NEVER ASSUME
2/14/98--6:14A
I don't know why I have to address this up here, but since the topic keeps coming up in my life, like it or not, I figured this is as good a place as any. I've never had to defend myself on this score--not that I've never questioned myself about it, but--well, fuck it, here it is.
People look at me, and, judging from my fluorescent glow, just assume that I'm "white". White people look at me and assume that they can include me in their little "club" or some such shit, like it's okay to make half-hidden references to "those people" and to certain areas, like Orleans Parish, as being "too mixed", and that shit's supposed to be okay with me. Like, it's safe to assume that I won't get pissed off at their cracker attitudes, because, hey, I'm white, so I must be a bigot, too, huh? Lost a good temp job because of that horseshit.
Black people look at me, and I don't always know what they think, because reactions vary. Some of the snottier people look at me and mutter half-assed insults about "white bitch", as their boyfriends are smiling at me. My friend Tanisha tells me, "You may look like some bright-white girl, you might have been raised by rednecks, but you ain't white. I don't know how else to tell you this, but, girl, you're black." I'm not sure how to take that, but I tell her I'll take it as a compliment. She laughs, and says that I should.
My former Chinese friends looked upon me as some sort of novelty, I suppose. Although I never could quite get the hang of their rigid social codes. I had a Korean-American friend at LSU whose parents never could stand me, seeing as how I was such a bad influence on their once-studious, formerly-obedient daughter. The Cuban parents and the Arab parents of some former friends thought I was the shit--they were surprised, I suppose, that some Southern white chick could be, oh, I dunno--dependable and friendly to their kids? Those mamas never would quit trying to feed me & trying to convince me to have kids. And my Indian friends keep teaching me curse words in Hindi.
Then there was the Israeli chick, whose husband was a native New Orleanian black guy. They were neighbors, drinking buddies, I'd known them almost two years. And then, last year, I had to cut them out of my life. This dude, this young goofball who fancied himself to be the stud, shows up at my house one afternoon, way before my usual awakening time, and tries to bullshit me into giving him a quickie. Now, do you think it ever crossed his mind that I was never attracted to him in the first place? Nope. I know how ironic it must seem, me, throwing somebody out of my house and out of my life because I didn't want to fuck him, but that's what happened. He just had to go and piss me off. And I flat-out told him no.
Is it so hard to believe that even if I had wanted to fuck him, WHICH I DIDN'T, I still wouldn't have, because his wife, who was too goddamned scary for the ISRAELI ARMY, would have fileted me like a catfish? And whether it was wounded male ego or pure stupidity, his knee-jerk response was to fight dirty. He accused me of being some kind of "closet racist", and if I wanted to prove--TO HIM--that I wasn't--I should, of course, "fuck the black man." Uh-huh. Excuse me, but do I LOOK that fucking GULLIBLE?!?!?! He didn't even pause to think that it might have been those seven gold teeth, or the breath that would knock a buzzard off a shit-wagon at fifty paces--that would keep me from wanting to fuck him. As if a woman telling him NO is such a rare goddamned thing. As if I needed a fucking reason.
He just played the weakest card in the deck, like I'm your average white-guilt Southern liberal who's never been outside of the subdivision. DON'T FUCK WITH ME, JUNIOR--I LIVED IN THE SEVENTH WARD. I didn't escape Livingston Parish and the Ku Klux Klan for this shit.
I didn't fall for that "conform or die" mentality when I was trapped in Denham Springs, I'm sure as hell not going to fuck some guy to prove my moral fiber now. I was too weird, too country, too tomboy for the prissy-ass middle-class white girls in elementary school. When I wasn't arm-wrestling the boys (and I always won, too--until they hit puberty), I was hanging out with the black girls--I could play the dozens, I could keep up with them verbally--I was "good enough" for them.
I was standing on Tanisha's porch the other day, down in the 9th Ward, and this small clique of pre-teen black girls passed by the corner. "What's that white girl doin' here? Why's there white people in my neighborhood?" Tanisha laughed it off. I wanted to snatch those little wenches bald-headed.
So, yeah, I do get pissy when people look at me and see "JUST SOME WHITE BITCH". "Just Some"? Nah, I'm a little too far-off of "everyday" to be "Just Some", like it or not. "Bitch"? Well--depends on when you meet me. Most people would verify that one.
BUT-- "White"? Nope. Can't hang that label on me. Do some fuckin' research before you try to put me in a demographic niche. I fuck up the census and the EEOC every time--I'm probably the palest Indian you'll ever meet, but I'm two full parts: Cherokee and Iroquois. And I'm Welsh, and Scottish, and Irish, Dutch, and German. I'm made up of half the races that that have had their asses kicked, at some point, by the fuckin' WHITES! Slack-jawed, thin-wristed Anglo pussies--if they couldn't fuck it or steal it, they'd kill it. John Smith and Pocahontas, my ass.
I have NEVER let anyone, no matter their income or lineage, tell me who I could play with, and I'm not about to start now. I guess that's another reason why it pisses me off when people--who have no fucking clue about ME or the South to begin with--ASSUME that "white" plus "Southern" equals "KNUCKLE-WALKING INBRED BIGOT."
But guess what, folks--this is the NEW SOUTH. And those freaks-of-nature among us who were born here--WITH above-vegetable-I.Q.s--are taking it back. So take your sheets, and grab your hoods, and carry your crosses back to the woods, because us MULTI-COLORED motherfuckers are takin' over now. And we don't have to prove shit.
I guess some people believe the Southern stereotypes they see on TV, and some people know better. I used to drive a pick-up truck, but that's about as close to the slack-jawed hayseed cotton-pickin' cousin-lover redneck cliché' as I get. It's okay if you want to assume your stupid stereotypes--we like it when you underestimate us. Kinda gives us the advantage, doesn't it.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sigmoid Colon of Hell
These are the letters that I've sent to the joke of a management company who runs this "disabled" housing development and to the Rural Housing Authority/USDA about the ongoing harassment/discrimination/abuse that I've suffered at the hands of other residents and especially the so-called "manager" of this dump.
Just like to have a few witnesses when the shit hits the fan, right? And because I'm looking forward to finding legal aid to pursue a lawsuit against these motherfuckers.
