While I’m at it: I’m loving The Character of Rain by Amélie Nothomb.

Knowing what will happen in the future, we are faced with a simple choice: either we resolve not to become attached to people and things, or we decide to love them even more fiercely.

It’s spare but eloquent, insightful and funny. I’ve taken out two more of her books in excitement.

Also, Banshee Beat has recently surpassed Burquitlam Plaza’s All Around for most-played since I started tracking.

Jo Redsky (her statement) gave the thumbs-up, so here’s the final video from March 15’s International Day Against Police Brutality:

To convey just how absurd I consider this harassment I’m getting from the police to be, I must relate this story from the Spence Neighbourhood Association’s Safety Committee meeting. I wasn’t there, but two who were filled me in.

The police representative’s “This is a war” mentality (actual quote) and “We’re taking back Portage” attitude (that, too) is disturbing and bizarre, but that’s for someone else to analyse.

People in the neighbourhood are concerned because a violent pedophile has been making trouble. He tried to run someone over, poured poison in the community garden, etc. etc. Calls to the police have been fruitless. At this meeting, the police representative said something like “Everyone thinks their cases are the most important. We’re swamped with calls, we can’t possibly handle them all.”

I can definitely see how the police could be that busy. There’s a lot going on. Of course I disagree with their ways of handling nearly every situation, but I don’t deny they shoulder a lot of responsibility.

But why is it that it’s worth their time to comb through the employee code of conduct for what they perceive as violations? Are they policing my job? Isn’t it up to my employer to enforce these rules? Yes, obviously.

The violations I’ve been made aware of:

1. “Employees shall restrict personal use of the Internet.” Since I was typing Cam Balwin’s attempt to excuse 1849 on my work computer and subsequently posted it, they apparently believe it an unrestricted use.
2. “[employees must] Not engage in any activity that could damage [my employer’s] reputation,” I have publically identified myself as an employee, so riding around naked (violating the law) could cast aspersions on my employer?

To avoid damaging my employer’s reputation, I will no longer identify where I work. I’ll edit old posts to remove any references. Will they stop damaging their employer’s reputation in the line of duty by being bullheaded, abusing citizens, and even killing them? Doubtful.

Regarding restricted Internet use, clearly they don’t have any idea of how a developer’s day goes. There’s a lot of waiting; Windows takes forever to delete large directories, which I’m doing as I generate map tiles. Whatever, I can easily avoid posting while at work.

But don’t they have better things to do than read my LiveJournal and show up at my work to intimidate me through my boss, all on the taxpayer dime? Normally this form of question irritates me, but in this situation it seems necess’ry. When I mentioned to 1849 that the police had beaten people I know, he dismissed it with something like “Like we have time for that kind of thing.” Hah.

A police officer stopped by my work today for a chat with my boss, the latest in the naked bike ride saga. I’m not fired or anything; I’ll discuss what happened further when I’ve processed more and figured out what I should and should not cover.

To tide you over, here’s a video to help you understand why I was not pleased to see 1849 that day. This is an excerpt of a video I’m working on from the 2008 International Day Against Police Brutality. I’ve tried to contact the person 1849 is berating to no avail so my you get my amateur attempt to blur out their face. Also, since I forgot to remove the subtitle showing their name and can’t fix it here, I had to delete a small section of video.

Do you see what I mean? Ugh, hearing his intonation makes my heart race. At least, it did before I heard it over and over during editing.

Steps I undertook to get my license back after officer 1849 failed to return it to me at the Friday, June 13 World Naked Bike Ride:

1. Sunday, June 15: went to the Public Safety Building. Talked to someone at the desk, who professed ignorance as to the whereabouts and schedule of 1849. Was told that they would email him and he would contact me, since he “has [my] contact information.” Comforting! Never happened.
2. Wednesday, June 18: called the Professional Standards Unit, the police department charged with investigating officer misconduct. Was told that 1849’s division would call back. Never happened.
3. Friday, June 20: called the Professional Standards Unit. They gave me the number for the staff sergeant of 1849’s area, Division 11. Called and left a message.
4. Tuesday, June 24: approaching desperation still with no police response, contacted my city councillor Jenny Gerbasi to see if she could pull any strings. Later that afternoon I got this message:

Hello, Mr. Gerrard, it’s staff sergeant Cam Baldwin calling. I'm calling in response to the voice message you left for me, I believe it was earlier today [sure, if by earlier today, you mean four days ago], in regards to um, an officer that you identified as badge number 1849 and an incident which occurred a week ago Friday in regards to the non-return of your drivers license.

