Injustice after injustice
Two week update
It's been a REALLY long few weeks, and I've been sick with some kind of bad flu, so physically exhausted, congested and sore on top of everything else. I’ve skipped out on my new running partner a few times and haven’t started Kung-Fu.
The theme of the past few weeks have been one example after another of injustices systematically maintained by people in power choosing which documents to reference and what records to keep. The more I attack that cognitive dissonance it attacks back by trying to make it about not conforming.
Despite it being brought to their attention by the president of the police union calling me a “cellar dweller” in their private Facebook group, and recognizing me as a journalist the judge determined a social media post sufficient ground to revoke my license to carry, in addition to two or three anonymous complaints that shouldn’t have been able to be used against me. The judge decided that the city licensing officer did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when revoking it, citing me amplifying someone else's threatening language, and “inciting violence” at a place where a police officer was assaulted, referring to me shouting for people to not speak to police (exercising their fifth) at the protest at the RMV January last year where a few activists were arrested. He also cited me not updating my address with the WPD, but they were talking about my old business, which wasn’t provided to them in the first place. I will of course appeal to the next level, but it’s frustrating and going to be more expensive. His decision had no consideration of the relevant case law, or mention of my second amendment rights The only consideration of my first amendment rights are in a literal footnote. Considering that my trial was the week of people sharing memes supporting a Luigi Mangione, I feel this sets a terrifying precedence.
My partner quit their job at the Art Museum, after getting a legalese response to a complaint they had filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination detailing a series of significant grievances that had not been resolved. The museum's response gaslit them, denying some of the abuse happened, claiming they’d resolved things they’d never addressed, and citing unrelated workshops and partnerships to pretend they tried to mitigate their ongoing harm. The next day, they posted this Message from the Director.
After a few weeks of trying to reach a victims advocate at the Worcester DAs office, I was getting concerned because noone there could find a record of the case, by my name my assailants or the docket number - but one reached out to me, and it turned out that it had been “conflicted” out to a different office, the Telegram reported that my attacker had donated to District Attorney Early, so I guess that makes sense. I spoke with the victim advocate, and then the prosecutor, and he strongly agreed that this is grounds for a civil rights violation as well as the assault charge, but will be running it by their appeals department to see if he has grounds for a “It was retaliation, not a violation of his participating in democracy”. They tried to answer my questions, but it seems like most of them have to go back to the Worcester Police department. Met them in person at the arraignment, where there were a surprising number of reporters. I got to meet an investigative journalist from the Telegram, who was working on a different transparency related article at the time, and is very interested in the discrepancies between public records and Batista’s statement about my attack.
The arraignment itself was uneventful, he said nothing and a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. A man who was with him glared at us the entire time we were in the courtroom, and then right outside the courtroom he threatened my partner. The investigative journalist from the Telegram ran over to ask his name and he refused to provide it.
I officially am no longer doing interviews with Channel 7. They were one of the few news agencies that didn’t mention the lack of police response after the attack, and when I ignored their message after watching the video they just reused footage from the first interview a different evening. This time, the person from Channel 7 interrupted me doing an interview with Mass Live by shoving his TV camera in my face. I ended up getting interviewed by them while Masslive and Telegram took notes and it was efficient and worked well but was pushy and I would rather have given different people an opportunity to ask their own questions.
After following up on the Parks Department issues (they haven’t complied with the procedure following my open meeting complaint form) I discovered that the rules for running boards and commissions haven’t been updated since before I was born.
I participated in a press release, about the housing court systematically not recognizing due process and other basic rights for the past few years, and how this was impacting homeowners who were victims of predatory loans, and common eviction strategies.
