So, my racist neighbour fucked his dog on our street

Some thoughts on policing, racism and mental health.

Officer, I’d like to report a crime. No, really, a crime. As I was returning from the gym today, unbeknownst to me, a white man lurked around the corner on my street, sans underwear, or any clothing really. He was mid intercourse…with a dog. His dog, to be precise. I’m not sure whether he finished or not (let’s hope not, for the dog’s sake) but I trotted along soon after, when a small crowd had formed to deter this man – yes, he was publicly fucking this dog. Soon, the police were there.

The man’s neighbour, who lived right next to him, was a Black woman who had been calling the police to warn of the dog owner’s dodgy behaviour. As those attuned to the horrors of systemic racism will know, the Black woman's pleas fell on deaf ears (let's not forget it was a Black woman who had alerted the police to Jeffrey Dahmer's cannibal tendencies, to no avail). This Black woman had seen all sorts of weird behaviour from the neighbour including filming her, shouting racist abuse, and other atrocities to taunt her. In fact, he was abusing his dog right in front of her house, for the world to see.

Frustrated, she explained to me how the police didn't care what she had to say and didn't do much to protect her from this man in the past. She made the astute observation that the police were treating this dog-fucking white man (which he did in public) with more care and gentleness than they do with innocent Black people. I saw this (and, sadly, his balls too) myself. The police officers spoke to him softly, letting him sit (even though his genitals were exposed to the street as he did), giving him bottles of water to sip on. The difference in approach reminded me of the draconian measures the police take against Black and other racialised people who are over-policed and treated with suspicion (police are four times more likely to use force against Black people compared to white).

It was this policing and suspicion of Black people that killed Chris Kaba a year ago. In September 2022, Chris, who was a fiancé and a father-to-be, was killed with a single shot by a Met officer for driving a suspect vehicle. Chris was innocent and unarmed. He was just 24.

In this case, the only reprimanding the police did was against another Black woman from the neighbourhood, telling her to keep her voice down (she had also expressed how Black people are treated worse). The police were level-headed with the man, they even let the dog go back to him while holding the leash (that dog needs to be taken far away from him).

Now, I'm not advocating for harsher police treatment of a clearly disturbed man (mentally unwell people are more likely to die after police use force) because the police really shouldn't be using tasers and stepping on, and tear-gassing and choking people. As someone with little trust in the police, cases like this are hard – no one should be abusing an animal like that. But I also don't want unwell people sectioned in facilities without any way of rehabilitating their life after.

This instance reminds me of another case that happened earlier this year. Another neighbour was stalking and harassing my housemate and me (what a colourful street we live on). For weeks he had been watching us and making moaning sounds from his window as we left and entered our house. When he tried to come into the property, we had to call the police. They arrested him immediately after he tried to come onto the property again, using excessive force against him. He was paranoid-schizophrenic. He was soon sectioned and lost his housing, so I haven't seen him since then.

I don't have a neat conclusion or thought to tie this piece together, but I know that I lament the way the system operates. I don't want mentally ill people to be harshly treated, I don't want Black people to suffer excessive force, I don't want racialised groups to die at the hands of powerful people, I don't want animals to be harmed.

I wish more for all of us.