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Comment by zw123456 | Hacker News Reader

It is interesting, almost everyone I know has a story where some cop abused there authority. When people start sharing their stories, it is always amazing to me how many people chime in with similar encounters. Until it happens to you, people don't realize how frightening and scaring it is. I completely feel for you. I was physically ill for weeks after my encounter. I believe that it is a problem that is far more pervasive than maybe is realized.

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I am in a somewhat similar situation. The article talks of Mitchell fearing for his life due to police unwilling to protect him. I had a nasty string of events happen to me that also left me fearing for my life and unemployed (threatened after I quit my job... I quit twice, first time they nearly doubled my salary, second they said: 'you are going to not be able to keep a job ever again.' Months later at my new job I started receiving violent threats, then people violently broke into my office--nothing was stolen.) I notified the police, I asked them if they could look into--there were video cameras, and they could see who broke in and chased after me as I hurried out the emergency exit. They didnt investigate anything, or even record the break in as a crime AFAIK. I was then told I was being be fired for the break in occurring after I was told not to report it, but said that I did anyways ("this has nothing to do with you performance here in your job duties"). both were relatively small companies.

There is a lot more that was happening at that time, and it went from concerning to blatant to surreal. I was stalked/followed home by unsavoury-looking people. Men were knocking on my door speaking inaudibly and sometimes in Spanish. My tires had oil smeared all over them one time and had been overinflated. This is not inclusive of everything that happened. I called the police repeatedly and nobody did anything. I dont know how to get these concerns raised to anyone that cares.

Eventually I left the country and have been living abroad a couple of years since then. I am not really sure what to do without a job reference as a mid career male, but I get by in my days by meeting so many nice people and going to such beautiful places and trying to forget about what happened. I dont know if I can find a real job again and I think my life will be basically over if I cant. Im thankful for everything, but to be honest, I want to work again and am not sure how to recover from this in terms of career.

I havent talked about this with anyone, but when I read this I thought I'd chime in. Enforcing law and peace with prudence is important enough that when it isn't done right, people like Mitchell and I experience our lives are transformed and we are unemploued. In the meantime, terrible people are enabled. Police in my case and in the story's may have just been too busy, or misunderstanding, or overwhelmed--I dont know what the problem is, but the outcomen is awful.

It's difficult to say this in a polite way, but I think you should get an appointment at a psychiatrist and get assessed for schizophrenia. What you describe, particularly the "blatant to surreal" bit, sounds very much like potential symptoms: I'm not saying you're making this up, but that there's a very real possibility that your brain is connecting dots that it shouldn't be.

Haha I wish I was just crazy. I agree that it sounds unlikely. I also understand the temptation you express: to live in a world where the simplest and most easy-to-live-with answer is the right one: Ian Murdock "just snapped and went crazy." Snowden "just snapped and turned against his nation." "Poor minorities resort to violence to solve problems, employed upper-middle class don't ever engage that sort of thing." We don't like to live with uncomfortable truths. Unfortunately for me, I never did anything of such significance to humanity as those two--so reasonable and inquisitive minds will be relatively unlikely to look at my situation in detail.

Anyways there's a lot more to the story. I had a pretty bad reputation due to getting made a scapegoat for some things that werent my fault. I stood my ground which blew up in my face as multiple higher-ups doubled down. So I quit and their response was to close to doubled my salary, gave me a promotion, an apology, and lots of nice perks like use of a company apartment, expenses paid, etc, and asked I please just forget it ever happened. It's a long story and I could have made my life a lot easier if I just kept my head low, blended in and shut up.

Nevertheless, you should still see a shrink. If you don't like the stigma of mental illness then see one who calls themselves a 'life coach' and say you're going for advice on improving your life.

Alright, well we have two possibilities here. In the case that you are wrong, you condemn a victim to a slanderous label while enabling aggressors. In the case that you are right, and given what limited information is available here, it could appear a prescient response, but the other side of that is perhaps it would be quick-to-judge at this point--which is coming across as off-putting.

Sometimes you may think you know the answer to what someone else is going through, just by having a quick listen to what they have to say. What I would say to that: It's better to be thankful you have never experienced something like this.

That said, it isn't bad for me at the moment. If this had never happened I would still be working with boring business logic software in a company run by salesman, buying things I didnt need and wasting my 20s.

Anywaya, to be honest, it is alleviating to imagine this as all a psychotic imagination. The moral and egotistical implications and questions for me, in that case, feel much easier to answer. Not to mention--I don't have to worry about a nasty person seeking a nasty deeds.

I understand that surreal feeling, I had that a little bit for a while after because you suddenly just realize how vulnerable you actually are. I would not in any way pass judgment on someone else's state of mind based on only a post but for it was helpful to have someone to talk to about it (besides an attorney). For me it was my Dad, but if you don't have someone like that it is not a bad idea to seek out someone.

I hear you. It's apparent how I am coming across. If something like this happens, someone must be crazy and it's easy to look at the person suffering and say, that must be it.

I don't have someone like that, nor have I ever spoken with an attorney. I would be very interested in speaking with a psychiatrist, if for any reason, just to rule out the possibility, and who knows, but at this point in my financial life, that's not really in the cards.

Note that if you live near a university there's a decent chance they have a public-facing clinic as part of their psychology school that charges on a sliding scale

Is there anything other than the use of surreal, and the general unlikeliness of this happening, that is giving this impression?

People following you, knocking on your door, speaking Spanish (which I presume you/your ex-employer don't) are both all trademark symptoms and things that a company that fired you is extremely unlikely to do (because why would they?).

Seriously, please go see a shrink. If I'm completely wrong, the cost is pretty low, but if there is something to this, it may change your life.

I will. I'll have to figure out how to do it while abroad, and with funds being tight it might be a challenge, but it should be possible.

Unfortunately, I really am 100% sure it's not the case that it's imaginative--there's too much evidence. I.E. at a company after-party I quipped about something unethical/problematic one enployee who used to bully me (before I first quit) did. He started throwing bottle caps at strangers and pointing at me... Another employee witnessed this.

Some in the company joke about their political and criminal ties. Was about 150 people company and management team of about 25 was all fired... Apparently for this.

They're all sales people with personal connections who got into a company and nearly drove it into the ground before parent company kicked out all of management, but after I got bullied I fought back against some of the worthless underlings that remained. Egos hurt. Careers at stake. Etc.

Anyways while I have no doubt in my mind the company did not explicitly engage in this (it wouldnt serve any benefit to the company); likely the above mentioned person there engaged this in his free time--it wouldnt be hard to drive across town with a bunch of money and offer a job to disenfranchised youths.

While I can personally guarantee it was real, and I will see a psychiatrist anyways, to rule this out... If it was somehow hallucinations, then it all ended when I left anyways, and it never presented associated symptoms in my life. So the problem I am more concerned about is figuring out how to approach employers at this point, establish myself somewhere in the States I wont be homeless (you need proof of income to rent somewhere), and start getting productive again.

Unfortunately, I'm really afraid this does, indeed, all sound crazy, and it only detracts from getting help to solve my problems.

Thanks. I have a few friends, all on the conservative end of the spectrum, that claim I brought it upon myself by not trying to fit in. I was the weird kid in my town, not bad, just not a cowboy like the majority of the people in the deep south. As if that was excuse enough to warrant police abuse.

i feel that anyone with authority will exercise abuse at some point. I believe this is why the US has 3 branches of government. Abuse, unfortunately, is human nature.

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