A video released on YouTube has lead to calls for an investigation in elder abuse after a man was confronted at 2am in the morning picking up his elderly mother after allegedly forcing her to beg for money for several hours in the cold. This confrontation occurred at the UCI Town Center shopping center in Irvine California and the man becomes increasingly unhinged an irate.
The poster states:
I first observed the elderly women at 11:00 PM outside of “Cha for Tea” coffee shop. It was a cold evening, 55 degrees. Here sat a very old Asian women (possibly in her 80’s) with white hair in a wheelchair holding a sign that said simply “HELP ME.”
I asked her for her name, and how I could help her. She said her name was Cathy, and she asked for money because she had been homeless for six months. This was part of some type of a scam because she was not homeless, her son picks her up every evening in a very nice Toyota Prius!!
She appeared to have signs of disability (perhaps mental illness) based on her rambling speech. A nearby UCI Town Center security guard (young Caucasian male in his early 20’s) said that she is often dropped off there by her son, who drives a silver Toyota Prius. He then picks her up later in the evening. The security guard said this has been going on for “years.”The irate man insists that the woman’s home was taken by Wells Fargo bank.
The citizen remains calm and his statement of their relative rights is valid. The police have said that they are aware of the video and are now investigating. It is a remarkable case of citizen action through YouTube and the power of this technology. Indeed, at one point, both men are pointing cameras at each other. An incredible scene.
So id707…. My moms deceased…. So I guess it’s up to you to finish your fantasy….
AY,
Yours and your mom’s? Or mine and my mom’s? Crypticism reigns among some. Don’t be snooty. Come down and join the hoi polloi. Late starters are strong finishers. Got a million more.
Didn’t you here the mother say it is OK? 0:16 – 0:17?
Did’.t you here the mother say it is OK? 16 – 17?
Can’t quit living off of the teat…
That is one felony count there: misrepresentation bla bla.
I presume it is the man of asiatic color who you are referring to.
Doesn’t he say “I’m a deputy US attorney” at the beginning of the video? Irvine is Orange County, CA. Maybe that’s not true, but the guy shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Today, do you know what today is? Today is the 100 birthday of Rosa Parks, the first black woman to lie in lit de parade in the Capitol Dome.
She also was a child who sat with her daddy with his gun on the porch at night to keep the KKK away. The woman who refused to give up her seat in the bus to a white man.
Her story is quickly accessible in Democracy Now org in today’s program devoted to “The Rebellious Mrs Rosa Parks” herself, and the book written by Jeanne Theoharris, professor at Brooklyn College, who is the person who delivers Mrs Parks story, engaged, clearly having chosen to believe what her research has shown her, and skillfully interviewed with spare questions by Mrs DN herself.
You know we all have our personal vision of where “black power” is today.
From welfare moms promoters, to quota climbers, to a “proud part” of our history. This program will not address these other than indirectly, and the book likewise one presumes. But the point is made that the Koolaid we drink today is not the lemonade we thought we were drinking.
It tells the detailed story using one woman’s activities, her history, etc as a vehicle for delivering a gripping and hopefully truthful view of how it really was in the 50+ year struggles following Brown vs ´School Board decision in 1954.
So very, very much to add. From the inter-racial folk school where the likes of Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others were to discuss these and other issues IN TENNESSEE!!!! to a young preacher whose centrally located church in Montgomery was chosen to house the discussion, after the service, on how to keep the bus boycott alive for the 13 months it lasted.
The sermon was by MLKjr who got his start there that day in the public arena.
Rosa was there and supporting everywhere, and even more so when she was forced to leave Montgomery for Detroit. She even got MLKjr to come support the first black to be elected to Congress from Michigan, something that MLKjr never did otherwise.
She was anti-Vietnam long before MLKjr, and fought many of the battles which were vital at the times. Her deeds are almost memorialized by the freeing/commutation of the Wilmington NNN’s by the NC governor recently.
Treat yourself at least to the program on DN org today 4 February 2013.
In these times of propaganda, a breath of truth is VERY refreshing.
Breathe deeply.
if the nra had its way we could’ve seen a hellofa shootout.
That is what the devil wants with people not minding their own business. Whoever pulls a dogs ear hurting the dog will get bitten.
it may not be right to pimp your mother but she didnt look like she was in bad shape.
I think there are many more examples of real elder abuse that could have been used to demonstrate the poor quality of care given to some elderly people.
I dont agree with what the guy did but I think this falls short of leaving her in her feces for 48 hours or not giving medicines, or not feeding her.
That is the real sick stuff which goes on and worse.
I wonder how much she makes in an evening? Tax free undoubtedly, hell I may go join her. If I did it out side of The Palm or Morton’s I may even get a steak dinner on top of the cash.
I wonder if they have a nice Merlot?
The perfect application for this verse
King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
The police lieutennant claims the video is of no evidentiary value and there is no foul play. BS
Well that probably is an indication on where this is going. I hope the outrage will be such that it specifically causes the legislature to criminalize this type of behavior. (and I am not one to vote for criminal laws that are unnecessary.)
Washington has a criminal statute against involving minors in begging. This is certainly a case of where it should apply to vulnerable adults as well.
