New York City cops, 2011, after a wave of street gropings, including an alleged rape, in Brooklyn:
Note to women in the South Park Slope and surrounding Brooklyn: You might want to think twice before wearing shorts or skirts when you walk home alone at night.
That's the message some women say police officers are spreading as they step up patrols in the area in response to at least 10 unsolved sexual attacks that have taken place since March….
"Officers are not telling women what not to wear—there's a TV series that does that," quipped Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne in an email. "They are simply pointing out that as part of the pattern involving one or more men that the assailant(s) have targeted women wearing skirts."
This is victim-blaming, not prevention. This approach is indicative of a police force that is effectively disconnected from the community and unaffected by the current outcry and mass mobilizations against rape and victim blaming.
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker, 2016, after a wave of street gropings, including an alleged rape, in the German city:
Asked by a journalist how women could protect themselves, Henriette Reker said: “There’s always the possibility of keeping a certain distance of more than an arm’s length – that is to say to make sure yourself you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship”.
Feminist response: Uh, nothing.
That's because the alleged perps in Brooklyn were apparently home-grown Americans. And we all know that America has a severe "rape culture" problem.
By contrast, the New Year's Eve sexual assaults–which reportedly occurred in several other German cities besides Cologne–were perpetrated by young men who belonged to colorful "other cultures" (Middle Eastern and North African, by all reports about their appearances) that don't understand the difference between having a good time and committing a crime. So, in the interests of multiculturalism and ethnic sensitivity, we must accommodate their cultural differences, while gently reminding them that sexually assaulting women from a different culture is actually kind of a bad thing.
However, she also said that visitors from “other cultures” should also be educated on acceptable conduct.
“We need to prevent confusion about what constitutes happy behavior and what is utterly separate from openness, especially in sexual behavior," she said.
Of course there were plenty of people angrily protesting that Reker was engaging in some victim-blaming of her own. But they weren't they weren't feminists. They were xenophopes who just don't get cultural diversity.