Heckling, street harassment, hate crime?

[Butterpup]

I came out of the gym last night, whilst walking to my car a white van drove by from behind me and three guys were leaning out their van window shouting/leering at me. They turned at the side junction right in front of me and continued shouting and harrassing me.

Nothing new I know, but being the upper end of middle age this has not happened for a while. I was terrified, it was dark, no one was around, my heart started racing and I felt very threatened. I ran to my car and locked the doors before driving off.
The incident brought back a stream of memories of similar incidences and worse through the years. Why do men do this? Who are these men who do this? Pack mentality!

Aibu to think this is a hate crime? Intimidation and harassment simply because I am female.

Hope I’m not derailing your post with my story, but MN Jury, would I have been justified in calling the council to make a complaint? I didn’t at the time

You should have definitely. Especially in a council; if you had the reg number of their van still and the date it happened you could still complain now as they will have records of who took which vehicle out that day.

I must admit in situations like this, I utilise the tools I have about me. For instance I was on a train a while back and a bloke just sat and stared at me for the whole 95 minute journey. Even when I picked up my phone and clearly took a picture of him - staring at me. I posted it on twitter just in case I never got to my destination.

If it had been council blokes, I'd have walked past, around a corner or whatever, turned my camera on to film, and then walked past again making sure I had a clear image of the number plate and their jeering on film.