To the Editor:

I’m writing to share something with you which happened to me in Ogdensburg on Saturday July 7. The delay in reaching out to you was caused by my discomfort at what I am about to explain.

While parked in front of Peebles clothing store, 701 Canton St. I was verbally accosted, yelled at and harassed.

My 82-year old mother and I were visiting the Ogdensburg area for shopping, as we have done with family since the 1980’s.

We pulled into a parking space identified as an accessible parking “handicap” space, and we believed that this was an appropriate action given the accessible parking permit prominently displayed in the window of the vehicle we were traveling in.

A woman exited the store and as she approached her SUV, which was parked one space behind and to the left of my vehicle, she yelled out to me through my rolled down windows that I “couldn’t just park in the handicap spot.” She proceeded to yell profanities at me which I won’t repeat in this letter. She threatened she was calling the police, and that employees from the store had also already called police, all because I was parked illegally.

As a career public servant in the Canadian government, I’ve not only had training in how to deal with difficult people, I’ve also had to maintain and uphold very high standards in my professional and personal life in order to maintain an elevated security clearance which is related to my work. Thankfully this training meant that my immediate reaction was to stay calm and not do anything to escalate the situation.

All while still seated in my car, I turned to respond to the woman and calmly explained that we had parked in that particular spot to facilitate the ease of entry into Peebles for my elderly mother who has health issues. To borrow a term from the media, this made the woman “double down” with more screaming and abusive and caustic language. At this point her tirade included the statement that it was her country not mine and that I wasn’t welcome (clearly she could tell by the Ontario license plate that I was Canadian).

At the next opportunity when she was catching her breath in between her tirade, I again turned to her and calmly explained the reason for parking in that spot. I was trying to explain that parking in that spot was necessary to allow my mother to get into the store.

My attempts to explain my perspective were not well received, as the woman got into her vehicle and drove in a threatening manner toward and then around my vehicle as she left, all while screaming more messages of intolerance and hate, laced with profanities.

Having shopped in Ogdensburg literally hundreds of times since the 1980’s and in my 17 years as a P.O. Box holder in Ogdensburg, there have been times that I travelled to Ogdensburg at least once a week, and I have never ever in that time experienced anything so heinous. In fact, this is the worst instance of harassment in a public setting in my entire life.

Immediately after this incident, I wanted to understand if in fact the accessible parking permit as issued in Canada was acceptable for use in New York state when displayed on the drivers side of the dash as required in Canada. Also, I wanted to share my anguish and dismay, so I drove straight to the Ogdensburg Police Department. There I spoke to a man at the front desk who first confirmed that the accessible parking permit that I demonstrated was acceptable for use in New York , and then summed up my experience as something which couldn’t be pursued because no crime was committed and being rude and inappropriate wasn’t a crime.

From my limited internet searches, I have found the following: https://statelaws.findlaw.com/new-york-law/new-york-harassment-laws.html.

I can tell you that I absolutely felt a reasonable fear of injury and that I was being harassed and annoyed in an alarming fashion by someone who was acting in a way which caused me alarm and which seemingly served no legitimate purpose.

Will Campbell

Canada