>> Gloria Parker is a seven-year
old woman in Ohio and
she was thanks to retiring and
saving up until her retirement.
She was able to buy a house, but
that house is now at risk of being
taken from her.
Because of something
called anti-nuisance laws which I'm
going to keep it real,
I was not familiar with these.
I think many people might not be,
but let's talk about them.
First, about Gloria Parker and
then more generally.
So she lives in South Euclid.
And under South Euclid 's broad
anti-nuisance policy, the police
chief can declare a home a problem
and threatened fines if two or
more incidents happen at or even
near one address within a year.
If the cops are called to the home
again, the property owner can
be punished with a series of
escalating fines, regardless of
whether they were at fault.
And that is only one of the many
ways that you don't have to be
responsible for
anything having to do with this to
potentially be fined by so
much that you might lose your home.
In the case of Gloria Parker,
her son is an adult that has
schizophrenia, was punished under
the law after a child's worsening
mental health needs triggered
repeated visits from the police.
Now she's on the verge of losing
the house, because of the over
$12,000 in fines that the city is
levied on her for 911 calls.
Now, that would be bad enough.
911 is a service, it's there.
You're supposed to be able to use
it, but what makes this even worse
is that she wasn't the one making
the calls.
Parker's son who doesn't even live
with her, important to bear that
in mind was usually the one calling
the cops not her.
On one occasion, Parker was fined
after her son called 911 and quote,
made bizarre and
threatening complaints against his
mother and family members,
alleging the violations of
the Americans with Disabilities Act
and her constitutional rights.
Another time, he called the police
to say he was suicidal.
That caused her too.
So phone calls to 911 by a person
that has documented issues that
might well need help from the city,
certainly from someone, you do
enough of those and your house can
be labeled a nuisance.
Even if other people are calling
about your house or
something near your house and
it causes the cops to come out,
that can start to rack up charges.
And I want you to think about the
people you know and think about who
can afford just $12,000 in fines in
one year for absolutely nothing.
For some people, that might be
enough to make you lose your house.
And of course,
then there's the social context of
who tends to get hit by these.
You'll be shocked to find out that
in America,
this tends to be used in a racially
discriminatory fashion.
But before we get into all of that,
I wanted to give you both
a chance to win.
>> Yeah, John, actually, this hits
three really important categories.
One is class.
And so guys, you know this and
it happens at all in almost every
story.
And you think they're going to do
these nuisance laws against
homes in Beverly Hills is 0% chance
they're going to do that.
Now this is in Ohio, but
it's also all across the country.
There's also laws like this in
Wisconsin, etc.
I use Beverly Hills as
the obvious example.
Because if somebody calls in
a couple of times, because they're
worried about crime in
Beverly Hills, they're not going to
get hit with a nuisance law.
Everybody the cops would be scared
to death, because e those folks
are rich and powerful.
And they'll call in and say,
how dare you and then people
might will be in trouble.
So these laws are almost
exclusively used against the poor
and the middle class, and
then the issue of disabilities.
They're clearly used more against
people who have folks with mental
health issues which, by the way is
a big contingent in America.
But now if you call in and ask for
help, they go, how dare you?
We're going to charge you more.
Okay, that's unbelievable.
Now when you turn the race,
here we go again.
So is it discriminatory?
The key issue here is selective
enforcement.
Now look,
there's numbers to back this up.
We'll share that with you in
a second, but
there's a quote from a mayor
that just absolutely settles it.
But even within this particular
story, the lady who was affected
said, there's an older white guy
that lives across the street
a little further dow.
Anybody that's non white,
he'll cussed them out, right?
And so she explains that
the lady that's next door to him,
she's called the police on
him several times.
They haven't done anything to him,
okay?
So now you're saying well, okay, so
that's one white guy who seems
racist and there's a lot of calls
regarding his house.
They don't do anything with her
they do, but maybe it's random.
Now there's another town in Ohio,
Bedford where the mayor was
explicit when they pass this law in
2005.
He said, one of the things that
we take pride in is middle class
values.
We believe in neighborhoods,
not hoods.
That is one of the reasons we
passed that nuisance law tonight.
And if that wasn't already
super clear, he went on to say,
I've made mention of the students
walking down the streets and
those are predominantly
African American kids who bring in
that mentality from the inner city.
>> My God. >> So
the night they passed this law,
the mayor went on and said,
basically, we're doing it to target
black people in this town, Nina.
>> I mean, stunningly callous and
both of these mayor's actually
should be held to account and
let's go back to our 70-year
old elder who son is schizophrenic
and the city absolutely knows this
and they're still putting upon
the senior.
And she has to have many sleepless
nights about whether or
not she is going to lose her home.
That should not be happening south.
Euclid is actually in
Cuyahoga County where I live.
I know some folks
live in South Euclid.
I know some of the council people
who live in South Euclid.
And because of this story,
I definitely left a message for
two of the council members in that
city to ask them to look into this.
