Church and State blog: I am urinated on in the porch

Saturday, August 02, 2008

I am urinated on in the porch

At 5.10am this morning somebody urinated on me while I slept in my sleeping bag in the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November 2006 – a first (we wake up at 4.30am M-F, and 6.30am on weekends). Based on the evidence, this is what Declan thinks: this guy began urinating on the wall a couple of feet from us, then moved and proceeded to urinate on me, before running off as Declan sat up (I sleep on the outside, and Declan on the inside with our well-tied bags). The urine came at me with such force I actually woke up convinced somebody was emptying the contents of a glass of beer over my head; still, none of it touched my face as I was sleeping on my side with my back to the street and was wearing a cap and an eye cover. Needless to say, the clothes I use as a pillow, my cap and my sleeping bag were wet with urine.

Unsettling as it is, worse has happened to me while sleeping in this porch (and this is the best place we have come across to sleep): within two weeks of sleeping in the porch somebody sat on the right-hand side of my face; on 5 May 2007 some guy dragged me out of the two-step porch by the ankles while I was in my sleeping bag, then a few hours later I was kicked in the back; and on 22 September a guy repeatedly kicked me in the chest and shoulders as his mates stood by – the porch is situated in a business area well covered by CCTV.

The European Court of Human Rights doesn't think that these things are too bad: in a letter of 22 November 2007, the Court stated that it was unnecessary to consider Declan's request for priority of 8 September 2007 because it would be examining his application "shortly, possibly by the end of January 2008"; and in a letter of 16 June Declan is informed that "the Court will deal with the case as soon as practicable" – on 18 June, two days before Declan received this letter, all our money and documents were robbed in the Catholic Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre (see blog of 18 June “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”).

If I had to elaborate on an explanation as to why I was used as a urinal, it would have to be because of this: for the last three days Declan has been working on the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences of Imperial College London – from which institution some very distinguished scientists have signed his petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning – especially to try and get the petition signed again. In fact, on Thursday I emailed about 15 scientists from ICL (plus another 40 scientists from the University of California, San Francisco) and on Friday well over 30. The number of out-of-office autoreplies is my best indication as to whether Declan's emails are going to inbox or spam (two or three autoreplies within a batch of 10 would be a good indicator of the former): of a total of 45 emails to Imperial College scientists I got two autoreplies; and of a total of 40 emails to the University of California I got four autoreplies in a batch of 10 and then almost none …. There seems to be an uncomplicated approach to things in relation to Declan and me: he is looking to get the local support we need, I get urinated on; I send emails, they get delivered to spam mailboxes.

Actually, I am lucky I can send emails at all from the local council’s Idea Store Whitechapel library (see blog of 25 June “Police ‘No sleeping’ sign in the porch” for Declan's most recent letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council): frequently on an hour booking I find myself unable to log in to my computer and have to wait for ten to fifteen minutes before my membership card number and password are accepted; and, for instance, on Wednesday it was announced that nobody would be able to use a computer.

A proposal to define a fertilised human egg as a person will land on Colorado's ballot this November, the first time the question of when life begins will go before voters anywhere in the US. If voters agreed, legal experts say, it would give fertilised eggs the same legal rights and protections to which people are entitled. The ballot initiative is funded by Colorado for Equal Rights, which on Monday announced the support of over 70 physicians and pharmacists. “We are honored to have received these endorsements from such respected physicians," stated Kristi Burton, the sponsor of the amendment. "Science clearly proves that life begins at the time of fertilization. We are secure in the fact that we have science and reason on our side, and we are pleased to have the medical community supporting our efforts." We are equally honoured that Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning has received the endorsement of 520 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates; it’s just a pity we are not competing on a level playing field.

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

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Saturday, August 02, 2008

I am urinated on in the porch

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