Progo35
06-11-2007, 11:39 PM
Today, I found a small painted turtle walking across the road. Now, all summer long I've tried to catch a turtle in the swamp, and have been unsuccessful. So, I picked it up and put it in a box so that I could examine it. To make a long storty short, I brought it into the student center so that I could look online to see what kind of turtle it was. Now, apparently, one of my classmates felt that I was being unkind to the turtle and took it upon himself to take it out of the box while I was sitting there, which I didn't object to, and then to take it outside announcing that he was going to release it, which I very vocally objected to, even going as far as to grab his shirt when he headed towards the swamp. But, to no avail, he screamed at me that I was terrifying the turtle and did I know what it was like to be terrified and that it belonged to God, not me. Okay. But, I wasn't torturing the turtle or saying that I was going to kill it. I just wanted to hang on to it for a little while longer so that I could look at it and identify it. But, even if I had planned to keep it, which I wasn't planning to do, this guy did not have the right to act paternally and take the turtle that I found. I reported him to our Public Safety department but didn't file a theft report just because that seemed excessive and I agree that I needed to let the turtle go, but not RIGHT WHEN HE SAID SO. Also, it triggers my concerns over having a disability-I feel like people treat me like someone whose judgement is technically impaired and can thus be forcibly overruled. Was this going through this guy's mind? I don't know, but he was sure treating me like someone with no concept of right and wrong.
SO, that really makes me angry in that this guy felt it was okay to treat me like a two year old, with his holier-than thou attitude. Like I said, if I had been harming the turtle, than he would have had grounds to do what he did. But, I wasn't. And, it was just another hassle in my life that I didn't need to deal with. And, I don't think that this guy was sorry for how he treated me. So, I'm thinking of still filing a report...but then again, he could file a report for assault and battery because he wasn't taking something that belonged to me (by default, because I found and picked up the turtle, he wasn't anywhere nearby at the time), from my house, he was taking it from a public place. I didn't know that. I thought that you were entitled to physically resist the seizure of your property wherever that happened.
Anyway, it happens to be bothering me, so I thought I'd share.
SO, that really makes me angry in that this guy felt it was okay to treat me like a two year old, with his holier-than thou attitude. Like I said, if I had been harming the turtle, than he would have had grounds to do what he did. But, I wasn't. And, it was just another hassle in my life that I didn't need to deal with. And, I don't think that this guy was sorry for how he treated me. So, I'm thinking of still filing a report...but then again, he could file a report for assault and battery because he wasn't taking something that belonged to me (by default, because I found and picked up the turtle, he wasn't anywhere nearby at the time), from my house, he was taking it from a public place. I didn't know that. I thought that you were entitled to physically resist the seizure of your property wherever that happened.
Anyway, it happens to be bothering me, so I thought I'd share.