[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

[Durova]

 Even if you know who it is, even if you know where they are, if they
haven't crossed the line into clearly criminal conduct then getting
law enforcement to stop them may be difficult or impossible.  You can
try a restraining order in some cases, or suing them, but that's not
always useful either.

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Oh, it goes beyond that.  Even if the behavior has clearly crossed the line
into criminal conduct then getting law enforcement to stop them is difficult
to impossible.  In my lifetime I have stood in front of police officers,
restraining order in hand, and pointed to the precise lines that the perp
(who was standing ten feet away) was violating at that very moment before
the officers' eyes, and the officers refused to take the perp into custody.
That happened not once but repeatedly with different officers.  And their
chain of command supported them.  I have witnessed police refuse to take a
report for a direct death threat even when a restraining order was already
in place.  And after I did get police reports, the police misplaced physical
evidence repeatedly.  When I went to court with an armful of physical
evidence, the prosecutor himself showed up at court having left the entire
case file behind on his desk, and cut a sweetheart deal with the defense
attorney while shutting me out.  I asked to speak to the prosecutor
repeatedly, but was denied the opportunity until after the judge had already
ruled, at which point the prosecutor told me all my evidence was past
history and might as well be thrown away.

I did get that fellow behind bars, though.  And I did some things to make
sure that prosecutor's office never handled another case that sloppily again
(when it changes endorsements in the mayor's race they change their tune).

In short, I'm no noob and I'm no fool.  These last few months several people
have been telling me who Gavin de Becker is, as if I hadn't already read
"The Gift of Fear" years before I joined Wikipedia.  I don't entirely agree
with Mr. de Becker.  I see where he's coming from, but he and I have
philosophical differences.  I also think Wikipedia is different enough from
the world of his usual clients that his approach requires modification.

-Durova

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http://durova.blogspot.com/