harassment on the streets

hi all,

i am here in prague and am worried for the place,

have been here many times before and have brought up this subject before about being harrassed on the streets by people trying to get you into clubs,etc

this time however its seems to be even worse,tried to walk up one side of the square and down the other and the experience was not enjoyable.

we are 2 males in our 30s and i suppose we are the perfect target.

but it just doesnt seem safe anymore to do that.

my question is how does the authorties allow this and the police just seem to turn a blind eye.

is it that this kind of tourism is bringing in more money for the city,

if so i can see how it is going to turn away the normal tourist.

it is a pity because it has me in 2 minds will i return.

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Is this happening during the day? I know it has always gone on at night with men being targeted far more than women.

TORII

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I am sorry to hear that, there always were dozens of %26#39;leaftet%26#39; distributors for various events, but they were not bothersome. It has to do with the downturn of tourist industry, desperate measures which are actually counterproductive.

It must be very annoying but I don%26#39;t think police can do anything about that.

Was it in the area of Old Town square, and as Torii says was it in the evenings?

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certainly happen to me last year in Wenseslas Square.

we (3 guys about 50) had been dropprd off in Wenseslas Square aboiut 3.00 in the afternoon after an organised trip. we were walking down the right hadside of the square when on 2 occasions we were asked if we wanted to go to a club and were handed leaflets ,one I think was for something to do with a submarine.Certainly there was no harrasment and just a polite invite to their poremisis

I tend to avoid Wenseslas Square at night but in the past have been accosted there several time over the years to go to clubs again no real harrasment.I don%26#39;t think it is any worse than the folk trying to get you into the Tourist concerts and compared to Edinburgh during the Festival it is heaven.

What I would do and have done in the past when these folk approach is just to hold your hand up and say no thanks and keep walking.

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I think it gets a bit much in the Celetna area as well with people giving out flyers for the Tourist concerts ,but as Gus says just put your hand up and say no ,I think the touts on Wenscelas square at night are offering more than flyers but as I said as a group of women we have never been approached but my daughter and her husband have........A great place to watch all that is going on is the Pizza Coliseum at the bottom of the square ,get a table by the window it is fascinating!

TORII

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I have noticed this for a few years now - in my experience males or groups of males on their own regularly get propositioned by females of dubious reputation with offers of sexual favours or males with offers of strip clubs, etc, even on Old Town Square. I once had the slightly bizarre situation where I was walking with a friend through Old Town Square with our wives a few feet behind. Whilst we were propositioned on a couple of occasions quite openly, our wives were treated to some disgraceful language by a British %26#39;stag%26#39; party who seemed to believe that any females were fair game. Not pleasant. I think this is largely confined to the Wenceslas Square area nowadays - it is, IMO, definitely worse for males. I don%26#39;t think it is *dangerous* as such (unless you actually take them up on their offers, in which case I imagine your wallet wouldn%26#39;t thank you), it just isn%26#39;t very nice, and is a definite minus. I don%26#39;t think the lady contributors here can quite understand just what it is like :) Leafleting is ok - that is relatively harmless (except for the environment) , but it is the aggressive nature of some of the guys on the doors (mostly Ukrainian as far as I could tell) that is the distasteful bit.

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hi all,

it was at night and mostly up wenseslas square,

it is far worse than you thought.

it is gone past just handing out leaflets,it is full on in your face,

you keep ignoring them and they keep following you we had 2 guys follow us from corner of street from the europa hotel down near the end constantly pushing sex and anything else we wanted.

they are hanging out in groups of up to ten or more and it was particulary bad approaching the branch of for the 2 big stirp clubs near the muzuem end.

the other question is a tricky one and dont want to offend anyone but here goes.

they are all coloured guys and big question is what are they doing here

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do you mean gypsies?

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And remember the police station is right there on Jungmannovo nam so they could not be nearer......

TORII

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I think the answer will be no not gypsies, if they are the same ones as I have seen.

TORII

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Two things.

Those of you that came to Prague 4-5 years ago were probably given flyers every 5 yards, it was a real pain, this has been outlawed EXCEPT by churches and they must remain within 10 meters of their front door to promote their concerts. Several places (Rocky%26#39;s was the first) had their staff wear high visibility vests/coats promoting their place and this practice still remains.

Regarding the OP, indeed this is not really getting worse per se but there are less %26quot;lads%26quot; walking around thus they are more frequently targeted and the touts are more persistent.

There are many places that cater to the %26quot;lads%26quot; off Wencelas Square and they are having a very very hard time as I would suggest their numbers have decreased by 70% from 3-4 years ago. The touts get paid to get you to the door of the establishment on a commission basis so they can be quite assertive.

They do not bother women.

They do not bother couples.

They are not dangerous (unless you actually believe what they say and go to their club and get ripped off ;-0)

The authorities have nothing to say in the matter, they are not breaking any law.

Many of these places are closing due to lack of trade and Prague will be better for it.