Right to walk

[darknessovercity]

Hi,

I am a man in my 20's that has recently experienced very unusual behavior from the local community where i live in.

I was walking at roughly 1030pm down a residential lane way near my house when suddenly a man in his early 50's began to question me. He wanted to know if I lived in the area and wanted to know what im doing walking up and down the laneway. I tried to explain to him that i like to walk around the city and i frequently walk up and down different laneways to explore the city. Just for clairification, the laneway im refering to is a road that connects garages, that are located at the back of peoples homes, to a main road, so that they can have access to the street. It was also raining and at one moment, i stood under a garage roof for a minute to wait for the rain to thin out.

I was not raggedly dressed and i was listening to my ipod.

He accused me of being a tagger and told me that I should leave the area. I told him that I will leave, and he continued to say that he knows what I look like and that if I come back again or if he sees any new tags area he will assume its me. He was very forceful and intimidating and i just tried to explain to him, as calmly as I could, that i was just walking through and I was not trying to tag his or anyone elses property. I pulled out my pockets and showed him that I have nothing in my jacket except for a phone and an i-pod, which was plugged into my ears.

I told him that the laneway is public property and that I could use it even if I dont live in the immediate area. He asked me if Im from the area and I said that I live 2 streets down, he didn't believe me. He later said I could be breaking into peoples garages or doing other illegal activities.

I left the lane way.

As I was walking up the street that his home is located on, he began to talk with me again and I told him again that I was doing nothing wrong and that I was sorry that my presence in the lane way threatened him. He told me that I didn't threaten him and I responded by saying "okay, great!" He then told me that there is a community watch program and that he doesn't like my kind. Those were his exact words. I told him again that I was doing nothing wrong and that i was just walking up the lane way listening to my i-pod and using my phone to send text messages. He threatened to call the police and told me "you can argue with them". At this point I continued up the street and went else where to continue my walk.

Personally, I am outraged that there are people within my community that act this way towards total strangers. I understand his concern about the safety of his property, however, I think he should have been a bit more civil about it. At one point I thought he was going to pounce on me while we were exchanging words. I genuinely felt threatened because of his use of derogatory language and body language. He was talking so loud that the next door neighbors looked through the window to see what was going on outside.

I would like to know if I have experienced any form of harassment. What if I meet this man again on a public street and he explodes in anger? Since I live in the same area I am very concerned. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I guess ultimately my question is : Is it illegal to walk up lane ways after dark? I live in Toronto, Ontario.

Thank you all for your prompt responses.

[Romanice]

From experience I know there is nothing legally wrong with what you were doing unless a bylaw is in place at the municipal level, for example in some cities you can't hang out in parks after 11pm to discourage vandalism, it gives some teeth to police officers. If he had any suspicions about what you were doing inform him that he should be calling the police, you would have nothing to fear and he may be reprimanded for his continual harassment of you. He may have experienced a theft and was out looking for the thief and you were unlucky enough to be on his radar, chances are he's blown off his steam. Pray for him he needs it.

[darknessovercity]

thank you so much for your input. He actually told me he was going to call the police as I was talking with him outside on the street. I really didn't feel comfortable and I felt pretty intimidated so I just said "sorry if my presence offended you" and off I went. Your answer was very helpful to me and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much!