Where I Am At Now

[Deleted member 487]

A little bit of an update, first--
I complete a year of college. Which is good. My GPA in Fall of '15 was 3.28. That's really good! Then after a few traumatic events my GPA for Spring of '16 ended up being 2.39. My cumulative GPA is now 2.7.

Now, for the title of this thread....and this is going to be a bit long.
What happened is a female postal service employee made some inappropriate comments, and I was rude and told her to F*** herself. And it should have been nothing more than that. Well, I guess I gotta back up. She made an inquiry about my income. I told her it's none of her business. She said it is her business because she's USPS. Blah.

Ok, so I talked to her supervisor, and he called me rude and ignorant, making hints that she has the right to information about my income source. I then went through the process of filing a complaint.

Well, my landlord was made aware off this by her. He told me to drop it or I'm not welcome there. I ignored him and followed through with the complaint. His involvement is illegal, so screw him.

So I pursued the allegation, and then he went massive ape-crap on me. He kicked me out of the apartment without following the due process. Well, I had a choice I guess. I could have stayed until he had me evicted. Except there is a reason why I'm here telling you about this- I have PTSD. You understand me and PTSD well enough to understand me when I say that I had no choice, really. Leave or stay. Big choice, right? Well, if I stayed I would have killed him or killed myself. No middle ground. And the city manager, chief of police, city prosecutor and the county prosecutor all have the same thought- I didn't have to leave until there was a court proceeding. When I was very plain about this, it offended them. I told them, I had a choice. I would have (a) killed him, or I would have (b) killed myself, or (c) leave and prevent a & b from becoming an issue. And all of them, except for the chief and the county attorney found humor in that. The chief understands PTSD (or so he claims), and the county attorney refuses to talk. And when I disclosed “kill him or kill myself”, everyone is more concerned about me making “terroristic threats” against the landlord, not paying attention to the suicide potential. And after the near-suicide I had in April of 2015, I won’t even dare to come close to wrestling that monster. But the thing is, they ignored my suicide potential, more concerned about the man that has so far committed multiple felonies on state and federal levels. AND I have his verbal abuse recorded.

Now, keep that batch in mind....

Ok, so as of January when I returned to school I was living out of the cab of my pick up truck. I already have herniated disks in my neck and through out my back along with damaged hips and knees. And I’m sleeping in the cab of my truck...? Because I had no where else to go. No one would rent to me because of me getting kicked out. And THAT is why my GPA dropped like it did.

Well, keep that in mind for a bit, please.

So...after school I tried staying in the area. And one day while doing business with a local business I left dissatisfied, returned later to try to make amends (WTF for? I did nothing wrong...). And when I left, they called the police.

The whole time I was there I was polite and direct. And they called the police alleging that I was screaming at them. Ok, they have audio. Let’s get a copy. Oh, their audio isn’t working. But that’s ok. Because I recorded both visits. My shrink and pastor both agree- I was not loud at all. I was polite, respectful and direct in my business dealings with them. And the cops did their best to track me down that same day to write me a ticket. For a simple infraction.

So that is what I have to deal with.
1. Cops that are more concerned with a simple infraction instead of multiple felonies;
2. Cops that are more concerned with me making terroristic threats than my suicide level;
3. Authorities of all levels that do not believe that I have PTSD or any rights as an American, let alone a human;

And in the end no one has any concern about me, the (damn I hate this label) “victim”, expressing more concern for (a) a landlord that can do whatever he wants and take no heed to the law; & (b) business people that are more willing to commit multiple Misdemenor A’s in hopes of prosecuting me of a simple infraction.

So ladies and gentlemen, that’s my batch of hell so far. Any help is welcome.

 

[Deleted member 487]

I think I'm going to go to bed now. My PTSD crap is bad already, and right now I'm too tired to keep fighting it.

 

[Justmehere]

That sounds really difficult and I'm quite impressed you have done as well as you have. It seems like you are dealing with some serious possible injustice here.

There are some red flags that pop up for me in how you describe what law enforcement is doing, and not just their failure to handle the abuse from this other person.

It's great they only gave you a ticket but once the DA gets this case they can add more charges.

