Bad Luck day
Today started out being a nice day. Sunny, not too hot or too cool. I put a load of laundry in the washer and started putting things together for a picnic lunch, the plan was to surprise the kids with a hike at Lake Chabot. It was nice on the way up. We had both cameras so I was taking pictures with my Nikon D-3100 and Ayanna was using the Nikon Coolpix. It was kinda fun giving her a few pointers and taking pictures together. We got to our usual stopping place without incident, stopped for lunch and took a few more pictures, then started back down. When we were a little more than halfway down the mountain I noticed a couple kids playing in the water. One, who I later found out was a six year old boy, was squatting down in the water and had, at least at one time, been fully immersed. Since Lake Chabot is a reservoir and the water is used for emergency drinking water, it is illegal to swim in it. I went down to the dock where the guardians of the two kids were fishing and informed them (speaking directly to the least-confrontational-looking of the two) that there was no swimming allowed. To her credit, the lady I was speaking to had her daughter get out. The other lady chose to ignore the issue. After thinking about it and continuing to be bothered by it, I walked back and took a picture of the kid to show the rangers so they could deal with the issue for me. I wasn't about to talk to the lady he was with. I got bad vibes from her. And, I found out, for good reason.
The lady I had spoken with informed the other lady of what I was doing. As soon as she noticed I was taking his picture the woman darted up the stairs, grabbed me by the camera strap (which was around my neck), and started yelling at me for taking pictures of her grandson. (Lest there be misunderstanding, the law states that it is perfectly legal to take pictures of anyONE and anything you see in a public place.) She demanded I delete the pictures and I told her I would do so after she removed him from the water. Instead she called the police. She had probably been hanging on to me for about five minutes by this time. And, meanwhile, my children are looking on in horror as she assaults me. Two minutes into her call (during which, ironically, she was confessing her guilt to the dispatcher as though she was perfectly within her rights), I yelled to my kids to go down the trail and find someone who worked there to come help me. A few minutes after they disappeared from my view, her grandson came up the stairs. Since he was out of the water, I deleted the photographs. There was no further reason for me to have them. I tried to tell her and she yelled at me to shut up and continued ranting to the Police dispatcher. I think now they were trying to keep her occupied so she couldn't do anything worse to me. More than one person walked by and told her she needed to let me go. She ignored them and kept ranting. I tried to pull her hand off my camera strap, she responded by yanking me toward her and yelling at me. I told her to let go of my camera, that she had no right to be touching it. She told me that if I wanted to be free then I could take the camera off and give it to her and she would give it back after the police came. (Yeah RIGHT! No telling what she would have done to my good camera!) I informed her that I could have her arrested for assault, it didn't phase her. Her husband came walking up the trail. The lady I had spoken to before had been standing there as all this was going on and walked over to him to let him know what was going on. I don't know what she said. I tried to appeal to him to get her off of me. My assailant told him to stay out of it. He ignored me and walked past me and down to the dock. The other lady shrugged and gave me a look that obviously said, "I'm sorry, don't know what to do" and she walked back down to the dock.
Finally my assailant hung up the phone and I managed to convince her that I needed to go find my kids. Not that she let me go, mind you. Instead, she dragged me down the trail by the neck-strap. A little more than halfway down the trail, I saw my kids coming with a park employee. Ayanna's little face was red and she was obviously terrified and crying. The gentleman they had found demanded that she let me go and, finally, she listened. When we all got to the end of the trail, where the marina shop and the boat rentals were, the police showed up. One officer took her somewhere else to get her statement while the other officer and the supervisor stayed with me. Needless to say, after giving my side of the story, they made it clear that she was in the wrong and I wasn't. They even thanked me for trying to help by taking the picture to report her crime. The Sergeant praised Ayanna and Leland for doing the right thing in getting help, despite their young ages. And they informed me that the only reason she wasn't going straight to jail was because I had said I didn't want to press charges. Of course, after I told Robert about what happened and saw his reaction, I changed my mind. She's lucky that she wasn't anywhere near when he found out because I think he would have killed her. I'm still tense and upset, though writing this post has helped a LOT. Every time I close my eyes, I feel her yanking my neck again. I don't know what I will do when the time comes to testify in court. But at least I have the satisfaction of knowing there were plenty of witnesses and she confessed, in full, to the dispatcher. Since all such calls are recorded, just in case, that means they have a full confession on record.
Time will tell if I will ever be able to go to Lake Chabot again. It's certainly not going to happen any time soon.
The lady I had spoken with informed the other lady of what I was doing. As soon as she noticed I was taking his picture the woman darted up the stairs, grabbed me by the camera strap (which was around my neck), and started yelling at me for taking pictures of her grandson. (Lest there be misunderstanding, the law states that it is perfectly legal to take pictures of anyONE and anything you see in a public place.) She demanded I delete the pictures and I told her I would do so after she removed him from the water. Instead she called the police. She had probably been hanging on to me for about five minutes by this time. And, meanwhile, my children are looking on in horror as she assaults me. Two minutes into her call (during which, ironically, she was confessing her guilt to the dispatcher as though she was perfectly within her rights), I yelled to my kids to go down the trail and find someone who worked there to come help me. A few minutes after they disappeared from my view, her grandson came up the stairs. Since he was out of the water, I deleted the photographs. There was no further reason for me to have them. I tried to tell her and she yelled at me to shut up and continued ranting to the Police dispatcher. I think now they were trying to keep her occupied so she couldn't do anything worse to me. More than one person walked by and told her she needed to let me go. She ignored them and kept ranting. I tried to pull her hand off my camera strap, she responded by yanking me toward her and yelling at me. I told her to let go of my camera, that she had no right to be touching it. She told me that if I wanted to be free then I could take the camera off and give it to her and she would give it back after the police came. (Yeah RIGHT! No telling what she would have done to my good camera!) I informed her that I could have her arrested for assault, it didn't phase her. Her husband came walking up the trail. The lady I had spoken to before had been standing there as all this was going on and walked over to him to let him know what was going on. I don't know what she said. I tried to appeal to him to get her off of me. My assailant told him to stay out of it. He ignored me and walked past me and down to the dock. The other lady shrugged and gave me a look that obviously said, "I'm sorry, don't know what to do" and she walked back down to the dock.
Finally my assailant hung up the phone and I managed to convince her that I needed to go find my kids. Not that she let me go, mind you. Instead, she dragged me down the trail by the neck-strap. A little more than halfway down the trail, I saw my kids coming with a park employee. Ayanna's little face was red and she was obviously terrified and crying. The gentleman they had found demanded that she let me go and, finally, she listened. When we all got to the end of the trail, where the marina shop and the boat rentals were, the police showed up. One officer took her somewhere else to get her statement while the other officer and the supervisor stayed with me. Needless to say, after giving my side of the story, they made it clear that she was in the wrong and I wasn't. They even thanked me for trying to help by taking the picture to report her crime. The Sergeant praised Ayanna and Leland for doing the right thing in getting help, despite their young ages. And they informed me that the only reason she wasn't going straight to jail was because I had said I didn't want to press charges. Of course, after I told Robert about what happened and saw his reaction, I changed my mind. She's lucky that she wasn't anywhere near when he found out because I think he would have killed her. I'm still tense and upset, though writing this post has helped a LOT. Every time I close my eyes, I feel her yanking my neck again. I don't know what I will do when the time comes to testify in court. But at least I have the satisfaction of knowing there were plenty of witnesses and she confessed, in full, to the dispatcher. Since all such calls are recorded, just in case, that means they have a full confession on record.
Time will tell if I will ever be able to go to Lake Chabot again. It's certainly not going to happen any time soon.