thinks she was taking too large a risk, and is surprised that what she did worked.
In googling for the links to those handouts, I also found information on how to run a bystander training session; a slightly different set of search terms might find people who are doing this, or would be willing to do it, in your area.
Also, I’m throwing in a link to a amusing and probably-too-good-to-be-true story about someone using music to interrupt men harassing a woman on the subway. It may not be a good model, even for those who could do the same, but seeing this anecdote got me to actually finish this post. Also, I doubt that the action described was inspiration of the moment; more likely the woman who did it had thought about "what can I do if someone is being harassed?" and came up with this.
Near the beginning of the workshop, the presenter gave us a two-page handout. One page is some do’s and don’ts, based on this sheet.
The other is an illustrated guide to "What to do if you are witnessing Islamophobic harassment." The techniques are generalizable to other forms of harassment, because they don't involve talking about or responding to what a harasser is saying. (This page has been bouncing around Twitter and tumblr, the author is @itsmaeril.)
On the subject of when to call, and when not to call, the police:
The very short answer the facilitator gave is, if someone else is being targeted/has been attacked, you let them decide, but while that’s a good default starting point, it assumes that there’s something else that’s better, or less bad, than involving the police. The facilitator mentioned that on the specific block she lives on, there’s a strong “don’t call the cops” culture, because the last time someone called the police, they shot her neighbor dead. However, she thinks she might yell "I’m calling the police" if she thought hearing that might cause an attacker to leave someone alone.
(If you’re at the point of calling an ambulance/EMTs for someone who is badly enough injured to be unconscious/nonresponsive, or intoxicated or otherwise at the point of not understanding the question "do you want an ambulance," that’s a different set of problems. We didn’t address that at all, but I’d say yes, at that point call 911 and accept the risk that the EMTs will bring, or notify, the police even if they aren’t legally required to do so. This isn't something the workshop addressed at all, but I feel like I should something, since "call 911" is ambiguous.)
We spent some time on the question of how to figure out when to intervene, as a bystander. The approach is to ask "Is this a problem?" "Is it urgent?" "Is it my responsibility?" and "Can I do something to help, and if so, what?" If the answer to all of those is "yes," then intervene. What's less clear is whether to act if you could do something but it's not your responsibility. The techniques we discussed are for urgent situations; not all problems are urgent, of course, but the non-urgent ones call for other techniques.
We discussed some scenarios, including what we might have done in those scenarios, and what made something feel like our responsibility. I said that something would feel like my responsibility if I believed I would later regret not having done anything. Someone else described a time that she stepped in, and got good results, but in retrospect thinks she was taking too large a risk, and is surprised that what she did worked.
In googling for the links to those handouts, I also found information on how to run a bystander training session; a slightly different set of search terms might find people who are doing this, or would be willing to do it, in your area.
Also, I’m throwing in a link to a amusing and probably-too-good-to-be-true story about someone using music to interrupt men harassing a woman on the subway. It may not be a good model, even for those who could do the same, but seeing this anecdote got me to actually finish this post. Also, I doubt that the action described was inspiration of the moment; more likely the woman who did it had thought about "what can I do if someone is being harassed?" and came up with this.
