October 14, 2011
6. Newblog2011: 10/14/11 Abuse at St. Patrick’s shelter/The New York Times, Boston Globe and police support that abuse
When I left 2 voicemail messages at the New York Times reader comment line the other night, I was at the St. Patrick’s shelter in Somerville. I was holding the tape recorder up to the payphone.
A female staffperson, a white woman who was probably in her 50’s, walked over to me and stood right next to me. She said “Did you put money in the phone?”
I said “No, it’s a toll-free number. You don’t have to put money in the phone for a toll-free number.”
She said, to the room at large, “Is that true?”
It was confirmed for her by other people that it is true that it is free to call a toll-free number.
She said “You have your own phone, don’t you? Isn’t that a phone?”
I said “No, it’s a tape recorder.”
She said “Hang up the phone. You can’t use that here. I’ve heard about you; you can’t record things here. It’s a violation.”
I said “All I’m doing now is playing a message that I recorded of myself talking.”
She let me play both of the messages into the phone. I told her that she had just told the New York Times everything she’d just said to me.
She said “That’s ok. I like that newspaper,” as she walked away.
I left that night, maybe a half-hour later. She was outside as I left. She said “Where are you going?” I said “I can’t take the way you talk to me, and I’m leaving.” She said “You’re out for 3 nights, then.”
Earlier in the night, she’d already walked out into the dining room and told all the guests of the shelter “Don’t scrape your food into the kitchen sink; we had another flood last night.”
I wasn’t there the night before, which fact I kept to myself and which she might not have known; I think she’s only part-time and I’ve never seen her there before. Another guest of the shelter started getting teased instead, for no reason.
I’d had no kind of confrontation with that staffperson at all, before she started antagonizing me. That’s the way all of it has been.
Yesterday, the New York Times had a small caption for an article on its front page. Here’s what the title of the article was:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"At St. Patrick’s, a Cornerstone That Has Long Eluded Searchers
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: October 12, 2011"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2011
I’m the one who’s been getting violated, and there’s no law that can justify not allowing me to record what goes on in places where I’m being abused.
The last time I was at St. Patrick’s Shelter, before the time that I’ve just talked about, the female staffperson who first barred me for a night again told me to leave because I’d washed my hair in the sink in the bathroom. I’ve been sometimes trying to keep track of the seeming ethnicity of the people who abuse me. She’s a Latina woman who’s probably in her fifties.
I hadn’t even had a chance to finish what I was doing; it’s not as if I wasn’t going to clean any hair I’d left in the sink out of it. She had me backed up against the sink, telling me that it was disgusting to wash my hair in the sink. She wouldn’t hear a word of my saying “I’m going to clean the sink as soon as I’m done.”
I don't even know how she ended up in the bathroom telling me I couldn't wash my hair in the sink. It was still early in the morning. I had been using the sink, and another guest of the shelter had walked in. I had immediately moved away from the sink so that the other guest could put some water on her toothbrush in order to be able to brush her teeth. It's one sink, and one shower, and 2 toilets, for more than 20 people, on the first floor.
The guest didn't say anything to me, but a few minutes later, the staffperson walked in to tell me I couldn't wash my hair in the sink.
That staffperson is someone who immediately starts yelling if you try to say anything at all after she’s told you yet another unreasonable thing that she wants you to do or not do.
I’ve seen her yelling at a brain-damaged woman who’s been homeless for years. She doesn’t belong in that job; a lot of people who work with the homeless shouldn’t be working with any kind of vulnerable population, or in human services at all.
She told me, when I said “I’m going to clean the sink as soon as I’m done,” “You have to be nice and follow the rules!”
One of the things she likes to tell me is a rule is that I can’t use the upstairs bathroom. Other staff seem to think that that’s not the rule about the upstairs bathroom, that anyone can use it after 6:00 a.m. and before 9:30 p.m.
I had washed my hair in the sink in the bathroom on the first floor because my flip flops got thrown out with my other clothes when the BPHC shelter in Quincy threw everything out of my locker, after I had already called before the first of the month to ask about paying my locker rent and been told “Don’t worry about it until you can get her in a few days.” I didn’t want to use the shower at St. Patrick’s without flip flops, and I felt I’d gone long enough without washing my hair.
I objected to the way she was treating me, not in a lot of sentences; she yelled to the male staffperson who coughs whenever he sees me "I'm throwing her out!"
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October 14, 2011
The conglomerate has already picked up on the New York Times’ encouragement of my being abused at St. Patrick’s shelter.
Today, the Boston Globe had this story on its front page, with these words enlarged as the title and subtitle
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“State Senate approves casino bill
Patrick could sign measure by end of year”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2011
When I walked to the Women’s Center day shelter this morning, there was a red truck that said PAT’S on it, parked on the side of one of the streets that I have to pass by to get to the Women’s Center. There was a police car parked in front of the truck.
One last note; there wasn't much hair in the sink to clean out. I'm curious as to how the conglomerate, which has tried to torture me with my own jokes about my thin hair, is going to make something out of my washing my hair in the sink and leaving a couple of strands of hair there.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, October 14, 2011 @ 4:53 p.m./addition @ 5:00 p.m.
