Location: Whole Foods P St. NW (Logan Circle)
Time: Evening Rush Hour (3:30pm-7:30pm)

After yesterdays One Billion Rising rally, I was walking around with a large sign I had gotten there and wanted to bring home. I went to Whole Foods to grab some dinner before meeting up with some friends for an Un-Valentine’s hang out. As I was leaving the store, a guy in an orange vest (so he was an employee/ working traffic control) starts yelling at me. I didn’t understand what he was saying for a few seconds, because he had a thick accent. But basically he starts yelling about how he saw me, with my big stupid sign, getting out of a car that was parked illegally. He kept saying over and over that he saw me and I can’t park there, etc. I apologized for the confusion but said that I don’t even own a car and started to walk away, and he followed me halfway up the block and continued to yell at me… I know he was just doing his job, but I felt that like went too far and that he was attacking me just because I was holding an (End Violence Against Women) sign or something. It really shook me and I wish my voice hadn’t gotten quiet and gone right into “apology mode” for something I didn’t do at all. Ugh.

Originally posted 2/15/13 by “CRK”

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