Some of you probably recall this. To recap, approximately a year and a half ago I was living in a Los Angeles apartment building when my neighbor strangled me and broke my foot in 3 places. I lost my apartment and mobility, and had to move in with my mom.
A kinda quick progress report before I explain why karma is a big fat bitch, the biggest bitch that ever was.
Due to a lot of administrative fuck-ups between police, hospital and courts, very few of my rights under Marsy's Law (the California Victim's of Crime Act of 2008) have been honored. I'm out 20K and counting from this assault, and not only have I received very little restitution from the Victim's of Crime Compensation program, but I was denied my rights to court-ordered restitution, the right to attend my assailant's hearings, submit a victim's impact statement, etc.
The guy who did it to me was never charged with the felonies he committed, spent less time in jail than I did in a cast, and got a 4 hour seminar that may as well have been titled Strangulation Is Bad, M'kay? for his efforts. The DA refused the case and kicked it to the City Attorney, who slapped him on the wrist with a single misdemeanor assault charge which he pled down to almost nothing.
While I scrambled out of the apartment on my own dime for my personal safety, he got to stay in the apartment building where he strangled me. The management refused to evict him. This part's bolded because it's ultimately important.
I've tried for the past year and a half to sue for compensation. Sue my assailant, sue the apartment building where the assault happened, sue the cops/hospital DA/CA's offices. No dice. I obtained a lawyer who strung me along for about 6 months, then fired me as a client when he decided my pockets weren't deep enough. Since then, I haven't been able to any lawyer who would touch me with a 10 foot pole. This is sickening because my statute of limitations on all this stuff is running out.
I'm simply not worth anything, if you get my drift.
After an extremely disappointing court date in May, I decided I had to put all this away for awhile, because it had been eating away at my life to the point where there was nothing left, and for what? I wasn't getting anywhere with it.
I resigned myself to never seeing justice in any sense of the word, there was nothing to salvage here and all I could do from here on out was concentrate on rebuilding my life and making it better than it was before all this shit happened. Living well being the best revenge, and all that.
I'm not going to lie, the whole thing's been a depressing slog and my worldview is permanently twisted and cynical.
What am I getting at with all this? What's the point? Well most of the above is irrelevant, I just felt after that big long thread some of you might want a cliff notes recap of what happened.
But it's not all irrelevant. In a very strange twist of fate, Karma said, "Bears, I know you've had a tough time, but I'm going to throw you a bone. Enjoy the dark satisfaction. Tastes like chocolate." Karma did to a bunch of other people what was done to me, and I'm not happy about that, although the sensation I feel is vaguely cocoaish.
Yep, the place where I was assaulted, whose management treated me like shit, told my mother I was stupid and deserved what happened to me, whom I was forced to pay rent to for an apartment I was unable to inhabit for safety and disability issues, who pushed me out early when they found another renter, allowed my Favorite Felon to stay after he attacked and seriously injured me and another person, and whom I was completely rendered unable to sue due to lawyer disinterest and fucked up California law...
...caught fire Thursday, then Friday morning, and is likely destroyed from water and structural damage. 100+ people are homeless in a sudden and traumatizing manner (sound familiar), including the management, who lived on the premises.
Karma, while I appreciate the gesture, you shouldn't have done this. Really, you shouldn't have. I would have have settled for the relevant parties losing their jobs, not scores of innocent people losing their homes and LA losing a historic and lovely building. C'mon, that ain't doing unto others. It's not cool of you to stir up so many conflicting and unpleasant feelings about this.
For the record, I have an alibi. Don't even start.
I wrote the local news affiliate and the LAFD to explain why I feel a, uh, wellness check of sorts should be conducted on my Favorite Felon, complete with our colorful history and the wee fact that he's a violent, unstable offender with priors that predate his collision with me. I also pointed out that management allowed him to stay after he proved himself a demonstrable danger to other tenants, and thus he might be worth investigating in all this. I also contacted the relevant division of the LAPD, who in a typical display of incompetence, claimed to have no idea a major structure in their precinct had been destroyed a few days earlier. Figures. I've gotten nowhere fast with them for the past year and a half, why start now?
If nothing else, the thought of this guy possibly being harassed and suspected of arson by TPTB gives me warm fuzzies, I'll admit it.