"Maintenance" Inspection 2/07
1. I have asked Manager M.R. for help (since she told me that she had access to these organizations/businesses) in getting a Medicare/Medicaid-funded cleaning service into my apartment since September of 2006, because I knew that I would be having spine surgery in October, 2006. For four months, she flat-out refused to either find the fliers (which I have seen in her office) or to give me the phone numbers for these services, or even to refer me to someone who would KNOW these numbers/businesses. After I got home from the hospital, she THEN pretended to not know that these services EXIST. (I was medicated, not mentally-retarded.) I finally got a phone number out of her in January of 2007, and have called this service repeatedly since then, but have never once received a call back from them. So, since I have not received any help from her or anyone else in cleaning/maintaining this apartment (unless I paid her or someone else for it with cash money that I don't have --- and her offers of "help" from herself only came after she had BROKEN HER ANKLE and obviously could not carry through with any such offer), any problems that the inspection may find to my "fault" should really lay with Manager M.R. If she provided me with even HALF of the service/luxuries that she affords to other residents of this same complex, especially H.K., I'd be one happy camper.
2. The ongoing and repetitive discrimination against me, by employees/associates of this housing complex, management company, residents and such has been relentless and purposeful, and I can document every single incidence of discrimination against me since the day that I moved into this building. What really aggravates this condition is the building-sponsored (with FEDERALLY-FUNDED MONEY) participation in RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES in the building, the "holiday" activities that do not include me or anyone else NOT of the christian cult participation persuasion, and the fact that when other residents of this building have destroyed/stolen my personal property, that their behavior was CONDONED by the management of this building and in de facto ENDORSED by its employees as a way to "punish" me for NOT BEING A CHRISTIAN. G., S. and H.K. are prime examples of this behavior. M.R.might actually have kept records of these crimes against me, but I severely doubt it, because, as is always the way, "history is written by the victors."
3. No one in this management company, except for the maintenance crew, have made any accommodations whatsoever to my disabilities. Only TWO apartments in this building are deemed "handicapped accessible", though the entire building CLAIMS to be reserved for those of diminished capacities. A bottom-loading refrigerator is a back patient's worst nightmare, in case the thought has never occurred to J&M Management. I have attempted to make changes to the apartment myself to do the bare minimum that would accommodate my injuries, and have received nothing but further harassment and reproaches for doing so, even when I specifically requested this help from the maintenance manager and had M.R. fill out work orders to go about the process "properly." This company engages in false advertising, slipshod maintenance and flat-out ignoring of major physical-plant issues that keep this building from functioning properly. The plumbing's bad? Dran-O. The refrigerator moves every time that someone crosses the floor? Ignore it. The elevator JUST got a vent fan, even though it had none when I moved in here in June of '05. Slapping a coat of paint over obvious flaws in the building itself doesn't fix anything. But at least J&M finally hired someone who is actually qualified to service a residential structure, so there's SOME progress.
4. Floor stripping: Every year, this management company extorts money from people who are on EXTREMELY LIMITED INCOMES, to maintain the floors of a building that J&M Management OWNS. This isn't just immoral, it's illegal. Beyond normal wear & tear and normal cleaning expenses & effort, no rental/housing company is allowed to FORCE its tenants to pay for the mechanical, physical, or structural maintenance of its own property. J&M Management has billed residents $35 and upwards for slapping on about four ounces of paint. Since I cannot afford this "floor-stripping service," I have received regular reminders from Manager M.R. that it'll be "my fault" if "my" apartment doesn't "pass inspection" because of the yellowed peel & stick lineoleum tiles. This is neither true nor legal. Repeatedly, she stated outright to me/offered to have my floors stripped for "free", and then "changed her mind" or changed the "information." Meaning, she wanted me to ACCEPT the service without knowing if I would be billed or not. I might be on disability, but I'm not that stupid. I know how J&M back-bills its former tenants, EVEN AFTER THEY HAVE COMPLETED THE "CHECK-OUT" PROCESS AND BEEN RELEASED FROM THEIR RENTAL AGREEMENTS --- and if they (justifiably or not) refuse to pony-up this extortion, J&M does everything possible to ruin the former tenants' credit rating. When & if I ever find more acceptable accommodations, I know exactly how this process is going to work, and I will have legal aid on my side to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to me. If it hadn't been for Hurricane Katrina's adverse effects on the Louisiana housing industry and the resultant price-gouging and removal of several thousand units from the market, I would have left this building and its plantation mentality a long time ago. Have no fear that as soon as something acceptable comes open, I will avail myself of that facility as soon as humanly possible. If I were physically capable of living in my truck, many's the time that I was thisclose to doing so, because of all of the reasons listed above and in my previous complaints to the management company.
5. Special Privileges: I have never yet received an actual answer as to why certain residents (whether part-time and sub-letting their apartments or full-time and accommodating sub-residents of their own) receive special privileges in this building that are not available to myself or other residents.
Examples include: being allowed to use the laundry room "after hours" when no one else is allowed to do so (even though real laundromats have hours that extend past DARK); being able to take up the entire "community room" with one's own personal hobbies, and then having the results of said hobbies decorate the entire building, while other residents are not allowed to even decorate their own DOORS, except for CHRISTIAN HOLIDAYS; other residents (H.K.) are allowed to mutilate my personal clothing by "mistakenly" putting it into the dryers with THEIR clothing (on the wrong settings for MY clothing) and are not even written-up for it; non-residents who lived here on a regular basis (H.K.'s grandson E.G.) were allowed to listen at my doorway, leave tobacco spit on the floor in the hall in front of my doorway, ATTEMPT TO DESTROY THE ANTENNA ON MY TRUCK, call my house at all hours to the point at which I had to add a forty-dollar calling package to my phone bill in order to BLOCK HIS STALKING CALLS AT THREE A.M., and then allowed to MOVE INTO THE BUILDING, DESPITE THE FACT THAT M.R. KNEW OF HIS HISTORY OF VANDALISM, THEFT, VIOLENCE, STALKING, AND VARIOUS SEXUALLY PERVERTED BEHAVIORS TOWARDS THE CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN THIS BUILDING. Then --- shock of all shocks --- he was busted for having marijuana in his apartment, and was finally evicted (DESPITE MY MANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT HIM TO THE MANAGEMENT WHICH WENT UNDOCUMENTED AND UNRESOLVED BY Manager M.R.) --- and supposedly "banned" from the building, even though he is seen here, by myself and others, STILL, on a regular basis. Nothing is being done to keep E.G. off of the property of (this development), and nothing is ever done to prevent him from committing further crimes or to punish him for the crimes which he has already committed.
