Stalking Awareness Month

During the month of January Partners for Peace would like to bring attention and awareness to stalking. 

Stalking varies from one jurisdiction to another, but a good working definition is “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.”

Stalking is serious, often violent, and can escalate over time. 

Signs of a stalker include: 

• Follow you and show up wherever you are.
• Send unwanted gifts, letters, cards, or e-mails
• Damage your home, car, or other property. 
• Monitor your phone calls or computer use.
• Use technology, like hidden cameras or GPS’s to track where you go.
• Threaten to hurt you, your family, friends, or pets. 
• Investigate you by looking up public records, going through garbage, and contacting people in your life.
• Spreading rumors about you to the public.
• Other actions that control, track, or frighten you. 

It is important to remember that you are NEVER to blame for a stalker’s behavior.

Stalking statistics: 

• 7.5 million people are stalked every year in the United States.
• Over 85% of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know.

Stalking is a crime under the laws of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Territories, and the Federal Government. 

Partners for Peace invites you to join them at the ‘Gridshock’ Film Screening hosted by CourageLives and the Penquis Sex Trafficking Action Response Team!

Screening times and locations:

• January 13th from 5:00-7:00pm at the Bangor Public Library
• January 16th from 6:00-8:00pm at the Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft 
• January 28th from 4:30-6:30pm at the UMA-Bangor Campus in room 124 of Eastport Hall.

Click the link to view the ‘Gridshock’ sex-trafficking documentary trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5SanPltXa8

Join in the stalking awareness discussion of the popular Netflix series ‘YOU’ here: https://www.stalkingawareness.org/awareness-educators/

If you think you’re being stalked, here are some steps to take:

• Call the Partners for Peace helpline at 1.800.863.9909 for help making a safety plan.
• Tell the stalker to leave you alone—firmly and only once. Don’t negotiate or engage in conversation.
• Keep a stalking incident log and record every occurrence, including date, time, description of what happened, and the names of any witnesses.
• Make copies if you get a Protection Order, and always keep one with you.
• Save everything the stalker sends you—letters, emails, gifts.
• Get a post office box from a private company—like a local mailing center or shipping store—and use it instead of your home address. If you need to receive a package from FedEx or another company that won’t deliver to a PO Box, use the word “Apartment” instead when giving your address.
• Screen calls with an answering machine.
• Save any voicemail messages from the stalker or record them with a tape recorder and save the tape.
• Call the Unlawful Call Center at 1.800.518.5507 to report and get help documenting harassing or threatening phone calls.
• Learn where the 24-hour stores are located and go there or to a hospital emergency room—anywhere there are a lot of people—if someone is following you. Then call the police. Don’t go home.