Misogyny At A Local Dog Park
Dog parks should be a place where social dogs and their owners can kick back, relax, and be with friends. While most of the people who go to my local dog park in NYC are nice, there's always one bad apple in every bunch.
This bad apple is an older guy who is a VERY vocal Trump supporter with a long history of harassment, abuse, etc. Now that Trump has won the presidential election, he feels as if it is okay to be hateful towards women, minorities, etc and his verbal assaults have gotten worse.
Previously, he stalked a young woman of color on Facebook and viciously verbally assaulted her and mocked her disabilities. He's also thrown the n-word around at a 30-something year old African-American woman because he erroneously thought she didn't pick up after her dog. This guy has also threatened many people and animals with violence--he famously threatened to shoot my friend's dog for simply wanting to play with his dog. There was also another time when he started yelling Islamaphobic slurs at a Muslim woman walking past the park with her child.
He's also stalked me on Facebook and verbally assaulted me because I dared to stand up to him after he started yelling at me for "abusing" my dog, all because I comforted her when she was spooked.
I got later to avoid him, because I am worried for both my safety and my dog's. He's dangerous, and I don't trust him one bit, especially since there's been many complaints to both the cops and local politicians AND the community board, but no one has ever kicked him out or tried to stop him.
Recently, the guy in question started verbally assaulting a PoC veteran and on November 26th, I arrived at the park in the early evening thinking he'd gone home. Unfortunately, he decided to stay later than he normally does and the minute he saw my boyfriend and I enter the park, he started screaming at me. Some choice words were "bitch" and "psycho," if I recall.
We quickly moved to the other end of the park, but he didn't stop screaming at us and even verbally assaulted us as he left with his dog. I was honestly terrified, especially because I knew if I called the police they wouldn't do anything (the last time I called 911, the cops told me to ignore him) and no one at the park wants to stand up to him.
It's really disgusting that local politicians, the cops and the rest of the people who go to this dog run let this guy run wild at the dog park. This guy is an absolute menace to anyone who isn't white, straight, able-bodied, male, and Christian, and he's gotten worse now that Trump is president-elect. I don't feel safe going there, and I know a few other people who feel the exact same way. We shouldn't have to worry that we'll be the victims of verbal assault and harassment because we're women/disabled/PoC/Jewish/Muslim, etc.












