The ACLU

In April of 2006, I sent a formal request for help regarding obtaining proper legal representation to the ACLU of Texas after I realized we probably weren't going to be able to get the help we needed through normal channels.

After more than a year had gone by, I'd been misrepresented by another lawyer, I'd been defrauded by Diop Kamau, we'd discovered we were definitely under illegal surveillance and could document this, we were now being threatened by Diop Kamau and the local police in various ways, and the DOJ wouldn't do anything about any of it, I frantically faxed an emergency request for help to both the Texas and U.S. ACLU offices begging them to help us. Again they did not respond.

By January of 2008, we still hadn't found anyone to come to our rescue and our situation had continued to worsen. I tried emailing the Texas ACLU to see if I could find out why they hadn't responded and received an email in reply telling me they now had a web form they preferred I use to make another formal request for assistance, so I went to this and submitted my request online.

About a month later, I received the card shown here from the Texas ACLU that again informed me of the need to use their new web form for all requests for assistance, even though I'd already done this. The card was mailed to our address, but as you can see, the name of the person it was addressed to was someone else. Also, I don't know if it makes any difference or not, but the card had also been mailed from a different zip code than the one where the ACLU office was located.

Although I haven't posted them here as well, I received additional copies of this same card in July of 2008 and September of 2008. The only differences between these and the first card were that my name had been corrected on the address and the words "No Web Access" had been added on the back. I assumed this might have been added because I had previously told the ACLU our computer and fax machine were being illegally monitored and had provided them with documentation of this, so I also submitted requests for help in writing.

In December of 2008, I finally received a response from the TX ACLU. As shown here, they refused to help us in any way. (They also got the date of the request I'd faxed wrong.)

In May of 2009, I received a letter from the New York ACLU telling me they could not help us because we lived in Texas, not New York, and that we needed to request assistance from the ACLU of Texas instead. I assume this was in response to my fax to the ACLU's national headquarters, which is also in New York, although I'm positive I did send my request to the national and not the state office there. (I can also provide a copy of this letter, although I'm not posting it here.)

I believe it's important that I post this information on my dealings with the ACLU here in order to document them. We fall under ACLU guidelines very clearly for several different reasons, and numerous other persons and agencies I've dealt with have asked why I haven't gone to the ACLU first. (One organization, Equality Now, said they would try to intervene with the ACLU on our behalf, but I never heard anything back from this.) At the very least, both the state and the national ACLU offices have stalled repeatedly regarding our case. Depending on the reasons why the Texas ACLU sent me the card with the wrong name on it, the national office tried to make it look as if I'd contacted the wrong office, and other actions (or inactions) of theirs, their treatment of me may cross the lines of professionalism and propriety.

We continue to hope the national ACLU will decide to help us, particularly with regard to getting the illegal surveillance of us (which we know is continuing) stopped and prosecuted. There's no doubt whatsoever that my children and I have been constantly and systematically denied the proper legal representation, right to privacy, and protection by (and from!) law enforcement that are our basic civil rights.