A couple of days ago, I posted a comment on a different social media site about how I have been actively fighting government corruption at a state agency in California for the last four years. I have been working on this battle in my very limited spare time. While my fight has been slow and frustrating, I AM making progress. I went on to say that the fortress of the Powers That Be is built with hollow bricks, and it won’t take much pushing to knock it down. There are many different areas of corruption, but each area is just a different segment of the same fortress wall. If each one of us picks one area of corruption, and devotes as much effort as we can to that one issue – even if it isn’t much – as a unified force, we can completely knock down the wall.
Someone asked for advice on how to pitch in. I think the answer is worthy of its own post:
The first thing to do is to pick an issue that you think you could have the most impact on. There are a lot of corruption issues that people see and go "Issue Y is really messed up, but X is way worse." Yes, X may be worse, but if there are already a lot of people working on X, you will have far more impact by working on Y instead. Remember, we all need to push on different parts of the wall for it to collapse.
You will usually have the most impact if you choose a local issue, something within your own city/county/state. The more you can get in the officials’ faces, the harder it is to blow you off.
Send regular updates to everyone up the food chain. I copied the governor, the State Agency's board of directors, several other state legislators, the FBI and the CA Auditor's office on many pieces of correspondence where I called them out on very strange accounting and unethical business practices to hide this strange accounting. I included a cover letter explaining exactly why these were suspicious/incriminating, and filling in any gaps in info that may not be self-evident. The legislators aren't all that bright -- they need things spelled out for them clearly and concisely to understand. The State Agency continually tried to ignore me altogether, but couldn't because the higher ups made them respond to me.
Navigating government bureaucracy is MADDENING, and that is by design. They want you to get frustrated, give up and go away. It will take you a while to figure out how the system works in the first place. Ask a lot of people in the assorted government offices involved in the corruption (or are covering it up), because each person will give you slightly different info and you won't know the full picture without talking to several people/departments/agencies. Everyone will forget a piece of info, or not think its relevant, or whatever. Ask for the legal basis for all of these policies and practices.
Once you understand how the system works, then you can push for the appropriate changes. You have to be tenacious. They have a vested interest in keeping things status quo, and they will try all sorts of tactics to get you to shut up and go away. Do not back down. Keep pushing back.
They will try to smear your credibility and make you look like a raving lunatic who doesn't know what you are talking about. To give you one example, the agency that I am fighting send a letter that they copied to all the higher ups (mentioned above) in which they claimed I had been assessed fees because I "never responded to notices." The wording of their letter made me sound like a lazy dirt bag. In my lawsuit, I documented that I responded to notices 71 times.
Another tactic to get you to go away is to misquote laws, or take laws out of context, or cherry pick words to make it appear that the laws say something different than they actually do. Make sure you get online to a law library and read the text of each law they cite you in full. Regular online browser searches usually don't pull up the sub-laws underneath the main law, and those sub-laws are often favorable for you. I know anyone can use the online San Diego law library: https://sandiegolawlibrary.org
One of the things I have learned is that the agencies will not volunteer any information, but they will usually not lie to you if you ask them a direct question. If they refuse to acknowledge a particular question, then you have hit the right question. So ask a lot of questions, and re-ask them using slightly different wording. The different nuance in the phrasing may be the difference between what they have to disclose and not. In my case, I found out that I had a right to a copy of all the internal notes and records that the agency had on me. I asked several times about getting my hands on my information, and they refused to answer the questions. After a few complaint letters to the governor, board of directors, et all, they finally admitted I could have the internal notes and records. There were many, many smoking guns in those notes. I would have never been able to get so far in my fight without those notes... which is why they tried so hard to hide them from me.
I hope this is enough for you to get started! At this point, it is clear that the government is trying to shore up complete power, so we all need to jump in and fight. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have much time, every bit helps. It is perfectly fine to pick an area of minor corruption. Every bit of corruption needs to be eliminated, and it’ll probably be easier to see success in halting the minor crimes. And you will be surprised at how many minor crimes are in place to enable bigger crimes. Good luck!
Edit: More info on me and my fight: https://gwsandiego.net/blog/
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