6. Speaking of criminals: When I moved into this building, I had to pay for and acquire criminal background checks on myself from New Orleans, Miami, and EBRP (where I have never even lived), as well as the WFPSO. AND YET --- A twice-convicted child-molester lives in the apartment next to mine, and has for at least a year. Despite Meghan's Law, in which convicted sex offenders are required to send out to residents of an area in which they WISH to reside advance notification of their intention to move into that area, J.B.M. was allowed to move into a building housing multiple children, and did not notify ANY residents of this building until two weeks after he moved in. Obviously, Manager M.R. was aware of his criminal past, IF he completed the criminal background checks that were required of me, and allowed a twice-convicted child-molester/statutory rapist to move into (this development) with full knowledge and aforethought of his background. Of course, when J.C. moved into my apartment, instead of allowing me to change my lease as she had originally told me I would be able to do, Manager M. R. refused to allow me to put J.C. onto my lease and to pay the proper amount of rent for two residents, suddenly saying that I had to wait until my first-year lease was up to have another "official resident" in my apartment, despite the fact that multiple residents of this building have had roommates and/or relatives living with them since they moved into (this development). So, in an effort to keep my mouth shut about J.M., she told me that J.C. could move in with me "off the books". But it was intimated to me in no uncertain terms that his residency here would be a very tenuous circumstance, and that we could both be evicted at any moment for going along with the situation that she, herself, set up. Since J.C. was irresponsible when it came to taking his schizophrenia medications and when it came to his behavior, M.R. had many opportunities to hold my living situation over my head. Since we had moved in together in order to save money, her regular attempts to extort money from myself and J.C. served as more than adequate reinforcement of her blackmail over us. When J.C. confronted J.M. over the purposefully loud talking/behavior of himself and Mrs. M.D. in the hallway outside my door (to volume levels that completely obscured my own television, inside of my apartment, with the door shut), J.M. called the S.F. P.D. & W.F.P.S.O via 911, told them that J.C. had threatened him with a gun (which neither of us possessed), and my apartment was then searched WITHOUT A WARRANT OR EVEN PROBABLE CAUSE by said law enforcement officers. They took the word of a twice-convicted child molester over mine, and tossed MY apartment for a gun that never existed. So of course, instead of placing the responsibility on J.M., who had made the fraudulent 911 call and lied to the police in the first place, M.R. called ME onto the carpet for J.C.'s interaction with J.M., instead of reprimanding J.M. for HIS behavior. Never once, to my knowledge, has J. M. been "written-up" for ANY of his behavioral issues (such as not taking HIS medication properly and throwing multiple and frequent hissy-fits, slamming doors at all hours, pounding on the walls, yelling and cursing in the hallway, threatening my physical safety), despite many and repeated complaints about same.
7. The a/c unit: Since I have lived here, several residents have received new air-conditioning units in their apartments, but despite my many complaints and requests for a new machine, none have been forthcoming. Apparently, that is being saved for when y'all lure the next resident into this apartment. When L was the maintenance man, he came here to spray the a/c unit with a bleach mixture, and shot the bleach directly into the path of the air vents, so that the bleach mixture would then blow directly into my face. With sarcoidosis, I have a very high sensitivity to chemicals and pollution, and I could have died, that very day, instead of "merely" coughing-up blood for three days. If I could've afforded the gas to go to a real emergency room, I'd have a medical report with which to bill J&M management for that incident. When Mr. R2 came to work on my a/c unit, he knocked the "flapper" out of the air vents, that is SUPPOSED to divert air stream into the bedroom (through one of the most bizarre air vent constructions that I've ever seen), and then pretended like it was supposed to work like that. Prior to recent events, I never even knew that there WAS a damper or flue inside that a/c unit that was SUPPOSED to divert the air flow, and that this "flapper" could have saved me hundreds of dollars spent on electricity bills in an attempt to make the bedroom bearable at night. But then, I have downloaded & printed reams of pages of information about my disabilities in order to enlighten M. as to what I am capable of doing physically (in terms of housekeeping) and what I need from this housing development in terms of reasonable accommodations (as defined by The Americans With Disabilities Acts, 1994-2000), but no such aid or tolerance has been forthcoming, though it is often hinted-at by Ms. R.
As always, I have drawn up this list of complaints as a form of self-defense against the constant nagging, discrimination, and unrealistic housekeeping expectations that are forced upon me by M. R., as well as the invasive techniques of "inspecting" the apartments as a way of intimidating the residents to keep the building "ship-shape" themselves, and have personally experienced verbal & expressive derision of my personal belongings by the management company. Ms. M.R. & J&M Management seem to be operating under the impression that the residents of (this development) are under their employ, that we are "privileged" to be "allowed" to live here, and that it is the RESIDENTS' duty to clean/maintain/pay for the maintenance of this building, when the very purpose of this building was supposed to be to HELP those with disabilities/aging difficulties.
Until J&M hired Mr. R, I had never received ANY accommodation or help with any of the above areas, but Mr. R has gone out of his way to improve my living conditions here, above and beyond anything that has ever been attempted by any other member of the J&M staff. He mounted a board (in order to shield the sheetrock and better support the hanging hooks) in my kitchen so that I wouldn't have to bend over to retrieve my pots & pans in this limited storage area. In return, he was sent back to re-do the whole job with ludicrously-designed Plexiglas underneath the hanging area, that was cut in such a way as to not even be practical as a BACKSPLASH. Mr. R has always been very kind in terms of helping me with carrying items or letting me use the dolly/hand-truck to take items out to my truck. He also is thoughtful enough to help residents with cleaning behind their stoves & refrigerators, aside from "merely" pulling those huge appliances out for residents for the semi-annual ritual invasion of inspectors. Before J&M hired R, I didn't think that they'd ever spend the money to hire actual qualified help, but at least now I can see that perhaps this management company is trying to move in a positive direction with its service to its residents, which is definitely a first.
