A sunny winter afternoon in Atlanta and I was STARVING! I’d finished the Atlanta Marathon 3 hours prior and there were like zero restaurants near my hotel. The attendant recommended JJ’s and my mind instantly went to one thing: a heapin-helpin-of-fried-chicken-macaroni-and-cheese-with-collared-greens.

Like a man possessed, I made the medium-ish hike to where I was able to ordered a styrofoam tray filled with numerous fried animals.

All was well … peaceful in fact … as I quietly stood waiting for my number to be called. That’s when some employee from a gas station completely across the street made a beeline for where I was standing and began to aim his cell cam right at me and kind of mean mug the shit out of me.

This is very typical when I carry a cellular device, which a massive network of shitty assholes like this guy track to its real-time location using gray market apps that for some reason haven’t been made illegal let alone felonious to use despite how many activists, journalists, politicians, to say nothing of Everyday Nobodies like me, have been outright slain via this information.

Annnnnyway …. this also tends to be very, very bad immediately after I’ve just flown into a new US city - once my device has been detected in a place it’s not typically found in, I tend to get the absolute worst of the worst treatment, from the absolute worst of the worst people (see Vegas Strat video, same theme).

The first thing that stood out to me was how, for simply pressing the RECORD button, he instantly decided that I have “recently been in a mental hospital.” And that, I cannot take video and need to be placed under arrest immediately.

That’s weird, I thought. A similar thing was said right before I started recording the Vegas STRAT security guys who were similarly fair and objective. Might I be on some kind of shared / purchased / leaked list of “people who have been in a mental hospital?” I do believe so!

Clearly this man is a professional mental health expert with no prejudices and I was excited that he decided to come visit me and really enhance my thus-far-perfect-day.

And lo and behold … I was in a mental hospital, for 3 whole days of my life! Seven years ago! I played the bongo drums, shot hoops, watched daytime talk shows, listened to professionals tell me how to breathe deeply, and enjoyed my roommate’s utterly laugh-out-loud stories from his crack-addict days.

So, to finally answer the question: why you taking video? The reason I was taking video was that I felt I was being tracked like a wild animal by a man who was giving me a look that said “I already hate you for no reason.”

If you read my “Last Post” (I lied, it wasn’t my last post) I discuss my being sabotaged and screamed at and coerced out of my livelihood as a weekend street fair art vendor. This ATL video is almost exactly the same as what happened out at the market. The trouble was that I didn’t film the Saturday Market incident, and it went down as Whatever-The-Chud-Said. Literally as relayed to me the following week, “everyone says you were yelling at trying to fight this dude.”

And I was all “What. The. Freaking. Fuck.” That’s literally what he was doing. Apparently chuds get the nod in downtown Portland, and all over the country.

That’s the catch-22 of my life. If I carry a recording device, I can cover my side of the story (does anyone yet notice a pattern of my yelling and berating people, or a pattern of my being yelled at and berated?) If I don’t, I constantly risk being separated from my freedom (he really called 911, what was he going to say? How gullible or mean or quota-hungry is the cop? etc etc etc), or I risk being separated from my livelihood.

There’s something wrong with the whole way that the 911 system is structured in my opinion. Even if it can’t be proven what I know to be true (that this guy hunted me down via my device), there needs to be a risk-reward decision that piece-of-shit malicious summoners must face when dialing those three numbers. I firmly believe that the officer should also be allowed to exercise discretion about the caller and make an arrest if determined that a call was motivated by malice.

That said, these things just aren’t going to keep happening at the rate they are if there is avery serious crackdown on those trafficking in all forms of geolocation data without their target’s knowledge and consent, which obviously would never be granted if it were a requirement. Who the fuck is like “YES I want Prejudiced Ass Pete from the petro station to know exactly where I’m sleeping tonight. and I’m so glad he can find this out for about $3.”

One final story before I wrap this shit up. What is “mental illness” exactly? I’m considered “mentally ill,” which is the strawman basis of most of the surveillance abuses I encounter, ostensibly tethered to long-expired stereotypes about the “unpredictable, violent madman.” I’m also considered “dangerous” due to having a criminal conviction (also 7 years old). As the book “A Brief History of Stigma” (see “REQUIRED READING” page) expertly captures, these prejudices are very, very real. But yet, when I go out and see the world for myself, I have a hard time respecting this whole “mental health” thing as the science it purports to be. Because I see seriously crazy MFs constantly when I’m traveling!

Am I referring to “Why you taking video?” guy. Yes, yes I am. But

he’s not where I’m heading with this. It was after this that Real Crazy reared its head. I’m almost back to my hotel when these two teenage kids come speeding past me on their bikes, seeming a little frazzled and nervous and looking over their shoulders.

In the distance there’s this very large man who is wielding what appears to be a large garden tool over his head, giving chase and yelling bloody murder. Or rather, yelling “you f***g n***rs!!!” to be specific.

I’m like “did you guys do something to him?”

They’re like “no, just watch.”

And sure enough, with each passing car that contains an African American person, he does the same thing, each time a car stops at the stopsign outside of his home. Now curious to learn more, I moved back a little closer and noticed this very large man’s pants were completely around his calves, not his waist.

I kind of regret not taking video but honestly, even I didn’t feel safe doing so. I’d just come off my JJ’s fiasco, I was new in Atlanta, and I admit my stereotype of the South is everyone carries a gun. So I was just like “Time for me to get the fuck outta here and hide in my room again!” That said, had I taken it, I think it would have been the perfect contrast piece to show why I’ve become so demoralized and frustrated by my status and vulnerability in all of society’s industries - the shady ass data trafficking market, government, police, mental health, etc, industries.

I feel like I can’t go anywhere without being treated like the craziest, most dangerous person who ever lived. And yet everytime I do venture out I run into shit like this, where I’m like “What about THAT guy?!” and nobody seems to give a shit.

Anyway, I’ve cotinued to carry this phone ever since that February day (it’s July as of this posting) and predictably, I continue to have 911 called on complete bullshit pretexts by aggressive maniacs like the JJ’s guy; and I continue to see Real Crazy People Who Are Actually Dangerous get a pass because, I assume, they’re the sons of US vets or some shit. And I continue to question, ever more strongly, whether it’s even really worth it for me to leave the house most days as a result, knowing I’m going to get flagrantly and absurdly overreported in my bullshit community for “ticky tack” fouls and then further penalized whenever I do finally show anything slightly resembling righteous anger. Any of you Portland people remember Clyde Drexler and Jake O’Donnell? Look it up. Clyde was a cool cat, a total all-around class act, but that even that dude couldn’t hold it in when Jake was bringing his malicious reffing to the court. That’s my life under this bullshit datafication / predictive policing / geolocating / prejudiced-as-fuck status and paradigm which pins me in place in America and, as I understand these hunting tools to be limited by jurisdiction, anywhere on Earth.

What these videos do not prove but I have many, many very good reason to suspect is that every single one of these incidents - all of them - arises for the sole reason that the other party was already tracking my real-time and historical movements. If you visit my DATA BROKERS page, you’ll read why it is of utmost importance to fully outlaw real-time location of people, devices, vehicles, and biometric features, and objects immediately, in all countries on this planet, before more lives are totally destroyed (often with total impunity for the perps) the way mine has been.