The news claim that this is all a confluence of unfortunate coincidences just isn't working for me, you know?
A kinda quick progress report before I explain why karma is a big fat bitch, the biggest bitch that ever was.
Due to a lot of administrative fuck-ups between police, hospital and courts, very few of my rights under Marsy's Law (the California Victim's of Crime Act of 2008) have been honored. I'm out 20K and counting from this assault, and not only have I received very little restitution from the Victim's of Crime Compensation program, but I was denied my rights to court-ordered restitution, the right to attend my assailant's hearings, submit a victim's impact statement, etc.
The guy who did it to me was never charged with the felonies he committed, spent less time in jail than I did in a cast, and got a 4 hour seminar that may as well have been titled Strangulation Is Bad, M'kay? for his efforts. The DA refused the case and kicked it to the City Attorney, who slapped him on the wrist with a single misdemeanor assault charge which he pled down to almost nothing.
While I scrambled out of the apartment on my own dime for my personal safety, he got to stay in the apartment building where he strangled me. The management refused to evict him. This part's bolded because it's ultimately important.
I've tried for the past year and a half to sue for compensation. Sue my assailant, sue the apartment building where the assault happened, sue the cops/hospital DA/CA's offices. No dice. I obtained a lawyer who strung me along for about 6 months, then fired me as a client when he decided my pockets weren't deep enough. Since then, I haven't been able to any lawyer who would touch me with a 10 foot pole. This is sickening because my statute of limitations on all this stuff is running out.
I'm simply not worth anything, if you get my drift.
After an extremely disappointing court date in May, I decided I had to put all this away for awhile, because it had been eating away at my life to the point where there was nothing left, and for what? I wasn't getting anywhere with it.
I resigned myself to never seeing justice in any sense of the word, there was nothing to salvage here and all I could do from here on out was concentrate on rebuilding my life and making it better than it was before all this shit happened. Living well being the best revenge, and all that.
I'm not going to lie, the whole thing's been a depressing slog and my worldview is permanently twisted and cynical.
What am I getting at with all this? What's the point? Well most of the above is irrelevant, I just felt after that big long thread some of you might want a cliff notes recap of what happened.
But it's not all irrelevant. In a very strange twist of fate, Karma said, "Bears, I know you've had a tough time, but I'm going to throw you a bone. Enjoy the dark satisfaction. Tastes like chocolate." Karma did to a bunch of other people what was done to me, and I'm not happy about that, although the sensation I feel is vaguely cocoaish.
Yep, the place where I was assaulted, whose management treated me like shit, told my mother I was stupid and deserved what happened to me, whom I was forced to pay rent to for an apartment I was unable to inhabit for safety and disability issues, who pushed me out early when they found another renter, allowed my Favorite Felon to stay after he attacked and seriously injured me and another person, and whom I was completely rendered unable to sue due to lawyer disinterest and fucked up California law...
...caught fire Thursday, then Friday morning, and is likely destroyed from water and structural damage. 100+ people are homeless in a sudden and traumatizing manner (sound familiar), including the management, who lived on the premises.
Karma, while I appreciate the gesture, you shouldn't have done this. Really, you shouldn't have. I would have have settled for the relevant parties losing their jobs, not scores of innocent people losing their homes and LA losing a historic and lovely building. C'mon, that ain't doing unto others. It's not cool of you to stir up so many conflicting and unpleasant feelings about this.
For the record, I have an alibi. Don't even start.
I wrote the local news affiliate and the LAFD to explain why I feel a, uh, wellness check of sorts should be conducted on my Favorite Felon, complete with our colorful history and the wee fact that he's a violent, unstable offender with priors that predate his collision with me. I also pointed out that management allowed him to stay after he proved himself a demonstrable danger to other tenants, and thus he might be worth investigating in all this. I also contacted the relevant division of the LAPD, who in a typical display of incompetence, claimed to have no idea a major structure in their precinct had been destroyed a few days earlier. Figures. I've gotten nowhere fast with them for the past year and a half, why start now?
If nothing else, the thought of this guy possibly being harassed and suspected of arson by TPTB gives me warm fuzzies, I'll admit it.
The news claim that this is all a confluence of unfortunate coincidences just isn't working for me, you know?