J.E.B.
Apartment #26
February 5, 2006
And then, TODAY:
Resident Complaint Form Addendum For J&M Management:
J.E.B., Apt. #26
2/20/07
RE: M.R. & Maintenance Crew ("K."?)
I was deeply asleep at approx. 10A when the J&M maintenance crew just opened the door to my apartment, propped it wide open, and started sanding and painting a door that had been freshly painted less than a month ago. They claimed to police that they had "knocked/pounded" on my door and "called out" my name, but I heard no such actions. But if the sound that woke me up was the sound of sandpaper upon painted metal, then they wouldn't have had to have spoken very loudly to get my attention. I had assumed that it was Mr. R. doing some kind of maintenance work in the hallway, so I wasn't shocked at that point. However, when I heard them slapping paint onto the door, that's when I was shocked wide-awake and got out of bed, only partially dressed, to see my door WIDE OPEN to where ANYBODY could see in, with "K."(?)(the older, short, bald-headed worker) standing in the doorway, painting, as if I had no right to be shocked whatsoever.
I asked them why they were just walking into my apartment without waiting for my consent, and they said that they had knocked, and I disputed that, so they just put a prop in the door and walked off. I then went and closed & locked the door and called the police.
If M.R. sees my truck (about 30 feet away from where she parks her car) in the parking lot, then she knows that I'm in my apartment. She knew that I was home, and since I hadn't answered the phone when she called (I had turned the ringer off because she had made a point of calling me on the 19th, when she KNEW that I'd be asleep, just to get her sadistic joy of harassing me awake and depriving me of sleep), she knew that I had turned off the phone and was asleep. She sent them nonetheless, and is probably enjoying every minute of knowing that she has incited yet another fibromyalgia attack in me, because every time that I'm deprived of sleep or upset by a home invasion or upset by her or the other residents' behavior, I get fibromyalgia attacks. When I am SHOCKED AWAKE, especially by grown men just waltzing into my apartment like I'm not even there, especially when I'm asleep in the bed, UNDRESSED and alone, it takes me 2 or 3 days for my blood pressure and fibromyalgia to return to normal. M.R. has done this kind of crap to me for almost 2 years now, and she enjoys the small bit of power that she feels by inflicting her low self-esteem upon the residents, whom she views as slaves or sharecroppers on "her" plantation.
Unfortunately, when I called the SFPD about this unlawful entry of an inhabited dwelling, this ASSAULT, the responding officer went down to the office to inquire as to the management company's "rights" as to walking in on sleeping/undressed residents at their every whim, and M.R. convinced him that everything that they did (such as the "knocking/pounding" and the supposed "calling out" my name, which never happened) was fully lawful and within the Property Owner's rights. And the SFPD being what they are, the rights of the Property Owners are all that was protected.
Also --- when "K." walked away, he just put a wooden prop in the door, left the weatherstripping off of my door, and walked away. If I had NOT been home, is that how they would have left my apartment? Wide open and available to any thief or vandal who came along? Is this a regular practice for J&M Management, to break into the residents' apartments, rip off the weatherstripping, and leave the door wide open for anyone to enter and take what they please? I may not have much, but what I have didn't just fall off of a truck or come out of some decrepit trailer --- my possessions are mine, and I expect them to remain so and to remain safely locked behind that steel door when I am away.
Let this complaint serve as formal notice that I will no longer withstand nor submit to this ongoing and premeditated harassment at the hands of M.R. Every time that she does abuses like this, or has her/J&M's employees do the dirty work for her, I am going to attempt to press charges against her, until her criminal record matches her misdeeds.
Since I turned in the three-and-a-half paged complaint list at the most recent J&M inspection, Manager M.R. has done nothing but loudly dispute/rebuff my queries/requests, find petty little ways to deprive me of sleep and/or peace in my "home," and misrepresent me to others, such as the police department. She could not stand that I finally told the truth on her, because I am no longer afraid of being evicted or "written up" or whatever other petty, vicious, menial "punishments" that she can throw at me.
Also, Mr. R. (the bldg. maintenance man) had attempted to have K. and the work crew start out on the first floor and work their way UP with the re-painting the freshly-repainted doors, out of consideration for my sleeping habits, but K. insisted that they start on the second floor and then go immediately to the third floor as quickly as possible, obviously due to M.R.'s prompting.
While B.'s responses to my complaints were condescending and obviously designed to do nothing but protect her employers, rather than ever resembling anything like doing the right thing, I do not feel that these concerns have been addressed at all. I offered her a place to sit, but she chose to stand over me, with M.R. glaring at me, the entire time that she interrogated me about CERTAIN complaints, not all (the J.M. issue was not addressed at all, nor the complaints about E.G., she simply changed the subject repeatedly), and while she offered nothing but "That's how we do it" as a basis for how J&M and their employees treat the people who are their source of income.
I will be forwarding this complaint, if it is not addressed in a timely and at least SOMEWHAT legal/proper manner by J&M, to the Rural Housing Commission, the State Attorney General's Office, and anyone else who will listen, because I feel like the only way to get the humane treatment that I deserve is to bring these infractions out into the open. I have spoken to J&M management employees about these issues for over 2 years, and nothing has ever been improved, I have merely been the objects of reprisals and revenge by M.R. for "making her look bad."
If she did her job with any respect whatsoever for the residents, the people who TRULY pay her salary, no one could "make her look bad," because she'd actually be DOING HER JOB. Her entire attitude, the whole time that I've lived here, she's treated me as she treats most of the other residents (except her sacrosanct H.K., of course, and all of H.K.'s affiliates and spawn), as if I don't have a brain in my head nor any right to be treated with respect or equality. As I have told B. repeatedly, M.R.'s so-called "christianity" has been her prime motivation and excuse for the harassment that I have received at her hands and at the hands/voices of residents who obviously share her worldview. Since I'm apparently the only atheist in this parish, they feel perfectly entitled to desecrate my truck, steal my belongings, spit at my door, eavesdrop, destroy my property and otherwise remind me that since I don't submit to them via their cult's "authority", that I will never be "welcomed" here nor left in peace.