She should not have to be tortured
like this on a regular basis and
I can't even imagine what it feels
like to be at that age, and
that stage in one's life.
And the threat of losing your home
on top of the fact that you
have a special needs child,
although her child has grown still
have a special needs child and
the city would just exacerbate
the pain that you are in.
For the Bedford mayor,
the community's going to
have to step up and
particularly the African American
community needs to step up.
Because if I lived in that city,
no way would that person be able to
serve as mayor again.
The bigotry is on full display and
the continuous criminalization of
being black.
We think about Trayvon Martin and
what happened to him.
Walking down the street with his
Skittles and his juice and
this neighborhood
watch person challenged him and
he ended up being killed, why?
Because he was walking down
the street while he was black.
These types of laws are dangerous
and they could cause black people
to lose their lives.
>> Yeah, in fact,
that's in Faribault, Minnesota.
It's you guys,
the quiet injustice is that
people have to suffer throughout
this country is maddening.
So these folks normally have no
recourse at all and the media
almost never covers it, right?
And so in Fairbanks, Minnesota,
a black woman had her neighbors
call dozens of times about her
gratuitously for things like
barbecuing at her own home.
Well, look, they get called people.
The cops on on a black family
barbecue at a park.
Okay, but you can't do it in a park
and you do it in your own home.
They still call the cops, okay?
And then the cop said, okay,
now you're going to charge for
nuisance calls.
>> It's ridiculous.
>> But I didn't make the calls.
My racist neighbor made the calls
against me.
That's right.
Well, the whole point of
the law is racism.
So what did you think we passed
it for?
And so the mayor admitted it was
for racism.
And so look,
I give credit to the ACLU.
They drive me crazy by having
terrible opinion on Citizens United
and their favorite money in
politics is selfishness and
porn, but
they do amazing work, otherwise.
And nobody's there for them,
except ACLU.
And so the ACLU stepped in and
on many occasions proved how deeply
racist this was.
By the way,
to the points that John and
Nina both made.
Now when you go
back to the disabilities issue and
I did not know this that, but
it does not surprise me,
because America has this brutal.
People with untreated mental health
issues are 16 times more likely
to die at the hands of police
when compared to other civilians.
They think about how crazy that is.
So in other countries,
the cops don't just come in and go,
I'm not going to figure out
if this person is deaf or not or
if they have schizophrenia or
any other mental health issues.
I'm just going to kick their ass.
I'm just going to break their legs.
I'm just going to kill them, etc.
The other countries don't do
that we do.
That's why 16 times more.
That is a giant,
unbelievable number.
Now, this story on top of
how the police brutalized people
with mental health issues in this
country.
They now say, hey,
if you got somebody with mental
health issues and they're calling.
You got to kick them out of their
hat out of your house.
Otherwise, we're saying that's part
of your house.
We're going to charge you and
find you,
because of these nuisance laws.
So this lady, the original lady
we're telling you about,
the 70-year old would then bring
her son back to her.
Because she had the son move out,
because she was
going to lose the house.
So already, that's awful.
Then when they arrest the son,
I because he has schizophrenia on
something else, they bring him back
to her house and then fine her.
My God, what is she?
And then at one point,
she's like I can't call the cops.
because if I do,
I'm going to lose the house.
But my son's inside and
I'm worried, so should go sleep in
their car in a parking lot.
>> My God.
>> And by the way, the last thing
in this monstrously unjust laws
is the 70-year old pointed out.
Wait, don't we pay the cops for
this exact thing whether when we
have an issue, we call them and
they come and show up.
Look at how arrogant In general
policing is in America where they
say, now you're going to make
us do our job.
Okay, well, you're lucky, we don't
kill your son when we come over,
because we're 16 times more likely
to kill him.
But hey, we didn't,
but you know what?
Now that you made us do our job,
that's it.
We're going to fine you $12,000.
>> And again,
when we look at public safety,
Cenk and John.
Looking at it from a very holistic
way, especially in a community as
small as South Euclid.
There is a way you know what is
going on in that house.
You know that this lady has a son
that is schizophrenic.
That is the time to bring in the
social services to be helpful and
not to torture this woman and her
son, because he has schizophrenia.
It's wrong and
they can do something different.
They don't have to do it this way
and the residents of South Euclid
should not tolerate this.
>> Yeah, you have to get rid of
every one of those nuisance laws,
because these are there.
They're not normal laws meant
to protect all of us.
No, they're at best case scenario.
They're meant to protect the cops
from not doing their job.
And by the way,
other residents are now saying,
we're afraid to call the police.
What if they take our house like
they're doing to this lady?
Now, I don't want to get fined
$12,000.
So even if I'm in danger,
I'm not going to call the cops.
This is outrageous.
It's totally outrageous and even
mayors like the one I quoted you,
pretty much admit.
We passed them just to be racist
towards white people.
No, it's totally unacceptable.
They should be taking all the books
everywhere.
These are the injustices that
steamroll the average American in
this country, but while
the powerful do nothing about it.