Published on 12, July, 2020
Unless it’s because I’m male or something. I certainly seem to have been discriminated against.
In 2019, people made false accusations about me and got me kicked out of a netball club in Stirling.
I tried to find another netball club, but the netball clubs I contacted were all reluctant to tell me anything about themselves, and when I asked further questions about them they just stopped replying or whatever. I also contacted the netball club in Stirling about rejoining, because their constitution says I can ask to rejoin at the next general meeting. They ignored me.
I contacted Netball Scotland, and asked them to investigate why I was being treated the way I was by these 4 netball clubs, and was told they’d investigate it.
I turned up at 1 of the netball clubs (they’d told me they weren’t playing because of the Covid 19 pandemic, and they’d tell me when they started playing again, but never did tell me), and played netball with them anyway. I literally only played there 6 times before they found an excuse to get me suspended by Netball Scotland!
In September 2022, I had the police at my flat, saying that I’d contacted someone at netball saying I need some new friends, and asking me not to contact her again. Then the next day, I got an e-mail saying I’d been suspended from Netball Scotland. They didn’t even say anything about why!
Eventually I found out that the reason I was suspended was, among other things, that I’d allegedly “communicated with a club member, Christina [surname removed by mod], that was uninvited and persistent which placed her in a state of fear and alarm”. I’d sent her 1 message on facebook, she’d replied, and then I replied to her message; and I’d only asked perfectly normal things like “How long have you been playing netball?” and “Where do you live?”
1 of the other reasons for the suspension was that I’d chased Natalie up about her investigation about netball clubs not wanting me to join. I’d supposedly failed to show her respect.
This post’s getting a bit long, so to cut a long story short, I had a hearing in March 2023 about it. And all the complaints against me were upheld, and I’ve been suspended by Netball Scotland for 5 years!
They haven’t answered any of my questions such as “What’s wrong with being friendly?” or “What’s wrong with doing to others what I would have them do to me?” or “What’s wrong with asking Natalie to do her job?”.
What happened at Stirling was brought up to demonstrate a “pattern of behaviour”, but nobody even told me what this pattern of behaviour was. The accusations there were completely different.
I’d put a complaint in about Natalie not having done anything about her investigation. Is this the real reason I’ve been suspended?
Oh 2 other questions that have never been answered are “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I was a woman?” and “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I didn’t have Asperger’s syndrome?”
So I seem to have been discriminated against.
if you was a woman the other person would be suspended instead.the woman probably made false accusations against you and made everyone take her side and believe her #believeallwomen lol
Not at all. When I contacted a lawyer to file a complaint about a man who forced himself physically on me (lucky didn't go far). The lawyer said (if you go to the police with this, they will laugh at it and send you away, you need evidence that it happened). But how the hell do you get evidence for something like this?!. My friend in Germany had similar situation where the police actually made a joke about the situation and sent her back home, the harraser was her flatmate!!. #believeallwomen my a**. It's so untrue that we are believed. Lot of a**holes are still getting away with it.
Honestly in terms of evidence the only way is forensics; to go to the police almost immediately after it happens and get bruises photographed to get swabs taken bodily fluids catalogued and tested this is the only way. Unless an attacker was stupid enough to film the incident or by some freak coincidence It was CCTV or a witness it’s almost impossible to get a conviction for this sort of offence without forensic evidence.
I'd be happier with a note about the crime than with insensitive joke, because when those notes accumulate, the situation becomes clearer. If many people who don't know each other make the same accusation towards someone then the chances are that they are telling some truth. Even this small reaction in a police station translates to me as "I'm believed". There's another way is to make the harraser write a paper that they shouldn't approach or be close to the victim. Another measurement could be checking the history of this person or moving the victim to a community center where it could be safe, or escorting or keeping an eye on the victim to "scare" the harraser away for a while. Those measurements are small and don't protect everyone, harrasers can easily avoid them. Some serious work should be considered to make our justice system more fair to everyone and effective, but for now, I'm happy with those small measurements instead of turning into an amusement for the police officer.
Oh I agree. Tbh I'd always encourage someone to go to the police in that situation. They needed to take accusations seriously even if the chance of conviction is low. But sadly if some one goes to report a crime days or weeks after the event often there is little they can do but make a note of the crime. Generally they'll wheel in who ever you accused for an interview and unless they spontaneously blurt out a confession that's often the end of it.
It's just part of the crime statistics. But that's not totally pointless those statistics get used to decide where money gets spent.