If M.R. or any of her friendly-to-her-cause/sycophantic residents ever actually applied the TRUE teachings of their Jesus to their actual lives, then they wouldn't feel the need to wreak retribution upon me, to rip stickers off of my truck, steal my possessions, or shove their "holidays" down my throat at every possible opportunity. If they actually understood the "teachings" in their bible, then they wouldn't constantly have to try to shove their Jesus down the throats who want no such thing.
This general attitude has colored my entire stay here, and despite the passing of S. (the one who stole my property and gave it to M.R., who was one of the ones ripping stickers off of my truck, and/or putting her magnets OVER my stickers, as if my truck were public property), this attitude has not changed. Whether G. is in residence at any given time or not (and she seems to only return in time for inspections, while sub-letting her apartment to this "Kim" person), she still feels that she is somehow "privileged" to make remarks to and about me to anyone who is at hand. And my objections to the obsessive and distasteful "decorations" at this apartment building (which are apparently dictated by H.K. and installed by her home health "nurse" at her every whim), including F.'s tacky puzzles on every available wall, while residents are not allowed to decorate their doors for any but "christian" holidays.
Again, I wish to reiterate my belief and the above anecdotal evidence that SOME residents are more "equal" than others --- there is a Jim Crow attitude towards myself and other residents, as if we are somehow less privileged because we are not among the ranks of Manager M.R.'s favored residents. From my understanding of publicly-subsidized housing, preference and courtship are not supposed to be paid to ANY religions, much less over the rights of the residents. Thus far, this has been the opposite of my experiences with J&M Management and (this development) and especially M.R.
_____________________________________
J.E.B., Apt. #26
2/20/07
And as soon as I had typed all of this up (along with the postmarked documentation as to when the abovementioned pedophile had sent out his "parolee notification" as well as copies of the "cleaning" demand lists that the "manager" had issued following my spine surgery), guess what Queen Chickenshit sneaks up and chickenshit-edly slips into my door jam?
A MEMO STATING THAT MY "use of profanity" in the holy presence of the MAINTENANCE CREW, who swear like drunken sailors in a whorehouse ANYWAY, had constituted a "VIOLATION OF MY LEASE AGREEMENT"!!!!!!
So now the fucking whore isn't just ATTACKING ME by proxy through her maintenance workers, she isn't just PURPOSEFULLY DEPRIVING ME OF SLEEP, she isn't just CAUSING ME HORRIFIC FIBROMYALGIA ATTACKS ON PURPOSE, she isn't just DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ME, she isn't just SINGLING ME OUT FOR PERSECUTION, NOW the fucking whore is THREATENING ME!!!!!!!!!!
I hope to hell that I can find the right lawyers, 'cause I SOOOOOOO wanna own this fucking building, just so that I can fire that bald-headed trailer-trash cunt.
Just like to have a few witnesses when the shit hits the fan, right? And because I'm looking forward to finding legal aid to pursue a lawsuit against these motherfuckers.
"Maintenance" Inspection 2/07
1. I have asked Manager M.R. for help (since she told me that she had access to these organizations/businesses) in getting a Medicare/Medicaid-funded cleaning service into my apartment since September of 2006, because I knew that I would be having spine surgery in October, 2006. For four months, she flat-out refused to either find the fliers (which I have seen in her office) or to give me the phone numbers for these services, or even to refer me to someone who would KNOW these numbers/businesses. After I got home from the hospital, she THEN pretended to not know that these services EXIST. (I was medicated, not mentally-retarded.) I finally got a phone number out of her in January of 2007, and have called this service repeatedly since then, but have never once received a call back from them. So, since I have not received any help from her or anyone else in cleaning/maintaining this apartment (unless I paid her or someone else for it with cash money that I don't have --- and her offers of "help" from herself only came after she had BROKEN HER ANKLE and obviously could not carry through with any such offer), any problems that the inspection may find to my "fault" should really lay with Manager M.R. If she provided me with even HALF of the service/luxuries that she affords to other residents of this same complex, especially H.K., I'd be one happy camper.
2. The ongoing and repetitive discrimination against me, by employees/associates of this housing complex, management company, residents and such has been relentless and purposeful, and I can document every single incidence of discrimination against me since the day that I moved into this building. What really aggravates this condition is the building-sponsored (with FEDERALLY-FUNDED MONEY) participation in RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES in the building, the "holiday" activities that do not include me or anyone else NOT of the christian cult participation persuasion, and the fact that when other residents of this building have destroyed/stolen my personal property, that their behavior was CONDONED by the management of this building and in de facto ENDORSED by its employees as a way to "punish" me for NOT BEING A CHRISTIAN. G., S. and H.K. are prime examples of this behavior. M.R.might actually have kept records of these crimes against me, but I severely doubt it, because, as is always the way, "history is written by the victors."
3. No one in this management company, except for the maintenance crew, have made any accommodations whatsoever to my disabilities. Only TWO apartments in this building are deemed "handicapped accessible", though the entire building CLAIMS to be reserved for those of diminished capacities. A bottom-loading refrigerator is a back patient's worst nightmare, in case the thought has never occurred to J&M Management. I have attempted to make changes to the apartment myself to do the bare minimum that would accommodate my injuries, and have received nothing but further harassment and reproaches for doing so, even when I specifically requested this help from the maintenance manager and had M.R. fill out work orders to go about the process "properly." This company engages in false advertising, slipshod maintenance and flat-out ignoring of major physical-plant issues that keep this building from functioning properly. The plumbing's bad? Dran-O. The refrigerator moves every time that someone crosses the floor? Ignore it. The elevator JUST got a vent fan, even though it had none when I moved in here in June of '05. Slapping a coat of paint over obvious flaws in the building itself doesn't fix anything. But at least J&M finally hired someone who is actually qualified to service a residential structure, so there's SOME progress.