I've spoken to the officer and the officer's supervisor, and uh, the officer's indicated that the license was placed in… or tucked into your backpack. So, I'm hoping that you can locate it in the pocket or the pouch of your backpack, that is where he said he put it. And if you have any other concerns, you can give me a call at the number you originally left the message on, 6259, uh, but the priority for me is to ensure that you do have your license back, so. Um, I probably missed you for the day, but if you get this message tomorrow, feel free to give me a shout.

Well-played, 1849. I’m sceptical that this tucking occurred at all, but they can now effectively pin the blame upon me that I lost the license. Never mind that there’s not really any place to tuck such a thing and that 1849 should simply have handed it to me! The police have had a long time to perfect their techniques of fucking people over.

Still, there’s a delicious counterpoint to 1849’s threat to contact my work. It may be weak, but I bite back, bitch. I’ll be returning Baldwin’s call to follow up on the inappropriate phone number requests and the comments that have since been pointed out to me as sexual harassment.

(update in the comments)

(elided: me showing up at the Legislative Building in my underwear two weeks early, having misunderstood the date)

After that embarrassment, I forgot about the World Naked Bike Ride until reminded by a clerk’s radio at the passport office. When I arrived at the front of the Legislative Building in underwear and Fuck Cars T-shirt, I was dismayed to see only a couple of cyclists versus forty or more spectators. We hung about, feeding parasitic media and observers.

The flyer had said “as bare as you dare” and I felt sufficiently dared to ride in my underwear, but as we pulled up on Broadway to the light at Osborne, a fellow cyclist convinced me to go all the way. It was predictably liberating. Really, what is the big deal about naked bodies? I am far from brimming with body image confidence, but I went for it.

The ride proceeded well, for the most part. We had a police escort that provided the usual irritation. Many people reacted well. Others were more creepy, speeding ahead only to get out and record us with camera phones. “Do some sit-ups!” while riding down Corydon was unappreciated, but unsurprising. My nadir was hearing a mother instruct her children to cover their eyes. What is the deal about naked bodies?

We rode through OV, down Corydon, over the route 90 overpass, and onto Portage. After we were well-established there, I spotted officer 1849, one of my preëexisting nemeses (ask me or fellow Copwatchers why, or watch a video), passing us in the opposing lane, with a glare.

Maybe a minute later, we were pulled over. Despite having accompanied us three-quarters of the way with little more than a peep, they told us we were breaking the law with public nudity, blah blah bullshitcakes. Officers paired with cyclists and I got to be BFF with 1849. As anyone in Copwatch has learned, I do not handle myself well when confronted with illegitimate authority. (Is there anything but?) We predictably came to verbal sparring.

1849 repeatedly threatened me with arrest. In turn, I repeatedly called his bluff, at one point yelling “Take me, then!”; while I do find him disturbingly attractive, I didn’t mean that. I had bridge to play, so I didn’t push it. Though I knew I was not obligated to do so, I gave my phone number. But I first evaded by giving my work number, which he immediately recognised as a city number.

After checking my file in his car, he returned and attempted to shame me by threatening me with how my workplace would react once he phoned them the next day. Miscalculations:

1. It’s likely my boss wouldn’t give a fuck
2. If I got any guff, I would simply quit

I’m surely in a privileged position, but you do not get to me through work. Fuck. You. I was only more inflamed.

When he had noticed the pants I had in a backpack when I retrieved identification, he’d become fixated on getting me to put them on. (When the police had demanded that we cover our nakedness everyone but me had scrambled to get fully dressed, but I merely reapplied my underwear. I have no desire to comply farther than the bare minimum.)

After endless dithering and bullshit, a supervisor-type told us we were free to go, as long as we didn’t get nekkid again minutes after taking off. He pitched a nonsensical story about protecting us from ourselves and the motorists who would be unable to help themselves from steering into us in their distraction (“it’s a liability issue”), with no mention of the procession of hideous animated signs that line Portage.

There was a tension between the words of the supervisor, who said we could leave, and 1849, who seemed to be very much interested in me getting pants on. I tried to have the supervisor confirm that he was indeed overriding 1849, but he seemed unwilling to contradict 1849 in front of the kids. I took advantage of the authoritarian chasm and left with the rest, neglecting to remember that 1849 still had my driver’ license. Have fun with that!

Most time we were stopped, 1849 was berating me any way he could. The peak of his creativity came when he said something like “If you ever do this again, maybe you should think about enlargement.” (This was repeated in some form three times over the length of his bloviation.) I could probably dedicate another lengthy post to overanalysing this line of attack, but why? It’s obviously an inappropriate thing for a police officer to say in the line of duty. Expect a LERA complaint, 1849.