At 1:00 a.m. on the morning of February 21, my wife and I woke up to the sound of loud banging. We were terrified. We went downstairs half-dressed and were alarmed to see flashing lights in our driveway and several deputies of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office on our front porch banging on our door. I asked them what they could possibly be doing at this hour, and they said they were there to serve me with a Peace Order that had been filed by a well-known, local political pundit and online troll, Ryan Miner, of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Also, Miner somehow convinced a district court commissioner to approve “criminal harassment” charges he filed against me. My crime? I ridiculed him in a tweet.
The tweet, made through my satirical publication, the Takoma Torch on February 2, said, “Ryan Miner Pokes Head out of Ground, Sees Laura Stewart Running for Board of Education, Six More Weeks of Being a Misogynist Shit Head” (this was posted on Groundhog Day, if you missed the joke).