I absolutely have to comment on this.
My BS o meter went off at the 'I remembered my cattle prod' part of the story too. If I had to guess, I'd say the guy was carrying a Taser or pepperspray to defend himself and embellished that part of the story. The rest I'm not so sure is BS though.
I've been to the part of D.C. he is referring to. I did a 2 week contract there in 2000 (OAS Building, Farragut North metro stop) and have been to the same part of town MW refers to, specifically 1st and O street (between Dunbar High School and Dunbar Corner store). A black guy yelled "I don't like white people!" to my back. A cabbie saw me, pulled over and waived frantically for me to get in. He gave me a free ride into a safe part of town because he thought my life was in danger, that's how rough that area is. Overall, I liked D.C. a lot though.
When I first joined JoeUser I made mention of a 'false charges thingie' that I was going through. When I read MW's article my jaw dropped because his story is so similar to mine. I had a minor dispute with a neighbour who happened to be black. She was being very loud in a public place and I asked her politely to keep it down. I was surrounded by 3 street urchins who were probably carrying knives, fortunately cooler heads prevailed. I was living downtown at the time adjacent to a rough neighbourhood, this was the last straw, and decided to get a non-lethal weapon to protect myself. I ended up moving to the suburbs 6 weeks later, a textbook case of 'white flight'.
3 days later I'm walking down the street and my neighbour is following me and talking into a cell phone. I didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later the squad cars show up. She told the police that *I* was stalking *her* and threatened to shoot her. I did neither. I was arrested and cuffed on the spot for making death threats. Those charges were quickly dropped, but the illegal weapons charge wasn't. At 34 years old it was the first time I'd ever seen the inside of a jail, all on the word of a pissed off black woman. I strongly believe she made the false claim because black women aren't especially fond of white men telling them what to do, so race is most definitely the issue here.
While at the courthouse waiting for my first court appearance a black woman bursts out of a courtroom, screaming "Nobody does *me* like that". Some kind of civil matter. The woman pulls out a pen and says "I'll kill her. This pen is a weapon and I'll kill her!" all within earshot of several cops. The cops ask her to settle down and walk away from the courtroom, as the person she is threatening to kill is about to come out of the courthouse. Black woman refuses to move. Cops ask again, she refuses again. Cops threaten to physically move her, she grudgingly starts moving. No death threat charges for her, though.
A recent newspaper article reports 67% of calls to the police here in Canada are made by women.
As Moderateman so eloquently points out (holy shit that sounds like Swahili) and my lawyer buddy confirms, around 6% of people in jail are there on false convictions, to speak nothing of false charges. So let's chill out on the 'people in jail deserve what they get' stuff I've been hearing lately, because we - in all western countries - are at the mercy of another person's word and tomorrow it could be you in jail on false charges.
The trial was set for Jan 3. My (free, thank God) lawyer phones the arresting officer in early December to examine evidence. In a remarkable stroke of fate, my arresting officer was a former rugby teammate in high school (I come off not so good in this story, so allow me to gloat about the fact that I kicked my arresting officer's ass on the rugby pitch thoroughly and repeatedly back in the day
). We didn't recognize each other at first when he arrested me but we both clued in on the way to the station, but neither said anything about it as it was awkward. Anyhoo, the officer tells my lawyer that after reviewing the situation they don't really want to go to trial on this. I had obtained the complainant's written statement and it was ridiculous some of the things she said, to the point it was obvious she was full of shit. On Dec. 20th I got off on a peace bond, no record. I was very lucky.
In writing this it was very tempting to slant it in a more favourable way, but I swear to God it's true and is a fair portrayal of what happened. If you've ever wondered what particular bug is up my ass, and why I go bonkers here at JoeUser on issues of false charges, death threats, free speech, morality, and political correctness, it is largely due to this experience. Anyhoo, I am happy as hell it is behind me, though it's going to take a little longer till I am really over it. Time is a good healer.
This would probably me more relevant on MW's blog, but he doesn't allow anonymous comments. Whatever you are doing for inner peace, Dharma, it is working great and it shows in your writing. I hope I'm not spoiling your good vibes by posting this here
, but I really had to get this out.
David St. Hubbins
JoeUser Forums
... we were sooooooooooooo apolitical till you came along... we disgussed gardening, knitting, cooking...etc... You came in and there was a complete turnaround... politics politics and more politics.....B O R I N G