I went to the service this morning. I didn't do anything to anyone. The first service is over and there are people downstairs talking, and I was quietly sitting when a man walked past me and partway up the stairs behind me, and then loudly coughed.
I said "Don't do that!"
He said "What did I do? I coughed."
I said "You know exactly what you did."
He said "I don't like the way that you're talking to me and I'm going to have someone make you leave."
Of course he knows who I am and harassed me so that he could lie and get me thrown out of the church.
I was holding my camera in front of me by then while I walked up the stairs. He backed me into the corner of the stairway and almost tried to grab my phone; he stopped himself before he did something that would have been assault on me.
During this, I asked him who he was. He said "I'm a parishioner," so that's how I know who it was.
I left. Nobody had to make me leave after that.
It's a famous church. It's across from the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.
Why was he so anxious to get me thrown out that he deliberately harassed me? What was he afraid that I was going to write about that church?
I didn't get a picture or video of him. Nobody had harassed me at Trinity Church today before he did; I wasn't expecting it, and he was threatening me before I even put my camera in front of me. It all happened in fewer than a couple of minutes, including his physically looming over me and acting like he was going to grab my camera so that I backed up into the corner of the stairway.
He is not a small man. He's white, at least 5'10", somewhat overweight. He wears glasses and is probably at least in his late 50s. No child would have a chance against him.
Copyright L. Kochman, January 10, 2016 @ 11:52 a.m.
