You know, being a whistleblower “wannabe” had its own peculiar drawbacks back in the mid-late 80s when I was first most active in reaching out to authorities of all types. (Tolling the statutes of limitations among other things, but that’s another story for another time).
It was so crooked where I worked, the highest managers used to let me – on the job, with other employees and or managers around me, listening in - use the state phone on my desk to call anyone and any public or private agency I wanted to call to report “epic” criminal acts, now known as white collar crime, including outright slavery in the guise of employment, embezzlement and insurance fraud of many types including: illegal life pensions, illegal vocational rehabilitation plans, illegal worker's comp claims and tax free gifts and worst of all in my eyes, secret control of my union by bribery, intimidation and, as I was to find out, by force and beatings by bums sent by doctors and lawyers plus law enforcement types acting in collusion with my managers to stop me by beating me, knocking me out even in front of others such was their power and control of “work” at the time.
Part of what I reported was how my state agency’s managers “had to bribe a judge to avoid jail” and “multiple” other criminal acts that included so many people, it was difficult to summarize it all then as now.
Do you know, my mangers would casually stand by and listen to my conversations with say the CHP, the attorney general's office, the governor's office, the San José PD, many dozens (if not hundreds) of private attorneys seeking aide, the city and county district attorneys in multiple bay area cities who all openly refused to do anything since I was reporting crimes that about everyone knew and approved of openly or passively from fear or actively from wanting to continue profiting themselves from white collar crime on some level as it was so widespread. I even had several private attorneys get jobs working for my state agency because they reported what I told them and to keep them quiet, my managers got them lifetime jobs in civil service as reward for their treachery.
It was an amazing, heady experience, hearing managers tell me “nobody will listen to your allegations.” “Nobody will do a thing to help you.” And since it was the CHP – the California Highway Patrol that in the long run that due to the way the laws in California work, I had to call them and only them to report crimes at a state agency, and since it was crimes involving he CHP, judges, my mangers and many attorneys and doctors - it only got me beaten so many times I ended up forgetting about what and why I was objecting to. That made a lot of people happy except when I’d wake up again and remember things till I got more concussions and general torture at work even from my fellow union members…so I had no help at all, the union itself disavowed me as a shop steward, treachery came even from my fellow shop stewards.
Repeated concussions have a way of making you forget what you still remember, it’s very odd as I look back on it, but that’s how it worked, at least for me. It was an odd time, I just wanted to share this part of my story so people can understand how ruthless my managers are and in great part, how and why I failed as a whistle blower - the authorities were all in on it and all conspired and colluded to defeat me despite "doing it right," it's just that "nobody wanted to go to jail."
It was damned if I do, damned if I don’t and then I forgot about it all most of the time for many years in great part because my treacherous personal attorney conspired to keep me subdued as well. And when your own attorney conspires and colludes with the devil, you are screwed well and good.
Took me years of being away from it all and “healing myself” to put together what happened with why it was important to me in the first place. Concussions make you forget your values to some extent, but when you remember them – THAT’S when things make sense, and hence, since then these past 2-3 years, I’ve been speaking out as I can, when I can, to whom I can – catch as catch can.
