When I was a child I was not particularly coordinated. I did great learning to ride a bike. Skateboarding was was fine, with the exception of a few major falls. In fact, most things that required that my feet be stationary while my body kept my balance were fine. I even excelled at them. But, if it required my feet to be moving while my body needed to keep me balanced, it was tough. Hand-eye coordination was (and still is) hard for me so sports like softball and tennis were excruciatingly difficult and humiliating for me.
But of all the things some of us are able to learn to do as children, rollerskating was by far the toughest for me. So I learned to rollerskate on our neighbor’s front lawns. I discovered that I could skate (well actually sort of clomp) across the front lawns of our neighbors and if I fell, nothing was scraped, nothing was bruised- unless I fell crossing a driveway or holding onto a fence that surrounded a yard.
I don’t remember a neighbor hollering at me or anyone having a chat with my mother to complain. Neither does my mother. And certainly, no one ever said they would burn down our house if I wasn’t kept inside and off their front lawns. Not like Mark Joe Levison in Seattle who found a 13-year-old boy with profound Autism just looking at his yard threatening.
After putting her three other children to bed the evening of July 8th, Acquinnette Engen was sitting on her front porch when Levison began yelling at her from his yard across the street and imitating her 13-year-old autistic son.
“Keep your … son in the house or the backyard like a dog. If you don’t I’ll burn the [child's bedroom] down,” Acquinnette Engen recalled Levison saying about her son.
She called the police. To their credit responding officers took his threat seriously and arrested Levinson who smelled like alcohol. According to the arrest report Levinson told the officers, “I pay $1,000 a month rent and shouldn’t have to see that idiot spinning around and staring at my yard.”
Officially charged July 11th with malicious harrassment, Washington state’s hate-crime law, Levinson remains in county jail without bail for failing to appear in court on two previous and unrelated charges.
“More so than him going to jail, I’d rather see this gentleman get help.” said Ms. Engen.
Touche.