4. Floor stripping: Every year, this management company extorts money from people who are on EXTREMELY LIMITED INCOMES, to maintain the floors of a building that J&M Management OWNS. This isn't just immoral, it's illegal. Beyond normal wear & tear and normal cleaning expenses & effort, no rental/housing company is allowed to FORCE its tenants to pay for the mechanical, physical, or structural maintenance of its own property. J&M Management has billed residents $35 and upwards for slapping on about four ounces of paint. Since I cannot afford this "floor-stripping service," I have received regular reminders from Manager M.R. that it'll be "my fault" if "my" apartment doesn't "pass inspection" because of the yellowed peel & stick lineoleum tiles. This is neither true nor legal. Repeatedly, she stated outright to me/offered to have my floors stripped for "free", and then "changed her mind" or changed the "information." Meaning, she wanted me to ACCEPT the service without knowing if I would be billed or not. I might be on disability, but I'm not that stupid. I know how J&M back-bills its former tenants, EVEN AFTER THEY HAVE COMPLETED THE "CHECK-OUT" PROCESS AND BEEN RELEASED FROM THEIR RENTAL AGREEMENTS --- and if they (justifiably or not) refuse to pony-up this extortion, J&M does everything possible to ruin the former tenants' credit rating. When & if I ever find more acceptable accommodations, I know exactly how this process is going to work, and I will have legal aid on my side to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to me. If it hadn't been for Hurricane Katrina's adverse effects on the Louisiana housing industry and the resultant price-gouging and removal of several thousand units from the market, I would have left this building and its plantation mentality a long time ago. Have no fear that as soon as something acceptable comes open, I will avail myself of that facility as soon as humanly possible. If I were physically capable of living in my truck, many's the time that I was thisclose to doing so, because of all of the reasons listed above and in my previous complaints to the management company.
5. Special Privileges: I have never yet received an actual answer as to why certain residents (whether part-time and sub-letting their apartments or full-time and accommodating sub-residents of their own) receive special privileges in this building that are not available to myself or other residents.
Examples include: being allowed to use the laundry room "after hours" when no one else is allowed to do so (even though real laundromats have hours that extend past DARK); being able to take up the entire "community room" with one's own personal hobbies, and then having the results of said hobbies decorate the entire building, while other residents are not allowed to even decorate their own DOORS, except for CHRISTIAN HOLIDAYS; other residents (H.K.) are allowed to mutilate my personal clothing by "mistakenly" putting it into the dryers with THEIR clothing (on the wrong settings for MY clothing) and are not even written-up for it; non-residents who lived here on a regular basis (H.K.'s grandson E.G.) were allowed to listen at my doorway, leave tobacco spit on the floor in the hall in front of my doorway, ATTEMPT TO DESTROY THE ANTENNA ON MY TRUCK, call my house at all hours to the point at which I had to add a forty-dollar calling package to my phone bill in order to BLOCK HIS STALKING CALLS AT THREE A.M., and then allowed to MOVE INTO THE BUILDING, DESPITE THE FACT THAT M.R. KNEW OF HIS HISTORY OF VANDALISM, THEFT, VIOLENCE, STALKING, AND VARIOUS SEXUALLY PERVERTED BEHAVIORS TOWARDS THE CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN THIS BUILDING. Then --- shock of all shocks --- he was busted for having marijuana in his apartment, and was finally evicted (DESPITE MY MANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT HIM TO THE MANAGEMENT WHICH WENT UNDOCUMENTED AND UNRESOLVED BY Manager M.R.) --- and supposedly "banned" from the building, even though he is seen here, by myself and others, STILL, on a regular basis. Nothing is being done to keep E.G. off of the property of (this development), and nothing is ever done to prevent him from committing further crimes or to punish him for the crimes which he has already committed.
6. Speaking of criminals: When I moved into this building, I had to pay for and acquire criminal background checks on myself from New Orleans, Miami, and EBRP (where I have never even lived), as well as the WFPSO. AND YET --- A twice-convicted child-molester lives in the apartment next to mine, and has for at least a year. Despite Meghan's Law, in which convicted sex offenders are required to send out to residents of an area in which they WISH to reside advance notification of their intention to move into that area, J.B.M. was allowed to move into a building housing multiple children, and did not notify ANY residents of this building until two weeks after he moved in. Obviously, Manager M.R. was aware of his criminal past, IF he completed the criminal background checks that were required of me, and allowed a twice-convicted child-molester/statutory rapist to move into (this development) with full knowledge and aforethought of his background. Of course, when J.C. moved into my apartment, instead of allowing me to change my lease as she had originally told me I would be able to do, Manager M. R. refused to allow me to put J.C. onto my lease and to pay the proper amount of rent for two residents, suddenly saying that I had to wait until my first-year lease was up to have another "official resident" in my apartment, despite the fact that multiple residents of this building have had roommates and/or relatives living with them since they moved into (this development). So, in an effort to keep my mouth shut about J.M., she told me that J.C. could move in with me "off the books". But it was intimated to me in no uncertain terms that his residency here would be a very tenuous circumstance, and that we could both be evicted at any moment for going along with the situation that she, herself, set up. Since J.C. was irresponsible when it came to taking his schizophrenia medications and when it came to his behavior, M.R. had many opportunities to hold my living situation over my head. Since we had moved in together in order to save money, her regular attempts to extort money from myself and J.C. served as more than adequate reinforcement of her blackmail over us. When J.C. confronted J.M. over the purposefully loud talking/behavior of himself and Mrs. M.D. in the hallway outside my door (to volume levels that completely obscured my own television, inside of my apartment, with the door shut), J.M. called the S.F. P.D. & W.F.P.S.O via 911, told them that J.C. had threatened him with a gun (which neither of us possessed), and my apartment was then searched WITHOUT A WARRANT OR EVEN PROBABLE CAUSE by said law enforcement officers. They took the word of a twice-convicted child molester over mine, and tossed MY apartment for a gun that never existed. So of course, instead of placing the responsibility on J.M., who had made the fraudulent 911 call and lied to the police in the first place, M.R. called ME onto the carpet for J.C.'s interaction with J.M., instead of reprimanding J.M. for HIS behavior. Never once, to my knowledge, has J. M. been "written-up" for ANY of his behavioral issues (such as not taking HIS medication properly and throwing multiple and frequent hissy-fits, slamming doors at all hours, pounding on the walls, yelling and cursing in the hallway, threatening my physical safety), despite many and repeated complaints about same.