I highly recommend that you stop talking to law enforcement right away. Like now. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court.

If the ticket comes with the possibility of jail time, then you should qualify for a free attorney based on income. Avail yourself of that help ASAP. Be extremely careful about posting any details online. That could be discovered and used against you as well.

Anything you say that helps clear yourself of these false accusations actually can not be used in court to help your case. So once someone is accused or even suspected of a crime, you can't help improve anything by talking to them and explaining yourself. It's normal to want to be able to do that, especially if innocent of the allegations others are making. But the way the legal system works is that once you are a suspect, and you may not even know if you are, you can only give them things hey can twist to use against you. It's how evidence rules work, and one of the biggest reasons attorneys say that if the police are even remotely suggesting you are a suspect for even the smallest infraction, stop talking to law enforcement immediately and consult an attorney.

If the police question you any further, say this: "I choose to excercise my right to counsel and I wish to make no further comment." Those are very specifically important words that if you and/or the police document you saying that, anything else you say after that has to be thrown out of court if the police or DA tries to use it against you. And use this specific words. Those are the very specific words that will protect you of you do talk to them at all. (And be sure to consult with an attorney to be sure.)

Many criminal law attorneys will give a free consult. I would avail yourself of that right away. They can talk to you about the best way to handle the felonies of this other guy in a way that will reduce the risk of being falsely accused.

It sounds like the police and others are actually making some serious statements. Don't trust that they really do think this is a joke. Telling the police even a joke about how you were either going to kill yourself or him him is really serious matter. I totally get the joke. Completely. They may joke along with you to keep you talking. It's a common law enforcement technique. Please be very careful in talking to them or anyone else remotely related to the situation until you consult an attorney. Police are legally allowed to lie to you and misrepresent themselves if it's part of an investigation process, and you won't even know you are under investigation. If you are asking them to investigate the other guy, they will investigate you too.

If any of them know you have PTSD, they will be all the more likely to treat you as a suspect. This stinks and is veg unfair, but is important to be aware of.

The police actually can't really help with the landlord unless he did something criminal. What you describe that he did wrong is a civil matter only. That's part of why the police haven't fines anything against him.

As far as the business and the postal worker - back up and if you want to fight what they have done, get legal help. Telling a postal worker to f*ck herself is actually in some states considered obsence language with intent to alarm. I know you didn't mean harm but that doesn't mean anyone else understood that. She was inappropriate but you may need to cut your losses on this so you don't get in more trouble and deal with more unfair consequences.

Look in your area for any non-profit law firms that might be able to help with the housing issues.

If you are in school now, look into free legal and housing resources at your school. Maybe you ages already done this. Also consider some extra counseling support until things get better. Being homeless is tough on its own.

Since bring kicked out is at least partially if not completely somewhat related to your excercise of a civil rights (to file a grievance about a government worker), the landlord kicking you out and others not renting to you may be a retaliation issue that HUD or the Office for Civil Rights could help with. I'm not as sure on that though. Check with an attorney first before proceeding with a retaliation claim.

Be careful about recording people. Make sure that you live in what's called a "one party consent" state, otherwise it could be a felony to record people without their expressed documented permission. You can google that term and find some good info on what states are one party consent and two party consent. If you are in a one party consent state, tape away - as long as you are only taping conversations with you. (Still a serious crime to tape conversations you are not a part of, which I know you haven't done. This is just a word of caution.)

The ACLU may even be able to help.

Again, I'm no lawyer, just a peer with too much experience with the legal system. And keep documenting everything you can and give that to your legal counsel. Not law enforcement. Again, they can't actually use evidence that helps you in court because of how evidence rules work -- but a defense attorney can use it. It's just how our adversarial legal system works.

Most of all, stop talking to law enforcement or anyone else remotely related to this, and get legal help ASAP.

I don't say any of this to minimize the injustice you are experiencing but because it is really injust and seems like time to get some legal help so you don't deal with greater injustice and losses, and so that perhaps you can get the justice you are understandably seeking.

So sorry you are going through this. Hang in there and don't let the bastards get the better of you. Keep rising above their stupidly and acting smartly to protect yourself.