RCW 26.28.070
Every person who shall employ, or cause to be employed, exhibit or have in his or her custody for exhibition or employment any minor actually or apparently under the age of eighteen years; and every parent, relative, guardian, employer, or other person having the care, custody, or control of any such minor, who shall in any way procure or consent to the employment of such minor:
(1) In begging, receiving alms, or in any mendicant occupation; or,
(2) In any indecent or immoral exhibition or practice; or,
(3) In any practice or exhibition dangerous or injurious to life, limb, health, or morals; or,
(4) As a messenger for delivering letters, telegrams, packages, or bundles, to any known house of prostitution or assignation;
Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
[2011 c 336 § 697; 1909 c 249 § 194; RRS § 2446.]
YouTube video alleging elder abuse probed by Irvine police
February 3, 2013
A YouTube video purporting to show elder abuse at the University Town Center in Irvine gained attention online last week and sparked a police investigation.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/youtube-video-alleging-elder-abuse-probed-by-irvine-police.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29
In the clip, the unseen videographer confronts a man who has wheeled an elderly woman to the passenger-side door of a Toyota Prius.
“Is this your mom? Why do you exploit her?” he asks.
The man being filmed yells back, calls the cameraman a “paid stooge” and accuses him of harassing the woman.
The two trade accusations for almost three minutes, with the videographer repeatedly asking why the man exploits the older woman.
The video’s description accuses the unidentified man of forcing the woman to beg for money at locations in Irvine.
In the past week, the video has been submitted at least twice to the link-sharing website Reddit.com, and multiple news outlets have written about it.
However, Irvine police say they’ve been aware of the video since a few days after it was posted Dec. 5.
“None of this is news to us. We were a month into this investigation before anyone was talking about it,” Irvine police spokeswoman Lt. Julia Engen said.
Both Adult Protective Services and Irvine police have spoken to the woman and man shown in the video as part of a cooperative investigation, the lieutenant said.
Police are still digging but Engen said they’ve so far found no indication of foul play.
Despite the dramatic exchanges, “What you see on that video, there’s no evidentiary value there,” Engen said.
— Jeremiah Dobruck, Times Community News
Old, Female and Homeless
Rose Aguilar
January 23, 2013
http://www.thenation.com/article/172397/old-female-and-homeless?page=full#
Excerpts:
It used to be that homeless women over 50 were blessedly rare. Marie O’Connor began helping seniors find housing in San Francisco’s Mission District in 1992. “To see homeless elders back then was shocking,” said O’Connor, a volunteer coordinator with the St. Anthony Foundation, a nonprofit providing the homeless with housing, meals and medical care. “Today, it’s the norm.”
How widespread is the problem? Every homeless advocate and shelter monitor I spoke with told me the older homeless population in San Francisco is exploding. The problem is bound to get worse as the price of housing reaches new heights. San Francisco is the most expensive city in the country for renters, according to a March 2012 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Small studio apartments are going for as much as $2,000 a month, which requires a salary of at least $70,000 a year.
And it’s not just San Francisco. The cost of living in most major metropolitan areas is on the rise, while wages are down. In states like California, ongoing budget cuts to services like the Supplemental Security Income, In-Home Supportive Services and adult day healthcare centers are making it harder for elderly people to pay for housing. According to the latest numbers from Hearth, an organization working to end elder homelessness, the country had 40,750 homeless people 62 or older in 2012. As the nation’s population ages, that number is expected to more than double by 2050.
To homeless advocates in San Francisco, those numbers sound way too low, given the problems they see just inside the city limits. But whatever the figure, there’s no doubt that life is miserable for older people without a home.
…
Of 155,000 seniors living in San Francisco, according to a report by the city’s Department of Aging and Adult Services, roughly 19,000 live below the federal poverty line: $10,326 per year for a single person age 65 or older, or $13,014 for a two-person household. Based on the Elder Economic Security Standard Index, 61 percent of San Francisco’s seniors don’t have enough income to meet their basic needs. Meanwhile, the country has endured years of trickle-down economics, welfare cutbacks, rising income inequality, attacks on unions and the privatization of public services. Those are only some of the factors WRAP spelled out as causes of homelessness in its report “Without Housing.” And perhaps the biggest factor affecting older homeless women: the government turned housing over to the private market in the 1970s, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget was slashed by 77 percent between 1978 and 1983.
Abuse of one elderly person is heinous, abuse of millions of them is a statistic.
Arctic methane is going out of control and it is 30 times more potent than CO2 as a green house gas.
Heat kills the elderly.
There’s not enough information, yet. There’s little point in jumping to conclusions.
The security guard said this has been going on for “years.”
———————-
….years???? How many years? without being investigated????
culpable – definition of culpable by the Free Online Dictionary …
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/culpableShareDeserving of blame or censure as being wrong, evil, improper, or injurious. See Synonyms at blameworthy.
Who has created the skanky conditions that breed such horrors?
The “son” seems paranoid or rehearsed, as someone else said. Maybe he’s crazy… I dunno.
But if he really didn’t consent to being talked to, he could’ve left at any time, since he was there to pick somebody up anyway.
Disgusting, but possibly worse. The “son” runs a ring of “mothers” who are dependent on their cut of the take. His spiel was too well prepared and delivered.
Don’t believe it? In Sweden we have rings of Rumanians who do this all the year. Two tried to come into the lunch restaurant today. And they have fixed posts on the main shopping street with personnel change daily.
Is this low? Aim lower and you are getting close to reality.
Swedish example: Privatization of homes for the elder. Abusive “care”, but now for profit.
Amazing video! Wow! If the allegation is true about the elder abuse, that is disgusting. It appears that the son of the woman is trying to intimidate the You tube recorder by yelling and pulling out his own camera and name dropping DA’s names and police chiefs! I hope we hear if the police really do follow through on this situation.