7. The a/c unit: Since I have lived here, several residents have received new air-conditioning units in their apartments, but despite my many complaints and requests for a new machine, none have been forthcoming. Apparently, that is being saved for when y'all lure the next resident into this apartment. When L was the maintenance man, he came here to spray the a/c unit with a bleach mixture, and shot the bleach directly into the path of the air vents, so that the bleach mixture would then blow directly into my face. With sarcoidosis, I have a very high sensitivity to chemicals and pollution, and I could have died, that very day, instead of "merely" coughing-up blood for three days. If I could've afforded the gas to go to a real emergency room, I'd have a medical report with which to bill J&M management for that incident. When Mr. R2 came to work on my a/c unit, he knocked the "flapper" out of the air vents, that is SUPPOSED to divert air stream into the bedroom (through one of the most bizarre air vent constructions that I've ever seen), and then pretended like it was supposed to work like that. Prior to recent events, I never even knew that there WAS a damper or flue inside that a/c unit that was SUPPOSED to divert the air flow, and that this "flapper" could have saved me hundreds of dollars spent on electricity bills in an attempt to make the bedroom bearable at night. But then, I have downloaded & printed reams of pages of information about my disabilities in order to enlighten M. as to what I am capable of doing physically (in terms of housekeeping) and what I need from this housing development in terms of reasonable accommodations (as defined by The Americans With Disabilities Acts, 1994-2000), but no such aid or tolerance has been forthcoming, though it is often hinted-at by Ms. R.
As always, I have drawn up this list of complaints as a form of self-defense against the constant nagging, discrimination, and unrealistic housekeeping expectations that are forced upon me by M. R., as well as the invasive techniques of "inspecting" the apartments as a way of intimidating the residents to keep the building "ship-shape" themselves, and have personally experienced verbal & expressive derision of my personal belongings by the management company. Ms. M.R. & J&M Management seem to be operating under the impression that the residents of (this development) are under their employ, that we are "privileged" to be "allowed" to live here, and that it is the RESIDENTS' duty to clean/maintain/pay for the maintenance of this building, when the very purpose of this building was supposed to be to HELP those with disabilities/aging difficulties.
Until J&M hired Mr. R, I had never received ANY accommodation or help with any of the above areas, but Mr. R has gone out of his way to improve my living conditions here, above and beyond anything that has ever been attempted by any other member of the J&M staff. He mounted a board (in order to shield the sheetrock and better support the hanging hooks) in my kitchen so that I wouldn't have to bend over to retrieve my pots & pans in this limited storage area. In return, he was sent back to re-do the whole job with ludicrously-designed Plexiglas underneath the hanging area, that was cut in such a way as to not even be practical as a BACKSPLASH. Mr. R has always been very kind in terms of helping me with carrying items or letting me use the dolly/hand-truck to take items out to my truck. He also is thoughtful enough to help residents with cleaning behind their stoves & refrigerators, aside from "merely" pulling those huge appliances out for residents for the semi-annual ritual invasion of inspectors. Before J&M hired R, I didn't think that they'd ever spend the money to hire actual qualified help, but at least now I can see that perhaps this management company is trying to move in a positive direction with its service to its residents, which is definitely a first.
J.E.B.
Apartment #26
February 5, 2006
And then, TODAY:
Resident Complaint Form Addendum For J&M Management:
J.E.B., Apt. #26
2/20/07
RE: M.R. & Maintenance Crew ("K."?)
I was deeply asleep at approx. 10A when the J&M maintenance crew just opened the door to my apartment, propped it wide open, and started sanding and painting a door that had been freshly painted less than a month ago. They claimed to police that they had "knocked/pounded" on my door and "called out" my name, but I heard no such actions. But if the sound that woke me up was the sound of sandpaper upon painted metal, then they wouldn't have had to have spoken very loudly to get my attention. I had assumed that it was Mr. R. doing some kind of maintenance work in the hallway, so I wasn't shocked at that point. However, when I heard them slapping paint onto the door, that's when I was shocked wide-awake and got out of bed, only partially dressed, to see my door WIDE OPEN to where ANYBODY could see in, with "K."(?)(the older, short, bald-headed worker) standing in the doorway, painting, as if I had no right to be shocked whatsoever.
I asked them why they were just walking into my apartment without waiting for my consent, and they said that they had knocked, and I disputed that, so they just put a prop in the door and walked off. I then went and closed & locked the door and called the police.
If M.R. sees my truck (about 30 feet away from where she parks her car) in the parking lot, then she knows that I'm in my apartment. She knew that I was home, and since I hadn't answered the phone when she called (I had turned the ringer off because she had made a point of calling me on the 19th, when she KNEW that I'd be asleep, just to get her sadistic joy of harassing me awake and depriving me of sleep), she knew that I had turned off the phone and was asleep. She sent them nonetheless, and is probably enjoying every minute of knowing that she has incited yet another fibromyalgia attack in me, because every time that I'm deprived of sleep or upset by a home invasion or upset by her or the other residents' behavior, I get fibromyalgia attacks. When I am SHOCKED AWAKE, especially by grown men just waltzing into my apartment like I'm not even there, especially when I'm asleep in the bed, UNDRESSED and alone, it takes me 2 or 3 days for my blood pressure and fibromyalgia to return to normal. M.R. has done this kind of crap to me for almost 2 years now, and she enjoys the small bit of power that she feels by inflicting her low self-esteem upon the residents, whom she views as slaves or sharecroppers on "her" plantation.
Unfortunately, when I called the SFPD about this unlawful entry of an inhabited dwelling, this ASSAULT, the responding officer went down to the office to inquire as to the management company's "rights" as to walking in on sleeping/undressed residents at their every whim, and M.R. convinced him that everything that they did (such as the "knocking/pounding" and the supposed "calling out" my name, which never happened) was fully lawful and within the Property Owner's rights. And the SFPD being what they are, the rights of the Property Owners are all that was protected.
Also --- when "K." walked away, he just put a wooden prop in the door, left the weatherstripping off of my door, and walked away. If I had NOT been home, is that how they would have left my apartment? Wide open and available to any thief or vandal who came along? Is this a regular practice for J&M Management, to break into the residents' apartments, rip off the weatherstripping, and leave the door wide open for anyone to enter and take what they please? I may not have much, but what I have didn't just fall off of a truck or come out of some decrepit trailer --- my possessions are mine, and I expect them to remain so and to remain safely locked behind that steel door when I am away.
Let this complaint serve as formal notice that I will no longer withstand nor submit to this ongoing and premeditated harassment at the hands of M.R. Every time that she does abuses like this, or has her/J&M's employees do the dirty work for her, I am going to attempt to press charges against her, until her criminal record matches her misdeeds.
