Woman live-tweets aftermath of being groped on plane

Ariana Lenarsky was groped on a plane, and she took matters into her own hands.

If you've just been groped on a plane, but it's too late for the captain to kick the offending passenger off the flight, what would you do?

Ariana Lenarsky was boarding a flight in Texas when a man "grabbed and stroked" her calf as she walked past. She complained to the flight attendants, who nodded and said they'd already had complaints from other passengers.

I just told the flight attendants, and they both nodded. They already knew who it was, because other women already complained. Lol.

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016

Anyway. We don't land for an hour and a half. Anything else I need to do here? Tag the airline? Tweet the photo?

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016

It's like a real-time Choose Your Own Adventure for how to deal with harassment.

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016

They had informed the captain, and filed a report with the airline. Police escorted him off the plane when it landed, and Lenarsky says the grope was legally classed as "battery".

Police took him off the plane. I'm still here & they're taking my & another woman's report. The legal term for how he grabbed me is battery.

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016

However, according to her Twitter feed, it's extremely difficult to press charges.

"He tried to kiss the other woman. She doesn't want to press charges because since it happened in the sky, the FBI would have to get involved," she tweeted.

"If I want to press charges, I'd have to fly back to Austin on my dime, since it's in Austin Police Department's jurisdiction. I don't want to do that."

One small correction for any media running this story before talking to me: it wasn't local cops that said this to me. It was the FBI. 🙃

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 24, 2016

Frustrated with the response, she took matters into her own hands. The musician, writer, and comedian from Los Angeles tweeted his picture with the caption: "You can't grab women on a plane, guy. You can't do it. Hope you get the help you need."

You can't grab women on a plane, guy. You can't do it. Hope you get the help you need. pic.twitter.com/5A5nGqdx87

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016

That was exhausting, ridiculous, and embarrassing. Thank you for the support. I will probably formulate more thoughts about it this week.

— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) October 23, 2016