i essentially can't know if this person was really afraid of me or not. the crown agreed that there was no objective basis for fear and dropped the case, but what little i know about this person suggests to me that she has some kind of mental illness, implying that she may have been experiencing real fear without any sort of rational basis.

i mean, it's entirely possible. people are afraid of all kinds of stupid things. i don't have to accuse her of dishonesty - she might be insane.

but, regardless, what she essentially did was conclude that, because i'm disabled, i must pose a threat to her. her fear was constructed solely on the basis of discrimination. the officer should have pointed out that i don't have any kind of criminal record, and there's consequently no grounds for arrest. instead, he played into her irrational prejudices.

i'm a feminist in the sense that i believe in equality across the genders, and to me that means that you don't get to define your experiences differently. a feminist may look at this and claim her experiences are being invalidated - i think the point is that you can't be validating experiences rooted in prejudice, and her experience absolutely needs to be not just invalidated but denounced as wrong.

the irony is that i wouldn't have had a case, otherwise. i was trolling her to get a response, and i got a little more than what i wanted.

i'll call to look into the recordings on monday.

stated bluntly, i was arrested for being a fag.

and, i'm looking to capitalize from it.

just to clarify the point, in case it's not clear - but it should be. the thing is that people are dishonest, and i already know that i'm dealing with known liars.

back in september, i was arrested and charged with criminal harassment. the justice released me without meaningful conditions because she felt that the charges should not have been filed, but i was not able to get the charges dropped until november.

i have never met this person. i do not believe i know their real name(s). i have never been to this person's house, and do not know where they live - nor is there any reason to think i would want to go their house or work place. i have never seen a picture of this person, nor would i be able to identify them if i were to meet them. nor did i know the gender of the person i was communicating with, or their age.

the sole communication i've had with this person is in the form of responding to an ad for an apartment.

the charges claimed that my repeated attempts to apply for the ad constituted repeated unwanted communication. now, you can say what you want about repeatedly replying for an ad, but these communications were solely business-like in nature. as mentioned, i was communicating with what was a faceless advertisement with no information about the owner(s) of the property. i did know how many people i was communicating with or what their role in the business was. all communication was strictly related to the question of renting an apartment, or the legal consequences of discriminating against me on the basis of a disability.

to claim that this is "harassment" or "stalking" is merely to misunderstand what these terms mean. i acknowledge repeatedly applying for the ad, and quite aggressively. i reject that this constitutes stalking, in any way.

so, how did this happen?

well, i indicated to the property owner that i was going to file a discrimination suit. what she did was try to arrest me before i could get the suit filed. i will be filing the suit, and still have several months to do so, but i am waiting for a few things to work themselves out, first. as there was no evidence i posed any threat to her, the entire basis of her report was strictly discriminatory - i am suing her for filing a discriminatory false report to get me arrested, essentially.

however, i primarily blame the officer for the situation. crazy property owners exist, but they require enabling cops in order to be dangerous to the general public. i had had previous problems with the officer that arrested me, related to conflicts with smokers in the building that i lived in. the officer is a homophobe, a misogynist, a transphobe, a drug user and a smoker; he did not like me, and wanted to bring me in for daring to stand up for my rights as a non-smoker, and being openly queer in the process. the people in the building did not like me either for that reason, as it was a low income building full of drug addicts with right-wing social views, and he was essentially carrying through with their prejudices, however powerful his own may be.

i dealt with a handful of cops during this period, and only had problems with this specific one.

i am not under investigation of any crime, at this point. there was no evidence that i posed any threat to anybody, and the charges were consequently dropped.

however, i am awaiting the results of an investigation into the officer's conduct before i file for grievances under a constitutional challenge.

stalking is a serious crime. but, because it is a serious crime, police officers have a responsibility to be very careful in how they approach any potential stalking scenario. frivolous or trivial charges that are filed in order to inflate an officer's ego or carry out the whims of a wealthy landowner are unacceptable in any scenario, but are doubly unacceptable when it comes to charges such as this, as false charges of this nature both degrade the authority and integrity of law enforcement and have serious consequences for falsely accused parties.

to an extent, i walked into this. i fully understood that my behaviour was not illegal, and dared the cop to arrest me. he walked into it. and, now he's going to spend the rest of his life dealing with this - and i'm going to be seeking a large cash settlement for an arrest that shouldn't have happened, and the suffering i've incurred as a result of it.

as mentioned, i'm looking at three major lawsuits this year:

1) i will be suing the cops for breaching my constitutional rights in multiple ways and causing me all kinds of grief, including an infringement on my s. 6 rights to travel
2) i will be suing the person that filed false charges against me for discrimination in housing
3) i will be seeking information about my father's estate, in order to determine whether i have a worthwhile claim or not.