A Hamilton TV reporter who spoke out after dealing with misogynistic heckling twice last week was once again harassed on the job on Friday, but this time — in front of a police station — things ended a little differently.
In a report that aired on CHCH, reporter Britt Dixon is shown interviewing an officer outside Hamilton Police Central Station when a voice off-camera yells, “F–k her right in the p–y.”
“Wow,” Dixon said in the clip. “Again. In front of a police officer.”
The recording later cuts to the officer leading a suspect towards the station.
“Can I ask why you would say that?” the reporter said, to which the man replied that people in the United States say it.
“Well, it’s not funny,” the officer said.
Fawaz Abu Hamad, a 23-year-old Maryland resident, was arrested and charged with causing a disturbance, Hamilton police said.
He has since been released from custody and is set to appear in court on Dec. 4.
Last week, Mohawk College president Ron McKerlie said he had personally apologized to Dixon after she heard “FHRITP” twice while speaking with students on campus.
Dixon described the incidents in a series of tweets, saying a male student yelled the phrase while she was conducting an interview. She said there was another “FHRITP” incident just before she was to go live on air.
“Twice in one day,” she said on The Scott Thompson Show on AM 900 CHML on Friday. “It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, I’m sure it won’t be the last, but I’ve just got to a point where, you know, I was sick of it.”
LISTEN: CHCH reporter Britt Dixon joins The Scott Thompson Show
The widespread phenomenon of bystanders yelling “FHRITP” at female TV reporters reportedly originated from a 2014 news-report style video that was later debunked as a hoax.
It’s not the first time police in Canada have gotten involved after one of these incidents.
Earlier this year in St. John’s, N.L., a man was charged with causing a disturbance after allegedly yelling the lewd phrase from a truck while a local reporter was conducting an interview, the Canadian Press reported.
In 2015, a man in Calgary — who also allegedly hurled the slur from a truck — was charged with “stunting,” an offence under the province’s Traffic Safety Act.
Comments