6. Newblog2011: 10/14/11 Abuse at St. Patrick’s shelter/The New York Times, Boston Globe and police support that abuse
When I left 2 voicemail messages at the New York Times reader comment line the other night, I was at the St. Patrick’s shelter in Somerville. I was holding the tape recorder up to the payphone.
A female staffperson, a white woman who was probably in her 50’s, walked over to me and stood right next to me. She said “Did you put money in the phone?”
I said “No, it’s a toll-free number. You don’t have to put money in the phone for a toll-free number.”
She said, to the room at large, “Is that true?”
It was confirmed for her by other people that it is true that it is free to call a toll-free number.
She said “You have your own phone, don’t you? Isn’t that a phone?”
I said “No, it’s a tape recorder.”
She said “Hang up the phone. You can’t use that here. I’ve heard about you; you can’t record things here. It’s a violation.”
I said “All I’m doing now is playing a message that I recorded of myself talking.”
She let me play both of the messages into the phone. I told her that she had just told the New York Times everything she’d just said to me.
She said “That’s ok. I like that newspaper,” as she walked away.
I left that night, maybe a half-hour later. She was outside as I left. She said “Where are you going?” I said “I can’t take the way you talk to me, and I’m leaving.” She said “You’re out for 3 nights, then.”
Earlier in the night, she’d already walked out into the dining room and told all the guests of the shelter “Don’t scrape your food into the kitchen sink; we had another flood last night.”
I wasn’t there the night before, which fact I kept to myself and which she might not have known; I think she’s only part-time and I’ve never seen her there before. Another guest of the shelter started getting teased instead, for no reason.
I’d had no kind of confrontation with that staffperson at all, before she started antagonizing me. That’s the way all of it has been.
Yesterday, the New York Times had a small caption for an article on its front page. Here’s what the title of the article was:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"At St. Patrick’s, a Cornerstone That Has Long Eluded Searchers
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: October 12, 2011"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2011
I’m the one who’s been getting violated, and there’s no law that can justify not allowing me to record what goes on in places where I’m being abused.
The last time I was at St. Patrick’s Shelter, before the time that I’ve just talked about, the female staffperson who first barred me for a night again told me to leave because I’d washed my hair in the sink in the bathroom. I’ve been sometimes trying to keep track of the seeming ethnicity of the people who abuse me. She’s a Latina woman who’s probably in her fifties.
I hadn’t even had a chance to finish what I was doing; it’s not as if I wasn’t going to clean any hair I’d left in the sink out of it. She had me backed up against the sink, telling me that it was disgusting to wash my hair in the sink. She wouldn’t hear a word of my saying “I’m going to clean the sink as soon as I’m done.”
I don't even know how she ended up in the bathroom telling me I couldn't wash my hair in the sink. It was still early in the morning. I had been using the sink, and another guest of the shelter had walked in. I had immediately moved away from the sink so that the other guest could put some water on her toothbrush in order to be able to brush her teeth. It's one sink, and one shower, and 2 toilets, for more than 20 people, on the first floor.
The guest didn't say anything to me, but a few minutes later, the staffperson walked in to tell me I couldn't wash my hair in the sink.
That staffperson is someone who immediately starts yelling if you try to say anything at all after she’s told you yet another unreasonable thing that she wants you to do or not do.
I’ve seen her yelling at a brain-damaged woman who’s been homeless for years. She doesn’t belong in that job; a lot of people who work with the homeless shouldn’t be working with any kind of vulnerable population, or in human services at all.
She told me, when I said “I’m going to clean the sink as soon as I’m done,” “You have to be nice and follow the rules!”
One of the things she likes to tell me is a rule is that I can’t use the upstairs bathroom. Other staff seem to think that that’s not the rule about the upstairs bathroom, that anyone can use it after 6:00 a.m. and before 9:30 p.m.
I had washed my hair in the sink in the bathroom on the first floor because my flip flops got thrown out with my other clothes when the BPHC shelter in Quincy threw everything out of my locker, after I had already called before the first of the month to ask about paying my locker rent and been told “Don’t worry about it until you can get her in a few days.” I didn’t want to use the shower at St. Patrick’s without flip flops, and I felt I’d gone long enough without washing my hair.
I objected to the way she was treating me, not in a lot of sentences; she yelled to the male staffperson who coughs whenever he sees me "I'm throwing her out!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2011
The conglomerate has already picked up on the New York Times’ encouragement of my being abused at St. Patrick’s shelter.
Today, the Boston Globe had this story on its front page, with these words enlarged as the title and subtitle
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“State Senate approves casino bill
Patrick could sign measure by end of year”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2011
When I walked to the Women’s Center day shelter this morning, there was a red truck that said PAT’S on it, parked on the side of one of the streets that I have to pass by to get to the Women’s Center. There was a police car parked in front of the truck.
One last note; there wasn't much hair in the sink to clean out. I'm curious as to how the conglomerate, which has tried to torture me with my own jokes about my thin hair, is going to make something out of my washing my hair in the sink and leaving a couple of strands of hair there.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, October 14, 2011 @ 4:53 p.m./addition @ 5:00 p.m.