Since I turned in the three-and-a-half paged complaint list at the most recent J&M inspection, Manager M.R. has done nothing but loudly dispute/rebuff my queries/requests, find petty little ways to deprive me of sleep and/or peace in my "home," and misrepresent me to others, such as the police department. She could not stand that I finally told the truth on her, because I am no longer afraid of being evicted or "written up" or whatever other petty, vicious, menial "punishments" that she can throw at me.
Also, Mr. R. (the bldg. maintenance man) had attempted to have K. and the work crew start out on the first floor and work their way UP with the re-painting the freshly-repainted doors, out of consideration for my sleeping habits, but K. insisted that they start on the second floor and then go immediately to the third floor as quickly as possible, obviously due to M.R.'s prompting.
While B.'s responses to my complaints were condescending and obviously designed to do nothing but protect her employers, rather than ever resembling anything like doing the right thing, I do not feel that these concerns have been addressed at all. I offered her a place to sit, but she chose to stand over me, with M.R. glaring at me, the entire time that she interrogated me about CERTAIN complaints, not all (the J.M. issue was not addressed at all, nor the complaints about E.G., she simply changed the subject repeatedly), and while she offered nothing but "That's how we do it" as a basis for how J&M and their employees treat the people who are their source of income.
I will be forwarding this complaint, if it is not addressed in a timely and at least SOMEWHAT legal/proper manner by J&M, to the Rural Housing Commission, the State Attorney General's Office, and anyone else who will listen, because I feel like the only way to get the humane treatment that I deserve is to bring these infractions out into the open. I have spoken to J&M management employees about these issues for over 2 years, and nothing has ever been improved, I have merely been the objects of reprisals and revenge by M.R. for "making her look bad."
If she did her job with any respect whatsoever for the residents, the people who TRULY pay her salary, no one could "make her look bad," because she'd actually be DOING HER JOB. Her entire attitude, the whole time that I've lived here, she's treated me as she treats most of the other residents (except her sacrosanct H.K., of course, and all of H.K.'s affiliates and spawn), as if I don't have a brain in my head nor any right to be treated with respect or equality. As I have told B. repeatedly, M.R.'s so-called "christianity" has been her prime motivation and excuse for the harassment that I have received at her hands and at the hands/voices of residents who obviously share her worldview. Since I'm apparently the only atheist in this parish, they feel perfectly entitled to desecrate my truck, steal my belongings, spit at my door, eavesdrop, destroy my property and otherwise remind me that since I don't submit to them via their cult's "authority", that I will never be "welcomed" here nor left in peace.
If M.R. or any of her friendly-to-her-cause/sycophantic residents ever actually applied the TRUE teachings of their Jesus to their actual lives, then they wouldn't feel the need to wreak retribution upon me, to rip stickers off of my truck, steal my possessions, or shove their "holidays" down my throat at every possible opportunity. If they actually understood the "teachings" in their bible, then they wouldn't constantly have to try to shove their Jesus down the throats who want no such thing.
This general attitude has colored my entire stay here, and despite the passing of S. (the one who stole my property and gave it to M.R., who was one of the ones ripping stickers off of my truck, and/or putting her magnets OVER my stickers, as if my truck were public property), this attitude has not changed. Whether G. is in residence at any given time or not (and she seems to only return in time for inspections, while sub-letting her apartment to this "Kim" person), she still feels that she is somehow "privileged" to make remarks to and about me to anyone who is at hand. And my objections to the obsessive and distasteful "decorations" at this apartment building (which are apparently dictated by H.K. and installed by her home health "nurse" at her every whim), including F.'s tacky puzzles on every available wall, while residents are not allowed to decorate their doors for any but "christian" holidays.
Again, I wish to reiterate my belief and the above anecdotal evidence that SOME residents are more "equal" than others --- there is a Jim Crow attitude towards myself and other residents, as if we are somehow less privileged because we are not among the ranks of Manager M.R.'s favored residents. From my understanding of publicly-subsidized housing, preference and courtship are not supposed to be paid to ANY religions, much less over the rights of the residents. Thus far, this has been the opposite of my experiences with J&M Management and (this development) and especially M.R.
_____________________________________
J.E.B., Apt. #26
2/20/07
And as soon as I had typed all of this up (along with the postmarked documentation as to when the abovementioned pedophile had sent out his "parolee notification" as well as copies of the "cleaning" demand lists that the "manager" had issued following my spine surgery), guess what Queen Chickenshit sneaks up and chickenshit-edly slips into my door jam?
A MEMO STATING THAT MY "use of profanity" in the holy presence of the MAINTENANCE CREW, who swear like drunken sailors in a whorehouse ANYWAY, had constituted a "VIOLATION OF MY LEASE AGREEMENT"!!!!!!
So now the fucking whore isn't just ATTACKING ME by proxy through her maintenance workers, she isn't just PURPOSEFULLY DEPRIVING ME OF SLEEP, she isn't just CAUSING ME HORRIFIC FIBROMYALGIA ATTACKS ON PURPOSE, she isn't just DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ME, she isn't just SINGLING ME OUT FOR PERSECUTION, NOW the fucking whore is THREATENING ME!!!!!!!!!!
I hope to hell that I can find the right lawyers, 'cause I SOOOOOOO wanna own this fucking building, just so that I can fire that bald-headed trailer-trash cunt.
Here's the deal:
Anybody whom I've invited to post at M.O.B. can use this blog to store long documents (like my rambling rants of late), pictures, whatever you want, then link back to here from the main page. That's why I've set it up, just to have a storage unit, so to speak. I don't know how to do the "encapsulated" set-up that some blogs do, where you have a chunk of the beginning of the post on the front page, then it links to its own page for the full post. If any of y'all know how to do this, please lemme know, if it can be done on freebie Blogger.
This way, none of my long stuff will push anybody else off of the main page, and vice versa. Dig? This way, there's more blog room for everybody! Y'know, if & when y'all have the time & inclination to post... heh.
This way, none of my long stuff will push anybody else off of the main page, and vice versa. Dig? This way, there's more blog room for everybody! Y'know, if & when y'all have the time & inclination to post... heh.
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