If I told you that somebody at a complex, they're a renter, they are willing to teach people their rights as renters. And the response is they get arrested for teaching people their [00:00:22] rights. Here it is. [00:00:38] Basically they're trying to stop my tenant rights from gathering tenants. You see all these tenants? I gathered these tenants for a meeting. are illegally violating my tenant rights by telling me I cannot organize. This is deletion. [00:01:00] They're being retaliatory because this is what I do. You understand what I'm saying? That's against my tenant rights. They cannot bar me without a court order noted. Man. So, you have to the building, OK? I have to leave the building? Yes. OK. All right. That's fine. [00:01:17] I live this way. We're going go with you. Why are you arresting me? Put your hands up. I live here on the property. We understand that. I live on the property. Let me say this, if you ever see black people advocating for themselves and others, and you don't quite [00:01:38] know what's going on, either A, advocate with that black person, or B, stay the hell out of the way. There's a power differential between the advocate and the gatekeepers. If the [00:01:55] advocate is willing to be an advocate, and the gatekeepers are utilizing their authority to uh stop the advocate, even the odds, if you do anything, to make sure it's fair. Put it [00:02:11] full mass. ah This woman was arrested. She was arrested. Her name is Geraldine Cunningham. She was arrested inside of her own apartment building. This [00:02:28] happened in Washington, DC. Police insisted she was being arrested for unlawful entry. Unlawful entry after trying to teach tenants about their rights. Cunningham was arrested [00:02:47] for unlawful entry, but the charge was never filed. Well, I wonder why. Quote, is very humiliating. It can be quite frankly scary and discouraging. End quote, say Cunningham. But instead of [00:03:04] giving up, I decided to fight harder, end quote. Residents still had their meeting, but in a hallway. Tenants told Seven News they feel this is retaliation for their reports and complaints about conditions inside. For this fiscal year alone, Seven News found 61 reports of violations [00:03:28] filed against the property owners with the Department of Buildings. Geraldine Cunningham says she wrote letters, called and emailed to get changes done in fields. She ended up in handcuffs because of that. Cunningham said the Channel Square Apartments management knew tenants were having [00:03:47] a meeting in the community room in February. Before the meeting started, certain doors were blocked. And when tenants arrived, police were already waiting. Now remember, this is their domicile. That whole operation runs because they pay rent. and they have police waiting [00:04:06] to arrest them and to block them in their own home. Quote, I was arrested for simply organizing and trying to have it sent to me. to again [00:04:24] address tenant rights there at Channel Square, because most of the tenants there aren't aware of who to call or when to call when these rights are violated. Say Cunningham, the meeting was specifically based around just teaching them their rights and advocating for themselves [00:04:44] for filing DOB, Department of Buildings violations and speaking with other agencies when necessary. Cunningham said this isn't the first time the property tried to block tenants about two years ago, she said a prospective tenant heard her complaining in the leasing office. She said [00:05:03] the property wrote a notice barring her coming back in. That's basically a trespass warning, claiming she was aggressive. That's the notice that she got. The notice she says that the [00:05:24] property called the police, show police. So here's the fake out. um She's told you can't come back to the leasing office, right? So they probably wrote a trespass warning. Police show [00:05:43] up, she's organizing, somebody likely shows the officer the trespass warning from the leasing office, which already is improper and should have been challenged legally. uh The officer [00:05:58] now believes he or she has the right to enforce the trespass because you have an official warning. But the warning is for the leasing office. The woman lives at the apartment, so she gets arrested and bears tenants. ah don't get the information that she was providing. And once [00:06:17] again, the powers that be who ran the whole play, they seem to be unscathed. If anyone knows who they are, please send them to indisputable. We know how to properly deal with it, all right? uh So quote, to have this bar notice and to refer to it from something about two years [00:06:37] ago seems a little problematic. Said uh Daniel Dale, Pueblo the housing director for Empire DC quote is likely retribution for tenants organizing themselves to exercise their rights. End quote, the DC Housing Authority states that a barring notice is to protect residents and can ban [00:06:57] people who are not tenants, not tenants from a property. Video sent to us from a resident from the day of the tenant meeting appears to show someone from the property trying to write a barring notice while police are there. The owners of the property alleged that they've [00:07:12] always worked with their tenants. While we're unable to comment on matters involving ongoing legal cases, value resident engagement and welcome community leadership. We have worked closely with the Tenant Association at the property for at least 13 years, and we encourage residents to share their perspectives as we continue working to improve the community together. All right, [00:07:35] let me tell you why I know you're full of it, 13-year-old owners, because you said nothing about the management group, the people. who are in charge and the actions that they took against the tenants who pay your bills. Now, if you would have had some smoke for them and your energy would have shared a little bit of insight about their inappropriate behavior, [00:07:53] I would believe it, but you didn't. All right, your brother thoughts. Sue them, sue them, sue them, sue them and sue them some more. First of you cannot trespass a tenant. That's not your legal remedy. You got a tenant that you think is problematic in one way or has [00:08:11] violated a lease agreement, your remedy is to evict them. And that's how you gotta go through court and through a case and they get to, I mean, you cannot trespass somebody who pays to be there. That's a violation of lease agreement. And so oftentimes you hear these police officers [00:08:28] coming in and enforcing rules, but most of them didn't go to law school. And they violate the enforced rules. don't properly understand themselves. But one way to make sure that your landlord or your apartment company understands your point of view is to sue them if they're financially [00:08:48] burdened by their egregious, in my opinion, errors. They'll do better than they're after. And do we have a constitutional don't we? Freedom of assembly is one of first. in the Bill of Rights. And so all these right wingers are talking about strict constitutionalism [00:09:07] and free speech warriors and advocates. Every time we hear stories about a little man taking on a big entity, then radio silence, let alone what has evolved in somebody who looks like us, radio silence is there too. So sue them, sue them, sue them. Yeah, and I would seek, [00:09:26] I recommend they seek to qualify it as a class action since so many residents have the same complaint. I will bring up this as the cop