‘I don’t want to wait until he hurts me’: TikToker says police won’t protect her from stalker ‘until he does something’ to her
A TikToker says she has reported her neighbor's alleged stalking and harassment to the police more than 10 times, "and they have done absolutely nothing."
In a TikTok posted on Sept. 19, Riah Little (@babyriahxo) says a man who lives in her neighborhood has been stalking her "for months" via a fake profile.
"He was telling me he was watching me. He was telling me that I was a disgusting lesbian," says Little. Little says the man also parks in front of her house, rather than near his own house.
"They said until he does something to me, they can't do anything," Little says of her interactions with local police department.
In a follow-up video, Little says that the man's initial aggression toward her started after she defended someone that he was allegedly being racist toward. The situation resolved, but she says the harassment persisted.
"I feel like it's definitely because he's against gays," says Little, who is a queer woman.
Little says the man began to send her messages saying that she was being watched when she was inside her house and then eventually took photos of her outside her house. After talking with people in her area, she says she found out he had been allegedly harassing them, too.
"We're not the only ones that this man has harassed in our neighborhood, but he hasn't harassed anybody to this extent," she says. "He told me he was going to tie my dog's leash around my neck and drag me by it."
The harassment also takes the form of the man yelling profanities about her sexuality at her, she says. According to the Department of Justice's Hate Crime statistics for 2020, 20.5% of hate crimes committed that year were motivated by homophobic biases. Additionally, most hate crimes (28.3%) occur near residences and homes.
"I don't want to wait until he hurts me," Little said in the caption of her original video. "I want him to leave me alone."
She posted another follow-up video saying that police met with her and her wife because her neighbors volunteered to be witnesses to the man's harassment of Little. That, she says, prompted the police take the situation a bit more seriously.
Little says the emotional toll of the harassment has been overwhelming and that she's felt isolated and "unheard." That said, she says she is refraining from posting any of the man's personal details because she wants the situation to be handled legally, exclusively.
She told the Daily Dot via Instagram direct message that police are currently pursuing charges against the man.
"If we don't then we are getting a lawyer," she told the Daily Dot.
Little posted a video of the man allegedly watching her from his window on Sept. 20.
As of Sept. 20, Little said she and her wife are safe and will be purchasing another car to be parked in front of their home so that the man can no longer park there.
"People like this only get worse and escalate," Little told the Daily Dot.
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