February 26, 2016
MASH on the march
On Thursday 25th February MASH were invited to join the Reclaim The Night march. The annual march lights up the city of Manchester and brings people together to say ‘NO’ to sexual violence against women, street harassment, rape culture and victim blaming.
Thousands of people marched from Fallowfield to Manchester University Students’ Union.
Reports of sexual assaults in Manchester city centre have more than doubled in three years, according to figures from police crime maps.
The statistics show that there were 257 crimes reported in one month in 2015 – compared to 120 during the same month in 2012.
Organiser of the demonstration and Students’ Union women’s officer, Jess Lishak, told Key 103: ” Street harassment continues to be a huge issue for women in Manchester.
“I can’t think of many times when I’ve been out at night that I haven’t had some form of street harassment.”
Greater Manchester Chief Constable, Ian Hopkins said: ” We’ve seen a really big increase in the number of reported sexual crimes.
“We still need to do more and we see too many cases collapsing at court but we continue to work with people that support victims of sexual abuse.”