In American neighborhoods of single-family homes, the police-sponsored National Night Out is a yearly event pushed by their in-home proxy: the neighborhood watch. This in cities that have not repackaged Klan relationships and the murder of Trayvon Martin into a kinder, gentler organization of “block coordinators.” The City of Albany, California changed the package, but not the contents. This is obvious in cases like mine where a mobbing that includes a block coordinator dates back to the coordinator’s role as watch captain. She’s just trying to get the job done. In cities like Albany, the unbroken line between the tenure of watch captain and block coordinator indicates a name change as superficial as the glad-handing of residents who suspect a problem but are left with nowhere to go when city officials lie.
A few days back, a brightly colored flyer stuck with star stickers was left on my doorstep. It was an invitation to the National Night Out block party to be held on August 6th in my Albany neighborhood.
“Hello Neighbors!” read the flyer, putting the block party into the context of organizing the neighborhood for “disaster preparedness” with attendance from Albany police and fire, as well as Albany City staff. The chief organizer of the block party is one and the same with the block coordinator who has a long-standing relationship with Albany city government and continues to collude with what looks like a coterie of “investors” and those who may get kickbacks from them, to use local utilities and services as well as residential infrastructure to batter and ruin residents like me out of their homes. The only disaster planning done by block coordinators who mob is their active engagement in bringing disaster to others. This house was being mobbed even when my mother was still alive and living here. And the involvement of mobbing remains a strong possibility in the water leak that led to my mother’s lung collapse and the lung disease that determined the manner of her decline and death.
There’s no safety when you’re being mobbed. Mobbing goes much further than Trump hiring people to urinate in the hallways of his buildings. Neighborhoods where mobbing is underway are not safe because fear is a useful tactic when the mobbers’ imperative is to “clear” home owners and tenants from their homes. Watch captains and block coordinators who mob do not make the community safe. And when those entrusted with public safety and the public good involve themselves with mobbing sabotage and forced eviction, the civil rights implications are obvious.
(Based on my experiences, mobbers do not only systematically flag the ads of home owners and tenants seeking roommates on sites like Craig’s List; some may apply to live in homes with the intention of “clearing” the residents and compelling home owners to sell. There’s nothing like a roommate gone quiet after you walk down the hall and overhear the words: “What are you going to do when they won’t leave?” Not only are such situations volatile and potentially dangerous, they are yet another way mobbers exploit the landlord-tenant relationship for a third-party “investor.” These tactics make it even more difficult for home owners who want to hold and share their homes in the short run, and sell or give them to nonprofit land trusts or housing co-ops in the long run. If you’re in my situation, take care who you let into your home. The best choice may be to find roommates in networks that are known to you.)
There is no inclusion in being mobbed, no matter how many brightly colored invitations are left at the door. Crimes like mobbing succeed when their victims are intimidated, battered and bullied into silence. For this reason, while being singled out to be forcibly evicted from your home may be a de facto form of exclusion from the safety that some cities claim they equitably extend, it’s always a good thing to let passersby know that something is rotten in the State of Denmark.
The following link goes to a proof for a yard sign you can print out at Office Depot. There may not be enough time before National Night Out to take delivery of an ordered sign, but there’s a faster pick-up option.