I helped them with two eviction blockades, one in Lowell and one in Webster. Worcester police are known to stay out of these, so we are typically fine unless they send a tactical team of Jail Guards from the sheriff's office, and concerningly one of these was with a different sheriff's department - not a constable. They have the authority and manpower to remove us and then barricade us away while a locksmith breaks in, but this situation was unlawful in a bunch of different ways, on top of the loan initially being deceptive
They hadn’t served it properly
The notice didn’t have the right address
It was based on housing court action that was too long ago
The predatory loan was part of a larger court action
However, they still showed up in force, two police vehicles and four sheriff vehicles if I’m not mistaken. A locksmith did show up, but I don’t think he had any clue what he was walking into and left shortly after arriving. Despite us not hearing back from one of the courts, the sheriffs left on their own after a few hours. The second one was a constable, whose father had been harassing the disabled homeowner, and they didn’t even show up. It seems like some of these people are genuinely just professional intimidators.
It worked out well, I came home, uploaded all the pictures, and then took a nap and woke up as the economic development committee was starting but made it downtown in time for public comment
Because I was there before everyone else, I saw the police arriving and took a few photos. They waved, so I took the opportunity to explain why I was documenting it and interview them, confirming that the City Manager lied. Both of them understood that it is a “practice” to have officers at city council, in direct contrast to his LINK statement regarding my post about this being the first time there weren't police.
Related, my petition following the thread of the responding officers not having body worn cameras passed, after I received this showing that the police union had initiated the docking of police cameras
I also mentioned constables, since one was being reappointed and it resulted in confirming that the city manager is in fact responsible for them, and can rescind appointments if they’re problematic. My public record complaints were added to the record, but the issue was not resolved.
Frankly, that’s the least of their issues. This meeting we learned that my district councilor, Candy Mero-Carlson has been calling our cities first nonbinary representative “It” behind closed doors, and they didn’t bother to deny it in their statement. Our mayor is trying to deflect to their attendance and participation, despite assigning them to committees that don’t require their attendance or participation and Fox news is now mocking them and our city. I’ve been watching the hate online pour in - knowing how much worse it must be in their inbox. A realtor I knew from small business networking tried to call them out, and I’m realizing that we’re watching ignorance compound entitlement at a faster rate than before. This is really somehow further identifying who is an ally to equity and who really is just trying to be part of the conversation.
After my first week of the year without, I returned to social media, and my productivity immediately dwindled to near nothing. However I’m now on a Meta break for a week, and have deleted Facebook, Instagram and even though I never finished creating an account there, Whatsapp. I also deleted X, Discord and Telegram while I was at it, figuring that it’ll help me start actually using BlueSky, which I’m not hating but also not loving. I’m missing my Facebook groups for both local news, and general discussions, and realizing how much of my community was exclusively online. It’s been long overdue for me to deprioritize using Messenger for communication and I’m glad for an excuse. However, if I didn’t mention it in conversation with a friend, I wouldn’t have known an event was rescheduled due to weather so there’s some definite limitations.
Sunday chores as a concept is going well. This week I consolidating a bunch of doom boxes and drop bins in my room, finally gathering all my loose business cards into one place and consolidating papers. I now have files, actually organized folders, in a folder drawer. If I want to find a copy of a lease or record, it's no longer opening a few bins and going through a few piles, it’s figuring out which Folder it’s in and then going through it. Super long overdue. Also reinstalled the operating system on a few of my computers, setting my digital desktop up from scratch too.
I attended the 40th Martin Luther King Jr Breakfast, and aside from some incredibly hypocritical statements from the mayor, the speakers were fantastic, breaking past the binary of nonviolent vs violent activism.
I then attended a stand out against trump, organized by local chapters of the Independent Socialist Group and Massachusetts Green Party. Someone told me that their dad is excited for me to run for office, and asked me if I was - I told him less so by the week. Someone else asked where I am with my campaign, and I had to honestly tell them still picking a treasurer - I have discovered my first two picks apparently work for the city.
Upcoming
Looks like we may be getting another dog. Scout doesn't seem unhappy necessarily, but he's been excited less often and for shorter durations and this house is missing an important role. Luca has had notifications on for a long while for dalmatians rescues and there's one that may be a really really great fit, we passed the references and had a virtual house check. I'm going to need to learn to throw a ball, and but may have a default running partner.
Tomorrow, the first Public Safety Committee since the DOJ report was released. They’re discussing drone usage and police details. Then the rally against transphobia, followed by city council
